Tutorial: Hand Bound Eyelets

Hey, another released tutorial! If you've mastered spiral lacing and are looking for a really special detail that takes your garment from Costume to Clothing, this is it! Why use grommets when you can have beautiful eyelets that compliment your garment, instead of detracting from it? 

These are somewhat old tutorials with equally old photos taken from a cellphone camera. In other words, please pardon their quality (or lack thereof).

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Eyelets are an integral part of any costume. They close up a bodice and cinch a corset, and allow men to tie their hose and sleeves into their doublets. Eyelets are also more forgiving than buttonholes, allowing the wearer to adjust for weight fluctuations. Best of all, they’re easy to do! Once you’re into the swing of things, an eyelet can take only a few minutes to make, and is easy enough that you can sew them while watching reruns.

What You’ll Need:

Your garment

Needle

Thread (regular thread will do, embroidery floss or button twist is better)

Scissors

Awl

Step 1: After figuring out proper eyelet placement, carefully jam your awl into your garment. Shove it in there, wiggle it around a bit, whatever you need to get it in. The reason an awl is so essential is that while a pair of scissors cuts threads, the awl will simply spread them apart, which helps maintain the garment’s strength.

 

Step 2: Pass your threaded needle up through the backside of the garment and make a running stitch around the hole you made with your awl, about 1/8” away. You can take the awl out or leave it in, for this.

 

Step 3: If you haven’t already done so, remove the awl, now. Pass your needle up through the hole and down through the fabric, covering up the running stitch you made. The eyelet hole will want to close up, so feel free to ram the awl back through as much as you need. Keep stitching through the hole and back down into the fabric.

  

 

Step Four: Once you have completed sewing your eyelet, flip your garment over so that the underside is facing you and tie a knot.

Pro Tip: For extra strength and durability, you can even add a metal ring over the eyelet hole and sew over and it and the fabric! Split rings (for jewelry) and solid rings are best. Jump rings will eventually spread under pressure.

You should be left with something like this. Do not worry about how neat/symmetrical/perfect your eyelet is – there are plenty of extant garments with sloppy eyelets. Imperfection is historically accurate! Once you get used to it, you’ll be an eyelet-making machine!

Spiral Lacing - It's easier than it looks!

This is yet another old tutorial that I'm making available to the public, because sharing is caring, right? These were created specifically with the Renaissance Faire in mind, so they're meant to mimic the look of proper historical garments, with some easy cheats thrown in. Because, in this case, cheating is fun! And also because I freaking hate losing my laces every time garments come back from the cleaners. Happy lacing!

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In this tutorial, we will cover a historically accurate method of lacing a garment shut: spiral lacing! New lacing techniques always seem a bit daunting, but the spiral lace is very easy, once you get the concept down. The standard "shoelace" method is fine, but spiral lacing is perfectly period and reduces the gap in the closure that shoe lacing creates. You also need half the length you would normally need to lace your clothing, assuming your usual method is the "shoe lace" technique. Add this to a garment with hand-bound eyelets, and you’re well on your way to wearing historically accurate clothing!

Eyelet Placement

 

Eyelet placement for spiral lacing is similar to normal placement, in that you want your eyelets spaced about 1” apart (keep in mind that spacing is really a personal preference sort of thing). However, on one side of your garment, you’ll want to place your second eyelet ½” from your first, then space the rest of the eyelets 1” away from each other. On the other side of your garment closure, you will want to have your last eyelet to be ½” away from the second to last. Check out the diagram to the left, for reference.

Your other option is to place your eyelets in the standard parallel pattern. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you go this route, your garment will sit slightly unevenly once you’re laced in. Of course, this look is absolutely period, too, so historically speaking, you’re good either way.

Lacing Your Garment

On to lacing your garment shut! Let’s start at the beginning. You have two options for beginning your spiral lacing adventure: If your lacing cord is thick enough, you can simply tie a knot and lace it through the first hole. Your other option is to sew your cord to the underside of your garment. This has the advantage of keeping your lace permanently attached to your clothing, and greatly reducing the risk of losing it, which you eventually will.

Assuming you set up your eyelets just like in the diagram, pull the cord first through Eyelet #1 and down into #2, then just keep following the numbers on the diagram. While lacing, remember that on the right side of the garment, the cord is always threaded out away from the body, and that on the left, the cord always goes in towards the body.  Out one side, in the other. Out, in, out, in. This will help keep you from getting confused, which can easily happen when you’re getting ready in the morning.

Once you reach the bottom, you can tie off your cord a couple of different ways: You can simply tie it in a knot that is big enough to keep the cord from slipping through the eyelet, or you can sew a short section of cord to the inside of your garment, giving you a nice firm anchor point to tie a bow. 

And that’s spiral lacing! 

Tutorial: Bias Binding

This is another old tutorial, to accompany the one on creating bias tape. Please pardon the craptastic photos - all of these tutorial images were taken on an old phone camera. Most of these tutorials were created to aid beginning costumers who didn't necessarily have every tool out there on the market. They were also intended to encourage hand sewing skills, as little details like hand stitching really are what make a costume look like clothing. I hope you find this, and the successive tutorials, useful!

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Bias binding is commonly used to finish edges and add a bit of structure. It is extremely useful when you need to finish an edge that can’t have the seam allowance facing toward the inside of a garment. You can get really fancy and make your own bias binding, or you can go the easy route and get double fold cotton bias binding at Joann’s for about $2.50 a pack. There are multiple ways to do this (at FIDM, they taught us at least three different methods), so if you find another technique you like, feel free to use it.

What you’ll need:

Your garment

Double fold bias binding

Needle

Matching thread

Scissors

Optional: A thimble (or a dime taped to your finger)

Step 1: Open up your binding and pin it to the backside of your garment, lining up the raw edge of the bias binding to the raw edge of your fabric.

 

Step 2: Sew along the crease in the binding. It’s faster if you do this step by machine, but hand sewing isn't bad, either – plus, you have more control if you’re sewing around sharp curves.

Step 3: Flip your garment over and fold the bias binding down, so that the raw edge of your garment lines up with the center crease of the binding.

 

Step Four: Stitch down your bias binding to the face of the fabric, using small stitches (about 1/8” to 1/4” apart).

 

Step Five: Tie off your thread, and you’re done! That wasn’t so hard, now, was it?

Tutorial: Bias Tape!

This is an older tutorial for making bias tape without a tape maker. If you have a bias tape maker, this gets so insanely easy to do! However, not everyone has every single tool there is out there, and bias binding is easy enough to do if you have a little patience. This tutorial, like a number of tutorials I plan to post, were made roughly three years ago, when I was the costumer for the Italian guild, San Lorenzo, at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in California. The idea, when I originally made these little instructionals, was to help people with all the little details that really bring a costume together. Most, if not all, of these how-tos are common knowledge, but it's nice to have them all together in a single place!

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So, you want to make your own bias tape? Awesome! It’s easy! Bias tape is used to bind edges on items you can’t hem, or otherwise close up, like on bodies/corsets. It can also be used on the neckline of a lady’s camicia, to hold gathers or help add a little structure. When folded in half and not quarters, it can become piping, snipped picadils, trim... the possibilities really are almost limitless! And it’s easy to make! It is a bit more time-consuming than going out and buying the stuff, but you get the advantage of having bias tape that perfectly matches your garment.

What You’ll Need

Fabric

Scissors/rotary cutter

Ruler

Chalk/colored pencil/pencil/pen

Iron

Ironing board

Step 1: Cut your fabric. If you’re edging a corset or binding a gathered neckline, I’d recommend you make your binding 2” wide. This is where the chalk/whatever and ruler will come in handy.

 

Step 2: Fold and press your fabric strip in half.

 

Step 3: Open your strip back up, and fold the outer edges in to meet the center crease you just made. And, of course, press.

 

Step 4: Fold your tape in half, along the crease you made in Step 2, and press again.

 And you’re done! So easy, and so attractive!

Oh, Look! It's a Project Wrap Up!

Shocking, I know. Remember that Russian Court gown I teased and then never did anything about? Well, this entry is an attempt to make up for that. "Long time coming," you say? I totally agree with you. 

I finished and delivered this project last August (I know, I know. I'm the worst blogger ever). I haven't asked P about getting photos of her in it, so you'll have to make do with images of a dress form. Just pretend there's a pretty girl in it, okay?

So. 

The inspiration image: Maria Fedorovna by Makovskiy, 1912

After lacing P into her new corset, I fit the toile. Like you do. I have no pictures, because who takes pictures of their poor, unsuspecting, client who just got off work? Not me. So pretend there's a picture of the fitting. It went pretty well.

Onto the building process! First off, this was a time-consuming project, even with cutting corners on embroidery and such. P had a specific budget and time limit (and I pushed that deadline way farther than I should have), so instead of the insane amount of silver embroidery depicted, we agreed to echo the look with rhinestone and sequin appliques. P also preferred an aubergine (how's that for a $2 word?) velvet over the lighter purple in the portrait. So when you see black velvet in my crappy cell phone photos, know that it's actually eggplant.

On to the pictures! 

Laying down the trim was pretty straight forward, there was just a lot of it - about 150 yards, in fact. After marking off my lines and stitching down the wider trims, I started on the lattice work. The silver lattice on just the skirt took roughly 16 hours. On an industrial sewing machine. Did I mention this was a labor-intensive project?

Here's another shot of the skirt while I was sewing the lattice. See those stars in the bottom bit of the photo? Those are my PJs. More precisely, those are the PJs I stole from my fiance. Yes, I work in my pajamas. Don't judge me.

The skirt/train after I finished up the lattice. How many times can I say 'lattice' in this post? Too many. If the fabric looks small, check out the hip curve (curved metal ruler) laying next to it. That hip curve is 24" long.

And here's the train after I finished with the silver trim. So much trim. So much. Again, the picture makes this look like a smallish piece of fabric. Wait till we get to the end result.

And then the fun part: Laying out appliques and finding a configuration I liked! Fun! Well, it was fun for me, anyway. After coming up with about 20 different patterns, I narrowed it down to this one.

And then I changed my mind. This ended up being "The One" after I bought a bunch of other appliques, because of course more is more.

Sewing on appliques. So thrilling.

And then came the sleeves. Second verse, same as the first. Mark, trim, lattice. So much lattice.

And more trim to finish off the raw lattice edges.

And then came appliques! Because more is more!

For some reason, I never took construction photos of the bodice. or the underskirt. Because I'm a clown. But it did happen, I swear. This was after making the main part of the bodice, itself. I was testing out applique placement. I love appliques, especially rhinestone ones. But after this project, I needed a year away from them. 

Closeup of the bodice detail. Thrilling. I am in love with those buttons, however. They were the right ones for the job, and added a bit more glitz without detracting from the rest of the garment. 

After the sleeves and bodice were completed, I hand stitched the sleeves into the armscye. Normally I wouldn't do that, but these had some cartridge pleating at the back to give them a bit more oomph. So far, so good.

And then I finished the train! See? I told you it was kinda big. I ended up making the train and underskirt as one garment, to avoid having too many pieces to keep track of. I have no idea if this was how it was done in 1912, but from a costumer standpoint, it made the most sense.

Big Finish!

See? More totally is more. Overall, I was quite please about how this turned out. I would have loved to add more silver embroidery and maybe some soutache to more closely follow the original portrait, but quite frankly there just wasn't time or budget for it. Again, I don't have photos of P in the dress, so just pretend that this cheapo dress form is her. 

Here's a closeup of the completed bodice, taken by my mother. She's a good photographer, no? You can see more (read: better) of her work on her flickr site.

Post Mortem

I'm still chuffed with the way this turned out. Would I have liked to add more silver trim? Yes. Did I have to take a break from purple fabric for a few months? Heck yes. But it was a joy to work on, a pleasant challenge, and the customer knew what she wanted, which made it easier to build this costume. I have no idea what event she wore it to, but I hope she enjoyed it and knocked the socks off of everyone she met.

Whoops, Where Did That Year Go?

Apologies to anyone who attempted to follow my exploits, only to be foiled by my lack of posts. Seriously, I am a jerk. I made promises. I hinted at projects that would be blogged. And then I lost track of it all. I'm a jerk, and I'm sorry.

Also, despite my profuse apologies, I have no images to share with you at the moment. I have a number of projects that were completed, including those for Giovanni de Medici, Luigi Gaddi, Giovannie Salvatore de Malatesti, and the Russian Court Gown. These will all be given attention, and they will be posted. Just not today. I also have a number of other projects that I have finished or am currently working on, but some of them will not be given a blog post until after the Renaissance Pleasure Faire has opened. For nondisclosure reasons, of course.

Oh! And other news: I have been hired as costumer at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale! Yay, me! Also why I can't share everything I make with the world. You'll just have to come and see my work for yourself, while enjoying historical reenactment, artisan crafts, stellar entertainment, and delicious pear cider. It's a tough life.

Keep your eyes peeled for things to come soonish (I hope).

Revisiting Old Work, Florentine Barbie Edition

This really isn't an update. At the moment, I'm elbow deep in costuming for Mario Sforza, Giovanni de Medici, Pietro Medici, Luigi Gaddi, Salvatore Malatesti, my mother, and the Russian court gown. But I'm taking a break to talk about a sottana I made last year. I say sottana, but it was more than that. Let's cover it piece by piece, shall we?

The Inspiration

This a portrait by Batista Moroni. I honestly don't know the exact date of it. But when I started planning out a costume for my new role at Faire, I knew I wanted pink. Pink is an often overlooked color, and it's commonly thought to be a historiccally inaccurate color. But as you can see, pink did exist - now that I have looked for examples of pink clothing, I see it in a lot of Florentine portraiture.

My character is basically a mistress of Pietro de Medici, played by my fiancé. My character has little purpose in life beyond gambling, entertaining, and being decorative. Emphasis on the decorative. More than once, I have compared my persona to Paris Hilton's chihuahua: Cute, but not much good for anything. Pietro's fashion accessory. This concept is the basis for my costume. And also, why I went with pink.

The Corset/Bodies

This isn't a historically accurate pair of bodies. We have no proof of bodies existing in England before 1590, and none whatsoever of them in use in Florence during this period. And they certainly didn't look like this. But, corsets/bodies are an accepted Faireism, they help achieve the right shape, and they distribute the weight of the 10ish yards of fabric in which we cloak ourselves. Why does it not have the shoulder straps? 16th century Florentine clothing for women places a high importance on the décolletage, with shoulder straps placed on the points of the shoulders. With necklines the way they were, the standard Effigy Bodies pattern would look silly, with its high strap placement. 

The other slight oddity about this corset is that it relies almost entirely on hemp cord to keep its shape.

I first ran a test patch, to figure out ratios for shrinkage. This is an incredibly important step, as the added thickness can reduce the original waist measurement by 1"-2". Your results may vary.

After the rate of shrinkage was identified, I made my adjustments and sewed it up in the standard way. I made 1/4" channels, and ran four lengths of hemp cord through the channels, using an umbrella rib. 

The advantages of hemp boning? It breathes, has enough give to be comfortable, allows me to slouch and bend sideways, and is machine washable. I did end up sewing four pieces of boning into this corset, to increase rigidity in the center front, and to help better displace the weight of my skirts off my kidneys. That done, I absolutely love this corset. Now I just need to scrub the taco sauce I spilled on it while driving to our last invent.

The Underskirt

The underskirt was pretty straightforward. I found a copper silk damask hiding in Michael Levine's, jammed it under my juki, added piping and some felt to the hem, and cartridge pleated it to a waistband. See how that hem just floats out away from the body? Felt is magic. There's no bumroll or farthingale in that picture; the skirt just does that on it's own. Magic, I tell you.

The Sottana

So, yeah. The sottana also went pretty smoothly. Mostly. I was in a rush to get the dress done, and didn't bother to make sure that the red velvet I bought doesn't bleed. It does. I can never get this dress wet. That said, I drafted a sleeve, then sliced it down the front of the sleeve. I added my red trim, my gold trim, and ribbon twists to approximate the look of the sleeves in the portrait. I then went back and stitched gold tubular beads to each twist to look like aglets. And then more twists to connect the sleeves to the shoulders, and the puffy baragoni that typify Florentine style.

Here's the bodice and sleeve, pinned to a form. I do this sort of thing a lot as I work, to make sure I'm really getting the result I want. What you can't see is how after the person who was going to help me left, I ended up having to fit the bodice to myself. This is incredibly hard. Lacing yourself into a back-lacing corset is a cake walk, by comparison. Because of this, there were some minor fit issues. That said, I did all right, all things considered.

Here is a shot while my sweet fiance helped me pin the hem. Poofy. I swear this skirt has relaxed quite a bit since this photo was taken. The day after he pinned the hem, I went ahead and chopped off the excess fabric, stitched it all up, completed the velvet guards,  and threw the ensemble back on to see how it all looked. The pink hem was an inch shorter than the underskirt. I freaked.

I tearfully called the fiancé, who came over to help. I talked to the kind, loving, people on the Elizabethan Costuming group, who gave me very helpful solutions.I was still ready to throw it all out and quit. Drew convinced/coaxed/wheedled me into the whole getup, had me jump up and down a couple times, and twirl, before facing the mirror. And what do you know? It was perfectly fine. The hem was where it needed to be. This was definitely a lesson in stress management.

Accessories

 Because no outfit is complete without accessories, I made myself a rosary with freshwater pearls and some glass beads I found at Bohemian, in the garment district.  I also bought (not at the same place) and Indian wedding necklace set, complete with tikka and earrings. I cannibalized the earrings and tikka, then wrapped them with wire onto a brass headband, with some gold roses, flower-ish brass bead caps and garnets from a broken necklace.

 This is my girdle. I found a fun brooch on eBay and added it to a string of beads I found at Michael's. Simple.
 Not the girdle I wanted, but it works.

I also started working on a zibelleno. I molded the head out of Sculpey, then added some brass filigree, micro pearls, and chain, to create a harness. I glued this to a repurposed marten pelt. I haven't used it yet, though, as I haven't settled on how I want to attach it to my dress.

And then it got hot, and I needed a fan. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the whole thing. I bought 100 bleached peacock feathers from Perial, downtown. Perial is absolutely amazing for feathers, masks, and trim. A lot of their customers are bellydancers and burlesque performers, and by golly do they know their customers. My fiancé cut down a dowel for me. I painted it, glued on an acorn knob, then sandwiched it between two manila paper circles. To this base, I glued my feathers and added some wood shapes from Home Depot. It took forever to set completely.

 And then we went to the Bristol Faire in Wisconsin, and I needed another fan. Really, it was an excuse to make another accessory, but I didn't want to smoosh my feather fan in my suitcase. So Drew and I made a flag fan. Drew took a dowel and, with the magic of carpentery, affixed it to a flat wood piece for the fan. We hammered a veritable buttload of filigree pieces to cover the fan handle, and added a brass lamp finial to the end. This was then covered in shrink tubing to protect the filigree. Not period in the least, but it sure is effective.

A friend gave me an ornament from Florence earlier in the year, and I copied its fleur de lis on some paper and added a border. I traced this onto fabric and embroidered the design, adding some gold spangles. Because I'm Florentine Barbie. The other side of the fan has a mirror, surrounded by more gold embroidery and pearls. Because I'm Florentine Barbie. I glued some leftover filigree to the wood base, then sandwiched everything between the embroidered pieces. 

Not pictured in this section are my four sets of earrings (because a girl needs options), two necklaces I made (again, options), my saccoccia/pockets, my garters, and my camicia. I also never got around to making a colletto/partlet, because I ran out of time and haven't bothered with it, since.

End Result

Photo courtesy of Kenny Jewel. You can book this talented man through his Facebook page.

Overall, I'm pleased with how it looks. I'm still not happy with the fit issues, but I don't care enough to go back and fix them. And I've learned some awesome tricks to get around the bleeding trim issue when cleaning this thing. And the taffeta has calmed down enough that I no longer look like Scarlett O'Hara. Once I get around to making another dress, I'll likely still wear this one, on occassion. You know, the options thing.