At 18:22 12/03/2006, you wrote:
Shane & Sheridan wrote:
It's Sunday morning, and the caffeine has not yet percolated its way into my
brain, so here's a possibly silly question:
is it a good idea to starch the fabric of a ruff *before* or *after* you sew
it together?
After. If you want the lovely figure-eights to work out right, just
sew a very tightly gathered band of fabric to the top of your
neckband. Then soak it in liquid starch and proceed from
there. Full instructions of how I do mine are on my website at
http://www.faucet.net/costume/period/ruff.html
The thing is, every time you wash it, the starch all comes out. So
you don't want to have to take it all apart every time you have to
wash and re-starch. And you will want to wash it--they sit right
next to the neck and are prey to "ring around the ruff."
If you use straw stiffener (millinery supplies) you stiffen it first,
then form the eights and glue or sew them (glueing "is" authentic, or
rather sticking with gum arabic IIRC). You don't wash, but clean with
water, and re-stiffen with steam every time it goes limp. Useful for
theatre, where you haven't time to do every ruff every time.
Suzi
_______________________________________________
h-costume mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
