Regarding pants for you-Lands End makes a lot of their pants in a Tall version.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Exstock Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 3:30 PM To: Historical Costume Subject: Re: [h-cost] nice hems My method developed from a blend of laziness and perfectionism, and the lack of a sewing helper. I put the dress on (inside out, if I plan for it to be unwashable). Then I grab a chalk marker or colored pencil, and stand beside my kitchen counter. My kitchen counter happens to be just the right height--about an inch below the widest part of my hips--but any flat surface that's at the right height and wide enough to rest the chalk marker on would work just fine. You might consider piling books on the edge of a table or desk until it's the right height, if you're not so lucky with your kitchen counter. Your surface needs to be high up enough that there are few folds in the skirt where you're marking, but low enough so that you're just barely past the widest part of your lower half, and your hips and rear have already had whatever effect they're going to have on the placement of the hem. Standing beside my surface, I press the marker down on it, point out, with the hand opposite the side I'm about to mark. For example, if I'm marking my left side, I use my right hand to hold the marker in place. Then, standing as straight as possible, and using my other hand (in this example, the left hand) to make sure that as much of the fabric as possible comes into contact with the marker, I rotate slowly; the marker marks the fabric as I go. (It's ok to miss an inch or two, here and there, with your marks; you can generally figure out later where the curve should go based on what is marked.) If you're generally symmetrical, you can get away with marking only one side; personally, even though I am symmetrical when it comes to length I like to mark both sides and average out the curves, just to make sure the mark is accurate and I didn't twitch at the wrong moment. Once the curve is marked, I measure the distance from the surface to the floor. Ok, I don't, because I've got it memorized: 36" exactly. (Why yes, it is hard for me to buy pants.) That means that if I want to have a floor-length hem, I need to measure down exactly 36" inches from the curve I just marked, plus seam allowance. Whatever your surface-to-floor distance is, use it to figure out how much you need to add to the curve to reach your desired length + seam allowance. Take off your dress, and lay it flat on the floor, with a fold from the top of the front to the bottom at one end, and the back at the other. The bodice and sleeve portion should be all bunched up at the top of what will look vaguely like a triangle. Lock up your cats, and smooth the gown out all nice and tidy, with the current hem edges matched together as perfectly as possible. Pin the current hem edges together every foot or so, so that when you cut the new hem you can be sure that you're cutting the same amount off of each side. (Unless you're asymmetrical and had to mark each side separately; in that case you don't need to mess with pinning. Just be sure to mark the new hem as below on both sides!) Get a yardstick, or two if you are planning on a longer-than-floor length. (If two, go ahead and tape them together to the correct length; it'll save headaches.) Then, ignoring where your seams are, place the yardstick at a 90 degree angle to your marked curve. The easiest way to do this is to line up the top edge of your yardstick with the marks. Then, at your desired length, make a mark on EACH side of the yardstick. Move your yardstick an inch or two further along your marked curve, remembering to readjust it so that it's at that 90 degree angle and the top edge matches the curve, and mark again. This should place your next set of hem marks several inches from your first set--far enough that you don't have to spend all day marking, but close enough that you can easily draw in a curve. Continue all the way around, and then go back and join up your hem marks in a smooth curve. If you're particularly nervous, you can unpin the hem, try the gown on to see if your new hem marks are satisfactory, and then go back through the smoothing/pinning process again before you cut your new hem line, but personally I'm far too lazy for that. If you have an especially wide skirt or are trying for an especially tough hem length (like exactly floor-length all the way around) it may help to make preliminary marks on your curve mark, dividing it up into equal sections--say, front, front-side, side, side-back, back. Then, measure the length of the front, side, and back first, making sure that the side hem measurement mark is exactly halfway between the front & back hem marks. Then, you can mark the hem halfway between the front and the side, then halfway between the front and the front-side, and so on, using your preliminary marks on the curve to help. This is the method I use 95% of the time, but then I have a very vocal inner Adrian Monk. If you plan on having a train, figure out your desired length at the front, the sides, and the back. Write this down somewhere. Using that information, figure out the length of several landmarks in between the front and the back. For example, let's say I want a train of 16" in the back, with 8" on each side to give it a smooth curve. My length from the mark to the front is 36"; my length from the mark to halfway between the front and the side is 40"; my length from the mark to the side is 44"; my length from the mark to halfway between the side and the back is 48"; my length from the mark to the back is 50". If I need more than just those measurements to figure out the curve of the hem, I can measure halfway in between the front and the front-side, and add in a length of 38" (halfway between my front length of 36" and my front-side length of 40"), and so on all the way around the hem. (Note--with trains, I personally prefer to wait until I'm a bit closer to the sides before adding in any extra length, because if I'm planning on a long train, the front hem of my garment could easily wind up with a frowny-face sort of curve. I generally keep the front at a constant length until I'm at the front-side portion, then I start gradually adding in the length.) Though I do occasionally hem otherwise finished dresses this way, most of the time I actually wind up marking the hem-length on my fitting muslin once I'm happy with the fit. Since my fitting muslin is generally upper-thigh length, this tends to work out beautifully. By figuring out my hem before I cut out my fabric, I can use a thriftier & more efficient fabric layout, which is way more of a priority for me than it probably should be. Also, if I'm only marking the fitting muslin, I can use a Sharpie marker for the marking, which is a lot easier than trying to get the chalk to make enough of an impression. -E House _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
