> One difficulty is that cloth was fulled much better in various historic > periods than what's available now. There are some fulled fabrics available, > but more expensive. Anyway, as pointed out earlier, sometimes raw edges are > appropriate.
For a recreation in competition, I personally would give extra "points" for documenting what "they" had, what the costumer could get, and how the costumer coped, adapted, and otherwise showed off costuming skill to recreate what was unavailable. Unavailable here could mean nobody makes it anymore, or the costumer can't afford it (think real cloth-of-gold). Historical masquerades are a test of the entrants' skill as a costumer (or at least I think they should be). > So what happens when someone uses a non-period appropriate seam finish > to accommodate a not-quite-period fabric? In a recreation, the closer the finished costume is to the "real thing", the better. Therefore, the more closely your non-appropriate seam finish recreates the real thing on the most appropriate fabric you could get, the more it exhibits your recreation skill as a costumer. > Frequently for 18thC, reenactors will make shifts with French seams (an > easy finish with machine sewing), but flat-fell is the way they were done at > the time. For my own re-enactment garments, I use my sewing machine a lot where it isn't otherwise appropriate. For competition, for bragging rights, or as a personal challenge, I use period-appropriate methods for my garments. I learn a lot by trying out period-appropriate methods, even if I never do things that way again. It's not fair to fault someone else's work at a re-enactment unless they're in a costume competition *and* you're the judge. (I try to remember this when I see things I don't like at places like Ren. Faire.) > Likewise with sergeing, would that be "better" than a raw edge? See above. "Better" for a recreation in competition means as close as possible to the original, inside and out. "Better" for a theater costume has different criteria, like budget, can the actor get in and out of it by himself/herself, or can the details be seen from the last row of the balcony, any of which may necessitate the use of non-period techniques. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
