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mmymoonOne more for tonight! As I'm feeling reasonably coherent!
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twotone asked for advice about making bloomers.
Although lolita and steampunk have certainly advanced the cause of bloomers in the modern era, let me tell you, weirdoes making bloomers is a fine tradition that is decades of years old, at least. Goths and weird SCA/renfaire people have been around for a long time, and have enjoyed making ridiculous vaguely historical garments.
Bloomers are incredibly easy to make: they're basically two rectangles of fabric with curves cut into them that is then sewn together and hemmed into casings. Boom. Once you get the basic shape down (assuming you've sewn in your life before) you could easily make them in ten minutes -- I've whipped some up right before going out to events.
Look at these tutorials first and pay attention to the pretty diagrams:
Dawn Pages bloomers/breeches - A little tricky-looking to a beginner, but the best tutorial, in my humble opinion. (My absolute favorite costuming site, although it probably appeals to the "measure this and cut" sort of sewer I am moreso than pattern-lovers.)
EGL tutorial - Really good description of sewing the tubes together inside each other.
Batty-chan's tutorials - Not my favorite, but widely linked.
MY NOTES:
- You cut two doubled rectangles of fabric. The length will depend on the length you want bloomers, anywhere from short and somewhat panty-like to ankle-length and leg-warming.
- Following the patterns below for fitted rise (with different shape curves) will make a more fitted seat. I am lazy and make all the curves exactly the same, which makes a saggy butt but you know, I don't really care.
- Sew the curves together and then the legs, or the legs together and then put the tubes inside each other and sew. I've tried both ways and I think the latter is marginally easier... but really, neither one is all that difficult.
- Casings can be sewn-on bias tape/ribbon, or doubled over fabric. (If you sew two rows of stitching like | elastic | edge of fabric, it will make a ruffle at the top!)
- Casings can be drawstring or elastic. (The bottoms can be left free for gaucho-esque pants.) You can get all fancy and do button-holes for the drawstrings, or just punch holes. I usually leave a small section of the casing stitching open to put the elastic in, and then don't bother sewing it closed in case I need to adjust the elastic later. You could also stitch the elastic on the fabric, but why bother, since covered elastic is so much nicer?
- Fabrics can be anything from thin cottons for summer sweaty-thigh protection to cute novelty print flannels for winter warmth. (Some goths like satin and stretch velvet, but I really dislike synthetics since they breathe less. Personal thing.)
- You can add crap like ribbons and pleats and bows and crap! Or, say, that glow-in-the-dark ric-rac you bought one halloween and couldn't think of a use for! Woohoo!
... and yes, bloomers can be worn without underwear. They ARE underwear. I know a lot of lolitas wear their panties underneath their bloomers, but that's kind of... um... the modern underpants obsession. (The historical re-enactment people can tell you about the miracle of OPEN CROTCH bloomers, which allow one to pee while wearing umpteen layers of underskirts. SHOCKINGLY EASY ACCESS!) I have not had a problem with loose threads in my ladyparts, and I never bother finishing my edges or hemming fastidiously. If one is particularly worried, flannel is very good about not shedding on cut edges, and looking generally snazzy!
I love bloomers and wear them all the time; I only wish I were not horrid at sewing with jersey knit, so I could make jersey knit bloomers.
And if you are over the age of eighteen, you can Google the love letters of James Joyce, who had a lot of very interesting things to say on the subject.
twotone asked for advice about making bloomers.Although lolita and steampunk have certainly advanced the cause of bloomers in the modern era, let me tell you, weirdoes making bloomers is a fine tradition that is decades of years old, at least. Goths and weird SCA/renfaire people have been around for a long time, and have enjoyed making ridiculous vaguely historical garments.
Bloomers are incredibly easy to make: they're basically two rectangles of fabric with curves cut into them that is then sewn together and hemmed into casings. Boom. Once you get the basic shape down (assuming you've sewn in your life before) you could easily make them in ten minutes -- I've whipped some up right before going out to events.
Look at these tutorials first and pay attention to the pretty diagrams:
Dawn Pages bloomers/breeches - A little tricky-looking to a beginner, but the best tutorial, in my humble opinion. (My absolute favorite costuming site, although it probably appeals to the "measure this and cut" sort of sewer I am moreso than pattern-lovers.)
EGL tutorial - Really good description of sewing the tubes together inside each other.
Batty-chan's tutorials - Not my favorite, but widely linked.
MY NOTES:
- You cut two doubled rectangles of fabric. The length will depend on the length you want bloomers, anywhere from short and somewhat panty-like to ankle-length and leg-warming.
- Following the patterns below for fitted rise (with different shape curves) will make a more fitted seat. I am lazy and make all the curves exactly the same, which makes a saggy butt but you know, I don't really care.
- Sew the curves together and then the legs, or the legs together and then put the tubes inside each other and sew. I've tried both ways and I think the latter is marginally easier... but really, neither one is all that difficult.
- Casings can be sewn-on bias tape/ribbon, or doubled over fabric. (If you sew two rows of stitching like | elastic | edge of fabric, it will make a ruffle at the top!)
- Casings can be drawstring or elastic. (The bottoms can be left free for gaucho-esque pants.) You can get all fancy and do button-holes for the drawstrings, or just punch holes. I usually leave a small section of the casing stitching open to put the elastic in, and then don't bother sewing it closed in case I need to adjust the elastic later. You could also stitch the elastic on the fabric, but why bother, since covered elastic is so much nicer?
- Fabrics can be anything from thin cottons for summer sweaty-thigh protection to cute novelty print flannels for winter warmth. (Some goths like satin and stretch velvet, but I really dislike synthetics since they breathe less. Personal thing.)
- You can add crap like ribbons and pleats and bows and crap! Or, say, that glow-in-the-dark ric-rac you bought one halloween and couldn't think of a use for! Woohoo!
... and yes, bloomers can be worn without underwear. They ARE underwear. I know a lot of lolitas wear their panties underneath their bloomers, but that's kind of... um... the modern underpants obsession. (The historical re-enactment people can tell you about the miracle of OPEN CROTCH bloomers, which allow one to pee while wearing umpteen layers of underskirts. SHOCKINGLY EASY ACCESS!) I have not had a problem with loose threads in my ladyparts, and I never bother finishing my edges or hemming fastidiously. If one is particularly worried, flannel is very good about not shedding on cut edges, and looking generally snazzy!
I love bloomers and wear them all the time; I only wish I were not horrid at sewing with jersey knit, so I could make jersey knit bloomers.
And if you are over the age of eighteen, you can Google the love letters of James Joyce, who had a lot of very interesting things to say on the subject.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-10 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-11 06:37 am (UTC)(Cached? http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:http://www.reddawn.net/costume/drawstri.htm )
It's an ANCIENT site, though, so it should come back up again.
Bloomers and fun and productive! GIVE IN TO THE MAGIC OF SEWING UNDERPANTS
no subject
Date: 2009-09-11 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-11 06:47 am (UTC)I HAD NO CLUE THANK YOU SO MUCH
(I've even Googled "sewing jersey knit" before, but everything just says "buy a serger" which I don't want to do.)
I have had no formal construction instruction outside of a 4-H class when I was eight! One of the biggest... irritants of my college career, well, besides all the other ones, was the fact they forced me to take design instead of construction. So I got to listen to a really flaky professor crap on about ART and IDEAS (and, when she ever actually taught, just rehashed Victorian stuff I already knew about) annnnnnnnnnddddddddddddd meanwhile, the construction class had an awesome teacher who explained everything and they got all sorts of cool hands-on practice in.
The design professor was honestly downright horrible. "I want to do this for my final project." "No." "Okay, how about this?" "No." "... sigh, do you want to just tell me what I'm doing for my final project?" "Yep! You're doing This! It will be cool, despite you having no interest in it!" (We had to costume design Shakespeare based on fashion specific to a country. I couldn't do Japanese street fashion because someone else was doing Edo era. So she just TOLD me which country and play to do -- AUSTRALIA. Because nothing says distinctive national costume like freaking Australia! I got mad and just set it all in the damn Dreamtime, which of course, was praised for being ~creative~. I was so angry.)
And because of scheduling, I never did get to take the construction class. Sigh.
SO UM! YES! Not to revisit the Great Failures of My Past, but my technical construction often sucks! Feel free to point out any seemingly obvious stuff to me, because LEARNING IS AWESOME!
I wanna go buy a ball-point needle... I nearly peed myself the first time I actually used a double-needle correctly. So easy!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-11 03:37 pm (UTC)Avoidance of flaky design theory professors is why I didn't get a proper minor in graphic design. I don't think I could've taken all of that...erm...hot air. (I don't like deeper meaning in my entertainment, thanks. It's enough for something to be interesting on the surface. When I did take a course--20th Century Japanese Culture--that ended up with a professor who wanted Deep Analysis of What We Read, and when no-one in the class was volunteering to offer those analyses, I started raising my hand and making stuff up as I talked. The Prof was quite pleased with my Deep Analyses. La la.)
The construction course I took is probably what I use most from my college education (followed by the textiles course...and introduction to meteorology. I took a lot of random flaky fun courses my senior year.)
If you ever plan to sew leather, vinyl, or anything with a significant amount of plastic print/coating, you'll save incredible amounts of frustration by using a leather and vinyl needle, too. Otherwise, the sewing machine will do crazy things that you don't realize are because of the needle.