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Well, I managed to get the fake fur cut out by 5 p.m. on Friday.
Susy even found some time to do a couple of stitching samples for me beforehand, just to see how it would behave at the machine.
The best way to seam this fur is to cut it on, or just inside the pattern sewing line and carefully pin then zig the raw edges together. This eliminates bulk at the seams, and is surprisingly strong- we both had a go at trying to pull it apart and couldn't. The zig stitch should actually fall over the raw edge, and if the tension is adjusted properly, you can almost pull the seam flat.
The cloak has bias to bias seaming over the shoulder and a straight to bias seam at the side back. In the velvet, the bias seams went together as cut, but, as you can imagine, the straight to bias had to be hung up to let the bias drop and subsequently the bias side dropped a good inch.
I don't know if a similar thing will happen with the fur, so I guess we will find out tomorrow as it is being put together.
The other thing I have to work out is how to best attach the chain mail sleeves to an under bodice that we made. I think it will entail a fabric strip with metal eyelets that is then sewn onto the bodice so the chain mail can be linked into the eyelets. Then we deal with what happens at the wrist and whether to link the chain mail to a cuff or a drawstring, because there is an armoured gauntlet glove to be worn but possibly taken off onstage.
If you ever need merely a "chain mail effect" as opposed to the real thing, I once saw a jouster wearing leggings knitted out of a very heavy smooth yarn of some sort and painted over with silver paint; it looked just like the REAL THING from a distance, with none of the weight.
ReplyDeleteYes, that is also a technique we have used. Very effective. We used a narrow cording probably .5mm in diameter to knit chain mail sleeves which were painted as you describe. Right now, the metal version seems to be what the designers want to use. We have two different types of that as well. Split ring chain mail and aluminum riveted ring chain mail.
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