Generic Sewing Bees

I’ve been thinking about making some soft kit for the society gear pool. I’ve recently moved and now have a garage with a large working table and space, ideal for hosting sewing bees. I’ve also discovered I have some fabric that I have no use for, but would work well for tabards, patchwork tunics etc.

Soft kit is something we don’t often get in the gear pool because it is time consuming to make and the fabric can often be expensive. Would people be interested in getting together sometime with sewing machines and whatever left over fabric we want to donate and make some new rags/tunics/tabards for nzLARPS?

Sounds good!

I’m there so long as it’s after 30th October. Uni work looms over all before then. Sigh

I was imagining running a few of these since sewing usually takes some time. When we ran them for Ravenholme, we found it took two full days to get a sufficient amount done. It all depends on interest, how much fabric we manage to lay our hands on and the ratio of stitching to bitching :smiley:

A couple of non-sewers would be welcome too, so we can set up an assembly line of cutting-pinning-sewing. I’ve got a tunic pattern that makes really nice tunics and I’ve got sewing time down to about an hour on those, if we set up an assembly line we might be able to produce quite a few of those.

I’m up for this too.

Time dependent I’m interested in coming along as a non-sewer, I’m learning but slowly.

I have a sewing machine and reasonable amounts of amateur level sewing skill. I make no promises on the talking/sewing ratios though. :wink:

Am totally in on this. No sewing machine at the moment, but I’m pretty mean with a pair of scissors.

Sounds like a good idea (I say from a far off city, as one who clearly won’t be coming. :slight_smile:) Do you have an idea of your big clothing shortages? I can remember from Mordavia days that there didn’t seem to be very many dresses…

i have a large array of cotton and other sewing bits. i have three sewing machines (one awesome big one, one average and one tiny one), they all work but i don’t know how to thread them and occasionally they do things that confuse me.

Count me in, time permitting :wink:

Gotta agree with Stephanie. There’s a real shortage of dresses for crew. I guess the problem would be the sheer amount of fabric required for a medieval frock as opposed to a tunic or tabard. If we made them loose fitting and large necked then we might be able to avoid the whole zipper drama as well. I hate sewing zips. :smiley:

They’re not as bad as eyelets :open_mouth:

If you are looking for something medieval-dressy that doesn’t take too much fabric, I would suggest surcoats (sleeveless dresses). Just like long tabbards with triangles in the side. These can be worn simply over a long sleeved top for a fairly authentic feel.

on the other hand, if you do want to make medieval dress I have a very simple and easily adjustable pattern.

My sewing machine is out of order atm, but I’m sure i have some spare fabric in my horde I can contribute.

also, if you want to cheat on the whole eyelets thing, just fold in half length wise a strip of eyes from the strips of hooks and eyes(that you can buy very cheaply at geoff’s or spotlight) with the eyes sticking out and sew a strip down each side of the gap you want laced. Viola! Instant lacing holes for little effort!

GENIUS :open_mouth:

2 genius ideas in fact. :slight_smile: I’d be happy to run up surcoats at a sewing bee if we can get enough fabric super cheap.

I’d be interested in coming if one of these runs on a sunday. I can bring along my sewing machine if someone who knows how to sew wants to use it. It’s old but it does work.
I also have a couple of sheets I picked up from my old job thinking they might be useful for sewing into something. I can bring them along and see if they’re any use.

That won’t be a problem :smiling_imp:

Just a note on the super cheap fabric front: some fabric is so cheap it’s not worth using. Fabric that’s mostly polyester doesn’t resemble historical linen or cotton, and costumes made from it tend to have a shiny fake look. Cotton fabric is much more versatile for historical or pseudo-historical costumes, especially for “townsfolk” type crew costumes. Cotton also takes colour so can be dyed or painted, wheras polyester doesn’t. A lot of the cheapest fabric in shops is polyester, especially in places like Geoff’s. I’m sure it’s useful for some specific purposes (perhaps for getting a cheap “silk” look?) but for basic trousers, tunics, shirts, dresses, etc cotton or other natural fabric like wool is probably the go.