On Materials and Mood Fabrics

I'm not sure if it's a universal piece of advice, but from everything that I've seen on websites about sewing and from everything I've heard from people I know who do it, the cardinal rule for beginners seems to be "don't choose a project that's too hard for your skill set." Basically the opposite of my intentions with this costume project, which is clearly Go Big Or Go Home.

I am essentially a novice at sewing. My godmother used to sew, and I helped her make me a Renaissance Fair dress one fall when I was in high school--by help I mean I cut the pieces and did the hand-finishing, and watched her do the machine sewing--but that's as close as I've ever been to a project of this scope. I can re-attach buttons in a way that they aren't coming off even in a knife-fight, and I have hand-hemmed pants that I decided to make into capris, and mended rips in a shirt. And that's actually been it for me for sewing. But I have always wanted to have the skills and equipment to make fabulous outfits for Occasions, so this wedding project is just an impetus to jumpstart this idealized passion into an actual hobby. Also, I watch a lot of Project Runway, and if those people have learned how to sew and design, there's no way I can't, as well. I am a smart girl, and not entirely tactiley helpless. I understand there will be a learning curve, but I also believe I have enough tenacity, exposure if not experience, and common sense to make it through with an outcome I am proud of.

One thing I am hell-bent on is making sure that, beginner or not, these costumes look nice. By that, I suppose I mean luxe. The one costume wedding I've witnessed had a dress that, while lovely, looked, well, like polyester. (You're looking at the lady in red on the right. She was the bride--we just happened to be outside the bar when their pirate wedding, complete with Naval chaplain and crossed-sword salute, sprung up around us. I daresay watching this charming and casual proceeding may have planted the germ of our own wedding theme two years ago.)

I don't want to look like I'm in a modern fabric aping (poorly) the finery of yesteryear. These are both our wedding clothes and costumes that we intend to use for years; we want them to be right. So it was frustrating to me to go to the local fabric stores and come up empty-handed because they had nothing like what I was looking for, and realize that I would have to go elsewhere for my needs. Which seems impossible in a city like New Orleans, that there is not a great fabric store here. Note: There is an upscale fabric shop I have not visited, mostly because their prices are high and I had an opportunity to go to New York. I will at some point check them out and see whether they are worth frequenting for later projects/emergency replacements.

So instead of buying cheap fabric, going on the internet and buying what I could only hope were the right colors and fabric weights, or getting gouged for it, I went--as I mentioned--to The City (as all the people I met in Jersey, where I was staying, kept calling it) and, like any good PR junkie, went to Mood Fabrics.

That was a fabulous experience! The building was hilariously obscure--all it had was the address, no sign that it was a business building as opposed to apartments, nothing on the wall outside; obviously the building shot on the show is from the LA location! If you didn't know it was there, like if you just went to the Garment District and thought you could stumble onto it, you can't. Plenty of other stores, yes, and next time I go to NYC and have a couple hours to kill maybe I'll explore some of the many, many other fabric stores I passed. But Mood? You have to know it's there. Since I had the address, I walked right in and only stopped to verify with the business sign discreetly on the wall that I was in the right place before ringing for the elevator. The elevator man (WTF, right? EXACTLY) took me right to the third floor, and the staff on the floor left me alone until I had stopped wandering from section to section and started pulling out fabrics to compare. The man who cut for me was extremely helpful; he helped me to find several color options I hadn't seen, and I'm pretty sure gave me a price break on one of the fabrics because he didn't have the $18 silk (only the $30) in the color I needed, but yet $18 was the highest per-yard cost I had when my purchase was rung up.

And going in to a store like that was the best move I could have made, to wait and consider the colors in person (vs. buying on the internet), because being able to hold the prospective colors for jacket against waistcoat against pants settled me on them.

There are six fabrics there, and the gold and the two purples (on the right) go together, while the white and the periwinkle and the dark violet that you really can't see in this light go together. Interestingly, the two trim fabrics (the gold brocade and the white) were actually the first pieces I picked out. Perhaps they had to be, or perhaps they were simply the easiest two to choose because they were the most specific and therefore had the fewest choices. I will say this about Mood, it was nearly overwhelming for me as a consumer. There were just so many choices, and I am not sure I could have chosen well without having those two pieces to start from. I also honestly didn't know the second thing about what I needed. I had tried to research fabric weights and types, but it wasn't that clear when I was looking at the rolls of fabric and trying to decide. In the end I think I did well, certainly for my experience level and definitely within budget (under my upper limit, at that!), but it was nerve-wracking. And wonderfully exciting. It made the whole undertaking start to seem real.

For those of you following along for a sewing project perspective, I wish I could tell you what I actually bought, but I don't think these silks were specifically labeled--the four main ones came from the same section, and it was unmarked. I know they weren't Georgette, or charmeuse, or duchess satin, or watered silk, because those were labeled. The white is a cotton/silk blend and very filmy. The brocade is a brocade. The others are all slinky and thin. Probably too thin, but Mood didn't have thick silks there. Perhaps heavy silks don't exist anymore (since getting back from this trip, I've seen historical recreation websites complaining about the lack of historical-type silks so I feel less like an idiot for getting fabrics that are too thin). I will have to compensate by lining with stiff fabric or even using lining and interlining to stiffen them so they hold a shape, especially for his coat and maybe also my bodice and the top skirt. The pants and my petticoat, I think, will be fine simply with a lining.

I will take a picture of all my materials at some point, because it's quite funny to see how much fabric I have bought for this project. Maybe overbought, but I figured that would be better than the alternative! Since the Mood expedition, I have also bought locally material for my chemise, his shirt and stock, the linings and/or interlinings, and my stays (okay, actually most of their materials are internet purchases, except that I did find a beautiful duiponi silk at Hancock's fabrics that I am covering them with). But since the finishing fabrics have the most glamour, I wanted to show off what I'm working with (ultimately) before I start posting pictures of my chemise and stays--the only parts I've actually started.

And in the meantime, this is the best encapsulation of "What I did in New York":