Sewing Lessons

[Divash]

So, I made a new friend. I posted pictures of my pottery on Facebook, and she messaged me saying that she liked it, and would I make her some? I noticed that she had some gorgeous pictures of garb that she'd made, and suggested a trade. I would make her two full sets of feastware (stew plate, bowl, cup, goblet, and one or two little extras "just 'cuz"), and she would make me two sets of garb (salvar/trouser, kamis/long tunic, and qaba/over-jacket), one for me and one for my beloved.

I got her pottery done in record time. She wasn't done with the garb. After about a month, she explained why: She wasn't just going to make me "generic Arab" clothing, like so many people would have, and I'd have been satisfied with it even though I know it's not really correct (you can't have "generic Arab" clothing, if it's possible to pinpoint the time and place a medieval garment was made to within 25 years and within a couple hundred miles!). Instead of taking the easy way out, Lady <Name Redacted> had chosen to do real research into my chosen time and place (Aden, Yemen; 800 years ago 'today'). She would make a pattern based on images of extant garments, depictions in period art, and so on. Then she'd actually give me the pattern when she was done with it, along with copies of all her research in a little notebook, so that I would have suitable documentation for making more of the same garment whenever I wanted more. Fancy, huh? I am SO hoping that she gets her Laurel soon.

So, I kept doing pottery for other folks instead, and I waited. And waited. Lady <Name Redacted> contacted me again and said she was just about ready to begin garment construction, but she wanted to be sure of our measurements, so she came over one night to measure us. See, she'd asked me to email her the measurements, but I admitted I had no idea how to really take them. Lady <Name Redacted> said it was sad to have to pay $50 to $150 for a normal SCA garment (not even fancy court-wear, or Elizabethan, or late-period Italian), when you could get the materials and do it yourself for less than 1/4 of the cost. "But I can't sew," I explained, "so I'm stuck getting other people to do it for me."

Well, Lady <Name Redacted> was horrified. She's been sewing since childhood, got her degree in costuming, and just can't see why everyone can't sew as easily as breathing. Nothing would do, but that I would agree to let her come over every Tuesday evening and give me sewing lessons, for the next several months. Seriously. She was proposing to spend 1/7 of her life for the next year in teaching me how to sew. I mean, how do you say no to an offer that generous?

So, I'm learning to sew! I'll post about my lessons here, until I forget and move on to the next thing to post about. wink

Update: The sewing lessons happened three times. I still, now in 2013, can't sew a straight line, can't remember how to thread my machine, and have no new garb.  

[Out to the Black]

Woot! Good for you. I can sew but not very well and I don't have a sewing machine so I have an arrangment with a friend. We get together when either of us need garb and help each other out. See she hates cutting things out so I cut everything out, and play with ironing and pinning, and she sews everything together.  

[Courtesan Brigitte]

The reason garb costs so much to buy (for the reasonably priced stuff) is not the materials but the time. It takes me several hours to make a shirt. I can buy the fabric on sale for $4 but there's nothing I can do to make it not take 2-3 hours to cut, stitch, pleat, stitch, and pleat some more. If I were selling a shirt for $15, I'd make less than $4/hr.

There are definitely people who charge WAY too much for garb. I've seen $100 chemises, and that's ridiculous, but $30-50 for a well-made Elizabethan nobles shirt is not unreasonable.  

[Sir_Catherine]

Wow, what an amazing, generous offer and you are very wise to take this good Lady up on it. I wish you the best of success in your learning and sewing endeavors!  

[Divash]

Definitely $30-$50 is absolutely reasonable to pay. Apparently Lady V. does garbing as a service, not a business; I hope to heaven she's up for consideration to become a Pelican. But she said at the time that she much prefers to teach people to sew. And I'm sure that's usually true -- she's a very good teacher, and she teaches a LOT of different classes focusing on lots of skills, theory, and history.

But she was asked to become Royal Clothier for one rein, so my things were put on hold for a while. Then she had to move, twice, and switch jobs, also twice. And I moved. And I was very sick for a while. And on and on and on, and now it's been from July 2010 to today, September 2013, and I still do not sew AND I still have no garb from Lady V. nor from the other five people who offered garb. I've gotten back ONE item in exchange for the pottery that I put out in a very timely fashion (five largish orders, all done in under 6 months). That one item is a pair of socks modeled after an extant Egyptian sock, all wool, knitted, and they are GORGEOUS. But by now I should have five full sets of garb for me, plus an undergarment for me and one for Akim. Nope, no dice.

I went and found someone who would do what would pass for a "generic Arab" underdress and trouser, if you're half-blind and not much into authenticity: Persian style sarawil (trousers) and, essentially, a Viking style kirtle, both in unbleached muslin. And someone gifted me a very plain but comfortable grey tunic in what feels very much like, ahem, a modern fabric (cotton-poly blend). So, I basically look awful, but what am I going to do about it? I can't really call people out by name, because that's just not nice.