Advice to Beginners

• REQUIRED READING
• What kind of sewing machine do I need?
• How much do I need to know about sewing?
• Where do I start?
• What kinds of things do I need to be thinking about?
• Where can I get a pattern?
• Why would I want to draft my own patterns?

An awful lot of people start out their elizabethan costuming efforts with the book Elizabethan Costuming, by Janet Winter and Carolyn Savoy. I am one of about two people I know who HATES THIS BOOK. This is not an utterly unreasonable opinion. There are serious errors in the book than can lead to much heartbreak and trauma. The other of the two people alive who HATES THIS BOOK is my good friend Sara. We bonded over mutual disgust and hatred of the book in question, actually. She has done an excellent job of putting together a concise, pictorally documented page on some of the errors you will encounter if you take the words of Winter and Savoy as gospel. I really honestly believe that her pages should be REQUIRED READING for every newcomer to elizabethan costume. If you don't feel like reading the whole article, at least read this bit before the first time you get dressed.

Believe it or not, you only need a basic machine. If you are looking at buying a machine, I'd recommend sticking to a nice, basic model. The first iteration of the "little" red dress was made on a basic Bicor model - it knew how to go straight forward, backwards, and zigzag. That was *all* it did, but it did that very well and it was quite sturdy. You can pick up a model like that for about 80$-100$ these days. Technically, that's all you need. My current machine is a little fancier - it's a Brother model with a few fancy stitch patterns that I got at Sam's club for about 250$. It goes through a few more layers of fabric than the old bicor, and it knows how to make buttonholes (which is good, since I can't seem to manage it myself).

Generally speaking, you want a machine that is well made and sturdy, rather than a machine with lots of fancy features. You want a machine with metal inside of it - a metal armature and parts will last longer than a plastic one. If you can pick the machine up easily, you should put it back down and look at a different one. White, Brother, Viking/Husqavarna, and Pfaff all have extremely good reputations. Brother has the cheapest basic models out of those four. That's why I own a Brother.

At the very least, you should know how to straight stitch and how to follow a pattern. You should also have some idea which needle to use for what fabric. There are a number of very good introductory books on sewing out right now. I recommend checking out one of the ones geared towards home sewing (ie, drapes and pillows) rather than one specifically geared towards sewing clothing. The techniques used in elizabethan costuming are much closer to the techniques used now for drapery than for clothing. A clothing oriented book will tell you how to put a zipper in properly, which you really should not be doing in a costume. A home sewing nook will tell you about managing large amounts of fabric, cording, and possibly even grommetting.

Start with you research. I mean it. Look at some pictures and get a feel for the "look" of elizabethan costume. Then start doodling - try to come up with a design you like. When it comes to the actual sewing, you want to make undergarments first. First corset and chemise, then hoops and bumroll, then and only then can you move on to the fun stuff. The undergarments determine how everything else needs to be fitted.

It's entirely possible that, when you start costuming, you will be so overwhelmed by it all that you won't even know what questions to ask. (I was.) This is a short, and by no means complete, list of things you might want to consider:

• What's my budget? If you can only afford 100$ for the dress, you might want to stay clear of things like, say, velvet or wide fancy metallic trims. Choose a less expensive fabric, and get creative about your trims. For more information, see the costuming on a budget article.
• How much time are you willing to spend on this? Be honest, here. If you can't seem to sit still for more than an hour at a crack, you might want to avoid large embroidery projects
• Do you have to dress yourself? If you left your lady in waiting in you other life, you'll have to make something you can dress yourself in. That generally mean front or front side lacing corsets, and front closing gowns. if you're double jointed, back side lacing is also a possibility. (Trust me - I've done it.)
• Are you willing to wear the proper undergarments? If the idea of a corset wigs you out, then spanish surcoats may be more your style.
• How good is your physical endurance? If you can't handle heat very well, and it's a summer faire, you should limit your fabric selection to 100% natural, "breatheable" fibres. If you have a hard time carrying weight or walking at all, you will probably want to steer towards lighter interlinings and linings.
• How neat are you? The fellow who too first in last year's costume contest at Bristol managed to walk around in the Bristol dust all day and still have perfectly white stockings. I, on the other hand, have learned that I should not make white foreparts because I am forever spilling coffee on them. It's little things that really make a difference in your color choices

I would recommend taking a trip over to Drea's Mail Order Resources page. Many of the merchants listed there sell patterns.

There are a number of reasons. Personally, I hate altering patterns, so I just draft my own. (I'm just not a normal size.) Sometimes, you just cannot get a pattern for what you want. You have much better control over a pattern when you draft it yourself. I started drafting patterns when I started doing costuming. Prior to that point, my sewing skills had been distinctly, erm, limited. It's possible, even for a beginner. (I did not know anyone made patterns for this stuff at the time.)