Where to start? Part III
by Cookster on Mar.28, 2009, under Basic Sewing, Blog Shorts
Wow! Where did the last two weeks go? So much for those daily blogs on Blog Shorts! Sorry folks, I just got slammed with all kinds of financial and health issues that needed to be taken care of and unfortunately I had to temporarily sacrifice a new blog or two on Kitchen Costuming. Oh well, life happens…so now I can get back on track.
How do you know when to hand stitch versus sewing with a sewing machine?
This is an interesting question because it really depends on what resources you have, the look you are going for, and whether it is easier to sew by hand or machine. Even if you have a sewing machine available to you, it might not be the way to go. For example: the gloves I made for AZspidey’s joker costume were sewn by hand. The material was vinyl which is difficult to feed through the sewing machine. There were also a lot of small turns in the movement of the article as you are sewing which makes neat stitching difficult. Sewing by hand is always more time consuming, but necessary if you want to have a desired effect. Some of the newer sewing machines won’t sew through heavy thicknesses of fabric or leather, in which case you may have to sew parts of the piece by hand.
If you are a filmmaker and are making a pirate movie (for example), you wouldn’t want your costumes to look machine sewn. That doesn’t mean everything has to be sewn by hand, but you might want to do any noticeable stitching that way. With the introduction of high definition technology, more details will be noticed on film that didn’t used to be. That includes the making of accurate looking props too (and costumes would be included as props).
March 29th, 2009 on 12:42 pm
Hi Cookster,
I am not a costumer, but as a film maker I find your articles interesting.
Keep up the good work
David
March 29th, 2009 on 2:19 pm
I am not a costumer either, more like a seamstress who has made a few costumes. Thanks for the nice comment, though!
September 3rd, 2009 on 8:57 am
Funny how as a begining costumerer I’ve never thought about this issue of hand verses machine. I do hate it when I go see a movie set in the 1800’s and I see their zipper in the back of their dresses! I’m going to keep this in mind as I start the next round of costumes for this Halloween. I’ll try to get the pictures of my daughter’s Zelda costume I made last year. Arghhhhh . . . that armor was a trip! LOLO
Love your stuff gal . . . Sarah
September 3rd, 2009 on 9:43 am
I guess as an amateur costumer it depends on what a stickler one is for detail. Movies are one thing, costumes for Halloween is another. Of course my son and some of his friends are just plain anal retentive.