My barony is hosting Coronation in October, so after finishing my first pair of socks, I decided to make a new dress. I had some beautiful wool twill fabric of a color which can be made by natural dyes. I based the design of the dress on one I had made previously which fits me very well. That dress has rectangular sleeves, gathered at the wrist. I wanted the new dress to have tapered sleeves. My first problem was that I cut all four gores the same length, forgetting that the side gores are longer. So, I re-cut. That meant I had to cut one sleeve with the grain and one across the grain, in order to fit the pieces on the fabric. Well, not the end of the world, and I'm sure it has happened to someone before. Then, when I assembled the dress, I discovered that the sleeves were too tight. I had forgotten that tapering changes the dimensions at the upper arm as well as at the wrist. I had to take the sleeve apart and add larger gussets. If I had only checked my measurements first!
I decided that since I was using wool fabric I would spin my own sewing thread. I love sewing with my own thread, but there are a few tricks to it.
- Because dress fabric is usually densely woven, it is important to spin and ply with a high twist so that the thread will withstand being repeatedly pulled through the fabric. Period sewing thread is approximately 1 millimeter in diameter, plied. To make thread this size means spinning the thread tightly at 72 wraps per inch (28-30 wraps per centimeter). This is much finer than crewel thread.
- Discard any pieces of thread that have pills or flaws. This thread is quickly damaged by sewing; it is a waste of time to try to use it.
- Keep your pieces of thread 12-15 inches long for best results. Too long, and they will break from abrasion.
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