Wedding Costumes, Part 1

For those that don't know, one of my bestest friends in the entire known universe is getting married in April.... to my ex-husband.  Okay, most people would be really ticked off at this, but not me.  Not only will I be there with bells on (literally), but I will also be officiating.  And who will be my date, you may ask???  Silly people!  Her ex-husband, of course!  (He's otherwise known as my fiancé.)

The wedding has been postponed more times than.... well... I can't think of an appropriate analogy, but it's been postponed a lot.  At least 5 times, maybe more.  This time, however, it's almost set in concrete in the sense that nothing is ever really set until it happens.  But everything feels right about this date so we're all pretty sure it's happening this time.

Because this wedding will be a costumed affair I am in the process of making the costumes for my fiancé and me.  In looking for a suitable costume for my DF I looked for something that would not be too terribly outrageous and for something that would be comfortable.  I mean if one is going to all the trouble of making a costume for someone else one should make sure the person will be able to have an enjoyable time while they wear the costume.  One doesn't want one's hard work relegated to the back of the closet like some tacky bridesmaids dress. Right?

So this is the costume I found for my DF.  It's this pattern, the Ottoman Turkish Man #405, I found at the Reconstructing History website.  It's a great site with lots of historic patterns you won't find anywhere else.  This pattern has all the clothing elements.  I'll just have to get another one of their patterns for the turban.  As for the shoes, that's another story.  I'll have to search for those.  And sizing may be a problem because DF does not know his shoe size.  Wha???  What's up with that??  Every other man I know knows his shoe size, but not DF.  But then again he doesn't know what size clothing he wears either.  The man's a certified genus when it comes to mathematics and D&D type gaming, but when it comes to practical matters he's not all that swift.  But you gotta love him because he is so lovable.

But I digress.  I had been putting things off long enough; it was time to start working on DF's costume.  Sunday I started tracing the pieces onto pattern paper.  Because the pattern itself has multi-sized pieces as well as some that have several different cutting lines, it was much easier to just copy all the pieces out in the proper size and in the proper shapes so that I could reuse the pattern for someone else of a different in the future.

You can see the multiple markings in these pictures for the Şalvar or pants.  The ones at left are for the waist measurements.  It took me a bit to realize they were for the waist and not overall size.  Şalvar are a loose fitting garment at the waist and thighs then taper down to a fitted ankle.  Traditionally they are held up with a drawstring at the waist, but I'm going to include elastic, too.  I love the comfort of elastic in the waistband, but I still prefer to have that added insurance of the drawstring to make sure my skirts stay up.  And no, the Ottoman Turks did not wear "harem pants," those didn't come around until much later in Turkish history.

The picture on the right shows 3 different cutting lines
for the Şalvar; every day, formal, and ceremonial. It's kind of hard to tell which line is which.  The dashed line farthest to right is the one for everyday wear, the other dashed line to the left is for ceremonial wear, and the solid line in the middle is for formal wear.  DF & I decided that the formal wear would be most appropriate.  I didn't take a picture of the bottom of the leg, but the formal style doesn't bag as much at the ankle.  I'll still have to figure out how to get the bottom to be snug to his ankle, but I have a little time for now. I'm thinking fabric buttons and thin black elastic loops but I'm going to have to mull it over for a while.

The costumes I'm making is a style from the 16th century.  Like I said I copied the patterns to make them easier to use. This is a not very good picture of my pattern piece for the Şalvar pinned onto the fabric.  Since it was all straight lines it wasn't too difficult to trace.  All I had to do was mark the points of each angle, position my straight edge at the marks, hold down the straight edge so it wouldn't move, and draw.

When drawing patterns, I like to use mechanical pencils.  This is because the width of the pencil mark is always the same.  I find using a wooden pencil that needs to be sharpened causes varying widths of line as the pencil is worn down.  Wide lines can add extra fabric to the piece being cut.  A variance of only 1/8th of an inch may not seem like a lot, but add that to seven other fabric edges and you will have added a 1-inch to a garment with only 4 seams.  So when I draw patterns I do so with my straight edge facing the outer edge of the pattern so that pencil line is on the outside of the pattern.  This way I cut along the edge of the pattern when I cut them out and I know I won't have any variances when cutting the fabric.

Speaking of fabric.  I found this gorgeous olive green cotton damask decorating fabric at my local Hancock Fabrics  for only $7 a yard.  It's upholstery fabric so it's heavy enough to wear as pants yet still light weight enough to keep my DF from sweating his fanny off (something I have to keep in mind because he perspires more than my ex ever did).  Yes, the damask pattern is of flowers, and no, DF doesn't care.  He's not to terribly concerned about what the macho guys would consider girly stuff.  And having a flowered damask fabric for pants would have those type of guys running screaming for the nearest sports bar or man cave to get their manly mojo back.  My DF is secure enough in who he is to let me put him in almost anything.  So far I think he's only drawn the line at wool, but I could be wrong.

So now I have the Şalvar cut out.  At the moment they are waiting for a turn at the serger because this fabric ravels like crazy.  You can kind of see some raveling along the bottom edge. 

As you can probably see, this fabric had an obvious direction because of the damask pattern so I could not just fold the fabric in half and cut both legs at the same time.  Nope, I had to cut each individually, though when I cut out the first leg I put it on top of the fabric to be cut and pinned them all together.  This way when I cut out the second leg I could be sure they matched.  There have been times when I did not pin the pieces like I did and ended up with one piece cut wrong.  But that was many years ago.  This is part of the reason I will only do cutting and sewing when I'm fully rested and wide awake.

I just realized that I could have cut the length of fabric needed for one leg, stacked it on the rest of the fabric and then I could have cut them at the same time.  What was that I said about being rested and awake??  I'm tired, about to go to bed, and now I think of that?!?!  Oh, well.

Next is the serger, then I put them together and figure out the hem and waistband.  To put an extra bit of fabric at the waist for the elastic and drawstring or not?  That is the question.  And so the adventure continues.  Alla prossima!!