Tutorials 2: Drafting a mop cap, drafting a sleeve sloper, Easy man's waistcoat

No Dame is complete without a mop cap at some point in the show!  Here is an easy, how to, of the mop cap;

I cut out two circles 22” across

With wrong sides together I sewed a seam around the edge leaving a gap of around 6” and then gave it to Paul Anka the Cat to approve.

Paul then turned it to the right side and sent me off to press it

When I had done all the hard work, Paul sat up and raised an eyebrow, I took this to mean I had to sew around the circle 3” from the edge and I duly did so...because I didn't want to upset Paul.

 I then made another line of stitches ½” from the first, leaving an inch gap in it.  Paul pointed out it is wise to put this gap adjacent to the original gap of 6” or it becomes very difficult to thread the elastic through. 

  I then threaded the elastic through and showed the cap to Paul.

Paul stuck his nose in the original gap so I realised I needed to sew that up.  Paul does like a bit of lace so I added that on.

Paul refused to model the mop cap and I am very disappointed in him.

Drafting your own sleeve sloper

I don't buy patterns very often as I tend to be able to adapt a basic sloper without much difficulty (an ability I was apparently born with as I certainly never learned it).  As I am working on Minerva’s sleeves I thought I would show you my process on how to change the look of a sleeve from the basic pattern.

First you need to take some measurements; I have included mine as this is the sleeve sloper I will be making;

Bicep (around the upper arm at the widest point) – 14”

Arm length (this is from the point where you will be joining your sleeve to your garment to your wrist with BENT arm) – 25”

Wrist (I’m sure you don’t need to be told where that is!) – 7”

Underarm (to put it bluntly, armpit to wrist, or where your garment will be under your arm) – 17”

Your bent elbow (make sure your tape measure goes around the elbow bone into the crease where your arm is bent) – 11”

Shoulder to elbow (BENT arm) – 14”

You will now need your piece of paper, I use left over wrapping paper for most of my patterns but brown paper or proper pattern paper would be far better, I just like to save money where I can!

Now to draw out the pattern;

The first line you draw is the arm length (AL, pink line) straight down the middle of your paper, then draw your underarm (UA, purple line) measurement, starting at the WRIST end of your AL line.

At the point your underarm measurement ends draw a horizontal line across with the bicep (B, green line) measurement (in my case this was 7” on either side of the line).

 Measure down your AL (from the top) with the shoulder to elbow measurement (SE) and mark this point.  Then draw a horizontal line from this point with your elbow (E, dark blue line) measurement (I drew 5 ½ “ either side of the SE point)

Draw your wrist line (WL, brown line)at the bottom of your AL (mine was 3 ½ “ either side of the AL).

 Then draw around the outside connecting all your lines to form your sleeve shape. You need to form a curved line from B up to the top of AL and back down to the other side, this makes the shape that fits into your armscye.

 This should now be the perfect size for your arm, but not for a pattern!  You will need to add one inch to both sides of the wrist, elbow and bicep lines and I have added around ½ “ to the curved top of my pattern.  I then added a further ½ “ all the way round as my seam allowance (I have drawn a broken black line for a bit to show where this is).

And there you have your sleeve sloper, which is where I start to play to form my own sleeve patterns any way I want them to be! Always keep a copy of this and you can play around to your hearts content as I will show you another time.

For Minerva I need to add more to the curved top of the sleeve  so that the sleeve top is raised enough.  I will also only be taking the sleeve down to the elbow line as I will be adding in the medieval style hanging oversleeve.

Easy Man's waistcoat from a rectangle

This tutorial is for a very basic man’s waistcoat which is quick and easy for male members of the chorus when you aren't too bothered about details or fit!

I intend to make this adjustable by adding lacings at the sides, therefore I am making it a nice large 48” chest which I hope to reduce to around 40” with the lacing, but we shall see at the end how that works out.

To start with I have this rather nifty old piece of crimplene. I didn’t even know you could still get crimplene but this was donated and I don't turn down donated fabric as I can usually find a use for it, (apparently Microsoft Word doesn't think you can still get crimplene either as I am getting that lovely red line appear underneath each time I type the word ).

I have cut the fabric to a length of 32” and have discovered I have enough for two waistcoats which makes the costumier in me happy.

I then half the chest measurement (in this case to 24”) and add 1“ to each side for overlap.  The half measurement is 25” which I measure from the centre fold and cut the fabric to size.

I then fold the edges over to the centre back with an overlap of the 1” each side added to the previous measurement (A).

Find the centre back seam and measure 3.5” to each side and make a mark (B).

Measure 2.5” down the folded sides and mark (C).  Measure 10.5” down the folded sides and mark (D).

Cut a straight line from (C) side marks up to the nearest of the centre marks (B), this forms the shoulder shaping.

Now measure 5” from the centre marks (B) and make a mark (E), this is where the top of your armscye will be.   

The bottom of your armscye is the 10.5” mark you made earlier (D), cut a curved line from the (E) to the (D) and then use this piece as your pattern for the other side to ensure size and shaping match (if you are unsure of the shaping take any pattern you have and use their arm shaping as there is no need for exact shape and size for this waistcoat).

Cut a semi-circle from the centre back marks for the neck shaping.

Sew the shoulder seams.

When it is placed on the dummy you can see that you can either keep the front neck edge as it is to form a lapel or cut away (as I will do) to form a round neck version.

I then put my centre front edges together and measure down 2”, cut from this to the shoulder seams  to make the front neck edge lower.

You now have your basic waistcoat shape ready for personalisation!

Ok, so it's not that pretty but this is where your imagination takes over.

Stand collar tutorial

One of the options to change the look of your basic waistcoat is to add a collar and I find a stand collar the quickest and easiest to do, as well as it looking very effective in a fairy tale pantomime.

First of all you need to mark the points you want your collar to fit to, in my case it is at the inch I added for the overlap when first measuring out the width of the waistcoat. 

Then measure around the neckline (for me it is 17”) and add seam allowance (I added ½” each side making a total of 18”).  Cut a strip 18” (or whatever your final measurement is)  by 5” and fold in half widthways, my final measurements are 18” by 2.5”.

If you want a shaped collar then measure in ½” on the folded length, cut from the corner of the edges to the mark on the fold.  Sew the ends together. Turn right way.

Mark the centre of the collar and the centre back of the neckline. 

 Match these two marks right sides together and pin the collar to the neckline (just the one layer !) and sew this into place.

Flip the collar over and pin the second layer to the inside of the neckline taking in all the edges for a neater finish. 

I then stitch in a ditch from the outside taking in the seam on the inside although this could be done by hand if you want it to look really neat and tidy. 

and this is what I ended up with:

Sadly I work on the assumption that if the audience cant see it then it doesn't matter and stand at least 15’ away to see if things need neatening up!  The inside of a collar is definitely not noticeable from that distance.

Epaulette/capped sleeve

Another quick and easy fix to change the look of your waistcoat is the epaulette or capped sleeve, these were particularly popular in the 16th and 17th centuries and add a certain historic look to your costume.

To start with you take the sleeve block and measure from the top down 3" and draw a line across, you end up with a pattern piece that looks like this:

You will need to cut four of these then sew together two on the straight edge.
The procedure for adding these is the same as the collar.  Pin and stitch the curved edge to the top of the armscye.

Flip over the sleeve and pin to the inside of the armscye covering the edges and pin into place.

Sew into place and you have the finished epaulette ready for prettying up!