Sharp eyes may have caught this up for preorder already, but for everyone else: I have a new book coming in April! The lovely folks at FanPowered Press saw fit to indulge my interest in glovemaking, as part of their impressive and growing library of cosplay craft books. The market for cosplay crafting content has changed a huge amount since my first book came out five years ago, and many excellent creators have been venturing into the realm of print. So this was a wonderful opportunity to dig in on one of my favorite topics instead of feeling like I had to cover a bit of everything, because I’m in great company these days.
Glovemaking is a fun topic because although it’s a very specialized crafting niche, it’s one that touches nearly every cosplay genre. Superhero comics, historical epics, magical girl shows, high fantasy, and science fiction all feature interesting and specific handwear. I tried to include a little something for everyone in this book, which uses a couple of basic patterns (plus more that you can draft yourself) to create nine totally different looks, ranging from a simple ruffled cuff to a full armored gauntlet. I expect that all the cosplayers out there will immediately strip these projects down to their component parts and run away to make something completely different with them, which is one of the most magical things about cosplay and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
In addition to the projects, I poured in as much information as I could fit about glovemaking materials, hand and machine sewing techniques, useful embellishment methods, fitting and working with glove patterns, and more. There are tips for seamlessly incorporating gloves into bodysuits, for working with tiny pieces and tinier seam allowances, and adding straps and hardware details to your creations. So even if you don’t feel like diving into the full gusseted glove experience just now, I hope you’ll still find plenty of material that’s interesting and relevant to your own projects.
The brilliant Neil Bonabon did the photography for the cover and interior project photos, so I can crow about how beautiful they are because that’s the one bit I didn’t do myself. He’s added elegance and drama to this ambitious little craft book, and I hope you’ll find it as inspiring as I do.
The Handwear Handbook will be available April 25th, and can be preordered now at your local independent bookstore or your favorite online retailer!
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Bookshop • IndieBound • Powell’s
]]>
Briefly: this beast is less than a month away. Can’t quite believe it, to be honest! It’s been a long, exhausting process of scraping all the useful sewing facts and techniques out of the weird corners of my brain, and I hope people take all this good stuff and run with it. Go make something rad!
]]>
I’ve done a couple projects with rayon velvet in the past several months – first the Ezio tailcoat lining, and later a kimono jacket that I made for a Christmas present – and sometimes I could swear that fabric is possessed. It likes to creep when you try to mash two layers together at the seams, with the result that the upper layer scoots in one direction while the lower makes a break for it in the other. Basting is more or less mandatory, but even holding the fabric still while you thrash it into submission with hand stitches can be challenging—and then it still creeps, because hand stitches don’t flatten the pile the way machine stitches do. And of course you can’t press the stuff properly unless you shell out $$$ for a needle board to protect the pile. (Yeah, I’m a jerk and haven’t gotten around to buying one. If this means I have to spend hours understitching things by hand then WHOOPS OH WELL SO SAD.)
Mind you, I still love the hell out of the final results. It’s soft and fluid in a way I’ve never gotten from synthetic velvets, you can do interesting stamping and embossing things, it weathers beautifully, and the pile and drape make it pretty forgiving of wobbly seams. Besides, I’ve already stashed away about six yards for a pirate coat I’ve been contemplating, and I’m trying to be better about not buying a lot of fabric I’ll never get around to using. I really want to try combining velvet and embroidery, and have been going on 18th-century court costume pinning sprees. Yeah, I totally have time to do something like that!
I also recently scored an intensely cool book to help me out on my next velvet project. This was a birthday present from my folks, and there’s a bit of a funny story attached. There’s a little junk shop around the corner from my parents’ house, and my mom has picked up quite a few weird knicknacks and relics there. We’ve popped in there many times during my visits home, just to paw through buckets of antique handkerchiefs, rifle the vintage patterns and postcards, and linger over weird costume jewelry. So one day my mom was walking by this little gold mine and the proprietor ran after her saying “Oh my god, you have to come in and see this book!” Needless to say, it found its way into my hands shortly thereafter.
As the title indicates, this is a book all about velvet, velveteen, and corduroy. It must have been mad expensive to print, because it’s got two different page sizes, several dozen swatches, and rockin’ illustrations (including full-color photos).
Pile Fabric Primer title page – you can see the swatches are attached to larger pages interleaved with the small text pages
Possibly the coolest spread in the book – swatches of corduroy, velveteen, and velvet from each stage of manufacturing, to illustrate the different processes
The book is illustrated with rad engravings
And also weird atmospheric photographs
The copyright date is 1970, and it’s in great shape – the pile is a little crushed on some of the swatches, as one might expect from a book that’s been crammed onto a shelf for god knows how long, but only one was missing.
I went ahead and dug around in my parents’ basement for an appropriately aged swatch of corduroy to replace it. I can’t vouch for the exact vintage of the scrap I dug up, and the color doesn’t quite match the Harvest Gold extravaganza in the rest of the book, but I think it’s in the right ballpark.
Most of the book is about the history and manufacturing of these fabrics, but it’s got a pretty solid chapter on sewing and garment care at the end.
A pretty amazing find, all in all. Thanks, Mom!