This is a little collection of tricks I’m learning as I do mine and my husband’s cotes.  I’ll probably be adding to it as we go along.

Fabric needed for Greet’s versatile gown: 5 yards, 60" wide.
Fabric needed for Daan’s cote: 2 yards, 60" wide.

FITTING SOMEONE ELSE, MALE

• Pin the four panels on them, starting with the shoulders, and overlapping Enough at the center.
• You might need a gore at the center back (Daan needs a back gore 12" wide at hem).
• After the whole thing is pinned, use chalk (I like schoolboard chalk better than tailor’s) to draw the sewing lines while it’s still on the body.  Draw both sides of the seam.  Crosshatch where the ends of seams are – the ends of the side seams, the gore point, etc.  Don’t forget the armseye – right up into the armpit.
• Unpin the front, and take it straight to the sewing machine.  Baste on the chalk line.  Use a small stitch at the beginning of seams and the longest one you have for the bulk of the distances – you’re going to be taking this out.  Now’s a good time to use up all those colors you never use anymore and can’t remember buying (they must have been mom’s).

GENERAL TIPS:

• 30 handsewn buttonholes take 2 days.  Don’t expect to do much else.  Two strands of embroidery floss look clumsy, one is better.  Stitch in every pick space – sometimes twice.  Use magnifying spectacles and good light.  (I dread the sleeves – perhaps we’re not that fashionable yet.)
• Stay-stitch, with regular sized stitch, the neckline shape, finished line, BEFORE you cut it out.  (The neck wonkiness shown here is because I forgot this basic mundane tip – it’s been oh, a decade since I made a dress.)
• Use tabby silk ribbon (check an embroidery store, white might have to be dyed) for a neck or armhole facing, per Crowfoot (London) pg 158.

FITTING YOURSELF, FEMALE

• Baste a zipper into the centerfront seam for fitting purposes.
• Set the points of the gores 1/2" higher than you think they ought to be.  (You should see the wriggling that goes on to get out of this dress, even WITH the zipper.)
• My hem circumference is 7 yards.  Right.
• Stab stitch is apparently named because you will stab your left thumb in the cuticle every other stitch.  But it does go faster than running stitch.  Must figure out how to sew without thumbs.

(NB: I am really loving the GFD.  I like the way it looks on me, I like how it goes together.  I’m thinking about actually designing a mundane work blouse based on the torso of a GFD.  However, it will have a permanent zipper and snap tape on the cuffs.  And it probably won’t get finished until next winter.  Oh well.)