Sew Historically: First of all, I hate making mockups! 😉 But they’re essential for a good fit of the garment. I usually have to make more than one mockup before I’m finally satisfied with the fit: especially for form-fitting garments like corsets and tailored garments like jackets.
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Making a mockup is one of the most difficult things for me to wrap my head around as a costume designer. Following a pattern is easy enough—you’re given perfectly-sized pieces to cut and instructions on how to sew them together. Draping is a little more difficult, but it usually is pretty forgiving unless you’re working with difficult fabric or a tight fit. But, in order to make a successful mockup, you have to go through rounds and rounds of revision before you have a finished product. Being able to take a three-dimensional shape and split it into two-dimensional sections is a lot more difficult than it sounds! Although it isn’t usually the designer who is doing the patternmaking and mockups for their designs, I think it’s still important that they have an understanding of how it works. If you grasp mockups, you can have a lot more productive conversations with the tailor/seamstress who is making your costume.
I have often seen muslin mockups of costumes in many different settings. Sometimes it's been my sisters, my friends cosplays or other theatre shows and have always wondered how they were made. It was not something at the top of my research list but when I saw this article I jumped at the chance to read it. It was interesting to read about how to make one and then to read about the different fabrics and their substitutes when making a mockup. As someone who has never really done anything with costumes, I have always wondered what all goes into it. When it came to the fitting sections I was surprised to learn that it is adjusted by just cutting the fabric and adding another piece. It seems like a basic solution but for whatever reason I had never thought of it like that, I got the idea of taking it in but for whatever reason just had not thought that deeply about it needing to go bigger.
I thought it was funny that the author acknowledges she hates making mockups at the beginning of the article; me too! As someone who makes custom patterns a lot, mockups are a frustratingly important part of the process. I often find myself wanting to cut corners and not make one, because putting one together can sometimes feel like such a waste of time and resources. If I have 20 other costumes to alter and barely a couple yards of scrap fabric, do I really have the time and ability to functionally sew a whole new garment just to make sure it fits properly? The answer is always yes, because you have to. Despite how hard I try to convince myself otherwise, making a mockup will ALWAYS save so much more time and resources than if I just sat down and fully constructed an ill fitting garment. If the planning stars align and a lot of people are wearing garments with the same pattern base, I can use just one mockup with color-coded markings which always makes me begrudgingly admit the value of them. One aspect that is unfortunately frustrating no matter what you do, is the fact that the cheaper fabrics used for mockups often struggle to mimic the exact qualities of the final fabric you use. Mock-ups will help prevent a lot of mistakes, but issues with the final fabric itself, like stretch or stiffness, still pop up.
I’ve always struggled with making mockups for my sewing projects. I usually get fabric for free from various sources so I haven’t felt the need to create a test piece out of cheap fabric. This article has enlightened me as to how useful mockups can be when you need to make alterations during the sewing process. I might try to make a mockup for my next project especially if it is a form-fitting garment. I have never made a mockup before and I feel that I would have had an easier time with my past projects with them. I didn’t know that mockups are usually made with the seams facing outward, but that makes a lot of sense to me now that I know how to properly use one. I often use knit and upholstery fabric for my garments straying from fabrics with stretch, this will probably be easier to find a mockup fabric for because it is easy to find cheap tablecloths and curtains to use for fabric.
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