Shirt/ Shift Part Two: Sleeves

Having cut out your pattern pieces, you now start actually making the thing!

The link I gave before gives instructions which you can follow if you like. Mine are roughly the same, just in a slightly different order plus I don't cut any shaping for the neck-hole.

I start with the sleeves.

If you cut the body in one, then fold it in half so the fold lies from shoulder to shoulder and mark the halfway point on each side with a pin (if you put the pin in, out, in and out then it stays better than just putting it in and out once each).
If you cut the body in two pieces, as I have done, then you will need to do a short piece of the seam along the shoulder first. Lay the body-front on top of the body-back. Overlap them slightly so that the back shows for about 1.25 cm or half an inch above the top of the body-front. Pin about 6 inches or 15cm down at each side and in the middle, to hold the pieces in alignment while you work. Now fold over the body-back edge just a bit, about 1/4 inch or just under 1cm. Press the fold firmly with finger and thumb and it will stay (linen is useful stuff!).
Now fold that down on top of the body-front, and pin it through the folded body-back ad the body-front (try not to pin it through all thicknesses to the body-back further down!). Take out the holding-pins if it helps. The folded edge should be about 1/4-1/2 an inch or 1-1.5 cm from the raw edge of the body-front. Sew along the fold. I just use a running stitch. Now turn it inside out and you will see the raw edge of the body-front; fold this under and sew it as above. This can be with a running stitch or with a whip-stitch. I use a running-stitch on the main parts, so what I end up with is a double-line of running-stitch. It's like the seams on a pair of jeans. It's extremely strong which is why running stitch is fine and you don't need back-stitch.
The seam is reversible, looks the same each side, and has no raw edges showing (raw edges are structurally weak).

Sew approx 3" or 7cm of the shoulder-seam and just leave the thread hanging (you'll come back to it later; all you're doing jsut now is making the two body pieces into one so you can put the sleeves in).

Now take the sleeve-piece and fold it in half. If you have it longer than it is wide, check to see which is the lengthways and which is the widthways direction! Fold it lengthways and pinch the fold at the shoulder-end to mark it. Now align that with the shoulder-seam on the body, or with the fold on the body if you cut it in one. Fold over the edge of the body and pin it onto the sleeve as described above. Stitch that, then turn it inside-out and fold under the raw edge and stitch that.

Now repeat for the opposite side. You now have a shirt or shift body with both sleeves sewn on.

Hand sewing for Absolute Beginners

The assumption here is that you have never touched a needle, pin or thread in your life but want to start hand-sewing your new kit!

I'll try to be clear, and to put in everything required but I've been sewing a long time so PLEASE tell me what I've left out or not described properly!

NEEDLES: most needles sold for sewing have ridiculously tiny eyes and it makes it horribly difficult to get the thread through it. Unless you are recreating Elizabeth I's poshest frock's embroidery, then I wouldn't use the needles usually sold for hand sewing or found in Christmas Cracker or hotel-room sewing kits!
Go to a sewing shop, a craft shop, or John Lewis's sewing section and get a packet of larger needles which have sharp points and big eyes. Examples might be "tapestry sharps" (intended for embroidery with wool but hell, who cares!) or "darning needles".

THREAD: If you're going to the effort of hand-sewing your mid-C17th kit, then it makes sense to use linen thread if you can. I'll try and find some links to post for suppliers, as although you can buy it in the shops mentioned under 'Needles', it is very expensive that way and they usually don't sell a colour that goes with unbleached linen.

THREADING THE NEEDLE: Cut an inch off the thread's end to make it nice and even. Hold the thread in your left hand between thumb and forefinger. Hold those two to make a circle, as in the old "OK" sign, so that the thumb-nail and finger-nail are almost in the same plane, nearly touching. Position the thread so you can't actually see it.
Hold the needle in your right hand by the pointy end (I know all the technical terms, me...). Put the eye very near your left thumb/finger. Now slowly straighten out your thumb and forefinger, so they peel apart to reveal the flattened thread just appearig. Place the eye over that and continue to 'peel apart' your left thumb/ finger.
That should work. I'll post some photos when I can!
Once your needle is threaded, cut the other end off the reel. My Gran taught me that one should only ever have thread that is as long as from hand holding the threaded needle down to your elbow. Any longer and it tangles and knots. I've found that she was right... So, pull the free end of thread so that it lies alongside the thread coming from the reel; hold up the needle and cut it off at your elbow-level.

KNOTTING THE THREAD: There are a few ways to do this. I sometimes knot one end, just tying two single reef knots on top of each other and then trimming the end neatly. Other times I anchor the new thread by a backstitch or three, which I'll describe in another section on the actual sewing. Either is fine; really it's just that sometimes I prefer not to have a little hard lump on the wrong side of the sewing, maybe where it would rub on the inside of a collar, or where it would show up on fine needlework.

SINGLE OR DOUBLE THREAD: I usually use a single thread but sometimes for extra strength you may want to use a double thread - if you do, then don't be tempted to make it longer than hand-to-elbow, and it tangles a bit less if you knot each end separately rather than knotting both ends together. Thread can be amazingly spiral at times!
Ian has made a good point in a comment below:
"When you double thread, don't use twice the length and double it over, use two threads running the same way. Makes it harder to thread the needle, but the threads don't spiral up as the twists run in the same direction. Saw this tip in a thread guide from John Lewis!"

I would add that the thread doesn't spiral into a knotted tangle if you wax the thread by pulling it over a piece of beeswax first...

BACKSTITCH: this is two or three stitches made on the same spot through the same holes which serves to anchor the thread like a knot does but without the bump made by a knot. Use whichever you prefer.

STITCHING: in my opinion, almost everything can be made with only one stitch - running stitch.
Anchor your thread (see above for knot/ backstitch).
Push the needle through to the front of the material. Now put it in a short distance away and push it through to the back, pulling the thread through snug, but not so tight it puckers the fabric up. Now put the needle in a short distance from that and bring it through to the front.
Basically all you do is imagine a dotted line - if the needle is on top of the fabric, you move it along the dotted line and push it to the back; if it's at the back, you push it through to the front.

Shirt/ Shift Part One: cutting the pattern

I'm making a new shift so I'm going to try and remember to keep photographing throughout and make a rough guide to making a shirt or shift. There are a few out there already, but I thought I'd just add my tuppenceworth.

This isn't a kind of The Only Way Is This Way method... it's just how I do it. You don't have to look at many surviving examples to work out that there are some things they have in common and some that are one-offs.
Generally speaking, it's usually a better idea in re-enactment to stick with the 'things in common' and avoid the 'one-offs'.

Right, the pattern. This is a combined pattern, largely from the extremely good site http://www.fabrics-store.com/first.php?goto=ec&menu=ec&mn=tm&m=kess_shirforallseason but with a few bits of background from spending much time looking at extant examples, one linen shirt I own and wear which is pre-1800 (no idea how far pre-1800, could be 1640s for all I know! I think it's around 1780-1800 though on probability) and from spending time over Janet Arnold's superb book Patterns of Fashion 4: Linen

The photograph shows the pieces cut or torn and laid out ready to sew. Every pattern-piece for a shirt can be torn along the linen's grain which avoids having to own expensive scissors. In a shift, there is one diagonal line which would need cutting but a sharp knife down a fold will just about do this.

These pattern pieces don't include the "skirt gores", triangular pieces let into the side-seams of the shift. That's because until I've made some of it, I won't know the measurement for those. I'll calculate it and cut it later on.

The body-pieces are 45" long for this as it is a shift. For a shirt I use 35-40" length.

The Pieces:

Body x2 27" wide and as above 35-40" long for a shirt, 45" for a shift. I wear my shifts short - Arnold gives various patterns for shifts which are 50+" in length.

Sleeve x2 24" long and 20" wide. I use the selvedge at the shoulder-seam, so I can put both sleeves in the right way round, rather than one being 24" long and one being 20" long and the same dilemma in width! If your arms are short or you are very bulky, change the dimensions.

Sleeve gussets x2 9" square but if you have a scrap of linen that gives you ones 8" square, that's fine... it's to give the ease of movement without ripping the place where the sleeve-seam, side-seam and two ends of the shoulder-seam join in a crossroads.

Neck gussets x2 these are 3 1/2" square and just fit into the sides of the neck-slit to reinforce an area of stress. Some shirts exist without these and often you can see where it's started splitting along and needed repaired.

Cuffs x2 half the width of the collar (see below) and as long as fits easily round your forearm/ wrist. I adjust them in the making as it is very annoying to have a too-large cuff sliding down over your knuckles. They are folded lengthways in the finished version.

Collar x1 The only piece there is only one of. I cut mine 6" by 17", folded lengthways.



You can see these all laid out in the photo, with the body top-right and the sleeve top-left, and smaller pieces below. I've ironed the fold into the collar and cuffs along the line of the fabric's grain.