Last fall, right before I hit the wall sewing wise I’d taken on one of my rare commissions (I don’t usually sew for others unless its totally on my terms).
But when my wonderful dancing master Sievert asked me if I could help him update his historical shirts I couldn’t say no.
He needed both a new medieval and a new regency shirt to use on our dance recitals.
So I got some nice cotton (I know linnen would be more accurate but I was to make them on machine anyway. And they needed to be easy to wash and care for), made some quick pattern calculations and cut the rectangles needed for both the shirts.
Then I stopped, put my head in the sand and closed my eyes to everything sewing/historical (because pregnancy can do that to you)
More then 10 months later (after the birth of my son, and then some), I was once more ready to tackle the shamefully late commission.
So after one intense week of sewing in between feedings, I managed to sew and deliver both shirts.
The process went pretty fast and straight forward except one little hiccup –
While putting the last hand on and pressing the Medievals shirt I noticed the seam allowance on the outside on one of the sleeves.
Meaning i’ve put it in inside out.
Crap!
So it was on to un-picking the french felled seam (with hand finishing:-( )
I then turned the sleeve outside- in and re-attached it, pressed and once more used tiny hand stitches to fell the seam.
There done!
Or, wait a second…
NOOOOoooo!!!
I done the exact same mistake AGAIN!
Some of you might remember that I’ve done this before (on my Borgia chemise les then a month before).
How is it even possible that I didn’t learn?
By now I tossed the damned thing into the corner and went to sleep, debating with myself if I could leave it like that.
Of course I couldn’t – It was a commission piece after all.
So bring back the seam ripper.
The only trouble was that these folded french seams needs really small seam allowance to look good, and the only way to achieve that is by trimming it after you stitched the first seam. This practice, and the fact I’ve done it wrong not one, but twice, meant that I cut of about 1,5 cm on the left shoulder compared to the right. Making the whole garment a bit of.
Once the sleeve was re-set, a third time, I quickly finished and packed the shirt away, out of sight.
The finished medieval shirt:
The final result after all the re-stitching.
Sleeve with ties
Then it was time to get cracking on the Regency shirt.
This time I didn’t do the same mistake (Hurray!), and the shirt was finished in a few days.
The finished Regency shirt: 
Metal buttons on a standing collar.
The two shirts now at their new home.
Lets hope he gets a lot of wear out of them.
Fashion Through Herstory 