As I put the finishing touches on my round gown, I was ready to dive headfirst back in to the 18th century. There's something addicting about the peacefulness hand sewing brings me. I wasn't quite ready to tackle my Francaise yet--there are a lot of things that need done first, including remaking my dressmaker's mannequin. Instead, I thought I'd take a rather sharp fork in the road and head the opposite direction, taking a gander at menswear. When my husband was considering joining in on the early American costuming shenanigans a couple of years ago, I had made him a checked linen shirt. However, we never got much further than that, and his historical interests are considerably more modern. I still wanted to try my hand at menswear, but I didn't want to force him into it either, so I decided that I should work with what I had: me!
I don't see many women in the historical costuming community making menswear. Perhaps its because few of our men share our interest enough to get dressed up, or because elaborate gowns are more fun, or perhaps those makes just doesn't get shared on social media as often. It doesn't really matter; these musings are more of just a preface to giving an explanation for this project. My reason for "bucking the trend" as it were is purely skills-related. I feel confident with what I have achieved in dressmaking for the moment and would like to test my skills with something related but different. I've heard frightening things about breeches-making, so obviously I must see how bad it can be.
The first step in a suit of clothes, just like with a gown, is the undergarments. For menswear, that would be a shirt for myself. I chose a crisp white linen from my local fabric store and used Burnley & Trowbridge's sew along, since I'm familiar with it, having used their pattern and tutorial for my husband's shirt. Below are a few of the progress photos.
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Teeny tiny cuff topstitching
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Cuff attached to sleeve
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Neck gusset with topstitching
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Collar pinned to body
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The collar, above, is where I almost broke down and grabbed my machine. After securing the collar completely with careful, fine hand stitching, I tried my shirt on. One look in the mirror showed me that I had forgotten my own no.1 pitfall when resizing menswear: I have a very skinny neck. I had to completely remove the collar, cut it down, re-gather the neckline, and attach. I refuse to consider how much time I wasted by forgetting a fit item I already knew well enough about. Because of the setback with the collar, I did use the sewing machine to gather my sleeves. I enjoy hand sewing, but the gathers were bringing me no joy (in part because I was also finishing the tucker and engageantes for my round gown simultaneously to this). I ran my two rows of gathering stitches for each sleeve on my 1946 Singer Spartan and then picked my thimble back up.
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Sleeve gathers going on.
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I say I picked my thimble right back up, but there was a bit of a gap (roughly six weeks if we're being honest). I spent November focused on whittling down my unfinished project and mending piles, a necessary task. I also struggled to feel motivated in regard to this project. My internship is an unpaid one, and that means I'm not making money to spend on fun projects. Without the ability to purchase fabric for the subsequent parts of the project, I didn't feel terribly motivated to finish this part. However, the hand sewing bug bit me hard just before Christmas, and I picked the needle back up again.
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Armscye reinforcement rather roughly sewn on
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| Hemming! |
To finish off, I decided to make my own thread buttons. Because I tend to do a bit better with reading instructions rather than watching a video, I followed this tutorial from Fabric & Fiction. I was intimidated at the concept, but when I actually sat down to do it, it wasn't too difficult at all! I whipped up the necessary six buttons in about an hour, and then got down to buttonholes. I don't love doing buttonholes by hand, and am woefully out of practice (I owe this to my sewing machine; no regrets). However, just like riding a bicycle, the knack came back to me in no time.
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Sleeve buttons and buttonholes completed
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The finished product!
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Now that the shirt is finished, I'll be moving on to the next step in the process: drafting the suit.
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