A Blue Checked Work Shirt

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After spending well over a year on the hamster wheel of house hunting, we finally found something late last year. It was a stressful threeish months: dealing with paperwork and banks; balancing work and packing; and trying to deep clean and pack an un-airconditioned house in July and August. I didn't do any sewing other than a small mend or two for over a month strictly due to having to pack up my sewing space. That time began to stretch as there were other demands on my time (work, increased commute to and from work, continued unpacking, home maintenance and cleaning, decorating, etc). The worst part that was I was unable to find a sewing table. I restored a beautiful enameled 1940s kitchen table that had been in our basement, but after all my hard work, it was just a little too high to be comfortable and the metal top, while sturdier than most of its kind I had encountered, shook when I would run my machine. Starting to go mad without my trusty creative outlet, I decided on some hand sewing. 

Being autumn, I had been in the mood for machine sewing--adding a tweed jacket or a new pair of slacks in a color I'm missing to my everyday vintage wardrobe. However, after pulling out my ditto suit to photograph, I was fully thrown back into the joy of 18th century sewing. I picked up some blue and white check cotton at Needle & Thread and using Burnley & Trowbridge's sew-along, I began making a work shirt. I didn't take many photos of the process, partially because it's not anything new, partially because my brain wasn't even functioning on a level to think about blogging. This post came several months after the shirt was finished, as my energy and focus recovered. 

Little bitty backstitches--proud to see I hadn't lost my handsewing skills in the intervening months.

Do I need a working class men's ensemble to put in my historical costuming trunk? Probably not. But is it fun and a good way to occupy my hands and help me focus as I complete 30+ hours of CEs and additional trainings for my day job? Most definitely. I don't have many specific ideas for what pieces this will be composed of, so I have a good amount of research ahead of me. I hope to be able to compile and relate it for my next post here. This is a much less familiar area of 18th century material culture for me. I'm interested in seeing how much variety there is and how geography and career influence what working class men's clothing looks like. Thankfully, the blue checked shirt appears to be ubiquitous, so I'm off to a good start. 


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