1860's Civilian Men's Shirt

A while back I had a gentleman commission this shirt....

I used pima cotton for the first time ever. One of the most fabulous materials I've ever worked with. Perfect weave and incredibly smooth! I was able to find the best price with an eBay seller - who unfortunately no longer offers this product. :( It is available for just a tad more here at fabric.com.

Made in the same fashion as mentioned here.

I sewed the majority of this one by machine. I always do buttonholes, gathering threads, and other finishing touches by hand tho...

China buttons from my secret "supplier".

 Very lightly gathered back. 

Buttonholes - not my favorite part of mid-century sewing. ;)

 

I am still chugging along on the biggest 'commission' I've ever taken on in my sewing career...An overload of pictures will come around sometime in September.. ;)

 

Love,

Brooke

Beginnings in Haberdashery

We've recently begun to venture into the "dangerous" world of men's clothing. Actually I quite like it - everything is, for the most part, straight forward and simple. Not nearly as fiddly as women's clothing.

 It all started out with a simple cravat for our friend Chris' birthday.

I really had no clue where to start. Thankfully I can usually count on The Sewing Academy to help me out with problems like these. This thread in particular enlightened me quite a bit. I had little time to do much more digging so we decided to wing it. Michelle donated a strip of her gorgeous, teal, silk taffeta to the cause (from the great fabric.com sale a couple years back). :) And this is what we whipped up. He seemed to like it quite alot so we're counting it as a win. ;)

Shortly after our friend, Dave, commissioned a civilian shirt and 2 cravats.

For the shirt I started off with Laughing Moon #107 as a base. I made several modifications tho -most of which are listed in this post. I squared the bottom and left the side seam open about 4 inches. Then finished it with a simple hem. When I put the front placket in I simply cut the pointed end off and made it squared instead. For the placket on the sleeves I used the seam rather then cutting a slit for a separate one. Also on the back I gathered it to the yoke all the way across rather then just on the edges like the instructions say to. Had the lengthen the sleeves a bit too...  

I wish I'd had some bigger china buttons, but these are what I had on hand and I have such a hard time finding good ones that match. :-/ 

It was about 95% hand sewn. I find myself liking hand sewing more and more every time I do it... :)

 

In the meantime my good friend, Jasper, educated me more on cravats. He's extremely well versed on men's clothing and never ceases to be really helpful. :)

 I order some silk from Fabrics & Trims. The green I received - I ended up not using, but who doesn't like have some extra taffeta laying around. ;) The shot burgundy/black on the other hand was so lovely and worked out wonderfully. A kind lady sent me the perfect dark green for the other one. We all, immediately fell in love with it and wanted dresses out of it - so crisp and such a deep, rich color. Much to our disappointment there was only a enough for a few cravats. ;D The fun thing about cravats is that there is very few limits. So we have fun experimenting with all the different tips and options. I've been trying to remember how to tie them several ways. Its not as easy as it looks. lol

We're currently studying up on waistcoats - I've been told they are worse to make then jackets so I'm eager to see how it works out. :) Might also try our hands at pre-tied cravats - that shouldn't be to difficult since we make our selves pre-tied bows fairly often.

Love,
Brooke

Modern blouse for Megan

I started this blouse last year for Megan's birthday. I got it part of the way done and wasn't pleased with how it was fitting. So I threw it into pile set it as side to finish some other time. The months slowly ticked by and Megan's birthday came and went again this past March. At the time I new I wanted to go a head and finish it for her, but between work and drivers ed. I didn't have any spare time. All that was left was constructing and setting the sleeves, buttons/buttonholes, and hemming the bottom. So, at last, I finished it!!

I used Simplicity 2501. Its a very straight forward pattern. Very simple to use and I understood the instructions perfectly. A nice accomplishment for someone such as myself. I usually just make up my own... :S :P I love the stand up collar and ties.

The only thing I don't really like about the pattern is the fact that it has bust darts (not sure what the technical name for them is? :-/). I can never seem to get them to lay right. The fabric is a plaid-like homespun that's been laying around for years. It was actually very nice to work with and is very soft, un-like some other homespuns. Thankfully I was able to find 9 matching buttons in our button collection. lol I was surprised to see how many we'd used since I last dug threw them.

As you can see it still doesn't fit to greatly, but maybe someday she'll grow into it. ;)

The back also has 2 darts, but they actually turned out pretty nicely so the don't really show. :)

I love the sleeves. There like cute little puff ones, but only have 2 box pleats on top and 1 on the bottom instead of a bunch of gathers.
Thanks so much for visiting. I've been spending alot of time in the sewing room and I'll have some things to show you soon. So don't be a stranger. ;)

Love,
Brooke