On Christmas day I decided that the best way to spend the rest of my holiday break would be to completely hand sew a linen shirt/dress based off of mens shirts from the 18th and 19th centuries (also called pirate shirts). I got this idea from Bernadette Banner, since she has a video with a step by step guide on making one of these, and I have been interested in making myself one for ages.
I got 3 meters of this beautiful coral linen through a local shop called Rick Rack Textiles and immediately got started!
What I find absolutely fascinating with these types of shirts is how they are drafted. Like 18th century shifts for women, they are made entirely out of rectangles and squares. This makes sure that you don't have any waste whatsoever after cutting out, and you can use very little fabric to make one. I started with drawing the thread to create a template for cutting out. Since linen is infamously wriggly on the cutting board, I decided to follow Bernadette Banner's advice and draw a single thread at the measurements that I should be cutting to ensure that the rectangles and squares were exactly on the grain. If they are off grain too much, wearing and washing the garment would make it pull and do strange things, and it would not last nearly as long as I would like it to. Once the threads were pulled along the lines that I needed to cut on, I cut the shapes out with embroidery scissors to ensure that I was following perfectly along the grain. This step took about 12 hours, and I watched the entire mini series of Ripper on Netflix, as well as many episodes of Modern Family.
Next, I decided to put the sleeves together. I sewed the side seam and the gore (a square sewn under the arm to add room for movement) with a backstitch for strength, then felled the seam down with whip stitches. To fell the seam down, you need to cut one side of the seam to half, then fold the other side over so that no raw edges are showing. This makes the seam really strong, and now I don't have t worry about any fraying. Plus, it looks really beautiful! I also gathered the end of the sleeve to the cuff while I was at it, so the sleeves were ready to be sewn on to the body once it was done. I watched season 2 of The Alienist while sewing the sleeves, it it took me about 4 hours.
Now I could move onto the body! I used 2 rectangles about 40" by 41". At the top, I gathered the front down to the back at the shoulder seam, then felled those down as well. I also prepped the collar and sewed that to the neckline, gathering the extra fabric at the back to the collar. At the center front I cut a slit about 4.5" down and hemmed that as well to make space for my head to go through. This was a very common style in early 1800's men's shirts. I finally got around to watching Hunt for the Wilderpeople by Taika Waititi on Netflix while sewing this section, and it was fantastic.
Finally I could do the side seams. I measured roughly from the shoulder seam down to where I wanted my side seam to start, then backstitched that seam on both sides. Then I could insert the sleeves and gather them to fit. Once all of that was sewn with a backstitch, I felled the seams down again so that no raw edges were showing at any point. The side seams were done with many more episodes of Modern Family.
The last few steps were to hem the bottom and add button holes! The hem is just a thin rolled hem that has been whip stitched down, and the button holes were just done with a regular button hole stitch. I decided to just put one button on each sleeve since my buttons were a bit bigger, but you could put two buttons on if you preferred instead. These last steps were done while watching Fortitude on CBC Gem (which is a fabulous show if you are interested in sci fi and murder mysteries).
Overall, this project took me about 38 hours of hand stitching. While you could easily make this on the machine, I found that making it by hand felt so meditative, and I am so proud of the finished product! Making it in linen has made it an invaluable addition to my closet, since it can be used as a nightgown, as a blouse under skirts, as a dress (mine goes to about mid-thigh), or underneath other dresses as an extra layer. I love statement sleeves, and the linen feels amazing on the skin. I love it so much that I am already planning on making a second one in a different colour!
Thank you so much for reading, and if you want a better explanation of how to make one for yourself, you can either check out Bernadette Banner's channel (linked at the beginning of the post), or I will be making a little tutorial soon as well!
Thanks for reading,
~Katherine
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