Black shirt with silver print

I made this shirt a while ago, and haven't anything much to say about it because it's cut the same size as my previous two shirts, and with the same sort of construction as usual, but I like to do a post on every garment so here it is. It's another plain non-historical sort of shirt to wear for everyday.

It's made of a black cotton with silver print. I can't remember where it came from, and it feels a bit thinner and higher quality than a typical quilting cotton. I think the print is supposed to be stylized little Christmas trees.

I find I don't like the 18th century style of shirt cuff as much with this cotton. It's stiffer than linen and has much less stretch, so the tight cuff with sleeve links is not nearly as comfortable.

Collar buttonholes.

It's mostly machine sewn, with hand finishing around the cuffs, collar, and front slit. The buttonholes are done by hand with DMC cotton pearl, as usual, and I made a couple of Dorset wheel buttons for the collar.

Collar buttons.

Hem gussets.

Little reinforcing bar of buttonhole stitches at the bottom of the slit.

I tried getting some pictures with a self timer, and didn't realize until I imported them to the computer that most of them were out of focus, so I apologize for the crappiness of the photos.

 Horribly washed out, but I think it looks ok with my monster waistcoat.

I'll post some actual historical sewing soon!

Black suede gloves

My goodness, I've fallen behind on blogging again! The blogger format has changed and I do not like it, but I won't get any better at navigating it by avoiding posting.

I started these gloves sometime last year, and then left them half finished in a box for many months, as I so often do. But then this year took them out again and finished them.

They're mostly the same pattern as my first pair, just with the thumb hole adjusted slightly.

I cut them from an old black suede skirt, which has proven tougher than the crappy jacket leather I made my first pair from, but still not ideal as it doesn't have as much stretch as a glove ought to. 

Just like the previous pair, I hand sewed it all with a whipstitch using waxed linen thread.

I cut them out with a teeny tiny bit more seam allowance than before, and it made the fingers much looser, which I don't like. It turns out even a millimetre of seam allowance makes a HUGE difference on glove fingers, which are pretty small, and having any extra width on the 6 or 8 pattern piece edges around them really adds up.

Next time I'll go back to cutting the pattern with no seam allowance.

They're not perfect, but they fit and are comfortable! I've been wearing them regularly now that it's autumn.

You can tell by the daisies that I finished these over a month before actually bothering to post them...