Cotton shirt #2

I am now the owner of three ruffly shirts! Altogether I've made 12 shirts in my lifetime, but this is only the third shirt I've made that is meant to fit me and is actually good enough to wear.

The first of these 3 shirts is getting really worn out.

 It's made from what little shirt cotton I had leftover from my line, which meant I had to piece the sleeves.

You can't see it in the pictures, but it's actually 2 slightly different cottons.
I couldn't get enough for 6 shirts in the exact same fabric.

 Most of it is machine sewn. The gathering is by hand because it works so much better that way.

The ruffles are cut on the selvedge.
I overlapped and basted them together in the middle so the slit wouldn't be any wider than necessary.

I put a whole lot of whipstitching on the bottom edge of the slit for reinforcement, because that part is tearing quite badly on my other shirt.

The collar is hand finished on the inside and front edges.

 I made a whole bunch of thread buttons. I've gotten pretty good at making them!

A partly formed button on a little bone awl.

When I make these I wax my thread, iron it between paper so the wax sinks in, then give it a couple more swipes with the wax. I've started making them a bit fatter and pulling the stitches tighter. It makes them so dense and hard they feel like pebbles.

I have to use pliers to sew the little X's on the backs.

I like to leave the thread tails long and braid them together in convenient bunches.

Buttons of various colours, intended for linen shirts of various colours.

 Since it's so similar to my other shirts there isn't much point to posting a lot of construction photos.

The finished cuff with three buttons. Two wasn't enough because they are very tiny buttons.

 The sleeves are attached with French seams. All the others are flat felled.

The collar. Too bad the buttons aren't as white as the fabric.

 The only hand finishing is on the collar, cuffs, hem, buttons and buttonholes.  Other than that (and the gathering) it's all machine sewn. This isn't something I would have done before, but I had quite a lot of practice making my line, and I learned that sewing machines aren't actually evil.

It turns out you can even put little hem gussets on by machine without too much fuss.

 Since shirts are a very practical thing this fits nicely with this months HSF theme.

It's a rather long shirt. Were it not tucked into my pants it would cover my butt quite adequately.

The Challenge: #5: Practicality. (The first one I've done this year.)

Fabric: Two mostly similar plain white cottons.

Pattern: The same as I used for this shirt, but with slightly longer ruffles.

Year: Second half of the 18th century. Probably a good chunk of the first half too.

Notions: Linen thread, polyester thread, beeswax.

How historically accurate is it? The overall look, the pattern, and general construction method are fairly accurate. The material (aside from the buttons) and the machine sewing are not.

Hours to complete: I can't say for sure, but probably about 10- 14.

First worn: Today.

Total cost: Nothing I guess? It was all stuff I had already.

 It's a very comfortable shirt. The collar isn't too tight, and I didn't mangle the buttonholes like I did last time.

A view of the piecing seam on the sleeve.

 I still need to make more shirts! 3 is much better than 2, but it's still not very many shirts.

My claws were in a terrible state over the winter
but the weather has warmed up and they're recovering nicely.

Pants are also a thing I need to make. My first pair has completely worn out and now I'm back down to 1.
For someone who does so much sewing I've got a pretty pathetic wardrobe.

Some pictures from the fashion show

Hello! Sorry this has taken so long. I put off buying the runway photos for much longer than I should have, but here they are! (Second fashion show post is here.)

Clothes by Me!

Stockings from American Duchess

Makeup by Kiwi

Photography by Whitney Carolan and Kehinde Shaheed.

I still haven't done my photoshoot yet. Hopefully that will happen in a couple of weeks, so for now here are pictures of my line (6 outfits) on the runway.

Drew

Bill

Dale

Ceigh

Inderpal

Stéphane

 I was SO impressed with the American Duchess stockings. I got the clocked white ones, the Victorian ones, and the clocked ivory ones. They were extremely soft and comfortable, and despite the fact that my tallest model was 6'4" and my shortest model was 5'2" they fit everyone very nicely.

 

And here's me.

Here are a few more photos from backstage.

Me and my dear friend Melodie.

Me.

And Inderpal.

I will be back soon-ish with more photos.