The annual Siege of Fort Niagara was this past weekend and in anticipation of the event, I [panic] sewed two jackets and two chemises. House sitting provided an excellent opportunity to sew uninterrupted, and as a bonus, I had an adorable feline helper who absolutely loved linen.
COVID [and if I'm honest, a toxic work environment] had put a real damper on my being able to participate in anything outside work. I haven't sewn anything outside a simple half elastic waist 4 rectangle skirt. Everything I had learned hitherto about sewing 18th century garments went right out the window.
The first shift I cut was from a thrifted cotton linen blend table cloth, something I probably should have dyed and turned into something else given its heavy weight. I threw down a chemise I knew fit and completely skipped cutting and piecing gores and sleeves - it's all one piece except for the arm gusett. Historically correct? No.
Quick and dirty? Not visible to the general public? Absolutely.
It was just about the right length to leave the hemstitched border in place as a finished edge. In all fairness, this was not a priority to finish because of the weight and feel of the fabric, so I focused on other projects. If it turns out to be too long, I'll put in tucks above the hemstitching to make it the right length.
The other shift was a more supple tencel rayon linen blend. Just the fiber content alone makes it inaccurate, but I figured it was at least plant based, so it wouldn't melt, no one was really going to see it that up close anyway, and I could hand stitch the important parts that might be seen. The fiber mix gives it a very interesting crinkle. With the heat and humidity, it was very comfortable.
I finished stitching the neck on Saturday night to wear the next day with the JP Ryan jacket, which I had also finished on Saturday except for the sleeve cuffs. The fabric for the pink jacket came from A Thrifty Notion We had a little soiree Saturday night with the other ladies in camp and I got inspired to put a few extra touches on this. I don't have any ribbon on hand, but I was thinking a pale pink pleated silk ribbon as trim around the neck, arms and would make an excellent finishing touch.
I sewed this up by machine stitching all the lining pieces and all the fashion pieces together, then pinning right sides together and sewing all the way around the neck and peplum and flipping it right side out. The only unfinished edge I ended up with was one of the front closures and the cuffs of the sleeves, which still need to be turned under and finished. I read an interesting blog post about how to sew the fashion and liner of this jacket together in one go AND the jacket gets sewn completely together at the same time, but I've lost track of it. Hand sewing is involved and it reminded me a little of a true Hong Kong finish, without having to sew the liner to the fashion fabric first.
This one doesn't look that different from the first but I promise it is. This is from the La Fleur de Lyse pattern, Canadienne de la Nouvelle- France. It too is supposed to have cuffs, and I'm sure one day I will get around to sewing those up. You can see initials in the center back - I had a really rottenly made chemise that I sacrificed for lining fabric. The sleeves are a yellow light weight linen from Joann Fabrics just pre-pandemic (Do they even sell 100% linen any more? alas...) I got this stitched up to the point of wearable and spent a very rainy Saturday sewing up the last of the unfinished seams in the front flaps. Was going to buy ribbon to tie up the front and the sleeves but at Niagara since all it did was downpour while I was there... the forecast was for it to stop raining overnight - it was like someone turned off a faucet at 6pm exactly, no rain over night and a 30% chance of rain at 8 AM. Try 100% at 5AM, because the sound of rain spattering on canvas woke me up. Ugh. The weather may not have cooperated but it was still a good time.
Here I am with my spinning wheel! I didn't know my picture was being taken.
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