More about that shirt...
Hey, boys and girls, it's been an intense time here at Casa Mellin, as I've been logging 11-hour workdays to get the ruffs done by our due date. As you can tell, this is turning "tomorrow" into even more of a fluid concept than it usually is.
Wanted to show some more pics of the gathered shirt:
These pictures show the way the ruffles are gathered into the cuffs and collar. On the original I'm working from (a Swedish shirt from the 1570s or so), the gathering is done with three lines of 1/8" stitches that are then pulled tight. Since the linen I'm working with is thicker than the original linen (I can't find anything that fine that we can afford), I switched to 1/4" gathers for the neck ruffle. When the three lines are pulled tight, you see what happens above; the gathers are much firmer and hold their shape much better. These gathers are then stitched (with one stitch to each pleat) into the cuffs and collar, working first on one side, then the other. The end result is a fine ruffle that would have been set into shape with starch, but looks pretty nice even without it:
I'll post pics of the finished shirt once I've taken photos.
Cross-posted at Gardiner's Company Blog