Stash busting

[fleurdelysa]

Well, it didn't use up MUCH of my stash, but it's still stash busting! I've had in mind for years that I would like to make an 18th century riding/hunting habit, so that means I am working skin-out to work up to it. This month I made a riding habit shirt from my scraps. It's a version of the early 18th century one in Cunnington's The History of Underclothes. I looked at what other bloggers have done, like CoutureMayah and Before the Automobile and Koshka-the-cat. I also looked at men's shirt construction in Baumgarten's Costume Close Up. After all that input, I went with a fairly fitted version - kind of like a sleeved-chemisette. It fits me better than my dressform (her neck is a little bigger, and I didn't put my corset on her for these pictures so her bustline is a little low), and I have full arm-movement. The body is handkerchief-weight linen hand-sewn with linen thread, and the ruffles are fine cotton voile hand-sewn with cotton thread. Using a different, finer fabric for the ruffles is consistent with period construction. I used silk button-twist for the buttonholes at neck and cuffs, and tiny vintage mother-of-pearl buttons at the neck. The seams are all felled, except where the sleeve joins the body. There I used the voile again to add an encasing and reinforcing strip that didn't add bulk. I achieved tiny 1/8" hems on the ruffles, which I attached by whipping them to the edges. It allows them to flop nicely!






I'm trying to order 18th century repro shirt-links from At the Eastern Door, but they have not replied to my inquiry. I might start the waistcoat next, since I plan to make it from a different fabric than the skirt and jacket, or I might bounce to something else entirely. I'm continuing my efforts at stash busting!