Elizabethan shirt
I spent almost all of yesterday making an Elizabethan shirt out of natural tone linen. The linen is a bit stiff right now, but I think a couple of washes will have it as soft as a baby blanket. I used the Grace Gamble pattern used by this LADY.
I lost over a hour taking my sewing machine apart trying to figure out why the bobbin winder wasn't working. Once I got the case off it worked fine and I checked it at every step putting the case back together and it still worked all the way up until I put the last couple of screws in. I think it's just twisted out of alignment and needs to be straightened up so it isn't rubbing against the case.
I'm pretty happy with the shirt, but there are a couple of things I will do different on the next one...
- The pattern is obviously written with a sewing machine in mind, but I used a serger because the linen frays almost as bad as silk. Using the serger made a couple of the seam intersection a real pain, but now that I know where those spots are I can plan better for them.
- The pleating at the wrists and neck are a huge time sink. But if I do 6 or 8 shirts at once and stop at the pleating, I can sit in front of the TV for an evening and pin the neck and wrist bands in one go, serger those in one night and then go back to pleat pinning the ruffles. After a couple of nights of pinning I'll do the top stitching and be done...
I think I can get my time for one shirt down to 4 or 5 hours with more experience with the pattern, that becomes a shirt a night. If I assembly line the whole thing I think I can do 8 shirts in 6 or 7 days... So 2 shirts in white linen, 2 shirts in natural linen, 2 shirts in white cotton and 2 shirts in natural cotton, and work a different size each week; I should have inventory come faire season.
I lost over a hour taking my sewing machine apart trying to figure out why the bobbin winder wasn't working. Once I got the case off it worked fine and I checked it at every step putting the case back together and it still worked all the way up until I put the last couple of screws in. I think it's just twisted out of alignment and needs to be straightened up so it isn't rubbing against the case.
I'm pretty happy with the shirt, but there are a couple of things I will do different on the next one...
- The pattern is obviously written with a sewing machine in mind, but I used a serger because the linen frays almost as bad as silk. Using the serger made a couple of the seam intersection a real pain, but now that I know where those spots are I can plan better for them.
- The pleating at the wrists and neck are a huge time sink. But if I do 6 or 8 shirts at once and stop at the pleating, I can sit in front of the TV for an evening and pin the neck and wrist bands in one go, serger those in one night and then go back to pleat pinning the ruffles. After a couple of nights of pinning I'll do the top stitching and be done...
I think I can get my time for one shirt down to 4 or 5 hours with more experience with the pattern, that becomes a shirt a night. If I assembly line the whole thing I think I can do 8 shirts in 6 or 7 days... So 2 shirts in white linen, 2 shirts in natural linen, 2 shirts in white cotton and 2 shirts in natural cotton, and work a different size each week; I should have inventory come faire season.