Thoughts are coming...how to serve and be served

This past weekend was Defiance and Independence weekend at Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York. Pierre and I were asked to come down and portray the cooks for the officers for the weekend. We had done this before, on the fly, earlier in the Spring for another event, and had so much fun, of course we jumped at the chance to do it again.

Cooking for a group requires some pre-planning, especially when you cross an international border. There are some things I can plan ahead, and pre-cook, but there are things that I am not allowed to cross the border with, and so must buy in the United States. For this weekend, I prepared one of the breakfast items ahead and froze them until we were ready to leave. I spent the rest of the week prior to, baking bread, making switchel syrup, and packing the kitchen box with the dry goods I would need for the weekend with items like sugar, molasses, maple syrup, tea, coffee, salt, vinegar, oatmeal, and mustard. I tried to pack these items in historically accurate containers as much as possible, first, so I wouldn't be dealing with plastic or glass trash in camp, but also so that if need be, these items could be left out in public view. When I am cooking, it is for public spectacle, so everything modern must be hidden from view. Because I was cooking for so many people, I have noticed that I need to make some more linen bags, and purchase a few more container items for the bits and pieces I need to pack in my kitchen box. I had to resort to a couple of snap top lidded bottles that needed to be covered, they will be replaced with cork topped bottles shortly.

We are able to cross the border with some food items as long as they are in their original store packaging. This made my life a bit easier, as I knew I could bring some favourite pork items across with no issue. Our local butcher usually has things like real smoked hams (not that 'formed', boneless stuff), thick sliced bacon, and creton that tastes remarkably like Pierre's mum's traditional recipe in little plastic pots that exactly fit into my little potted meat pots when transferred. We can also bring cheese across for the time being. All fruit and vegetables need to be bought in the US though, as it is easier to deal with the root and seed restrictions. We also bought most of the other items at the grocery store in Plattsburg as it was just easier.

We did have an itemized list of everything we were bringing across, down to number of packages, and each dry good. It turned out to be one of the easiest border crossings ever! The agent glanced at our list, but that was it, we were on our way to the eighteenth century.

Our menu for the weekend was as follows:
Saturday morning, breakfast of oatmeal, coffee, tea, bread, cheese.
Saturday lunch of cold chicken with mustard sauce, leeks and bacon, a quick cucumber pickle, bread, cheese, and fresh cherries.
Saturday afternoon meeting/'tea' break of creton, bread, cheese, cherries
Saturday evening supper of smoked ham, baked beans, bread.

Sunday morning, breakfast of oatmeal puddings (sausage like, consisting of oatmeal onions, salt, pepper, lard, in a sausage casing), bread, creton, cheese, coffee and tea.
Sunday lunch of roasted prime rib, with orange ginger chutney, buttered carrots and parsnips, the quick cucumber pickle, bread, cheese and cherries.

Cherries were in season this past week, the strawberries are done for this year, and modern strawberries are too large in shape. Apples are still over a month away. Peaches might be another week or so. I could have done something with dried or cooked fruit from last year's harvest, and have thoughts for the next time we do this. The only other thing that I am not sure worked, was Saturday morning breakfast. I'm going to have to think on that one for a bit. Next time, I would also like to prepare a few other items in the week or so prior to, so that service runs a bit more smoothly. I would also like to have one other dedicated kitchen staff-member to help get things out in a timely fashion. This may also require the building of a second table as a prep station or wash station, and better communication between me and the other kitchen staff.
Things we noticed between shopping in the US vs. shopping in Canada, everything in the US comes in a plastic container, including eggs. Eggs in Canada come in paper for the most part. I was having to deal with far more trash this weekend than I do in a whole week in Canada. This was frustrating, as the nearest trash can from my kitchen was across the corner of the square. I had to think about what I needed to be doing for the day before the site opened, so that I could deal with trash.

Things worked surprisingly well for the weekend, considering that many of us have never been in service to others, and the officers are modern people, not used to being served. We all had to find our footing in the experience. Pierre and I have had far more experience in running a larger household of people, and were able to bring much needed material culture to the event, but still, we found we were running out of much needed items to be able to the job really well.

In a perfect world, the fort would be set up with enough material culture to house and feed up to a dozen officers and their wives. That's a lot of material culture! And that can be expensive, but bear with me.
It would have made for a broader interpretive experience to be able to have clean table linens and napkins for each meal, for each table. Preferably ones that completely cover the tables. The laundresses could then be tasked to wash linens for the officer's quarters. Place settings, including all cutlery, glassware, and hot beverage cups for all officers would have made everyone's lives easier. I would have also benefitted from extra service wares, such as platters, bowls, serving spoons, sauce containers and the like. Depending on the scenario, these could all be matching service and dinnerware, or could be mis-matched and cobbled together, depending on who is occupying the Fort. Having a properly laid out butler's pantry cupboard so that the steward can quickly take stock and issue kit would be helpful, and create another interpretive experience.

Many of our officers had no idea they would actually be served for the weekend, and did not even have their own dining kit, as they are more used to eating with their hands, on the fly, as they look after their horses, take part in interpretation scenarios, and are generally run off their feet. In a perfect world, each officer would have staff to look after their horses, other staff to look after their personal requirements, wait staff, and the like. As our head steward for the weekend, Andrew Warren mentioned, he would love to eventually see more staff than officers. This will require a great deal of team work to prepare for, as the officers will also have to groom their staff for the horses, so that those people fully understand how to deal with horse and tack, freeing up the officers for other, more genteel pursuits.
Staff members themselves also might need a crash course in how to serve. We are so used to, in our modern lives, to not intrude in others lives and spaces. We tend to stand back and wait until we are asked to help... and then the people being served are used to looking after themselves and not asking for help. This leads to gaps in interpretive experiences that we could be filling.

Just imagine...

The fort opens, and guests are allowed to watch the officer or his lady being dressed by their personal attendants. Another 'wait' servant holds a plate of food for the person being dressed, removes the food back to the kitchen, knows how their officer/lady takes their tea/coffee, in what cup. Serves that cup upon waking, if need be...can you imagine what it would be like to serve someone coffee and breakfast in bed? Many lady's of this station would not be up and dressed at 6am, like we are used to, but may not be fully dressed until almost noon. Banyans and wrapping gowns in fine fabrics for those members of our interpretation unit portraying officers would be a lovely visual experience.

The table is laid for the noon meal, which is one of the places where we could explain the differences between the food prepared for the officers, vs. food prepared for the troops, right down to how it is served. A table laid out with linen table cloths, napkins, candle sticks, tiles for under the candlesticks, beeswax candles instead of tallow. A sommelier in charge of wines and spirits. Wait staff to serve food, remove dinnerware, glassware. Off to one side, a table laid out with stemware, a bowl for washing/rinsing glassware. The officers enter and have their frock coats removed by their personal attendants, and are dressed in their banyans. Hats are replaced with smoking caps.

Throughout all of this experience, an interpreter stationed at each room (officer's quarters, dining room, kitchen), to explain to the public what is going on, to allow for the interpreters who are doing the 'living history' to do their jobs without interruption.

Can you imagine? What an experience that would be, for everyone. Fully immersive for the people portraying the characters; fourth wall, voyeuristic experience for the visitor. This would require extensive preplanning though. But it could be a fun experience for all of us. One that I am willing to work on myself, to help create a better experience for the visitor for next time.

Hopefully, we will get to do this again. Pierre and I have never worked so hard, with such big grins on our faces before. If Ticonderoga asked me back this next weekend, we would be there, in a heartbeat.

a quiet moment between services, May 2018. This has to be one of the finest hearths I have ever seen and worked on.

For further reading, check out John U. Rees' article https://www.scribd.com/document/330715949/To-Cash-paid-the-Revrd-John-Mason-for-Servant-Hannah-s-wages-Hannah-Till-General-Washington-s-Wartime-Cook

New Shirt, End of Day Three

Well, it's the end of day three, and Pierre has a new shirt. There were a lot of episodes of TimeTeam, which is why I'm beginning to sound a bit like Tony Robinson. They are fun to have in the background while I sew, relaxing, and I learn stuff.

I started off day three by stitching the shoulder strap. I usually wait until this point to cut the strap because I want to make sure that the rectangle is wide enough to cover the sleeve head gathers. The strap adds some extra support to the top of the sleeve head, and is not just there to be decorative and cover the gathering. It carries the weight of the sleeve up to the neck, so your shirt linen doesn't tear from wear and added weight. I say this, because when I was machine stitching the entire shirt, I didn't really understand what it was for, figuring that they were a later repair. This was especially true before I had a lab partner of the male persuasion to see how his clothes wore, and wore out. I was just making shirts and sending them off to customers. I know better now. Straps are important.

Here's the strap rectangle pinned in place. I pressed under the four edges with 1/4" seam allowance. and when I started to stitch, I started by covering the gathers first. Then working up each side of the rectangle, making sure it stayed on the straight. The straps on this shirt went the length of the shoulder, ending just at the neck gusset point.

This photo shows me starting to cut the neck. I begin by folding the shirt in half lengthwise, and cutting the folded edge at the shoulder line from the end of the strap to the middle of the shirt.

Then, on what will be the front, I cut that shoulder fold a bit lower so that I have a long, thin ellipse with the front curve being lower than the back. I do this because our necks don't sit square on our shoulder line, rather they sit more forward, so the front neck edge needs to be cut lower. I finish the neck cutting by finding that true front edge fold, and cutting the slash that goes down the front of the chest.

This photo shows the neck gussets with all four edges pressed under 1/4" seam allowance, and then pressed on the diagonal, ready for sewing.

Pinned in place, with the point on top of the shoulder strap, and covering the cut edge of the neck/shoulder with 1/4" seam allowance. I slip stitch one half of the folded square, following the pins, then I fold and pin the other half in place before stitching that down. I'm careful to line up the folded edges of the gusset with my stitching line from the top side, so that my little neck gusset is square in the neck opening.

Ta DAH!

I then move to the front bosom slash, and fold over the tiniest of single folds. I think this is about 1/8" fold. The smaller the first fold, the smaller your hem will be. I then start my stitching by bringing the knot of my thread up into that fold so the tail will be totally hidden in the fold.

This photo shows what the stitches should look like, the "little sevens". Pick up a few threads of cloth at the cut edge, on the body of the cloth, and then pick up the fold, keeping your needle in a straight line. Then move up less than 1/4" and do it again.

Once you have stitched for about an inch or so, gently pull your stitches up to roll the hem into place. Once you have hemmed the front slash, press your hem flat. This will help it look more like a tiny hem of the period, and less like the scarf edge of a modern shawl or hankie. Your little whip stitches should not cover the roll of the hem, but look like little, pricked whip stitches.

At this point, I gathered the neck edge in preparation for the collar. As with all other gathering on this project, I ran three rows of gathering stitches by machine. I separated the gathering into sections, across the front edges of the neck separately, and then along the back neck edge. Three sections of three rows of stitching. I then divided the collar in half, and marked with a pin where my centre back should sit, and then in quarters to determine where the centres of my neck gussets should sit. The front edges will match up with the front bosom slash. I then eased the gathers into position, concentrating them into positions so that the neck gussets would sit flat in the neckline.

Again, using a slip stitch, I stitched the folded edge of the collar seam allowance to the neck edge of the shirt so that my stitching followed the centre row of gathering stitches. I then turned to the inside and stitched the inside of the collar in place in the same manner, remembering to trim my excess seam allowances away from inside of the collar before encasing that edge. Yes, I use a lot of pins when I stitch collars and cuffs in place, even on the inside. If not, the collar may shift as you sew and you'll end up with a twisted collar.

At the end, before working the buttonholes, I made sure to pull out the third row of gathering stitches from the collar, cuffs and shoulder points. I also made sure I didn't miss any other hanging threads. Then I gave the shirt a quick press with my steam iron. After the press, I marked and worked the buttonholes. One in the collar, as that would receive a thread button to finish. Two at each cuff, since I had a set of shirt buttons for this shirt, which are like little cufflinks. I did tack one side of the shirt button cuff links into place so that Pierre doesn't lose them when wearing, as they are quite small. They are glass headed on a steel chain shank. The neck button is a thread button of many rows of buttonhole stitch over a little ring of thread, worked until the centre hole is completely shut.

Finally, I measured the length of the neck opening, doubled that and cut from my reserved ruffle cloth. On the cut edge, I made another tiny rolled hem. On the tight selvage edge, I whip gathered it to the neck opening. A finished shirt.

The shirt took me 17.5 hours over three days. I figure I saved myself about 4 hours by partially machining the shirt. I can machine a shirt with just hand stitching the collar, neck edge and cuffs in only about 8 hours, so this took me about twice as long. At 17.5 hours, I would have to charge $350cdn plus the $60 for the linen, whereas I normally charge about $200cdn for an entire shirt.

Larkin and Smith have a booklet on shirtmaking, available through William Booth, draper, entitled "A Manual for the 18thC  Century Shirtmaker 1750-1780" based on their research.

My friend Joy made this little youtube video of the 'Stitch' used in the Larkin and Smith booklet, for those of us who are visual learners.

Joy stitching the "Stitch"

Things that I have learned in this project, and through discussions afterwards:

1. I have the best friends. They have helped me to understand better what I have been looking at in grainy online photographs, and are willing to share their first hand knowledge.

2.Through discussions with Sharon Burnston in the wee hours the other night, we discussed how the ruffles on a shirt would always be of finer material than they body of the shirt. She also explained that the ruffle would be cut across the grain of the fabric, from selvage to selvage. I am still keeping my roll of ruffle material, because waste not, want not, but I'll keep it for linen that's a bit heavier.

3. Instead of a running backstitch, with spaces between the top side of the stitching, it is a simple back stitch with each stitch touching each other on the topside. Sharon Burnston also backed up a joint belief that we both had that this 'STITCH' can be made without pulling threads, and is indeed simply a backstitch.

4. Every project I learn new things. With this one, I learned that yes, I can use a machine for some of the stitching, if I am careful in how I do it. For some folks, this is a necessity, either for ease in stress on the body, or to get a project finished in time and in budget. Many museums have extremely tight budgets, and have to do things that a person at home, sewing for themselves, could do by hand because they have the time and aren't paying someone to make a shirt. Not many people can afford to pay me $400+ for one shirt. Sometimes compromises have to be made, but they can be made without losing integrity of the finished product. I still believe construction process makes the garment historical in look, not simply the type of stitching.

Shirt part two?

Not sure where I am in posting, but wanted to update you with this afternoon's work; Setting sleeves, side seams, and hems.

I started by running the three rows of gathering stitch, same as yesterday on the cuff, this time over the sleeve head. Just like at the cuff, I drew the stitches up, gave them a tug, and stroked them in place. This time, I went for breakfast as I let them set into place. And got that earlier blog post written.

Because I want my machine stitching on the inside of the garment, and not visible on the outside, I am putting the sleeve tube inside the shirt body, effectively 'right sides together'. If creating the garment entirely by machine, flat felled seams are done to the outside of the garment, and so wrong sides are placed together. I'm effectively working the fell to the inside, so right sides together. I pinned around the sleeve opening, matching up the edges and making a little cross with my pins where I would start and stop the stitching around the armhole, just at the bottom of the gusset.

You can see the little bias fold of the side seam. You want to avoid catching that when you sew. Sew, starting and finishing at this little X, 1/2" seam allowance, around the armscye. All my threads were then pulled to this side of the seam, the sleeve side, and tied in knots before clipping short. *Note on clipping threads. This should be done as you sew. If knotting the threads, leave tails about 1/4" long from the knot. Please don't leave clipping threads to the end of garment construction, it really does leave a mess, and looks unprofessional. When I stitched this seam, I purposely did not stitch over my gathering at the top of the armscye.

Once the first seam was completed in the armscye, before felling the seam, I turned the work to the outside and stitched the gathers to the shirt body.

Here you can see that I am just picking up just the tops of the humps of the gathers with each stitch. Yes, the needle is small.

Then, I  matched up the side seams and stitched them. I left vents open on each side of my shirt about the length of my forearm. Shirts in the period were also long enough to act as underwear. By leaving long side vents, it makes it easier for the wearer to tuck everything in his rather tight breeches nicely, kind of like a onesie.

At this point, I trimmed one side of my seam allowance. I trimmed the sleeve side of the armscye seam allowances, leaving the gathered bit alone, and then one side of the side seam. I want my seams to fold towards the back of the body, be careful at this step so that you are removing the correct side seam allowance. Starting back at the bottom of the gusset, I folded and stitched down my felled seam with tiny slip stitches. You should be able to start at the bottom of the gusset and work around the armscye, up to the gathering stitches (pass over them, not stitching) then continue around the armscye before stitching down the side seam in all one motion. I also hemmed the side seam vents at the same time.

Once my side seams were felled, I hemmed the front and back edges with slightly wider hems than my felling was wide.

This is the final photo of the day, the hems. Another four hours work, so I am up to ten hours on this shirt. Almost everything from here on out will be done by hand. I figure that I've only saved myself 2-4 hours labour in machine stitching parts of the seams, but if that is a difference between a garment and a pile of cloth in terms of labour, I think it's fine. You literally cannot see my machine stitching when the garment is being worn, only if it is turned inside out.

Tomorrow, collar, shoulder straps (which will encase the gathering at the sleeve head), and neck ruffle. It will be a long day. Wearable shirt by Friday is completely doable, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

A new shirt for Pierre

This project is going to be all about making another, more historically accurate shirt for Pierre, using machine stitching where possible to cut down on time, and to show you all how to use both machine and hand stitching to make a beautiful garment. Remember, it isn't always about the stitching that is important, but the construction techniques that make something historically accurate.

We are starting with the shirt, mostly because that is a fairly simple project for anyone to accomplish. And yes, anywhere I am using a machine, you can totally use your hand stitching.

This was the last shirt that I finished for Pierre. Entirely hand stitched. It took me quite a bit of time, over the course of fourteen days. When I look at the stitching now, I think "Ok, I've done it, now how do I work faster?"

White is by far the most common shirt fabric you will see in any artwork. The checked cloth was really only worn by working men. While this plaid shirt was nice, and he will wear the hell out of it, I knew I wanted to make him some more shirts. I have a whole tubby in my studio storage of white 'linen', but quickly realized that while mum had the best of intentions in buying fabric for me, not everything in that tubby is actually linen. It will require me going through, piece by piece, and running several tests to figure out what I have. No, burn testing isn't always a quick and conclusive test, since both rayon (tree fibre) and cotton both have similar outcomes when burning. I need to also tear it, to see what happens, and also just really examine each piece, feel it, look at it, and even then, it will all be best guess. Mark your linen pieces when you bring them home, especially if you tend to buy mixed or blended fabrics. For this project, I wanted pure linen, and so we went to the fabric store.

Cutting linen is not as simple as making a clip and tearing your fabric into nice, neat squares. If it tears, it's not linen. Period. Each individual thread of the fabric will break, but weave them together, and they produce a very strong fabric that if torn, will damage a good 1/4m of the fabric, pulling warp threads hither and yon. To cut linen, you must decide where you want to cut and then pull a single thread. This pulled thread will create your cutting line. I begin each linen project by washing the fabric, hanging to dry, and then pulling threads on each cut end of the yardage to true up the piece. Then I press the fabric with lots of steam. It takes patience, but is so worth it in the long run to have perfectly square and true edges to your little squares and rectangles.

For a shirt, you need:

1. a big rectangle, the width of half your widest body, plus ease and seam allowance. The length is double your desired length from shoulder to hem. There should not be a seam at your shoulder line.

2. Two sleeve rectangles, the width of your flexed upper arm circumference, plus ease and seam allowance. The length from your shoulder bone to wrist with your arm bent.

3. two underarm gussets, roughly 4" square, plus seam allowances.

4. two side neck gussets, roughly 2" square, plus seam allowances.

5. a collar rectangle 8" x jewel neck measurement, plus seam allowances and overlap for button.

6. two cuffs rectangles, measuring 3" by wrist circumference, with overlap and seam allowances.

For this shirt, I also want a nice neck opening ruffle.

I started cutting off the neck ruffle material from both selvage edges of the cloth. I did this because the selvages were nice and tight, and I can use that edge later when stitching the ruffle to the neck opening. I cut the selvages about 3" wide, and will save what I don't use on this project for future shirts, bagged and labeled as linen ruffle material. You do not want to use modern cloth selvages in any of the seams on your shirt as the warp structure is different than the rest of the cloth. Modern selvages are warp faced weaving, meaning there are double the warp threads in that tiny 1/4" than there are in the body of the cloth. That tightly woven edge prevents your fabric from ravelling, but also shrinks at a different rate than the body of your fabric. If you've ever seen a garment that climbs up the wearer at a seam, chances are, they tried to use the selvage to shorten work time. Just cut them off and save for other projects, even if you just cut the 1/4" of warp face to use as ties on something. Historically, shirts were made using the selvages, butt joined together. They were a different weave structure though, completely different than most modern cloth. The weaving process in a hand woven piece of material means the selvage edges are wrapped with the weft threads. In modern, machine woven cloth, the edges are often not wrapped, and the extra warp threads are there to prevent ravelling.

Monday was disgustingly hot here in Montreal, so I spent the afternoon in the basement, pulling threads and cutting linen into little squares and bigger rectangles. About 2 hours work.

Yesterday was also disgustingly hot, so back to my basement studio I went. Thank goodness you can make a shirt without a steam iron, or there'd be no sewing happening.

I threaded up my machine with poly-cotton Gutermann thread in top and bobbin. I pulled out some nice sewing needles, my thimble, and snips. I do not have any linen thread at the moment. For hand sewing, I tend to use silk or cotton, both of which I can quickly obtain at my local shop. Linen thread has to be shipped in from the states, requiring a free credit card, which I don't have at the moment due to a large number of books I needed for a comp, and the time to ship...which I also don't have. So cotton thread it is for this project!

I usually start by stitching the collar and cuff rectangles as a folded rectangle. I did this by machine. I then clipped my corners, turned to the right side, folded under my long edges a 1/2" and finger pressed them. I left them under a wooden pressing tool to consider what they wanted to become while I went to work on the sleeves.

When using a combination of hand and machine stitches, I tend to lengthen my stitch length to 3pt which more closely resembles my own hand stitching length. 

Sleeves want to be a mirror image of each other, so on my cutting table, I laid out the sleeve rectangles, and placed my sleeve gussets to mirror each other. I start by sewing that wee, short seam, by machine.

To make this seam look like it is done by hand, do not use the back stitch function. Instead, use the couture method of pulling both end threads to one side of the seam end, using a hand sewing needle, and tie the ends. I didn't worry about weaving the thread ends back through my stitching since this would be hidden in the rest of the flat felling of the seam.

I then trimmed the seam allowance of the gusset square, and by hand, slip stitched the other seam allowance's fold to the body of the sleeve. I then moved on to sewing the long seam of the sleeve together to make a tube, making sure all of my machine sewing was on the same side of the garment. This will become the inside of the garment, so be careful in this step. Also, leave an opening at the cuff edge for the vent. So the process was stitch the first half of the flat felled seam by machine, trim one seam allowance to 1/4", finger press the other seam allowance over the first, with a fold, and stitch that folded edge down to the body of the seam with a slip stitch in a nice flat fell. I also took the time to finish the vent edges with small hems when I was in the process of felling the seam.

I had two sleeves, a right and left, with machine stitching only visible on the interior of the garment.

To attach the cuffs, remember those cuffs, being pressed by the wooden pressing tool on the ironing board, with edges all turned in and beautiful? They should only be 1" deep when finished. So that's what I pressed them to. It is important to do the attaching of cuff to sleeve by hand, in the method I am about to explain, to give you a nice stroked gather that is springy like gathers should be.

I start the sleeve by running three rows of gathering stitches by machine. You can do this by hand, but why, the machine is by far more precise, and precise is what you want. You want to stitched rows to start EXACTLY in the same line with each row, and yes, you want three whole rows. You can do this by hand, but you have to mark out your running stitches precisely, and be fanatical about getting your stitching some perfectly. I want this shirt done before Friday...not in two weeks time. I have other projects that need doing, and Pierre starts leave on Monday!

I tend to run those stitches for most of the cuff end opening. That way, I can place the gathers precisely where I want them to be. I pull my thread ends fairly tightly. Then, once you have the desired fullness of gathers, with a tugging motion, pull the cut edge away from the body of the sleeve so your little gathers start to line up. Then with a T-pin or darning needle, work the gathers so they stand to attention beside each other like little soldiers. Take your time with this step to make them look really nice. Once they look good, break for lunch, leaving them at attention to consider what they want to become. This rest period is also important for the ease on making your gathering look nice. Sometimes, I will even get to this step before stopping for the night, letting it rest overnight. No, steam won't help the process very much, you still have to wait for the moisture to dry, and you run the risk of crushing your gathers when you hit it with the iron.

Next step is to pin the cuff on to the sleeve.

I pin the cuff to the sleeve so that my stitching line runs right along the middle row of gathering. The folded seam allowance edge of my cuff is my stitching line. Modern stitch technique would have you put the cuff to sleeve right sides together, and stitch through one layer of cuff, through the whole sleeve edge, crushing the gathers. Don't be doing this! You'll just kill your stroke gathers. Folded cuff edge to stitching line of sleeve edge. Slip stitch the cuff to the sleeve, picking up *just the tops of the gather humps*, Trust Me!

I start with the outside, then turn to the inside. I pin everything, both edges, and sew up to the pin before pulling it out. When you turn to the inside cuff edge, you will want to trim your seam to 1/4", effectively cutting off that first row of gathering stitches. It'll be fine, you still have two more rows of them. And again, stitching the folded seam allowance edge of the cuff to just the tops of the gather humps. It should feel like there's a bit of space for the gathers to hang out all humpy in that seam. it won't feel like much, but it's there.

Before you call this cuff done for the time being, you need to do one more step, the little rows of 'top' stitching around the cuff edge.

This is actually a little back stitch. A running back stitch, if you will, since the top side of the stitching is much smaller than the underside. You want to make a smaller rectangle of stitching that follows the  finished cuff rectangle, about 1/4" in from the edges. Yes, my needle is tiny. Tiny needles make for tiny stitches. As do thimbles. But you've all heard that lecture before. I also wax my thread when hand sewing, and if the iron was turned on, I'd have given the thread a quick press between sheets of brown paper to set the wax. But it's really disgustingly hot, so a couple of runs between thumb and forefinger will have to do.

And in Tony Robinson fashion, "end of day one", I have sleeves.

I save my buttonholes for the very end. Have a great day, I'm off to the studio...


For extra reading, check out Sharon Burnston on shift construction, here

Are you 'progressive'? Should it matter? Yes...and no....

When I began on this mission to obtain a PhD, I wanted to seriously question my own stance on the progressive movement in living history. For the record, my own definition of 'progressive' means something along the lines of progressing your interpretation toward a high degree of accuracy through constant research. Sometimes, for me, that research includes making or doing a thing.

This past year, my project has been to completely overhaul the kit and clothing for both Pierre and myself. Yes, I completely remade our wardrobes. The pieces I was happy with from before, even got altered to better fit within my parameters of accuracy. Breeches had the legs and inseams re-done for better fit, new gowns were made, accessories made and acquired. When I presented all of this for my studio exam in late April, I impressed myself with what I had accomplished. In yes, a year.

This year, I will finish up a few things left on my to-do list, but I am back to constructing clothing for other people again. I am also teaching others how to construct their own clothes. The project last year helped me to better understand my own practice, what my stitching looked like, and how long it took me to create garments. I wrote everything down, and made notes here and on Facebook about my process.

And here's what I have learned...

You can still be progressive, and own partially machine made garments. Yes, you can. It's not always the machine that causes you to be less progressive, but the construction methods you use. Huh??? Aren't they the same thing? Nope! Case in point...

This is Pierre's new shirt, entirely hand stitched. You can clearly see my stitching line on that seam. It looks like a machine made it, but no, I did, with my hand and a very fine needle.  You can't tell the difference, unless I am working at making my hand stitches look like hand stitches. This shirt took fourteen days to sew, working most of the day, m-f. Nobody can afford that kind of time, I know I can't...especially when sewing for other people.

It's not whether I use machine or by hand, but 'HOW' the garment is put together. You see, there are certain methods you use when machine making a garment that were developed to make the construction process faster, when the sempster as working in a factory. There are methods used in historical garment making that you just cannot accomplish with a machine; that lovely laying stitch that produces the top stitch on the garment edge when you lay the lining in a garment; anything regarding the front fall of a pair of breeches.

These things matter, those old construction methods. If you hand stitch everything, but use modern methods of garment construction, to my eye, it looks no different than if you had made the garment by machine.

Sorry folks.

Top stitching is a modern invention, so is bagging out a garment. Learn the older methods of garment construction. And please, don't look down on that trusty machine It can save you boatloads of time, and will fool even my old eyes...if you use it correctly, and in a historical construction method. You will need to still hand stitch some seams!

And how about we lay off the side-eyes...nobody has the time to entirely hand make their wardrobes like I have this past year...not if they want to be dressed and ready for an event before the end of the decade. Let's work towards helping each other out to look more progressive. That starts with teaching each other construction techniques that would have been used...

but that's for another post.