FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Hitty’s Chemise
(click images to to enlarge)
Outline the story …
I approached the competition project first, literary inspiration second. I chose an early 19th century chemise as my first historical garment because I knew I needed to make something sewed by hand (both because I wanted to develop the skills and because my sewing machine had already been packed for our next move back to Australia) and because I thought it would be useful for a broad range of time periods (thinking that it would 'do' for late 18th to mid 19th century). However, when I re-read Rachel Field's "Hitty: Her First Hundred Years," I was reminded that the chemise that young Phoebe Preble makes for her doll in the first chapter is the one garment that survives throughout the whole story. This book came to mind when thinking for inspiration for this project because clothing (and the changes in clothing over the course of the 19th century) features quite prominently in the story.
Outline the construction…
I drafted a pattern myself having watched many tutorials on YouTube (paticularly The Petticoated Swashbuckler's "A very versatile chemise tutorial" and Bernadette Banner's "Making an 18th/early 19th century shift from an extant original") and reading the detailed Regency Shift/Chemise Pattern on Amanda's 30th Bash Blog. I chose some lightweight linen from Herts Specialist Fabrics - which was lovely to work with! I used the thread-pulling method to mark the squares and rectangles to cut. I cut rectangles for the back, front and sleeves, squares for the underarm gussets, and triangles for the side gores. Using linen thread, I sewed most of the seams using a back stitch, switching to a running backstitch for the side-seams past the waist point. Seams were felled down to finish the raw edges. I hemmed the body with a double fold hem. I used a rolled hem to finish the sleeves after watching Retro Claude's video - I loved this finish! I hand sewed 2 eyelets for the drawstring and created a casing with a straight piece of linen. I used cotton tape for the drawstring. I completed the garment by cross-stitching my name in red cotton embroidery floss, just like Hitty's. Almost all of these hand-sewing techniques were completely new to me and I was surprised that it wasn't as difficult as I initially thought.
Very Hitty- like …
hand stitching!
:>)
I grew up reading Hitty!
The Nicola detail is so lovely! Your stitching is very neat, great job❤
Congratulations on first historical garment! It looks great!
Oh my….this is simply beautiful! very well done. Thank you!