Oh yeah, I've once again managed to tear a sleeve off a linen shift in my sleep, so I guess I'll be attempting to make another one from this random piece of white linen I have.

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

Oh yeah, I've once again managed to tear a sleeve off a linen shift in my sleep, so I guess I'll be attempting to make another one from this random piece of white linen I have. What did I get it for originally? Is it going to be big enough? No idea, and probably. 😄 I can always get more but for sure I could do with another intact linen shift to use as a nightdress in the meantime. The old one can become under-shirts later once I've washed it.

#Sewing

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

In pretty much any old garment there's going to be bits that are still good, and it used to be we'd make other things from those... But it sure is a lot more effort. It also always feels silly to wash a completely frayed to heck garment, but it's much nicer turning it into little fabric pieces if it's not absolutely saturated in human gunk.

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

One of the worst parts of making a shift or chemise for me is knowing what kind of neck opening I want. Do I want it big and round, with a drawstring, should I put on lace, do I want a front neck slit so I don't have to worry if I can fit my head through even if I forget to take off my glasses... It's just a complete hassle and stressful every time, no matter what I pick. Making it is fine, choosing is horrible!

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

I have these random measurements on this page of notes, so I'm just gonna cut that out, see if my head fits through. If it doesn't, a neck slit there is gonna be. No decisions, only reactions from your gal Sini today.

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

I did make the neck opening too big and will need to put on lace with a ribbon or something probably, and was meant to do all of the sewing on the machine... But then I thought I'd quickly fell something down by hand while I catch up on my eldritch mystery podcasts... And somehow I've been sewing by hand for hours, and will need to sew for hours more. Unless I change my mind and do the long skirt section seams by machine, with all the finicky upper dress bits already done. Who can say yet?

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

Finished the linen shift otherwise, mostly by hand, but the neck opening needs something to make it a little bit more practical. I have this tiny bit of narrow cotton lace that I could maybe persuade a bit of very small satin ribbon through. If I can locate some satin ribbon... This is the issue when you haphazardly make something out of what you just have laying around, without a plan. 😅
Edit: photo added, looks like it could work!

#Sewing

[laumapret@toot.lv]

@sinituulia
Have you by chance found my holy grail, that is, source of non-polyester satin robins?

P.S. I never figured out, how to get Guttermann's cotton thread in Latvia. I settled with Madeira's cotton which is more usable than Madeira's rayon. I gave my rayon threads away to second hand charity shop, because I gave up on dealing with them.

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

@laumapret I know of some Etsy shops that sell silk ribbon but I don't ever remember about it at such a time table that I could be bothered to look them up again... It was some notions shop in the UK and they stopped delivering when there was that postal nonsense, for a bit? And also silk would probably disintegrate with the way I wash my things. 😅

Sometimes it's so hard to find a simple thing. I don't know if my favourite shop would ship them, but it's a huge hassle for some thread, international delivery...

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@laumapret @sinituulia since my favourite cotton thread seems to be sold only in Italy, and I have friends who want to try handsewing and live elsewhere in Europe, I've just bought from an haberdashery website in Czechia a spool of Amann cotton thread, and right now it has passed my very basic “better than the flimsy stuff that Guetermann passes for cotton sewing thread”, but I haven't used it properly yet.

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@sinituulia @laumapret sartor sells silk ribbon, but I think only in a wider size, and it's *delicate*, I wouldn't use it on underwear, unless I wanted to bother with removing it every time it gets washed (which I think is historically accurate, but also I'm not doing historically accurate laundry, OK?)

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

@valhalla @laumapret The normal Gütermann cotton thread is trash, but the nice thick one that costs at least twice as much? Heaven. I have no idea why it isn't sold everywhere, it's great!

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@sinituulia @laumapret oh! I didn't even know that they had it!