Update!

I am nearly done my chemise now. After a few construction hang-ups the chemise is now fully assembled. I have a few seams to finish and it needs hemming, but I'm nearly there. Will be posting pictures when it is complete. The entire garment is hand-sewn and hand finished, with blackwork embroidery on the collar and cuffs. I used some very narrow generic ribbon onto which I threaded some small metal beads.....I noticed on a lot of portraits that the ties on partlets and chemises seemed to be very delicate and almost decorative rather than functional.......I added the beads as an aesthetic feature and then realised that they add a good weight to the ties that makes a bow hold better.

The aforementioned construction hangups were a result of my own gaffs....starting to attach a cuff and then noticing that it is on backwards, beginning to assemble a cuff before applying the interfacing and belatedly realising that I had marked the wrong side of a sleeve and having to erase and re-transfer all the marks to the appropriate side. Most of these could have been avoided if I remembered my own rule of stopping to breathe before moving on to the next step. One problem I have that is a constant for me is sleeve setting. This has always been difficult for me, but I ran into one problem that with this patten that made the sleeve setting even more difficult. When I went to attach the sleeves I realised that the marks on the body were completely wrong for the sleeves, nothing I did made them work. If I matched the dots, the shoulder was too big for the opening....if I matched the shoulder the bottom of the chemise was over two inches off. I gave in to a moment of pure frustration and then set it by starting at the bottom of the garment and working my way up, inserting the sleeve as I went. When the gathers were pulled and everything was pinned the sleeve set almost perfectly with very little adjustment. The second sleeve was more difficult ( maybe because I was tired) and after fussing with it for a while I decided that it was in as good as I could get it. I will find out tomorrow if it worked when I hang it on my dress form. I notice that I have very little patience as I near the end of any chemise/shirt project. I think it's because they do take sooo long when done by hand, if there is one item I would have no problem doing certain seams on a machine, its a chemise.

All problems aside I think the finished product will look pretty good, if not technically perfect. The embroidery turned out lovely although I do wish I could have used something other than dnc floss. The pattern I used is beautiful and perfect for a ladies chemise....I honestly think it may be my favorite one yet, both aesthetically and for ease. Once I hit my stride with this pattern it almost worked itself.....of course I always transfer the pattern to the fabric before working it, I'm all about making life easier. The wrist ruffles turned out nice after what felt like endless narrow hems and a small line of black stitching done at the very edge. From a few impromptu fittings in the construction process it seems to fit very well.....but the proof is in the pudding and I won't know for sure until tomorrow when I turn it right side out and try it on. Everything going according to plan I should be able to finish it by the beginning of next week!

Lesson Learned

I learned a valuable lesson this past week. I have started work on my chemise( I will refer to a shift, smock or similar undergarment as a chemise for easier reading) and was trucking along wonderfully. The collar was fully embroidered and ready to be assembled by Friday. I decided to check the fit, even though I thought I had cut it to my measurements. Good thing I did, because the collar was several eighth's of an inch TO SMALL! SO, all that embroidery work went down the drain and I had to start over from scratch. This time I made sure it was going fit BEFORE I embroidered the new collar. The sad part is that I know this, I just got a little carried away by how smoothly everything was going that I didn't think to test the fit first. So much for keeping up the momentum. Ce la vie! I'm back on track now with the new collar, it only took me the weekend to redo everything. Have to pick up some decent interfacing and I can get to work assembling and attaching the collar to the body. I am hoping that the new collar size will work with the body size without too much adjustment. This is a new pattern for me so I am glad that I am the test dummy and not doing this for a friend! I found a beautiful embroidery pattern...I think from the blackwork archives (need to check that!) and will be posting some pictures at a later date of the completed chemise. The act of posting pictures and I are still not good friends yet!