Ok. I have my linen. I can do this now. I am so excited. I have been wanting to make a shift for 2 years. I am finishing a dress for my daughter all hand sewn so I now feel like I can do the hand stiches for the shift. The pattern drafting is still scary but I can go back and watch the videos again.
I DID IT!!!! It took about a month but I finished my first handmade shift. Thank you Burnley and Trowbridge but especially Christina, for the step by step easy instruction. I’m so glad you left in all of her hilarious comments!!!😅😂🎉😊
Thank you Burnley and Trowbridge for organizing and producing these Sew A Longs. Besides the great instructors, the whole concept has been a really helpful means of learning while spending time (a lot of time) at home. Can't wait to start the Bed Gown!
My daughter wants to make a shift such as this & shared your videos with me. I have to say, your teaching method & skill is very impressive to watch. I haven't used my hand stitching skills since I was a teenager, other than to bind my quilts. I would no way, no how, ever have believed I would consider making a completely hand sewn shift, especially in my late 60's, not with my old eyes! Haha Your teaching skills are excellent & I will be helping my daughter to learn to make her shift using your methods. Thank you so much for sharing/teaching your skills to your viewers!! Love your work! ❤
How many ways can Christine avoid using an actual tape measure? LOL! Thank you once again for all of these wonderful sew-alongs. I'm finally doing historical sewing while you virtually hold my hand!
Another fantastic video! Thank you so much for putting so much detail into these sew-alongs. I've gained the confidence to begin historical sewing for the first time thanks to this series. Can't wait for bedgowns!
I really learned alot from this series and truly appreciate the detail you gave on each step. I must admit, I wanted it to go faster during some of it, but I later learned why it was best to go more slowly and get the detail correct. I loved the ending with you saying...'I'm going to pick that up, I did alot of work on that.' I was surprised when you let it fall to the floor. I was yelling, Oh, Nooooo, after all that work! You make learning fun and easy and I really appreciated it very much. Thank you so much!
Hahaha I am finally to the neck at 10 pm. It has to wait until tomorrow. But I’m really looking forward to finishing my shift! One last part that is it. Thank you so much for walking me through this whole process! You guys are all so amazing!
I'm nearly done with this garment (gotta do up the second sleeve and side seam yet, as well as the neckline), and i would love a remake of this series with better audio and close-ups. I have to turn my audio all the way up to be able to hear what's being said, which means the ads that pop up are SUPER loud. And it would be so nice to get a closer look at what exactly is going on when it comes to manipulating the fabric at the junctures. (I'm watching on my phone, as I'm sure many folks also are.)
We hear you! This was one our early sew alongs. We have learned a good deal about video since then. We will put this on the list and see what we can do!
@BurnleyandTrowbridge thank you for replying! The demonstration of the gores/side seam coming together was great, but I'm actually having a bit of trouble with the reinforcement strips at the shoulders. There's a lot of material there, and I wasn't entirely sure how many layers I was supposed to be trying to get through, or where exactly the strips were supposed to be attached. I've attached one side of the strip to the seam allowance, close to the seam itself, and one to the body of the shift for now. Planning on felling down the flappy edges later. Would be nice to see the finished look for each section of the project.
Having made several of these shifts already, i must say i watched all three instructional videos with fascination. Your instructions are so clear and the camera work showed me all the fiddley places i had struggled with. We were so disappointed to miss fort fredrick this year but at least i got to come to the shape class that i loved. Can't wait for the bed gown class . This was just the inspiration i needed to get down to my sewing room. Thank you christine. Hope i got the name right.
We were sad to miss Ft. Frederick, as well, but are so happy to hear you are enjoying our videos. We are hopeful for our fall workshops and it seems so many of you are supportive of trying out online workshops, so we've got some exciting things coming up for you all (including the bedgown series!)
You've given me the confidence to do this! I'm almost keeping up too :) If we are using two body parts (not cut on the fold....being thrify!), would it be best to skip to cutting the neckline first, then sewing/felling the top shoulder seams...then skip back to adding reinforcements, sleeves, etc? Or is there a better way? Thank you!
Very 18th century of you! ❤️❤️ You want to seam the top shoulder (where the fold would be) first, but seam it towards the outside so it is a smooth finish inside the shift. The top shoulder reinforcement will then go over that just like in the video and you can follow the rest of the instructions as they appear in the video once that's done! Good luck and let us know how it turns out 😁
Thanks for these videos! I just finished my first hand sewn shift, some seams are inside out, but as all the seams are finished....it doesn’t really matter. Be well!
Thank you for doing this series. Everything went great until the neck where I made it a little bigger than I intended. I still have to do the roll hem but the neckline is already at the edge of the stays. I am trying to decide if I should just go for it and embrace the boobage or add a binding to the neckline to give it a bit more width. This is for Ren Fair so I suppose decollatge isn't going to be an issue but of course I need to worry about it.
I'm gonna rewatch the shift Q&A videos too, but I planned to cut my front and back body pieces separately (instead of on the fold) to conserve fabric and now facing the fact I need to figure out how to seam the top of the shoulders to put the reinforcement strips on before the sleeves but still cut the neckline after w/o cutting a seam. I'll figure it out, but I doubt I'm the only one getting to this video and going wait, when do I do the shoulders?
So you occasionally see shirts that are seamed at the shoulder. They have the shoulder reinforcement strip. Since you will be putting that strip to the outside I would suggest doing your seam wrong side to wrong side which will then "bury" the seam and you won't have to finish it. Otherwise you would do it to the inside, fell it down and then still put the reinforcement strip over the seam.
@@BurnleyandTrowbridge Thanks! I'm slowly working on cutting my pieces for my first shift, the thread pulling is slow going, so I have time to think it over. Leaning to taking your first suggestion and seaming the wrong sides together.
This video series has been super helpful! However, the volume is so soft that I have to turn the volume on UA-cam, my computer and my speakers ALLLLL the way up to hear. The ads then blast my ear drums.
I just finished making my first shift (I used the American Duchess/Simplicity pattern since I'm more comfortable with paper patterns at this point, I plan to make another one using my own measurements soon!) and based on the pattern and watching some other shift making videos, I put my gores in so the right angles on the triangles are back to back instead of the slanted edge. This way I ended up with a straight hem all the way around instead of a wonky point. However, I wanted to know if this alternative construction is just a personal preference/modern pattern alteration or if people actually put their gores in both ways just depending on how they felt like it. You do end up with a straight grain seamed to a bias angle too, so that seems to help with the stretching of the seam as well.
Hi, the difficulty in using an edge cut off grain to an edge cut on grain is it is difficult not to have the one off grain grown and pucker in the seam. If you do it the other way, although you have a point, when laid flat it is a straight edge. Hope this helps.
All these sew alongs have made me so happy and giving me the confidence to finally make my first garment, which will be a shift just like this one! About how many hours do you think is average to expect to take to do this? I'm a beginning hand sewist (aside from small patches and what I now know to be really terrible running stitches lol) and just trying to plan my project/timing and such. Thank you so much for these videos!
Christina here chiming in- having timed some of my shifts and shirts, I usually clock somewhere around 1-1.25 hrs per stiches to the inch. So for a shirt with 22 stitches to the inch I would expect around 22 hrs. I'd add 15-20% to that time if you aren't very comfortable stitching (but also consider working at a lower number of stitches to the inch until you feel more confident 😁) Your milage may vary, but this has been my experience.
Is there a way to make the shift wider from under the arm gussets to the gores on the side seams? In case it's not wide enough for the bust but fine everywhere else.
So my sleeve reinforcements are only long enough to go around the sleeve and not to make that little 'Y' aling the side seam. Should I just continue as normal, or cut a new one out? The reinforcements only touch at the inside corners when pinned onto the sleeve.
Do you guys have any suggestions for folks like me, whose hips are SIGNIFICANTLY larger than the rest of their measurements? Because I just finished my whole shift and tried it on to cut the neckline, only to find that it is very, very snug across the hips/belly. Are there extant examples with gores starting higher up on the side seam?
With the sleeve reinforcement do you just pin and work one side of the sleeve at a time? I’m struggling to get it to light up and stay put but not pin through all the layers right now...
The sleeve reinforcement is on the inside of the shift. You pin in place with the raw edges of the joining seam covered and fell in place from the wrong side. This will give you a small prick on the outside
Burnley and Trowbridge Co. thank you! I figured it out the first one just looks like a mess but the second is much cleaner! Thank you again for the wonderful videos.
@@BurnleyandTrowbridge So is the fabric cut in one piece? Mine is not so do I have to sew the front side and back side of the body together from where the neck is going to be?
@@RT-wm3wb yes if you have cut a front and back you will have to sew your shoulder seams first. To keep it smooth on the inside, you can seam wrong side to wrong side. Iron the seam open and then lay the reinforcement strip over it.
For clarification, the shoulder reinforcement goes on the outside and stitched down like a ribbon, the sleeve reinforcement goes on the inside like bias tape. Am I understanding correctly?
Just curious, do you think it would look alright to add pockets to this? Or would it mess with the shape? Im sewing along with the tutorial but im jusy going to wear this as a nightgown but pockets would be amazing!
Hi, I know this is over a year old, but could you tell me why you need shoulder reinforcements when there is no shoulder seam? I'm not understanding. thanks!
Great question. The reinforcements seemed to be common practice because that was a wear point in the shift. In the 18thc linen was woven in widths that were used for making shifts and shirts, so there was no waste and folding over the fabric rather then cutting and seaming made sense, however shifts and shirts still had stress and wear at the shoulder point and the armscye, thus the extra reinforcement.
Stephanie N If it is at the shoulder, go ahead and seam it just like the rest of your seams. Your reinforcement strip will hide the seam, so no worries.
Ok. I have my linen. I can do this now. I am so excited. I have been wanting to make a shift for 2 years. I am finishing a dress for my daughter all hand sewn so I now feel like I can do the hand stiches for the shift. The pattern drafting is still scary but I can go back and watch the videos again.
My fingers are itching to sew a complete set of 18th century underpinning, a wrapper, and bed gown. These sew a long videos are great.
Awesome project. Beautiful garment and beautiful handwork. Thank you for sharing this.
I DID IT!!!! It took about a month but I finished my first handmade shift. Thank you Burnley and Trowbridge but especially Christina, for the step by step easy instruction. I’m so glad you left in all of her hilarious comments!!!😅😂🎉😊
Wonderful!! We hope you love it
Thank you Burnley and Trowbridge for organizing and producing these Sew A Longs. Besides the great instructors, the whole concept has been a really helpful means of learning while spending time (a lot of time) at home. Can't wait to start the Bed Gown!
"I just don't feel we are that close yet." made me laugh out loud. Also, great series, thank you.
My daughter wants to make a shift such as this & shared your videos with me. I have to say, your teaching method & skill is very impressive to watch. I haven't used my hand stitching skills since I was a teenager, other than to bind my quilts. I would no way, no how, ever have believed I would consider making a completely hand sewn shift, especially in my late 60's, not with my old eyes! Haha Your teaching skills are excellent & I will be helping my daughter to learn to make her shift using your methods. Thank you so much for sharing/teaching your skills to your viewers!! Love your work! ❤
How many ways can Christine avoid using an actual tape measure? LOL! Thank you once again for all of these wonderful sew-alongs. I'm finally doing historical sewing while you virtually hold my hand!
Another fantastic video! Thank you so much for putting so much detail into these sew-alongs. I've gained the confidence to begin historical sewing for the first time thanks to this series. Can't wait for bedgowns!
I really learned alot from this series and truly appreciate the detail you gave on each step. I must admit, I wanted it to go faster during some of it, but I later learned why it was best to go more slowly and get the detail correct. I loved the ending with you saying...'I'm going to pick that up, I did alot of work on that.' I was surprised when you let it fall to the floor. I was yelling, Oh, Nooooo, after all that work! You make learning fun and easy and I really appreciated it very much. Thank you so much!
Please do a Stays sew a long 🙏
We will be doing an online workshop! Stay tuned!
@@BurnleyandTrowbridge yay!!!!
I'm loving the series!
Thank you!
Hahaha I am finally to the neck at 10 pm. It has to wait until tomorrow. But I’m really looking forward to finishing my shift! One last part that is it. Thank you so much for walking me through this whole process! You guys are all so amazing!
I'm nearly done with this garment (gotta do up the second sleeve and side seam yet, as well as the neckline), and i would love a remake of this series with better audio and close-ups. I have to turn my audio all the way up to be able to hear what's being said, which means the ads that pop up are SUPER loud. And it would be so nice to get a closer look at what exactly is going on when it comes to manipulating the fabric at the junctures. (I'm watching on my phone, as I'm sure many folks also are.)
We hear you! This was one our early sew alongs. We have learned a good deal about video since then. We will put this on the list and see what we can do!
@BurnleyandTrowbridge thank you for replying!
The demonstration of the gores/side seam coming together was great, but I'm actually having a bit of trouble with the reinforcement strips at the shoulders. There's a lot of material there, and I wasn't entirely sure how many layers I was supposed to be trying to get through, or where exactly the strips were supposed to be attached. I've attached one side of the strip to the seam allowance, close to the seam itself, and one to the body of the shift for now. Planning on felling down the flappy edges later.
Would be nice to see the finished look for each section of the project.
@@clearlyrebecca if you can send me a picture of what you have done to info@burnleyandtrowbridge.com I can help further.
Having made several of these shifts already, i must say i watched all three instructional videos with fascination. Your instructions are so clear and the camera work showed me all the fiddley places i had struggled with. We were so disappointed to miss fort fredrick this year but at least i got to come to the shape class that i loved. Can't wait for the bed gown class . This was just the inspiration i needed to get down to my sewing room. Thank you christine. Hope i got the name right.
We were sad to miss Ft. Frederick, as well, but are so happy to hear you are enjoying our videos. We are hopeful for our fall workshops and it seems so many of you are supportive of trying out online workshops, so we've got some exciting things coming up for you all (including the bedgown series!)
You've given me the confidence to do this! I'm almost keeping up too :) If we are using two body parts (not cut on the fold....being thrify!), would it be best to skip to cutting the neckline first, then sewing/felling the top shoulder seams...then skip back to adding reinforcements, sleeves, etc? Or is there a better way? Thank you!
Very 18th century of you! ❤️❤️ You want to seam the top shoulder (where the fold would be) first, but seam it towards the outside so it is a smooth finish inside the shift. The top shoulder reinforcement will then go over that just like in the video and you can follow the rest of the instructions as they appear in the video once that's done! Good luck and let us know how it turns out 😁
I'm doing this same thing, and just exactly at the shoulder seam. Pure serendipity that I scrolled down to see this!
Thanks for these videos! I just finished my first hand sewn shift, some seams are inside out, but as all the seams are finished....it doesn’t really matter. Be well!
We’ve all done it! No worries! Glad you are enjoying the process!
Thank you for doing this series. Everything went great until the neck where I made it a little bigger than I intended. I still have to do the roll hem but the neckline is already at the edge of the stays. I am trying to decide if I should just go for it and embrace the boobage or add a binding to the neckline to give it a bit more width. This is for Ren Fair so I suppose decollatge isn't going to be an issue but of course I need to worry about it.
Leave it. Even being wide once your stays are in place the shift will be fine.
I'm gonna rewatch the shift Q&A videos too, but I planned to cut my front and back body pieces separately (instead of on the fold) to conserve fabric and now facing the fact I need to figure out how to seam the top of the shoulders to put the reinforcement strips on before the sleeves but still cut the neckline after w/o cutting a seam.
I'll figure it out, but I doubt I'm the only one getting to this video and going wait, when do I do the shoulders?
So you occasionally see shirts that are seamed at the shoulder. They have the shoulder reinforcement strip. Since you will be putting that strip to the outside I would suggest doing your seam wrong side to wrong side which will then "bury" the seam and you won't have to finish it. Otherwise you would do it to the inside, fell it down and then still put the reinforcement strip over the seam.
@@BurnleyandTrowbridge Thanks! I'm slowly working on cutting my pieces for my first shift, the thread pulling is slow going, so I have time to think it over. Leaning to taking your first suggestion and seaming the wrong sides together.
This video series has been super helpful! However, the volume is so soft that I have to turn the volume on UA-cam, my computer and my speakers ALLLLL the way up to hear. The ads then blast my ear drums.
We have continued to work on our sound and visuals. We hope you will find our later videos louder.
I just finished making my first shift (I used the American Duchess/Simplicity pattern since I'm more comfortable with paper patterns at this point, I plan to make another one using my own measurements soon!) and based on the pattern and watching some other shift making videos, I put my gores in so the right angles on the triangles are back to back instead of the slanted edge. This way I ended up with a straight hem all the way around instead of a wonky point. However, I wanted to know if this alternative construction is just a personal preference/modern pattern alteration or if people actually put their gores in both ways just depending on how they felt like it. You do end up with a straight grain seamed to a bias angle too, so that seems to help with the stretching of the seam as well.
Hi, the difficulty in using an edge cut off grain to an edge cut on grain is it is difficult not to have the one off grain grown and pucker in the seam. If you do it the other way, although you have a point, when laid flat it is a straight edge. Hope this helps.
All these sew alongs have made me so happy and giving me the confidence to finally make my first garment, which will be a shift just like this one! About how many hours do you think is average to expect to take to do this? I'm a beginning hand sewist (aside from small patches and what I now know to be really terrible running stitches lol) and just trying to plan my project/timing and such. Thank you so much for these videos!
It can really vary depending on your speed.
Christina here chiming in- having timed some of my shifts and shirts, I usually clock somewhere around 1-1.25 hrs per stiches to the inch. So for a shirt with 22 stitches to the inch I would expect around 22 hrs. I'd add 15-20% to that time if you aren't very comfortable stitching (but also consider working at a lower number of stitches to the inch until you feel more confident 😁)
Your milage may vary, but this has been my experience.
Is there a way to make the shift wider from under the arm gussets to the gores on the side seams? In case it's not wide enough for the bust but fine everywhere else.
Cutting with a larger width to start (so sizing up your linen width) is the way this was done in the period.
So my sleeve reinforcements are only long enough to go around the sleeve and not to make that little 'Y' aling the side seam. Should I just continue as normal, or cut a new one out? The reinforcements only touch at the inside corners when pinned onto the sleeve.
If you have not sewn them in place, go ahead and cut larger ones.
Do you guys have any suggestions for folks like me, whose hips are SIGNIFICANTLY larger than the rest of their measurements? Because I just finished my whole shift and tried it on to cut the neckline, only to find that it is very, very snug across the hips/belly. Are there extant examples with gores starting higher up on the side seam?
Susanna White a more exaggerated angle will allow you to gain more width in the hips without extending the shoulders.
With the sleeve reinforcement do you just pin and work one side of the sleeve at a time? I’m struggling to get it to light up and stay put but not pin through all the layers right now...
The sleeve reinforcement is on the inside of the shift. You pin in place with the raw edges of the joining seam covered and fell in place from the wrong side. This will give you a small prick on the outside
Burnley and Trowbridge Co. thank you! I figured it out the first one just looks like a mess but the second is much cleaner! Thank you again for the wonderful videos.
Is the felling on the inside or the outside of the shift? Thanks
Inside!
I don't understand the shoulder part. Are the shoulder seams already stiched before adding the inforcement straps?
There is not a shoulder seam, but where the fabric is folded at the shoulder, that is where the reinforcement strips are applied.
@@BurnleyandTrowbridge So is the fabric cut in one piece? Mine is not so do I have to sew the front side and back side of the body together from where the neck is going to be?
@@RT-wm3wb yes if you have cut a front and back you will have to sew your shoulder seams first. To keep it smooth on the inside, you can seam wrong side to wrong side. Iron the seam open and then lay the reinforcement strip over it.
@@BurnleyandTrowbridge Thanks for help!
For clarification, the shoulder reinforcement goes on the outside and stitched down like a ribbon, the sleeve reinforcement goes on the inside like bias tape. Am I understanding correctly?
The shoulder reinforcement goes on the outside, armscye reinforcement on the inside.
Just curious, do you think it would look alright to add pockets to this? Or would it mess with the shape? Im sewing along with the tutorial but im jusy going to wear this as a nightgown but pockets would be amazing!
You can certainly do your own thing. Turn it into a shift dres!
Hi, I know this is over a year old, but could you tell me why you need shoulder reinforcements when there is no shoulder seam? I'm not understanding. thanks!
Great question. The reinforcements seemed to be common practice because that was a wear point in the shift. In the 18thc linen was woven in widths that were used for making shifts and shirts, so there was no waste and folding over the fabric rather then cutting and seaming made sense, however shifts and shirts still had stress and wear at the shoulder point and the armscye, thus the extra reinforcement.
@@BurnleyandTrowbridge I see. Thank you for answering! :)
Can you use the shift as a nightgown?
Sure!
I made a mistake in Part One and cut my shift body on the fold. Is there a way to salvage all of the work I've already put in?
Stephanie N If it is at the shoulder, go ahead and seam it just like the rest of your seams. Your reinforcement strip will hide the seam, so no worries.