Shift, chemise, undershirt, or what you will

 What do you do, when realize like two days before the pallned photosession, that the linen summerdress you use in place for a shift has a neckline that is way too high? 

Yeah, sew one. 

I tried to read back, but I only found a fleeting mention of the summerdress I used as a shift. I bought it off from facebook, as you know, it was white and linen, which two reason would be enough for me to by something, ut it also looked deceptively like an 18th century shift. So much so, that when I got it, and it was hanging on the door of my sewing room, Norbert asked "What is that?" "What does it looks like? A linen summerdress" I replied. "But doesn1t it look like a historical undershirt?" "Right, sweetheart, that is exactly why I bought it!". And I used that happily under the red dress, but now, sewing the aidah gown I knew the neckline is too high, besides, I did wanted to sew a "proper" shift for a while. 

I had the light linen fabric, I mentioned here, the one I bought as a factory (even store) reject, as it was dirty, crumpled, etc, but I washed it. The smaller piece was used for that victorian corsetcover, and I used the bigger piece for this shift.

I did check the Simplicity 8579 pattern by American Duchess, only to realize that the package I have is for the smaller sizes. However, it is basically rectangles, triangles, so I took my existing dress/shift, compared to the pattern, and drew up a new one for more or less my size. 

As I started it like 10 PM, and wanted to finish it as soon as possible, I don't have many pictures of the construction. And as straighforwards as it is not much to tell about it either, but in the name of regular blogging here you go. 

As usual, I sewn the major lines with the machine, but tacked down by hand.

I know, proper french seams, and felling stitches would be more historically accurate, but I did not wanted any machine seams show, even on the inside of the shift.

Perfect points of the underarm gusset.

Hem is sewn down by a... whatever the stitch is called (is it ladder, prick or hemstitch or something else?) Anyhow, back many, many years ago, my mother used it to repair a jacket for me, and I love it. 

The neckline is finished with a bias strip, once again, I know that turning down the edge is perfectly HA, I love how nicely it lies down. 

Thats it. A one day affair, even with all that handstitching, who know, maybe sometimes I will sew a whole shift by hand, just for the heck of it.