Full circle

In late June 2010 I ordered a fantastic piece of "Kermit-the-Frog green" bargain linen.  By August I had decided on a project, and now I am pleased to announce it is finally DONE.  And the peasants rejoiced.



This gown, based on images in the Maciejowski Bible, is linen, 100% hand-sewn with silk thread, and all seams are finished.  The Shirt of St. Louis, an extant garment from the same time period, supports the use of a shaped armscye.

The last bit of finishing was invisible stitching around the armscye.  I used functional embroidery (chain stitch in gold buttonhole silk thread) on the cuffs, neckline, and skirt hem to replace the tacky neon green polyester whip stitches, but I didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to my armpits, you know?  Invisible stitches are pretty tedious.  On the inside of my garment you can see that I did them in a zig-zag pattern, which should, in theory, be a bit more stable than just a line of stitching, but for each stitch I only caught one thread of the weave on the top layer of fabric.  As long as the color of the thread isn't in ultra-dramatic contrast to the color of the fabric, the topside stitching won't be detected by anyone standing a respectful distance from the person wearing the garment.

Inside (left) and outside (right) view of invisible stitches.

On a side note, it's amazing how good it feels to take a seam ripper to icky polyester thread on a finished piece of linen garb.

So ... only a year to finish a hand-sewn garment : \

I guess I have a new challenge before me: see how long it takes to crank out another hand-sewn garment without taking several-week-long breaks between major project phases.  I'm leaning toward a front- or side-lacing sleeveless kirtle in natural linen.  Come on, weekend!