A Regency Chemise: Completed

Once I'd unpicked the sleeve from the neckhole, it was pretty simple to finish. The gussets are wonderful. I serged all my raw edges to prevent fraying but ran out of thread on one of the loopers and of course had no replacement cones (if you have a serger you know exactly what this feels like...). I made the bias tape neckline a bit on the narrow side by sewing it with a 3/8" seam, when it should have been 1/4", but I was too lazy to pick it out. It'll do. The nice thing about bias tape is that it doesn't fray :)

Aside from stitching the hem, it's done! I may not do that until much later in the future. It's serged, and it'll be under the dresses where no one will ever see them.

On to the pictures!

A Regency Chemise: Trial and Error

My mother and I were going to make Regency (pre-1811) gowns to wear to Worldcon in Reno this summer. We started planning this in 2009. She finished hers; I did not. I already have the gown made (from cotton; complete except for the hem) and the stays (from cotton and... mystery fabric), because I figured a chemise is a chemise and I would make one when I got around to it. Two years later, I'm bit more of a stickler for proper foundation garments, and it was time to make a Regency chemise.

A chemise, or shift, is essentially a T-tunic with varying neckline and sleeves, depending on the time period. It was pretty standard wear for everyone up into 20th century, I'd wager. You wore it against your skin, and it was almost always white. It was easier to remove and wash and bleach your chemise on laundry day rather than your whole wardrobe. Consider, before the advent of the washing machine, you had to scrub and beat your clothing to get the dirt out, and then either hang it on a line or lay it on the ground to dry. Not a fun prospect if you had numerous outfits.

I picked up a medium-weight linen-cotton blend to make the chemise. I love linen to itty bitty pieces; it's a wonderful fabric that is so easy to work with, even if the cut edges tend to fray. And the best part is, it's all natural, made from flax, and breathes wonderfully. Linen is a supremely comfortable fabric.

I'm using Sense & Sensibility's Regency undergarments pattern. This is extra challenging because I've lost the instructions. The pattern itself is very simple: a front, a back, a rectangle for the sleeves, a square cut on the bias for underarm gores, and the width of fabric needed to make self-bias binding for the neckline. I am unsure how deep the hem is, and if I bind the sleeve edges or turn them under.

I've worked with underarm gores before, but I got a little confused on this one. The gore was marked with notches on two sides, corresponding to notches on either end of the sleeve rectangle. The mid point of the sleeve matches the shoulder seam of the body pieces, and the bottom point of the gore will attach to the body to give the arms room to move. It should have been straightforward.

The sleeve. At left is the point of the gore that will attach to the body.

The front neck and top of the shoulder.

As you can probably tell, I chose to sew the sleeve and gore together first, rather than attach the sleeve to the body while both lay flat, and work the gore from there. I wound up attaching the sleeve to the neckline instead.

Oops...

I decided to call it a night and go to bed... 

Adventures in Cooking: Hamburger Soup

The weather has been a little chilly, even for the beginning of September. I wanted a little warmth in my meal. This soup is soup-er easy to prepare, and is very hearty! Serve with cheese toast.

Hamburger Soup
Recipe source.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 4 cups water
• 2 (1 ounce) packages dry onion soup mix
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen mixed vegetables
• 3/4 cup elbow macaroni

Directions

1. In a saute pan, brown ground beef, over medium heat.
2. In a large stock pot, combine broth, water, onion soup mix, tomato sauce, celery, onion, frozen vegetables and macaroni. Bring to a boil and then simmer until macaroni is done.
3. Add browned ground beef, mix and serve.

My Comments

I didn't use any other veggies besides the onion; moose-shaped whole wheat pasta; added some Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper; and a splash of beer. I am definitely going to make this again. Reheats very well!

First Post Jitters.

Thank you for taking the time to read my little corner of the web :3

I have long wanted to start a blog about my sewing projects and perhaps other items that people may find of interest, so I plan to keep this updated with whatever's on my table. Please be forewarned that I am a terrible procrastinator, and many weeks may pass between posts. Hopefully this will also inspire me to document my work with photos more than I have managed in the past.

With thanks to my beloved Joe for the title.