The Fabric of Time

I've been sewing for most of my life; I have more than 20 years of sewing experience. I always knew how to repair clothing, and have frequently altered my own clothing as well, so I have built up quite a bit of experience doing repairs and alterations. I believe in having good quality clothing and keeping it in good condition so that it can be used for many years, which is why I repair my own and my family's clothing. I've never bothered to take pictures, but I'm beginning to realize just how valuable it is to be able to do seemingly simple alterations and repairs that I've always thought of as unimportant and utilitarian. I've patched many pairs of jeans and shirts for my uncle over the years, maintaining my grandmother's frugal tradition, and I'm really proud of keeping my uncle's work clothes in continued use until they fall apart and can't be mended anymore.  I have also altered and repaired fancy clothing, such as prom gowns and bridesm...

When I offered to repair a friend's shirt that had a large hole in the side, he asked me if I could embroider a stag on it as well. This is a very unconventional way to repair torn clothing, but it is unique and fit exactly what the owner wanted. I'm not good at embroidery, so it took a long time. The fabric is very thin, sheer polyester and did not show markings very well, but I managed to draw the outline with a pencil. Then, I used a chain stitch to embroider the design with standard cotton embroidery thread. I added the arrows freehand. I also repaired or replaced some of the original embroidered designs on the front as this much-loved shirt has seen years of wear and tear.

I made this shirt for a friend who gave me some weaving lessons and a 4-heddle table loom (!!!!). He requested a generic mid-19th century shirt that he could use for a range of time periods when giving weaving demonstrations. I chose to make a square-cut shirt inspired by 18th century styles, which, in retrospect, was probably not a good choice for mid-18th century, but it's passable. I used sturdy 100% cotton, machine sewed the long seams, and hand stitched much of the finishing.  Here's an underarm gusset with hand-sewn flat-felling on the seams. Interfacing on the shoulders to cover the armscye seams and add reinforcement 1/2 inch hand sewn hem Another view of the hem Triangle gussets at the side vents near the hem--adds strength and stability Cuffs with stroke gathered sleeves--these are very 18th century, but look so nice that I wanted to use the technique for this 19th century shirt. Still accurate, but maybe machine sewn cuffs would be ...