The next step in my Regency sewing adventure (and the thing that should have been first) - a chemise! Regency chemises are fairly simple garments. Washable and worn next to the skin, they kept dirt, sweat, oils, etc, from getting onto less washable clothing.
[Note: This is actually my third attempt at making a Regency chemise. Chemise 1.0 was somehow WAY too short. Chemise 2.0 was so narrow that I couldn’t get it on over my shoulders (whoops). I was planning on fixing it by adding panels down the center front and making it Chemise 2.1, but somehow I lost the left and right parts. (The center panels-to-be are being repurposed as part of my petticoat!)]
I meant to follow this tutorial from “St Andrew’s Rare Books,” but things got a bit out of hand. It's a good guide, though! The page provides cutting instructions, but I disregarded those - in part because I had already reworked the measurements from chemise 2.0, and in part because I wasn’t working with a continuous cut of fabric. Two or so years ago I bought a bunch of muslin for my chemise, stays, and petticoat, but things have since been used and cut up for other purposes (like chemises 1.0 and 2.0). I did some math and measuring and managed to cut the chemise from some of the left over muslin.
In the end, all I used from the tutorial was the basic pattern shapes - front and back bodies, four side gores, two sleeves, and two underarm gussets.
Then, to speed things along, I did all the seams by machine. Gussets were attached to the sleeves. Gores went on to each side of the front and back, and those got attached at the shoulders. Then I attached the sleeves and did up the sides. I only realized after the fact that I had attached the sleeves inside out (sigh), but decided I didn’t care enough to fix it. It'll be worn under other things.
Then I hand felled all the seams, the hem, and the ends of the sleeves. I used leftover bias tape from my short stays to finish the neckline and add a drawstring channel all at once, leaving an opening at center front. I threaded that with some grosgrain ribbon, washed and ironed it, and TA-DA! A chemise!
Now, clearly this was a learning experience (I mean, it took me three attempts to make a fairly simple garment), so here’s some things I wish I had taken into account earlier.
1) Make sure the width at the bottom of the underarm gussets is wide enough to get your shoulders through and then some.
2) Don’t make the side gores perfect triangles - make the top “point” flat, as wide as the seam allowances for both sides plus a bit of breathing room. That'll ensure you aren't trying to merge seams, because that was complicated.
3) Fell your seams as you go! Doing the seams all in one go and then felling got a bit complicated when seams overlapped. It wasn’t too bad, but I would have gone a bit easier if I hadn’t done that. And a note: I have no idea what you’re supposed to do when felling where the side seam splits for the sleeve, and it seems lots of other people don’t either. Fake it till you make it!
Stay warm, stay safe, stay dry.
Alexandra