Jim, Joe and Me: A simple chemise (with a little lace)

The brief: A simple chemise, with some nice lacy sleeve detail. Flounce!

The build: A very simple concept, based on four rectangles, with tracks for either ribbon or elastic, dependant on preference.

The fabric: Cream cotton from Birmingham Rag Market, plus some vintage lace from a friend.

Cost and time: £6 per chemise, plus a few hours sewing.

Process: We start with two rectangles for the body, long enough to go to mid-thigh, and wide enough together to go round the body 1 1/2 to 2 times. Plus two rectangles for the sleeves, wide enough to allow for an armscye, plus half again as long as the arm.

The arm pieces need a channel sewing for elastic, and the lace also sewn on.





The lace is rather nice, if a bit over the top.



These arms are then attached to the two body pieces, with no (apparent) space left in the middle.





A channel is sewn at the top of the body pieces to allow for ribbon to tighten the neck. The sides are sewn up using French seams, and the bottom is hemmed.

And here it is on.

Helen: Everyday Doublet

The brief: A sturdy everyday doublet for warmth and for when I can't be bothered to frock up. Also because I already have a doublet mostly made and I want to have a go at fixing it.

The build: Using an old doublet I made many years ago, before I learned about pre-shrinking material. Thus the lining is a slightly different size to the shell, and the whole thing is a little too tight across the shoulders. The plan is to completely detach the sleeves, lengthen them with the pale gold lining (creating fake ribbon joins to the shoulders), and add a slash in each arm to show more pale gold. Then decorate with more ribbon and gold roses, plus ideally sort out the wrinkle issue on the lower edge, and possibly re-scoop the neckline even lower.

The fabric: Burgundy silk dupioni from Edinburgh, plus heavy red cotton lining, woven curtain offcuts for the arms. Adding to this some sale ribbon and tiny gold roses from the Indoor Market, plus some pale gold lining given by a friend.

Cost and time: Almost everything in this project was either offcuts from a paid project (back when I ran Lyonesse Clothing), or on sale. I'd have to estimate the cost, but I think it comes in at about £10 tops. Time is the big factor here, as always.

Process:

First off I ripped the arm seams, taking the arms out of the body. The body was then set aside to work on the arms.



The first step was to take a strip of the pale gold lining and gather it around strips of ribbon decorated with gold roses. This was to give the impression of the sleeves being joined to the body by the ribbons, with a shirt peeking out from beneath.



I cut two slashes in the arm of the doublet, and then filled it with an inset of the pale gold satin and decorated it with a gold rose.





I sewed the gold lining strip to the sleeve and then sewed this into the armhole of the doublet. This gave me the lengthened arms I was hoping for, and made the tightness in the back disappear.

To make this slightly more 'Leaguey' and neater, I also lowered the neckline by an inch, added a ribbon trim to the bottom to hide some old sewing, and added another button and buttonhole at the bottom, to pull everything in.





And the final result: a warm doublet, with enough frill and flounce to be suitable for the League, while also comfortable and easy to move in.