English Paper Piecing, Done Wrong
Posted on September 3, 2025
Tags: madeof:bits
For quite some time, I have been thinking about trying a bit of patchwork, and English Paper Piecing looked like a technique suited to my tastes, with the handsewing involved and the fact of having a paper pattern of sort and everything.
The problem is, most of the scraps of fabric I get from my sewing aren’t really suitable for quilting, with a lot of them being either too black and too thick or too white and too thin.
On the other hand, my partner wears polo shirts at work, and while I try to mend the holes that form, after a while the edges get worn, and they just are no longer suitable for the office, even with some creative mending, and they get downgraded to home wear. But then more office shirts need to be bought, and the home ones accumulate, and there is only so much room for polo shirts in the house, and the worst ones end up in my creative reuse pile.
Some parts are worn out and they will end up as cabbage stuffing for things, but some are still in decent enough conditions and could be used as fabric.
But surely, for English Paper Piecing you’d need woven fabric, not knit, even if it’s the dense piqué used in polo shirts, right? Especially if it’s your first attempt at the technique, right?
Well, probably it wouldn’t work with complex shapes, but what about some 5-ish cm tall Standard Compliant bestagon? So I printed out some hexagons on thick paper, printed some bigger hexagons with sewing allowance as a cutting aid, found two shirts in the least me colours I could find (and one in grey because it was the best match for the other two) and decided to sacrifice them for the experiment.
And as long as the paper was still in the pieces, the work went nicely, so I persevered while trying to postpone the Moment of Truth.
After a while I measured things out and saw that I could squeeze a 6.5 × 7 hexagon pattern into something resembling a square that was a multiple of the 2.5 cm square on the back of my Piecepack tiles, and decided to go for another Standard for the back (because of course I wasn’t going to buy new fabric for lining the work).
I kept the paper in the pieces until both sides were ready, and used it to sew them right sides together, leaving the usual opening in the middle of one side.
Then I pressed, removed the paper, turned everything inside out, pressed again and. It worked!
The hexagons look like hexagons, the squares look like squares, the whole thing feels soft and drapey, but structurally sound. And it’s a bit lumpy, but not enough to cause issues when using it as a soft surface to put over a noisy wooden table to throw dice on.
I considered adding some lightweight batting in the middle, but there was really no need for it, and wondered about how to quilt the piece in a way that worked with the patterns on the two sides, but for something this small it wasn’t really required.
However, I decided to add a buttonhole stitch border on all edges, to close the opening I had left and to reinforce especially the small triangles on the hexagons side, as those had a smaller sewing allowance and could use it.
And of course, the 11 × 11 squares side wasn’t completely an accident, but part of A Plan.
For this project there isn’t really a pattern, but I did publish the files I used to print the paper pieceseven if they were pretty trivial.
And there are more polo shirts in that pile, and while they won’t be suitable for anything complex, maybe I could try some rhombs, or even kites and darts?
E mi sono accorta che è un po' che non aggiorno sullo stato dei progetti craftosi.
Ho ripreso in mano uno scialle ai ferri con un filato *molto* sottile che avevo iniziato nel 2022, quando aveva questa faccia:
e adesso ha lo stesso aspetto, ma *di più*.
Ho provato a mettere giù un piano e credo di riuscire a finirlo per la fine di settembre: le altre volte mi sono stancata prima e sono passata ad altro, ma stavolta vedo la fine, e vorrei davvero arrivarci!
(al momento sono anche riuscita a portarmi avanti di 8 giorni rispetto al piano, quindi c'è speranza)
Sono anche andata avanti con la camicia ispirata allo hemd del XVI secolo che ho iniziato (controlla gli appunti) 3 mesi fa: è interamente assemblata, devo finire l'orlo in basso e lo smocking sulle maniche, e poi decidere cosa fare per i bottoni, quindi spero di riuscire a finire anche quella entro la fine di settembre, e poi posso iniziare uno degli altri progetti che ho in coda!
Ho appena iniziato a cucire a mano uno zaino, quindi non ho bisogno di un altro progetto di cucito a mano, vero?Ecco…
Con lo zaino sono ad un punto in cui ho bisogno di pensare, ed oggi non è cosa, e poi è un tipo di cucito abbastanza fisicamente impegnativo, per cul il piano era di avere qualcosa di meno faticoso con cui alternarlo.
Avrei potuto fare qualcosa di facile e veloce? ovviamente no :D
E invece avere a che fare con quattro metri e mezzo di stoffa, orlarla e raccoglierla tutta in qualcosa come 36 cm? Più nel mio stile :D
Quindi ho deciso di farmi una camicia seguendo le istruzioni per una camicia tedesca del XVI secolo, usando però del voile di cotone e accorciandola leggermente in modo da poterla infilare nei jeans alla bisogna.
https://katafalk.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/patternmaking-for-the-kampfrau-hemd-chemise/
Status attuale: fare tutto l'orlo superiore.
Meanwhile, it's been a while since my last thread on crafting.
I've picked back up #knitting a shawl from *very fine* yarn that I started in 2022, when it looked like this:
and now looks exactly the same, but *a lot more*.
Now I have written down a plan and I think I can finish it by the end of September: it's longer than the usual time before I get bored with it and move to something else, but now that I can actually see the end I really want to do it!
(right now I have picked up a 8 days buffer, so there is hope)
Also, I've kept going on with the 16th century hemd inspired shirt I started (check notes 3 months ago: it's structurally done, I need to finish the bottom hem and the smocking at the sleeves, and then sort out buttons, so I hope that one too will be finished by the end of September, and then I can start some other project I have in the queue!
I've just started handsewing a backpack, so I don't really need another handsewing project, right?well…
the backpack is at a stage where I have to think, and today I'm not really able to think, and also it's somewhat heavy sewing, and sometimes I'd prefer to do something lighter, so my plan was to have a second project to alternate it with.
something quick and easy, right? of course not :D
what about dealing with 4.5 meters of lightweight fabric, hemming all of it and then bringing it down to 36ish cm? That's more like it :D
I've decided to make a shirt by following the instructions for a 16th century hemd, except in cotton voile, and a bit shorter so that I can tuck it into my jeans if I want.
https://katafalk.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/patternmaking-for-the-kampfrau-hemd-chemise/
Current stage: hemming all of the top edge.
#sewing #handsewing #historyBounding
16th century German – hemd / chemise
So I have spoken about my new 16th century German chemise/shirt, and I have also documented the whole process of making it so that I can show you how it is made. This hemd goes under the name of …katafalk.wordpress.com
1840s Underwear
Posted on August 25, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, FreeSoftWear
A bit more than a year ago, I had been thinking about making myself a cartridge pleated skirt. For a number of reasons, one of which is the historybounding potential, I’ve been thinking pre-crinoline, so somewhere around the 1840s, and that’s a completely new era for me, which means: new underwear.
Also, the 1840s are pre-sewing machine, and I was already in a position where I had more chances to handsew than to machine sew, so I decided to embrace the slowness and sew 100% by hand, not even using the machine for straight seams.
If I remember correctly, I started with the corded petticoat, looking around the internet for instructions, and then designing my own based on the practicality of using modern wide fabric from my stash (and specifically some DITTE from costumers’ favourite source of dirty cheap cotton IKEA).
Around the same time I had also acquired a sashiko kit, and I used the Japanese technique for sewing running stitches pushing the needle with a thimble that covers the base of the middle finger, and I can confirm that for this kind of things it’s great!
I’ve since worn the petticoat a few times for casual / historyBounding / folkwearBounding reasons, during the summer, and I can confirm it’s comfortable to use; I guess that during the winter it could be nice to add a flannel layer below it.
Then I proceeded with the base layers: I had been browsing throughThe workwoman's guide and that provided plenty of examples, and I selected the basic ankle-length drawers from page 53 and the alternative shift on page 47.
As for fabric, I had (and still have) a significant lack of underwear linen in my stash, but I had plenty of cotton voile that I had not used in a while: not very historically accurate for plain underwear, but quite suitable for a wearable mockup.
Working with a 1830s source had an interesting aspect: other of the usual, mildly annoying, imperial units, it also used a lot a few obsolete units, especially nails, that my qalc, my usual calculator and converter, doesn’t support. Not a big deal, because GNU units came to the rescue, and that one knows a lot of obscure and niche units, and it’s quite easy to add those that are missing1
Working on this project also made me freshly aware of something I had already noticed: converting instructions for machine sewing garments into instructions for hand sewing them is usually straightforward, but the reverse is not always true.
Starting from machine stitching, you can usually convert straight stitches into backstitches (or running backstitches), zigzag and overlocking into overcasting and get good results. In some cases you may want to use specialist hand stitches that don’t really have a machine equivalent, such as buttonhole stitches instead of simply overcasting the buttonhole, but that’s it.
Starting from hand stitching, instead, there are a number of techniques that could be converted to machine stitching, but involve a lot of visible topstitching that wasn’t there in the original instructions, or at times are almost impossible to do by machine, if they involve whipstitching together finished panels on seams that are subject to strong tension.
Anyway, halfway through working with the petticoat I cut both the petticoat and the drawers at the same time, for efficiency in fabric use, and then started sewing the drawers.
The book only provided measurements for one size (moderate), and my fabric was a bit too narrow to make them that size (not that I have any idea what hip circumference a person of moderate size was supposed to have), so the result is just wide enough to be comfortably worn, but I think that when I’ll make another pair I’ll try to make them a bit wider. On the other hand they are a bit too long, but I think that I’ll fix it by adding a tuck or two. Not a big deal, anyway.
The shift gave me a bit more issues: I used the recommended gusset size, and ended up with a shift that was way too wide at the top, so I had to take a box pleat in the center front and back, which changed the look and wear of the garment. I have adjusted the instructions to make gussets wider, and in the future I’ll make another shift following those.
Even with the pleat, the narrow shoulder straps are set quite far to the sides, and they tend to droop, and I suspect that this is to be expected from the way this garment is made. The fact that there are buttonholes on the shoulder straps to attach to the corset straps and prevent the issue is probably a hint that this behaviour was to be expected.
I’ve also updated the instructions so that they shoulder straps are a bit wider, to look more like the ones in the drawing from the book.
Making a corset suitable for the time period is something that I will probably do, but not in the immediate future, but even just wearing the shift under a later midbust corset with no shoulder strap helps.
I’m also not sure what the point of the bosom gores is, as they don’t really give more room to the bust where it’s needed, but to the high bust where it’s counterproductive. I also couldn’t find images of original examples made from this pattern to see if they were actually used, so in my next make I may just skip them.
On the other hand, I’m really happy with how cute the short sleeves look, and if2 I’ll ever make the other cut of shift from the same book, with the front flaps, I’ll definitely use these pleated sleeves rather than the straight ones that were also used at the time.
As usual, all of the patterns have been published on my website under a Free license:
- My
~/.unitsfile currently contains definitions for beardseconds, bananas and the more conventional Nm and NeL (linear mass density of fibres).↩︎ - yeah, right. when.↩︎
Vendo a offerta libera rilegatrice manuale a spirale Rexel CB205.
C'è anche un discreto numero di spirali di plastica nera, ma devo ancora recuperarle per sapere quante e precisamente di che misure.
Vendo perché sono passata ad un sistema di rilegatura diverso (ma anche il fatto di non essere più all'università e/o in altri ambienti dove girano dispense stampate in copisteria aiuta :D )
Ritiro zona Varese.
MOAR Pattern Weights
Posted on August 9, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms
I’ve collected some more Standard Compliantstickers.
Some went on my laptop, of course, but some were selected for another tool I use relatively often: more pattern weights like the ones I blogged about in February.
And of course the sources:
- the stickers I designed;
- instructions for making the pattern weights(includes a link to the 3d model);
- source for the cat sticker;
- I couldn’t find the sources for the blue mobian sticker, only for other variants.
I have enough washers to make two more weights, and even more stickers, but the printer is currently not in use, so I guess they will happen a few months or so in the future.
Roll Top Backpack, Handsewn
Posted on July 25, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, FreeSoftWear
I might be slightly insane? Or am I going to prove something about the nature and accessibility of sewing and MYOG1 as a hobby?
I love my modular backpack, but it has a very modern look that is maybe not the best thing when otherwise dressed in historybounding dress, and it’s also a bit bigger than I planned or needed it to be.
So, when one of the shops I buy from had some waterproof cotton canvas on sale I failed my saving throw against temptations and bought a few meters, with the intent to make myself a backpack in a different style.
It needs to be a backpack, because my back doesn’t like asymmetrical bags2, and as far as I know 19th century backpacks weren’t the most comfortable things, so I decided to go for a vaguely timeless roll top model that has the added advantage not to require a lot of hardware for the closure, just a few D-rings.
Leather straps would look cool, but also require some tools that I still don’t have, so I decided to look for some cotton webbing, and when I finally found some in 25 mm and 50 mm width I could finally start on the project.
Except for one thing: thread. As much as I believe that regular n°50 cotton thread got a bad reputation from sellers who decided to cut quality in favour of profit, it is not up to the task of sewing a backpack. Nor that I’d use regular sew-all poly thread either.
I do have some of the thread I used for my other backpack, which would have been strong enough, but it’s also in black, which isn’t exactly the look I was aiming for on the natural / ecru colour of both the canvas and the webbing. I also misremembered it as only being available in that colour (it isn’t), so I wasn’t tempted into doing a full online order of technical materials just for that.
On the other hand, I did have in my stash some strong thread I could trust for this job, in natural / ecru. There was only one problem: it was 33×2 Tex linen, and not suitable for the sewing machine. You can’t handsew a backpack.
Or can you? Of course it’s going to be much slower, but I’m still in a situation where I have more time and space for handsewing than I have for machine sewing. And as for strength, my perception is that for the same stitch length an handsewn backstitch is stronger than a machine lockstitch, or at least it is more effort to unpick (and thus harder to accidentally unravel if the thread breaks).
And so I tried.
And it worked.
Having to backstitch everything instead of being able to use a running backstitch of course meant that it was slower than other sewing projects, and any time there were more than two layers of fabric I had to use the stabbing motion rather than the sewing one, which is even slower, but other than a few places with many layers of both fabric and webbing it wasn’t hard.
And to be fair, the seams were fewer and shorter than other sewing projects, and with the usual interruptions and uneven time availability it was done in less than a month, which is somewhat typical for one of my handsewn projects.
It may have been because of the pattern, but I think it’s relevant that it was also easier than other backpacks I’ve made, with significantly less cursing, even when doing seams that would have been quite fiddly when sewn by machine.
I have to admit that now I’m tempted to plan another backpack using the same pattern or a slight variation, sewn by machine in a different fabric, to see the difference in the time it takes and to check if the changes I think would make it easier to sew by machine are actually the right thing to do. But maybe I’ll wait a bit, other projects are in the queue.
The pattern is as usual online, released as #FreeSoftWear.
Having used it for a while, I have to say that it is just the right size to fit all the things I usually carry,
The fact that it only opens from the top means that finding things that have fallen to the very bottom involves a bit of rummaging, but not having to change a zipper every few years when (not if) it breaks is also very nice, so I’m not sure which shape of backpack I prefer.
The soft back of course is an issue when the backpack is filled with small items, but the molle webbing is there exactly because I have plans to solve it, beside the trivial “put something flat towards the back”.
As an object, I’m happy with the result. As a project, it was way more than successful, exceeding all expectations, especially for something somewhat experimental like this one was.
- Make Your Own Gear, i.e. sewing or otherwise constructing outdoorish equipment.↩︎
- at least not if I fill them with stuff as I usually do with my backpack :D↩︎
it worked!
they came out of the mold pretty easily, they are a good size for waxing thread, and they look nicer than the crumbly lump worked together with my hands that I've been using for years :D
yes, it's dark, but I've been using this wax for ages even on white thread for sewing white fabric and I've never had discoloration problems. I hope I haven't just cursed myself :D
Emergency Camisole
Posted on July 4, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, FreeSoftWear
And this is the time when one realizes that she only has one white camisole left. And it’s summer, so I’m wearing a lot of white shirts, and I always wear a white camisole under a white shirt (unless I’m wearing a full chemise).
Not a problem, I have a good pattern for a well fitting camisolethat I’ve done multiple times, I don’t even need to take my measurements and draft things, I can get some white jersey from the stash and quickly make a few.
From the stash. Where I have a roll of white jersey and one of off-white jersey. It’s in the inventory. With the “position” field set to a place that no longer exists. uooops.
But I have some leftover lightweight (woven) linen fabric. Surely if I cut the pattern as is with 2 cm of allowance and then sew it with just 1 cm of allowance it will work even in a woven fabric, right?
Wrong.
I mean, it would have probably fit, but it was too tight to squeeze into, and would require adding maybe a button closure to the front. feasible, but not something I wanted.
But that’s nothing that can’t be solved with the Power of Insertion Lace, right?
One dig through the Lace Stash1 and some frantic zig-zag sewing later, I had a tube wide enough for me to squiggle in, with lace on the sides not because it was the easiest place for me to put it, but because it was the right place for it to preserve my modesty, of course.
Encouraged by this, I added a bit of lace to the front, for the look of it, and used some more insertion lace for the straps, instead of making them out of fabric.
And, it looks like it can work. I plan to wear it tonight, so that I can find out whether there is something that chafes or anything, but from a quick test it feels reasonable.
At bust level it’s now a bit too wide, and it gapes a bit under the arms, but I don’t think that it’s going to cause significant problems, and (other than everybody on the internet) nobody is going to see it, so it’s not a big deal.
I still have some linen, but I don’t think I’m going to make another one with the same pattern: maybe I’ll try to do something with a front opening, but I’ll see later on, also after I’ve been looking for the missing jersey in a few more potential places.
As for now, the number of white camisoles I have has doubled, and this is progress enough for today.
- with many thanks to my mother’s friend who gave me quite a bit of vintage cotton lace.↩︎
E nastro di poliestere sia. Ho tirato fuori le mie scorte di nastro di poliestere.
E ho scoperto che sono pericolosamente scarse!
Ne ho ancora una quantità decente in un blu che non c'entra niente con quello della stoffa, un avanzo di nero, appena appena abbastanza bianco per un pannello e un po' più di rosso, ma probabilmente non abbastanza per entrambi i pannelli.
Data la scadenza, ordinarne altro non era un'opzione, quindi ho deciso di usare più di un colore: il pannello davanti in bianco, quello dietro in rosso e nero per gli spallacci.
Decisamente non è l'aspetto che originariamente volevo dare a questo zaino. Però tutto sommato adesso ho lo zaino crema cucito a mano per quando mi serve qualcosa di civile, per cui se anche questo ha lo stesso livello di look tattico della base non è un grosso problema.
Comunque oggi son riuscita anche a cucire il nastro di poliestere sul pannello davanti (e sì, devo ancora tagliare i pezzetti diagonali di filo tra le cuciture)
So, webbing it had to be. I looked in my webbing stash.
And found that my webbing stash is dangerously low!
I still have somewhat plenty in a blue that doesn't match the fabric at all, bits of black, just enough white for one panel and a a bit more red, but probably not enough for both panels.
Because of the deadline, ordering more wasn't really an option, so I decided to go for a mix of colours: the panel in the front in white, the one in the back in red (I liked the look of the white more) and black for the shoulder straps.
This wasn't the look I originally intended this backpack to have, at all. But at least now I have the cream handsewn one as a sort-of-dressier option, so making it in the same level of tactical-ish as the base backpack wasn't this big of a deal.
And today I managed to sew the webbing on the front panel (yes, I still have to cut the diagonal bits of thread between the seams)
L'idea originale era di fare il pannello davanti con la struttura MOLLE tagliata al laser anziché quella con il nastro di poliestere, a parte il fatto che non ho una taglierina laser, e quindi avrei dovuto usare un cutter e il saldatore ad aria calda per rifinire i tagli.
Ho provato la tecnica su un pezzo piccolo di una stoffa diversa e sembrava funzionare. Poi ho iniziato a tagliare uno dei pannelli nella stoffa dello zaino. E. no.
In teoria questa stoffa è più robusta di quella con cui ho fatto la prova, ma ha una finitura impermeabile diversa, che la rende più morbida, e più propensa a sfilacciarsi; l'aria calda non rifiniva i tagli nel modo corretto e non aveva la faccia di poter sopravvivere all'uso.
Oggi ho cucito il pannello con le fessure sul pannello base e deciso che non era cosa.
The original idea included trying to make the front panel with the laser cut MOLLE pattern instead of webbing, except for the fact that I don't have a laser cutter and had to use a knife and a hot air soldering station to finish the raw edges.
I tried the technique on a small piece of a different fabric and it looked like it could work. Then I started to cut one panel with the fabric I wanted to use for this backpack and. it. didn't.
Even if in theory this fabric was thicker than the one I had done the test on, it had a different coating that made it softer, and more prone to fraying, the hot air didn't manage to clean the edges properly and it looked like it wasn't going to resist any kind of wear.
Today I sewed down the panel with the slits to the base panel and decided that no, it wasn't going to work.
Un aggiornamento sul mio #cucito
Lo zaino è finito e l'ho usato un po' di volte, e sono decisamente soddisfatta. Devo finire di scrivere le istruzioni da pubblicare sul mio sito e poi il post sul blog.
Oggi è il patrono della città dove ha sede l'azienda per cui lavoro, e quindi ho deciso di lavorare un po' sull'altro zaino.
Già, perché avevo tagliato la stoffa per un altro zaino, questa volta da cucire a macchina, e ne ho più o meno bisogno (o quantomeno mi farebbe molto piacere averlo) entro una scadenza, per cui avere un giorno libero in cui liberare lo spazio per la macchina da cucire e iniziare a fare qualche cucitura è stato decisamente comodo.
È la parte davanti della mia idea originale di zaino a due componenti ispirato ad uno zaino dell'IKEA, iniziato tempo fa quando ho fatto quello documentato su sewing-patterns.trueelena.org/…
Alla fine la base era venuta grande abbastanza anche da sola, ma volevo comunque vedere se l'idea poteva funzionare, e comunque ho cose che posso fare con uno zaino più piccolo.
L'obiettivo minimo per oggi era cucire i fianchi con la cerniera, e quello è fatto.
#MYOG
A bit of a #sewing update.
The backpack is finished and has been used a few times, and I'm quite happy with it. I'm still writing the instructions to publish on my website, and then I'll post on the blog.
Today it's the patron saint of the city of the place I work for, and in Italy it's a holiday (even if I don't live anywhere near that :) ) so I decided to work on the other backpack.
Yep, because I had already cut the fabric for another backpack, this time to be sewn by machine, and I sort of need it (or rather would like to have it) for a deadline, so having a free day to free up the room for the sewing machine and actually doing some sewing was pretty useful.
This is the front component of my original idea for a two part backpack, inspired by an IKEA model, that started ages ago with the base component documented at sewing-patterns.trueelena.org/…
The base ended up being big enough on its own, but I still wanted to see if the idea was viable, and I have uses for a small backpack anyway.
The basic aim for today was to sew the sides with the zipper, and that's done.
#MYOG
my preciousssesssss
(I'm in a hurry, if somebody can describe the individual stickers in a comment I'd be grateful #alt4me )
@Walter Tross this is something where the English speakers are wrong and the Continental way is provably superior, and I'm not ready to die on this hill, but I'm definitely ready to suffer very mild discomfort :D
thanks for making me notice the dash bit, I've fixed that part
After careful consideration — and some procrastination — I decided I had to do it.
#StickerStandard #mdash #fuckAI
(sources on git.trueelena.org/crafts/hex_s… )
@Sini Tuulia @Anne Deschaine it's where I've bought mine, when I stocked up on things from them just before brexit!
(I bought both sizes, and then only managed to cover the smaller one — or maybe I should say I only managed to make a wearable mockup using the smaller one)
(it was also stored badly during the move, and I've only just found it again, so the ruffle has been squashed around)
I may have done a new #hexagon?
it's not very legible (but better than the previous attempts), but the font I've used is appropriate to the topic, so I'm not 100% sure
Questo è l'aspetto che aveva alla fine della mattinata
adesso anche l'altro spallaccio è attaccato, e la cinghia sotto è attaccata a metà, ma ho dovuto interrompermi per la cena.
il pannello verso la schiena è quasi finito!
This is what it looked like at the end of this morning
now the other shoulder strap is also attached, and the second lower strap is half-attached, but I had to stop for dinner.
the back panel is almost done!
stauts attuale: ho finito di attaccare i nastri al pannello posteriore, preparato uno spallaccio e ho iniziato a cucirlo in cima al suddetto pannello.
Ho già tagliato il nastro per la chiusura, da cucire in alto al centro, ma devo preparare l'altro spallaccio prima di poter finire quella cucitura.
current status: I've finished attaching the webbing to the back panel, assembled one shoulder strap and started sewing it to the top of said panel.
I have already cut the closure webbing ready to go at the center top, but I need to make the other shoulder strap before I can finish that top seam.
Honeycomb shirt
Posted on May 25, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, FreeSoftWear, GNU Terry Pratchett
After cartridge pleating, the next fabric manipulation technique I wanted to try was smocking, of the honeycombing variety, on a shirt.
My current go-to pattern for shirts is the 1880 menswear oneI have on my website: I love the fact that most of the fabric is still cut as big rectangles, but the shaped yoke and armscyes make it significantly more comfortable than the earlier style where most of the shaping at the neck was done with gathers into a straight collar.
In my stash I had a cut of purple-blue hopefully cotton [#cotton] I had bought for a cheap price and used for my first attempt at anhistorically accurate pirate / vampire shirt that has now become by official summer vaccine jab / blood test shirt (because it has the long sleeves I need, but they are pretty easy to roll up to give access to my arm.
That shirt tends to get out of the washing machine pretty wearable even without ironing, which made me think it could be a good fabric for something that may be somewhat hard to iron (but also made me suspicious about the actual composition of the fabric, even if it feels nice enough even when worn in the summer).
Of course I wanted some honeycombing on the front, but I was afraid that the slit in the middle of it would interfere with the honeycombing and gape, so I decided to have the shirt open in an horizontal line at the yoke.
I added instructions to the pattern pagefor how I changed the opening in the front, basically it involved finishing the front edge of the yoke, and sewing the honeycombed yoke to a piece of tape with snaps.
Another change from the pattern is that I used plain rectangles for the sleeves, and a square gusset, rather than the new style tapered sleeve , because I wanted to have more fabric to gather at the wrist. I did the side and sleeve seams with a hem + whipstitch method rather than a felled seam, which may have helped, but the sleeves went into the fitted armscyes with no issue.
I think that if (yeah, right. when) I’ll make another sleeve in this style I’ll sew it into the side seam starting 2-3 cm lower than the place I’ve marked on the pattern for the original sleeve.
I also used a row of honeycombing on the back and two on the upper part of the sleeves, instead of the gathering, and of course some rows to gather the cuffs.
The honeycombing on the back was a bit too far away from the edge, so it’s a bit of an odd combination of honeycombing and pleating that I don’t hate, but don’t love either. It’s on the back, so I don’t mind. On the sleeves I’ve done the honeycombing closer to the edge and I’ve decided to sew the sleeve as if it was a cartridge pleated sleeve, and that worked better.
Because circumstances are still making access to my sewing machine more of a hassle than I’d want it to be, this was completely sewn by hand, and at a bit more than a month I have to admit that near the end it felt like it had been taken forever. I’m not sure whether it was the actual sewing being slow, some interruptions that happened when I had little time to work on it, or the fact that I’ve just gone through a time when my brain kept throwing new projects at me, and I kept thinking of how to make those. Thanks brain.
Even when on a hurry to finish it, however, it was still enjoyable sewing, and I think I’ll want to do more honeycombing in the future.
Anyway, it’s done! And it’s going straight into my daily garment rotation, because the weather is getting hot, and that means it’s definitely shirt time.
I may have done another hexagon
source svg at git.trueelena.org/crafts/hex_s…
clipart of the pattern at openclipart.org/detail/351608/…
font used: Latin Modern Mono (of course)
Chiusura sul davanti fatta!
Devo fare ancora un paio di righe di smocking, e poi posso prosegure cucendo assieme il davanti e il dietro (sui fianchi, e solo un pezzettino sul bordo del davanti) e inizerà ad assomigliare ad una camicia.
E poi le maniche.