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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.
blog.trueelena.org/blog/2025/0…
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •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
Eastern Bloc reshared this.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •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.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •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.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •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)
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •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)
rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua reshared this.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •one of the two hard seams has been done (back panel to bottom/sides/top)
I *could* try to do the other hard seam today and finish the backpack. or I could lie on the couch with some easy handsewing, some sewing video and a tea.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •una delle due cucituri difficili è stata fatta (il pannello dietro ai fianchi/base/cima)
*potrei* provare a fare l'altra cucitura difficile e finire lo zaino. oppure potrei stendermi sul divano con del cucito a mano facile, dei video di cucito e un té.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •guess what I did on Friday afternoon :D
but this morning I've done the second hard seam, but not bound it (front panel)
after that there are just small finishing bits, and it's done
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •indovinate un po' cosa ho fatto venerdì pomeriggio :D
ma stamattina ho cucito la seconda cucitura difficile, ma non ancora rifinita (il pannello davanti)
dopodiché rimangono solo un paio di rifiniture veloci ed è finito
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •two drops of blood have been offered so that the backpack will remain strong for years to come
(they washed away. now waiting a few minutes to be sure that the thumb that met the pointy end of a pin isn't bleeding anymore before resuming sewing)
rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua reshared this.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •due gocce di sangue sono state offerte affinché lo zaino sia duraturo nel tempo
(sono riuscita a lavarle via. adesso aspetto un paio di minuti per essere sicura che il pollice che ha incontrato il lato appuntito dello spillo non sanguini più, prima di ricominciare a cucire)
rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua reshared this.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua reshared this.
rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua • •rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua reshared this.