Created by: Maker, Duy Truong
Dearest Gentle Sewist,
With the newest season coming soon, comes two new sewing machines in collaboration with Shondaland & Netflix’s Bridgerton, which means a new project absolutely must be done.
One of the machines is the beautiful Romantic Toile which features chinoiserie-toile inspired images of the story from the grand namesake estate to the bees and to our Majesty Queen Charlotte reading the latest Lady Whistledown, beautifully placed throughout the exterior. It is a very lightweight machine that is perfect for travel needs – say if you’re a cosplayer con-crunching in your hotel room with a Janome sewing machine, not that this author has any experience with that.
In honor of the newest talk of the ton, Sophie Baek, we will be making a poet shirt inspired by her masquerade look! By poet shirt, it is specifically an 18th century men’s shirt (that was worn up to about the 1830’s). But in true Bridgerton manner, it won’t be truly period accurate, but it will have a layer of whimsy.
WHAT YOU NEED:
- A beautiful Bridgerton x Janome sewing machine
- Fabric for the shirt (preferably one that matches the materials in the show)
- Embellishments as needed
PATTERNING:
This tutorial will not teach you how to pattern an 18th century shirt, but will give you notes on patterns you should aim for.
While this project aims to have an 18th century silhouette for the shirt, feel free to use any shirt pattern or adjust anything to match your sewing level – as not everyone is skilled in historical patterning.
18th century shirt patterns are not fully accessible, and this author learned via YouTube videos, so I fully adjusted everything to my needs including altering bits of it to historical Asian garment patterning.
The only note I have is a notable feature of 18th century shirts is the upper seam for the sleeves is located at the bicep, while contemporary 21st century seams are located directly at the shoulder. For that seam line as needed, but if you can’t that is okay!
STITCHING TOGETHER YOUR SHIRT BODY & COLLAR:
Set your Stitch option on A – this is the straight stitch the majority of the stitch you will be using.
(Note: Option A sets the needle right in the center. If you need it off center, option B moves the needle to the left.)
First the hem the bottom edge of your shirt Front and Back. An easy hem option is double fold – fold it once and stitch, and fold it again to stitch. If you can manage to stitch directly next to the edge on the second fold, that would be amazing. Then attach your Front and Back panels together.
Not everyone has a serger, but don’t fret, we can use this machine as a makeshift serger!
Set your Stitch option to any of the zigzag stitch options. Option C is a standard zig-zag. I chose C and SS for the double stitch (this will take double the time, but worth it for me).
Using your sewing foot as a reference, feed your fabric through the machine with the raw edge of the seam allowance directly in the middle of the foot. This way, the needle will zig zag with one side through the fabric, and the other into the machine. The higher the tension, the better, though a tension of 3 will work just fine!
For the neckline, hem the edges the same way you did with the shirt edge. But once you reach the V-corner, switch to a zig-zag stitch. Historically, this would be handstitched as one would reinforce a button hole, but your sewing machine can achieve this just fine!
Next is your collar! Don’t forget to switch back to your straight stitch. If you’re using an existing pattern, follow those instructions. If you’re drafting your own pattern, then a great with for the collar would be 4”.
OPTIONALLY-GATHERED SLEEVES:
The sleeves are where I decided to add my embellishments, whether it be premade embellished fabric or appliques. If you’re going this route, be sure to sew your embellishments now, before you fully put your sleeves together as it will be harder if you stitch it together first.
If you’re following an existing pattern for the shirt & sleeves, follow those directions.
If not, make sure you’re wearing your shirt body first, then measure from the edge of the seam to your wrist. This would be your sleeve length. For your sleeve width, you can choose to use the exact measurement of the arm hole, or add more for a gathered effect.
A gathered effect would be closer to an 18th century look.
To gather your fabric, set your straight stitch length on 4 with low tension, and manually hand gather your edge.
Another option, is to manually pleat your edge. If you chose a thick fabric that cannot be gathered – like a cotton – you most likely have to pleat, which is what I did. In this case, keep your straight stitch setting as it was before.
Then attach your sleeves.
ADDITIONAL EMBELLISHMENTS
CONGRATULATIONS! You made a shirt! But is it really done?
You can choose to give yourself peace and be happy with what you created, or be more chaotic and hand stitch everything else on – which is what I did.
The costumes in Bridgerton are absolutely covered in floral and appliques. So feel free to use your remaining embellishments and hand stitch it all on. This is also a great opportunity to hide any mistakes with flowers! (shh).
What I love about this project is that the majority of it is very simple. With all the options of stitches, I’m a stickler for a simple straight stitch and zig-zag stitch creation. But the beautiful images of the characters and story on this Bridgerton machine really sets the mood. And I cannot wait to take my machine on possible con-crunching adventures to show off to my ladies and gents of the ton!