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Making a shift
I'm currently hand-sewing a seventeenth century shift. A shift is a women's undergarment that looks rather like a long, loose nightie.
Very much like the one in the photo, but without the embroidery that a high-status garment would have had.
The key features are the baggy sleeves, the gusset connecting the sleeves to the body, the gores inserted into the lower part to make a fuller skirt, and the long slit neckline (very practical for breast feeding).
The neck may be gathered a little, this was quite common, then sewn into a neckband, and fastened at the front with a tie, or other fastener. I may try a hook and eye. I know they were used in this period, though I don't know if they were typically used on shifts...
The shift was worn as an undergarment, but the sleeves might be visible in summer, depending on the choice of over-garments.
A shift was invariably made of linen, or different grades for rich and poor. Linen absorbs sweat and oils from the skin. Instead of washing the body, people stayed keen and free of body odour by regularly washing their shift. (Hair was kept clean by covering it with a linen coif, and also by regular brushing and combing, and 'rubbing' it with pieces of linen to remove excess oil.)
Mine is made with unbleached linen that is probably a fair bit thicker/coarser than what most shifts were, made from but most surviving examples are higher status garments and hence made of finer fabrics, so maybe mine is okay for a poor person? (It was largely a case of what linen fabric was available when my daughter went to the re-enactment The Original Reenactors Market to do some shopping on my behalf)
Historically, there were a lot of different grades of linen and I don't actually know which mine is closest to. I'll probably ask Pat Poppy when I'm fit enough to drive over and see her again. From what Pat says, I can eliminate several kinds of linen as candidates.
Pat says that ignoring really heavy duty stuff, like poldavis which was used for sails, and canvas (which does not have the modern connotations) which was used by the poor for sheets, you have a really wide range of linens. Overseers of the Poor records show some were purchasing lockram for shifts and shirts, which is hard wearing but not necessarily cheap, about 11d or 12d an ell (linen is sold in ells which in England is about 45 inches). The finest holland for shirts and smocks is about 5 shillings an ell.In between there are a vast number of linens. Hamboroughs for example were coarse and narrow and usually used for towels, but the Overseers of the Poor in Suffolk had coifs made of linen (unspecified) lined with hamborough for the girls. You could buy cheap coifs ready made, a merchant in 1610 had over 90 coarse coifs in stock at about 2d each, better quality ones for 3d or 4d, up to fine laced ones at 5 shillings..
(A coif is what women normally wore on their heads. I'll be making one of those too.)
I'm hoping to do some more re-enactment when everything finally stops hurting...
I'm hoping to do some more re-enactment when everything finally stops hurting...
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I'm making good progress on the shift. May post a couple of photos when I can remember how to upload them to DW.
Which historical detective novels do you like?
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Local people doing their own tradition. Not paid to do it, not doing it to be perfect. Doing it because it's part of their community, and they enjoy it.
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I use heavy linen sheets and LOVE them. Yes they can be a bit scratchy at first, but later they are really lovely.
I also like linen dish towels. I think they work way better than cotton.
A shift should be a fun thing to make.
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Same here -- it's apparently a link to an image on Facebook, which may be why?
Might it have been this picture:
(from https://the1642tailor.com/2014/03/31/smocks-or-shifts/ )
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I think it will make better sense when I get found to the overgarments.The loose sleeves make arm movement very free, important when you needed to spin, cook, garden, make soap, feed children etc.
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It's almost exactly the same pattern, but when you it on a dummy, you get a much better feel of how it drapes.
The shift is always shorter than the skirt, but gives plenty of freedom of movement and adds extra warmth in winter, while being a breathable fabric in summer.
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But I hope it will wear into comfort.
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On the topic of shifts. When I was quite young I gravitated to wearing pants and at this point have worn nothing but pants for decades. I can clearly remember as a fairly small child trying on a loose fitting dress and having someone say: "isn't this comfy?", and me thinking: "No it's awful". In my job, both on the Ranch and as a Stagehand it was quite dangerous to have loose fitting clothing. The danger came from getting the clothing caught in machinery or even just snagged on a heavy box (we are talking about rolling boxes up to 1,000 pounds). So probably for me a shift isn't quite the thing, but I do understand why others might like them.
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Doesn't feel like hessian though.
A man's shift was shorter and designed to tuck into his breeches and have the tails wrapped between his legs. Though the sleeves were still baggy.
But, yeah, near machinery...
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Because a baggy sleeve is very good for many forms of manual work, but narrower sleeves for machines and offices.
This may explain a lot of the changes in fashion as society industrialised.