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Making a shift
Dec. 1st, 2024 10:07 pm 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...
