Working On: sewing by hand
Last year, I started hand-stitching in earnest. You may have read my newsletter about the linen shirt-dress that I sewed entirely by hand, which was a pivotal project for me. Since then, I have taken up hand-sewing much more regularly. My machine-sewn garments often have hand-stitched hems now, or I’ll slip stitch a cuff closed, and my buttonholes, more often than not, are hand-sewn.
It’s interesting to go back and re-read my thoughts about the dress when it was newly finished: one of my worries, when I completed it, was that it would feel too precious to me, because it was hand-sewn; that I would be nervous about washing it, and would never wear it. I’m pleased to report that that has not been the case - I wear this piece a lot.
Now, I’ve hand-stitched another garment. I mean to write about this at the time, but I drafted and sewed a simple gathered top over the summer, working on it at the beach in France and during quiet evenings in the garden. The fabric is a lovely light cotton from Merchant & Mills, block-printed in a paisley-ish pattern that reminds me of roosters, for some reason.
Because I only had about 70cm of this fabric, and wanted to use up as much of it as I possibly could, I used this tutorial from Threads to draft a simple raglan-style gathered top. In the end, I was left with only a few small triangles of fabric. It was tremendously satisfying to squeeze a whole shirt out of this tiny amount of material, and I really recommend this style and method for using up odds and ends of shirt-weight fabric.
This top ended up taking about a month - which is longer, actually, than I spent on the shirt-dress - but that’s mostly because I didn’t work on it continuously. I stitched slowly, took days away from the project, didn’t rush to finish it. I really like the finished piece, perhaps in part because the process of creating it was so relaxed. It’s casual and easy-to-wear, but still nice enough for the office. I plan to make another - and I’ll probably hand-sew that too.
Now, I’ve become a bit of a hand-stitching evangelist. I highly recommend hand-sewing garments - it’s meditative, relaxing, and immensely satisfying. In fact, I’ve gone as far as writing another zine (in what I think of as my ‘How and Why’ series), and this one is all about sewing by hand.
Like my darning zine, this is available for free in both digital and printable formats. I have it listed on my website here. Please do check it out if you’re at all interested - the printable zines also double as an excellent introduction to bookbinding.
Also, if you have been enjoying my zines, please let me know if I should make another! Suggest a topic! I really love writing the zines and would like to develop a whole series of them.
That’s it from me this week - talk to you soon!
Best,
Yay! I love hand sewing so much.
I've handstitched clothing -- using a backstitch rather than a running stitch -- when I haven't had access to a machine. This technique creates a slightly softer seam line. (You can see this in quilts, as well). The seams are just as strong, if not stronger, than those that are machine sewn.