My original Hemd was a good first attempt.. but after several months of wearing it I’ve decided it could do with a little improvement. Since I’m deathly allergic to altering garments that I need to wear I instead decided to make a new hemd.

Here’s my new pattern:



Here’s the reasoning for my new pattern:

Problem: Neckline was cut out to be 2x my neck measurements and then smocked to “take up the excess” unfortunately it didn’t really take up the excess.. so it’s sitting WAY too loose compared to what I want. Original was cut at 40 inches, smocking drew this down to 34 inches.
FIX: The new one’s neckline is cut at 20 inches. I’m afraid that may be a bit tight.. but I’ll try it out.

Problem: On the original the collar cut at 3.5 inches is too tall.
FIX: New one will be cut at 2 inches.

Problem: On the original the seam between the sleeve and the body falls several inches down my upper arm. It’s not an issue when I have closed sleeves but in my sleeveless dress or with loopy sleeves I dislike the way it fits.
FIX: I nipped off triangles at the corner to pull the sleeves in Triangles are 10″ (at the shoulder) x 18″ (at the side). This does bring the seam more in line with the top of my shoulder. When I did this I left out the gusset. I will consider carefully for the next hemd whether I put a gusset in or not.

Problem: On the original the sleeves at 30″ long are too long. Add to that the extra fabric at the shoulders.. they’re -way- too long.
FIX: New ones are cut down to 24″ long. With the triangles removed these may still be a bit too long. I’ll have to fiddle with them or possibly hem them.

Problem: Original was cut at 60 inches long which puts it just about floor length. I worry that it will show when I kirtle my dress.
FIX: New one is cut at 40 inches long. About knee length.

Staying the same:
Smocking pattern: Gather stitches at 1cm each and each line is 1.5 cm apart. The honeycomb pleat stitches will follow the same line at the gather stitches. This should give me a very nice set of diamonds for the neck line.

[Edited to add:
After a year of planning to smock this I finally sat down last night and started to smock this.. and found out that with smocking the neck will be too small. So I’ve changed my mind. This hemd will not have smocking I may embroider it in the future. Instead I’m adding some beads to act as buttons and allow this to close. I will, of course, be adding a Hemd III (hopefully with smocking) in the future.
]

At Mists Investiture this last weekend I finished the last of the smocking. I think it’s beau-ti-ful (click to embiggen). I’ve removed the pleating threads and stretched it out a little. After all the smocking the neck came out a little bit bigger than 50% of the original width. I’ve decided to line the collar both for comfort and to hold the smocking at the right size.

The lining was cut out of the same linen at 4″ x 18″ I folded the top/bottom and sides so that I was working with finished edges(Folded, the lining piece is about 3″ by 17″). Then I pinned the snot out of it. Tonight I will hand-stitch this piece of fabric inside the collar. I think I’ll also attach the ties to this lining.

After that’s done I just need to add sleeves (cut at 26″ by 30″ where 30″ is the length of the arm) and gussets (I think I’ll make this 4″ square). Honestly I’m not sure I need the gussets.. but I plan to add them anyway.. along the lines that it’s easier to add them now then to have to go back and add them later. The sleeves are cut intentionally long. At this time I’m not planning to finish the cuff.. but I’m leaving enough fabric so that I could do something nice and fancy to them if the idea strikes me later on.

Lastly I need to wash the hemd to get out the blue marks from my fabric marking pen.

I’m hopeful I can finish all of that tonight.