Category Archives: Victorian

Construction of a 1830-60 men´s shirt Part 4: buttonholes

Part 1  General Information 
Part 2  Fronts 
Part 3  Sleeves and collar 

The sewing pattern is available via Etsy.

Now the shirt is already finished, just the buttonholes and buttons are missing. An 1830-60 shirt has three vertical buttonholes at the button tab and one vertical buttonhole at the collar. If you prefer e detachable collar instead of a stock collar you have to make small vertical buttonholes on both collar sides and one vertical buttonhole at the center back of the collar. The collar will be attached with collar studs.

However, how to sew a buttonhole by hand? First mark the position of your buttonholes, they should be about 1/16” -1/8” (2-3mm) longer than the diameter of your button. I know, it isn´t historically accurate, but I prefer to add some Fray Check along the marked cutting line. First it prevents the fabric from fraying, second is stabilizes the edges for easier sewing. Let´s start! Cut open the buttonhole with scissors, better with a punching tool.

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Construction of a 1830-60 men´s shirt Part 3: sleeves and collar

Part 1 General Information 
Part 2  Fronts 

The sewing pattern is available via Etsy.

Gather the sleeve head with two rows of a running stitch. Pin into the armhole, right sides together, spread the width evenly between the marks and sew.

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Prepare the yokes. The sewing pattern shows the yoke as one piece without seams; here I made it from two pieces, because the yoke often was made from pieced rests. Turn in all seam allowances, except at the side seam. Notch were needed, at corners and curves.

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Construction of a 1830-60 men´s shirt Part 2: The front

Part 1

The sewing pattern is available via Etsy.

I want to start with a simple shirt without a bib front. The picture shows a shirt from my collection. A bar covers the end of the button tab, underneath the bar the shirt front is laid into a box pleat. The bar can be shaped as desired, rectangular, or as shown on the picture.

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Cut the front of the shirt T-shaped, take care to cut exactly on the straight grain. Fold both edges twice to form the button tabs and topstitch.

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Line up the two tabs along the center front, left side is on top. Lay the excess fabric of the front into a box pleat. Fix the box pleat with some stitches to the end of the button tab. Take a piece of fabric for the bar, turn in the seam allowance and place on top of the button tab end. Attach with a prick stitch or a fell stitch. Cover the end of the button tab on the inside with a piece of fabric too.

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Construction of a 1830-60 men´s shirt Part 1

Before I´ll show you how to sew an early Victorian men´s shirt, I want tell you a bit about the little but obvious differences between Victorian and Georgian men´s shirts.

During Georgian and Regency era, a shirt always was a quite simple piece of clothing, made from rectangular pieces. Gussets provided sufficient movement at the shoulders and underarms. Excess width was gathered along the neckline and sleeves. Nearly nothing of a shirt was visible underneath a high-necked waistcoat, except from the jabot, made from fine fabric.

Men´s Shirt with Jabot and high stand-up collar about 1800 / Continue reading →

A 1830´s Stock Collar for my husband

During the last months I sewed some 1830´s clothes for my husband. He got trousers, skirts, waistcoats, a Frock Coat and a Tail Coat. To be properly dresses just a stock collar was missing.  I´ll show you how I made it from silk sateen fabric and inlay, all fabrics came from stock except the buckle. 

First, I cut two collar pieces from the inlay, one on the straight, one on the bias. As it was a fusible inlay I didn´t had to pad stitch the pieces together, just fuse with the iron. Now it had the desired stiffness for my collar. Then I covered the inlay with the silk sateen using a catch stitch on the inside.

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Next was to cover two pieces of linen for the belts with the sateen and prepare two straps for the buckle on the back.

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I attached the belts to the collar with the straps for the buckle underneath.

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I placed the belt pieces on top of the collar and basted them to the collar on the center front. Think of additional width needed for the belt when the collar lays around the neck.
For the bow, I lined up the two straps, right sides together, and sewed around. I left an opening and turned inside out after trimming the seam allowances. I pressed the bow strap carefully and closed the opening with some invisible stitches. I made a bow, arranged the loops and ends carefully and fixed everything with some stitches. Then I attached the bow to the collar.
I covered the back of the collar with lining fabric, attached with a felling stitch.

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For the inside collar I lined up the collar pieces, right sides together, sewed and trimmed back the seam allowances.  I turned the inside out and pressed. I lined up the straps for the collar stand, right sides together. Placed the collar pieces between, leaving a gap at the center front, and stitched along short and upper edges.  I trimmed back the seam allowances, turned inside out and pressed.  I turned in the seam allowances of the bottom edge of the collar stand and stitched along the bottom edge.
At least I starched and pressed the inside collar, folded the front edges and basted to the inside of the stock collar.

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You can download the pattern for the stock collar here, have fun with sewing:

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