In praise of gussets

Sometimes the old ways are better.  Actually, the old ways are often better because they've been tested and tried over a long period of time and hold true. 

Take the lowly gusset.  A small triangle of fabric, applied to the underside of a sleeve.  It doesn't seem like much--such a small scrap!  But oh, what a difference it makes to comfort and fit in a woven sleeve!  I've always wondered why I struggled to get dolman sleeves to feel comfortable in a woven fabric.  

I like the look, but not the restricted arm movement.  Ditto for most inset sleeves.  These guns need room to move!  But I am finding myself drawn to wovens more often these days, and so it was worth finding a fix.

Enter the shift.  In 2016, I completed a full 18th century working woman's outfit--the equivalent of jeans and a t-shirt.  It includes a shift, stays, pockets, modesty petticoat skirt, 2 regular petticoat skirts, a short gown, fichu, stockings/garters, cap and Berege hat.  When I made the shift, it was after much trial and error with the geometric period drawings; in the end, I modified the American Duchess 8161 shift pattern to fit onto a half width of linen so I could cut two out of the yardage I had.

One of them didn't fit well at the time, so I gave it to a friend who wears it for a night gown and loves it.  Mine was in the box with all my other 18th century trappings, but I got it out in September to try as a nightgown for myself.  I was experimenting again with 18th century silhouettes, and wondering how to get more linen into my life. 

I loved wearing the shift so much that I bought another length of bleached linen from the doggie bag section of Fabrics-store.com and set to work.  Unfortunately, enough time had passed that I forgot a few things I did to maximize fabric usage, so I only got one full-length shift out, plus a top.  But oh, that new shift is even better, if that is possible.  Making two in a row reminded me about the brilliance that is the sleeve gusset. 

So when a Frankenpattern experiment with dolman sleeves turned out badly, I tried a gusset, and it fixed the sleeve fit (but not the rest of the problems with the make, so I'm trying to recut it into something else today). 

 

I immediately applied the same to my dawn linen and arctic linen dropped shoulder tops, which fit well but pulled slightly under the arm, restricting movement.  The gussets totally fixed the problem, and they are possibly the most comfortable tops I own right now.  The top is a mosh of several patterns: the Sorrel Dress bodice, the Potrait blouse, Coco dress, and Carson dress.  The bodice is mostly Sorrel, with some shaping at the bottom from the Portrait blouse; the neckline is Coco, and the sleeve is Carson.  A true Frankenpattern!