Currently I'm making a pretty standard shift out of white cotton. Several of my older ones are quite threadbare now and I'm going to Pennsic in a bit. Two weeks? I think?
Started with a large rectangle the width of the bolt (probably 40 inches but I didn't check) and about the length from my shoulder to the floor. Another rectangle twice the width of my forearm and the length from my waist to the floor was folded in half and then cut along the diagonal to make a pair of gores. The one not cut on the fold I sewed to the main body, starting from each bottom corner and attaching the vertical edge of the main body to the bias edge of the triangle. Once this was done for both right triangles, I sewed their vertical sides together.
Now I've gone to the center of the main body and cut a slit from the bottom, ripping it so it stays on grain. The other gore goes here; I didn't rip all the way up so I'll be able to line it up properly. The top corners of both gores will probably need reinforcing, just with a small square over top as a patch.
Still to come is sleeves, a neckline, and seven thousand hours of hemming. I am doing this all by hand because it's silent so I can watch other people play Minecraft while I work. This may be a mistake, we'll find out.
