Oh, Shift: Starting My 1830s Shift Project

I'm embarking on a journey to recreate an entire 1830s ensemble, and I'm going to start from the inside out. That means first comes the shift, which is great, because it's a fairly simple garment. Or...is it?

Well, yes and no. A shift can be extremely simple, as seen in extant garments from Norse graves and so forth. These were made with rectangles and triangles, and really, things didn't change very much across history. Basically, this:

 This design continued use from early medieval times through the 19th century, with some variations. Both men and women would have worn these garments. The 1838 book The Workwoman's Guide has instructions to make shifts for women and children, and the diagrams are very much the same as diagrams for medieval shifts, with an exception. What the heck is that?

 I read the author's description, and while she explains how to make this thing, which she calls a flap, she never says what it's for. I saw that extant examples of shifts and chemises from this time period have this flap as well, as seen in the featured image of this post. Yet not all shifts had them. Furthermore, some examples had more flaps at the front at the shoulders. The shift on display at Old Sturbridge Village doesn't have any flaps at all, but clearly these flaps were ubiquitous enough that the author of the Guide didn't feel the need to explain them.

After doing a bit of thinking and research, I figured it out. The flap goes down in the front over the stays to cover them. This not only hides the stays from view over a dress's neckline, but it prevents wear and tear on both the dress and the stays, both of which are more expensive and difficult to make than the shift. The flaps that are on some shifts' shoulders would have had a buttonhole in them so they could wrap over the shoulder straps of the stays and be held in place there via a button on the strap.

Hopefully this diagram I made in my commonplace book makes sense:

 Much like how the side gores of the bottom of the shift are constructed from triangles cut from the top, the shoulder flaps are made from triangles cut from the chest flap, which are then stitched on at the side front chest/neck.

I couldn't find historical instructions for this, but looking at extant examples and the seams and so forth, this seems to be the way it was done. This had the additional benefit of not wasting fabric--every bit that is cut from the linen is put back somewhere else on the shift.

I have a piece of linen that I'm going to use for the shift I'm making. It's a bit thinner than optimal, but my other option that is in my stash is quite coarse, and I'm not sure it would make a good comfortable shift that will be against my skin. I'll be sure to post my progress!

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