Prepping Fabric and Drawing Threads: a linen shirt update

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

After my research last week, I'm excited to continue my first foray into sewing with linen by embracing yet another new technique!

This week, I'll be experimenting with drawing threads; a technique for cutting precise, on grain lines in woven fabrics. Bernadette Banner used this technique in the original video that inspired my shirt project and I'm quite interested to give it a try for myself!

While I know this method of straight grain cutting isn't the fastest, I'm sure the technique could easily be transferred to quilt making. Whether for the sake of precision or simply to slow down the making process and allow more time for contemplation, I can see many ways that drawing thread could be applied to my usual practice.

So Friends, let's dive right in!

Revisiting the Reference

After finishing all of my fabric prep last week, my 3m of linen has now shrunk to 2.8m of linen. I think I’ve probably done enough washing that the fabric should be ready to cut!

But before I can get to cutting, I wanted to double check my pattern.

As previously stated, this project was inspired by a video made by Bernadette Banner in September 2020 entitled “I hand sewed a pirate shirt using 18th century sewing methods.” Although it includes a pattern and process, this video was not intended as a tutorial, rather it is more like a video journal used to document Bernadette’s process and methods.

Despite this, someone with past sewing experience and a working knowledge of drafting techniques would certainly be able to use it as a guide for one of their own projects. And while I have both of those things, I decided to seek out a little more detail about how the garment is constructed and ways of altering the pattern to fit my own needs.

This search led me to a video by a creator named Ora Lin, called “A pirate shirt tutorial that ACTUALLY makes sense,” posted August 2021. This is the first encounter I’ve had with Ora, but based on a quick scroll through their channel, they make a wide range of historical and modern clothing from both Western and Chinese influences. And while I would really love to watch through every video Ora has on their channel, I really need to pin down pattern instructions for my own project.

Like Bernadette, Ora includes a free shirt pattern with some instructions on adjusting it to your own unique measurements. Comparing the two patterns, there’s relatively little difference between the two, but I did find elements of each that I liked and disliked, and I believe the pattern I ended up with was a bit of a mash of the two with just a little touch of my own.

Drawing Threads

After updating my pattern, I’m ready to start cutting my pieces, which means it’s time to learn about drawing threads!

As mentioned earlier, thread drawing is a method of marking straight, on grain cutting lines on woven fabric. To do it, find one thread that follows along the line you want to cut. Gently tug that thread to remove it from the weave of the fabric. Once the thread has been drawn, it will leave behind a gap in the weave of that fabric that you can easily cut along, resulting in a perfectly on grain shape!

There’s a good chance of the drawn thread breaking frequently throughout this process – threads for weaving fabric aren’t quite as durable as thread intended for sewing – so the process can be fairly slow and a little tedious for someone who is low on patience. But for someone who appreciates a very accurately marked and cut edge, it may be worth all that effort!

I’m especially interested in the possibility of transferring this skill to some of my other projects. Drawing thread allows for the cutting of precisely on grain squares and rectangles, which might be really interesting to use in quilt making. And even if, in the end, it isn’t a skill I want to continue using, I’m excited to try it out just this once for the sake of learning something new!

I started by drawing and cutting the largest pieces in the pattern: the main body of the shirt. These pieces had the longest lengths of thread to be drawn, so as expected, took quite some time to work through. I believe it took about 2 hours, with some distractions, to draw the thread and cut the shape of just the back panel.

While this may seem to be quite a long time, I did find the process quite relaxing. I really enjoy being able to sit and focus on a very precise task, especially one where I can easily see the progress being made. Spending time focusing on something to this degree gives me a lot of satisfaction and I’m glad I tried this technique!

I did have one point of frustration however. Because the thread used to weave fabric is not as sturdy as sewing thread, it tended to shred while drawing rather than breaking cleanly. This often left fibres in the drawn pathway that obscured the gap in the weave.

I decided to fix this by drawing two adjacent threads rather than just one. I assume this added to the time it took to cut my pieces, but I felt it made the process a little easier.

I can certainly understand why someone would not want to do this; the finished effect is very similar to just cutting the fabric using a ruler to mark the straight edge but takes significantly more time, however, I think it’s a fun technique to try out once in a while.

I still have some more pieces yet to be cut, and I’m sure it will take the next few days to do so. Hopefully that will fill enough of my time for my thread to arrive! And speaking of, I have a new update on that!

Thread Matters

As I stated last week, I’m very interested in using linen thread to match the fibre content of my linen fabric.

After sharing last week’s post, a lovely person reached out to me on Tumblr and recommended I try Booth and Draper. They are an American based business that sells fabric and notions specifically catering to historical sewists and costumers. Linen was a common and widely used fabric historically, so of course, they had linen thread available!

I was quite excited to see the variety of colours and thread weights available, so went ahead and bought some thread right away. However, because it is an American business and I live in Ontario, I did have to pay quite a bit in shipping to get the thread sent to me, so I do regret not doing a little more research first.

I have now remedied that and managed to find a few Canadian based businesses that might be a little more affordable for me:

• Farthingales: a historical sewing supplier focused on specialty tools and notions for sewing corsets. I didn’t find linen thread on their website, but if I decide to tackle more historical inspired projects, they will be good to check out!

• Traditional Stitches: a store focused on needlework. I assume the reason I didn’t find them originally is because I was searching for sewing and historical sewing websites. Traditional Stitches focuses on stitching samples and needlework, so they have a wide selection of threads in a variety of fibres, colours, and weights. I can see this being a great resource in the future!

• George Hill & Co.: a book binding supplier. This one was a bit of a surprise to find. I have spoken about my book binding experience in past posts, so I did know that book binding is often done with linen thread. However, it tends to use a much heavier weight thread than regular sewing, so I would probably need to do a custom order. They’re also a good supplier to be aware of for when I need more book binding tools!

Along with these possible Canadian stores, I found a few other international ones:

• Wm. Booth and Draper: as mentioned above, an American business specialized in fabric and notions for historical sewing and costuming.

• Burnley and Trowbridge: another American business specializing in fabric and notions for historical sewing and costuming. This is the store Bernadette Banner recommends in her videos. I didn’t shop there originally because I somehow thought they only carried linen thread in neutral colours. Looking back at their site, I realize they have a lot more variety!

• The Historical Fabric Store: a Sweden based business carrying fabric and notions for historical sewing and costuming. Yet another international option. Though I haven’t checked out their rates, I assume shipping from Europe would be just as expensive as shipping from the United States.

If you know of any other stores that supply linen thread or other historical sewing supplies, feel free to share them in the comments below! I would be quite excited to hear about more Canadian businesses or about additional international ones!

So Friends, I’m excited for the arrival of the linen thread I’ve ordered and quite looking forward to several more hours, maybe days, of thread drawing!

Even if you’re not planning to make a historically inspired shirt anytime soon, I hope the resources and experiences I’ve shared have been interesting and inspirational to you! Or, if you are working on just such a project, I would love to hear about it! Please share stores in the comments below and let me know where I can read more about your projects!

To check out my progress throughout the week, you can visit me on Instagram @vafibrearts. I'm still working out a posting schedule there that works best for me, so I appreciate feedback if you have any!

I'm looking forward to more sewing and more updates on my various projects to come! Next week, I'll be posting a new Project Update with information on this shirt and all the other quilting and fibre arts projects currently in the works. I hope you'll join me again for that!

Until then Friends, Happy Sewing!

~VA