Every Day I Wake Up And Think About How Renegade Nell Really Gave Us Everything. An Authentic Sister

every day i wake up and think about how renegade nell really gave us everything. an authentic sister trio (the rep i need). a main female lead whose story does not revolve around romance, EVEN THOUGH nell is canonically a widow. funky gender happenings that fulfill my deepest fantasies of being a queer time traveler. THE COSTUMES!!!! a sapphic kiss. comedy. men in wigs. faerie magic. louisa harland. accurate (as far as I can tell) depictions of class and what it meant in the 1700s. petty theft. a banger soundtrack. ass-kicking. witchcraft. amazing acting. emotional complexity.

I really like what this physicist, Lamar Glover, has to say in Behind the Curve. 

+ this part from Spiros Michalakis:

Nell's Shirt Recreation

Alright, being a Renegade Nell fan and a historical fashion fan has unsurprisingly led me down the rabbit hole of their costuming. So, I'm recreating Nell's shirt best I can, cause gender envy :D

I'm also gonna try document my progress as I love to infodump and a few people on the renegade nell discord server have asked me to lmao. This post is gonna be about planning, drafting and cutting!

Planning:

Above is my collection of screenshots (and gifs u can find if you search #sewing reference on my blog) from a rewatch of the show, with notes about construction details. I am so sorry about my handwriting, but if anyone is curious about anything they can't read please ask and I will happily provide.

The rundown though, is that it's a classic 18th century men's shirt, which you can find countless tutorials for if you want to make one that isn't so specifically Nell's.

There are a number of key details to note that are specific to this shirt however. The sizing of the shirt is a bit abnormal to the brief research I've done, with Nell's gussets (the triangle under the arm that allows movement) being a bit larger than what's to be expected, as well as the length being extremely long compared to other men's shirts. Eg:

(Credit indigomood for the gif, my phone couldn't handle searching for it in gifs so I had to download it)

Which, would make sense for a shirt she's taken from her late husband, but the sleeves are so fitted perfectly to her arm length, that I'm gonna just chalk these up as a mix of design choices for the comfort of Lousia when filming and giving the illusion of an oversized shirt.

Also, the cuffs and collar have a simple embroidery edging to them which I love. They have most likely been done on a modern machine, but we can cut Tom Pye some slack with the rest of the amazing work he's done. It looks like a zigzag stitch, with a straight stitch running on the side closest to the edge.

Also also, if anyone has seen Bernadette Banners pirate shirt tutorial, the sleeves and collar have less fabric and as a result less gathering. It's also mostly situated at the very tops of the shoulder, rather than all around the arms eye.

Alrightly onto the pattern drafting:

The Pattern:

The first image is a not-to-scale sketch up of all the pattern pieces, with my estimation of measurements (with about 1cm seam allowance idk I learnt to sew without a sewing machine and this project isn't very fussy) for each piece, as well as some short notes for how I got some of the measurements. The second image is just a guide/plan of how to lay each piece out on my fabric with minimal waste, and will be different for each person if yall attempt this.

I'm ngl, I snatched Bernadette's pattern as a base, cause I've made that shirt before. The measurements also are a weird mix of the guides given in Bernadette's video, a great informative comment on the video by musikkfreaken342, and a general taking measurements of my own body (which is a similar body type to Nell's) and seeing how they compare to the photo references. I wish I could give more guidance here but I'm ngl I went based on vibes for most of this.

*Note: despite how long Nell's shirt appears to be in that Billy intro scene, I'm going to run on the assumption that the length was for actor comfort, and will be cutting mine shorter.

Also, ignore the neck slit lining/reinforcement for now. Idk how I'm doing that yet... so yeah.

Alright!! Moving onto actually cutting out the fabric!

Cutting the Fabric:

Historically these shirts are made from linen (and sometimes cotton I think?). Great material: looks great, breaths easy, whips sweat away from the skin to protect your outer layers.

I've personally chosen a lightweight linen/rayon blend, cause it's soft and I don't have the money for full linen. Def recommend a lightweight linen if possible for these shirts, it just works out nicer and comfier.

However, with linen comes the challenges of cutting everything out straight. As you may have noticed, all our pattern pieces are rectangles, and it's very important to cut these as straight as possible for the shirt to drape properly. As such, I've used a method called drawing threads, where you pull one thread out to make a guide to cut along.

You can skip the next few photos if you are not actually interested in sewing techniques and just want to see Nell's shirt.

First measure your piece. I've placed pins in where I want to cut.

From there, I have cut a little notch, and separated out a thread.

Here comes the tedious task of pulling on the thread until you end up with a gap in the weave! The thread will break on you countless times and you have to be patient I'm so sorry.

You then cut along that line to end up with perfectly rectangular pieces. I also recommend doing each piece either individually or in small groups.

Okay end of needless tutorial about cutting linen!!!

At the end of this whole process, I've ended up with all my pieces :D

The collar slit reinforcement piece is just a scrap piece of fabric rn. Like I said idk what I'm doing for that yet.

Thats what I have for now! I'm lowkey planning on sewing most of this by hand, cause I'm that sort of person, so it might be a moment before I have a substantial update for if anyone is actually a fraction of the interested in this as I am sjfjskf.

maths enjoyers and bug enjoyers and horror movie enjoyers and so forth all need to come together and unite against the common enemy of people telling you how much they hate something as soon as you mention you like it