Anytime historical fashion can be made a little simpler, it's a good thing. These are the 15 historical sewing techniques that I feel are must-knows, certainly learning can make your creative journey easier.

I've just passed the 1-year mark of my sewing journey, and I've been reflecting upon and taking careful note of what construction methods keep showing up again and again (specifically for 18th century fashion and 19th century fashion). Upon examination of my notes, these are the techniques that I feel I constantly see, and if you enjoy historical sewing from these periods as well, there's a good chance you'll come across these methods too.

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While I won't be demonstrating every single technique, I do mention other videos I've shot in the past that do explain some of them in greater depth, and down below I've included videos that have helped me in my first few months of historical sewing.

Hand Stitching:
My 7 Essential Hand Sewing Stitches video -    • 7 MUST-KNOW Hand Sewing Stitches for ...  

Lining Garments the Historical Way:
I explain these in the video. In summary;
For the "Georgian Method", wrong sides to wrong sides, place your lining against your fashion fabric and slightly stagger the edges so the lining is just a tiny bit smaller and further from the edge of the fashion fabric. Whip stitch all around the edges being sure not to go out onto the right side of the fashion fabric (stitching into the fold essentially).
For the "Victorian Method", cut a duplicate of your fashion fabric piece in your lining and flatline your pieces by basting them together, wrong sides to wrong sides, and treating them as one. The seam allowances will be exposed and you'll need to finish them using a method like whip stitching or with a silk binding.

Pleating:
For knife pleats and box pleats -    • A Super Simple 18th Century Underpett...  
For cartridge pleats -    • How to Hand Sew an Adorable Victorian...  

Shortening or Lengthening the Torso of Your Pattern:
This video was helpful -    • How to Lengthen and Shorten a Sewing ...  

The English Stitch:
I explain this briefly in the video, but here is a full tutorial I made on the stitch -    • ONE STITCH TO RULE THEM ALL | Seam, L...  

Constructing Princess Seams:
This was a helpful video -    • How To: Sewing Princess Seams  

Stroked Gathers:
   • Historic Fashion Tutorial Series: Gat...  

Pattern Matching:
   • Pattern Matching Your Fabric  
   • Pattern Matching Part 2  
   • How to Match Fabric Prints When Sewin...  

Piecing:
My tips are, make sure you always leave enough seam allowance to connect the two pieces and try to choose areas that will be the most inconspicuous if possible.

Preparing Fabrics for Sewing:
My Fabrics Care Crash Course -    • Video  

Two-Piece Sleeve Construction:
   • Sewing a dartless lined jacket 6 - Tw...  

Grading and Scaling Patterns:
This one is quite complex and really depends on what you need to do. Here are some helpful videos -
   • How To Grade a Fashion Pattern  
   • Scaling, Sizing & Alternating A Sewin...  
   • How to Make a Vintage Pattern Bigger/...  
   • Scaling up a Pattern to Life-Size (us...  
   • Scaling up Historical Patterns using ...  

Time Stamps:
0:00 Introduction
1:52 Technique No. 1 & 2
4:08 Technique No. 3 & 4
5:40 Technique No. 5 & 6
7:24 Technique No. 7 & 8
8:30 Technique No. 9 & 10
9:22 Technique No. 11 & 12
10:47 Technique No. 13 & 14
11:39 Technique No. 15
12:40 Conclusion & End Screen

All music is from Epidemic Sound.

#HistoricalSewing #MustKnows #HistoricalFashion