I have gotten so many requests for more chemise/shift patterns since launching the Catarina Shift last year. Turns out that while shifts are all geometry, there’s a demand for patterns that take all the maths and guesswork out of making them!
So, as a companion piece to the Minette Stays, here’s the Lise Chemise: the perfect very-late-18th-century-early-19th-century shift pattern!
The Lise Chemise has three views that cover the transitional period between the full-elbow-length sleeves 18th century shifts, and the fully square-necked, gathered-front Regency chemises.
View A has simple short sleeves, and and is appropriate to the the whole 1785-1820 period:
View B is inspired by period images of sleeveless chemise: the type that might have been worn under the daring sleeveless ‘Merveilleuse’ dresses of the mid-1790s to early 1800s.
And View C is based on chemise from 1800-1820, with short puffed sleeves, to help support the puffed sleeves fashionable in that period.
And all of them are modelled with the help of some of my foster kitties!
My two current foster kittens are absolute dolls.
They are Little B, (void girl) and Paulie (black and white boy).
They were born in late Feb/early March. They aren’t siblings, but have been fostered together since they were a couple of months old. Paulie was part of a litter of four. All his other siblings have been adopted, but he and Little B didn’t grow as fast as their siblings, so they couldn’t get adopted as early.
Little B is a few weeks older. At one point she weighed twice as much as Paulie. When they came to me a month or so ago they were the same weight. Paulie’s making up for lost time though: he weighs a whole kilo more than her! He’s got enormous paws and is looooooong and is going to be a BIG boy.
They are both total snugglebugs and adore each other.
Little B loves to sit on my lap while I do computer work for patterns. She’s part parrot and likes to sit on shoulders and curl her tail around you like a chameleon.
Paulie purrs if you so much as look at him, and rolls around in ecstasy when you pet him and rub his tummy.
Little B is incredibly smart, and Paulie hasn’t a thought in his head (except “are there treats, and can I have some?”). He makes up for it with all the love in his heart though! If anyone, cat or human, is sick or hurt he’s right there trying to comfort them.
I absolutely adore them both, and wish I could afford to foster fail them!
Connie (my official foster fail) is relieved I can’t though. She graciously allows all the fosters that come through the house as an act of charity, but enjoys the times when she gets to be the centre of attention. She is, after all, Queen of the House.
