The Slavic Cottagecore Saga ...

I have filmed this intro before. I have filmed this intro between 2021 and 2022 when, while living in my student accommodation in Coventry, I had the bright idea to start a new project in the middle of my master's degree, where I really should not be doing any other project, to start remaking all the folk costumes from all the different regions that my family comes from. The first choice was of course the Podlasie costume, because my family currently lives in Podlasie, but the borders are not the same as the historical ones. So, back when I was doing my master's, I fell into the pitfall of googling Podlasie folk costumes, and of course the one that came up is the one that's chosen as kind of the representative costume of the region, which is the Podlasie Jankozański costume, which it A. doesn't cover the whole region, because there are just many other variations of folk costumes worn throughout Podlasie. Second of all, the thing with this shirt is that it has nothing to do with the part of Podlasie that my family is actually from. However, as the representative costume of the region currently, according to... I would like to know who, I will accept the fact that I made it, and it's fine. I'm live and let live, it's fine. So now, this is the first costume that I'll be doing, and I'm going to shut up now, and let's get to making. What I'm doing here is known as thread pulling, where instead of transferring the pattern by hand, by drawing it onto the fabric, I am instead pulling single threads in straight lines to form the pattern already on the fabric. Pulling the thread reveals a gap in the fabric that I can then cut along. I am doing this because the shirt is made using the construction technique of krój przeramkowy, which means that instead of a modern, usually very curved pattern, I'll be using exclusively squares and rectangles. Okay, there is the pulled thread that runs all the way down the fabric. So my reasoning behind pulling the threads before starting the embroidery, and instead of cutting the pieces out, is that the embroidery was technically meant to be woven into the fabric itself, but as I mentioned, I can't weave, so I'm focusing instead on cross-stitch embroidery. But to keep the spirit of fabric pre-embroidered, I'm going to embroider it before cutting it up. The embroidery technique I used to make this shirt is the cross-stitch embroidery, which, looking back on it, is a mistake. The Podlasie nadburzański folk costume utilizes perabody style embroidery, which is a type specific to this region, where it is woven into the fabric rather than embroidered on. So the fabric should have already had the patterns woven into them. There are, of course, methods of replicating the woven patterns using hand embroidery, however, full disclosure, at this point I did not look into it well enough, and if I had just done a little bit more research and a bit more practice, I would have known that this was possible. So this is slightly an anachronistic shirt, as it's meant to be from Podlasie nadburzańskie, but however, it ends up using the embroidery techniques from the county of Hajnówka. The embroidery patterns that I selected for this shirt come from a book published by the museum in Bielsko-Podlasie, based on existent pieces of embroidered ceremonial towels and shirts from, well, the Hajnówka region and surrounding areas. The components of the shirt that will feature embroidery are the cuffs, the collar, the sleeves, specifically just above the wrist, and the shoulder pieces. So, it's been weeks, months, and years, but I finally finished the embroidery. All the panels are done, all the sleeves, all the cuffs, all the shoulder pieces, and all the collars, and now, moment of truth, I need to cut. The cutting, while technically stressful, as it always is, because I'm cutting expensive fabric with a lot of work put into it, but thanks to the thread pulling I did earlier, I have all my lines clearly marked for me, and there can be no mistake. All I have to do is follow the previously pulled thread line, and all the pieces should come together relatively smoothly. Linen, while being a lovely fabric, just in general, is an absolute nightmare when it comes to creasing, so, of course, even just the process of me cutting out the pieces led to there being a absolutely monstrous amount of creases left in the fabric, which I do have to now completely iron out. At the very beginning, all my seams are attached with a very, very normal backstitch. I used a backstitch rather than a running stitch, specifically for the strength. I will not use a sewing machine for this project, as I am planning to make this anachronistic shirt, as accurate as I possibly can make it with the level of anachronism I already allowed myself, and that includes, for example, not using a sewing machine. Sewing machines have always been a luxurious commodity, not everyone could afford it, especially not in the villages. I think that it's very likely that shirts like this throughout history were mostly made absolutely by hand, and that is what I'm doing. I start off with the backstitch, and I'm going to move on later to whip stitching down the raw edges, as so for the shirt to not completely fray on the inside. The seam edges will be turned down and whip stitched to the fabric. The two shoulder pieces, the back piece and the front piece, are gathered to the same length as the collar piece, and will be attached that way. So so the sleeves are also gathered into the cuffs, and then I attach two buttons that I picked earlier, and then on the opposite side I do two thread loops to hold on to the buttons, instead of using, for example, elastic like I've seen in many modern versions of such folk shirts. The button and thread loop combination will be repeated also on the collar to hold the shirt closed at the neck. So lastly the shirt is hemmed, so I cut the edge of the shirt to length, and where the front is slightly shorter than the back, and then of course I roll up the hem, and whip stitch it down to the fabric to avoid any frayed edges from showing.