First I pin the pieces together, than I use the embroidery thread and the backstitch to sew them together and last but not least I sew down the edges.
For the shoulder seams and also to join the sleeves with the basic body fabric I used the “triple-run seams”, like described on page 45 in the medieval tailors assistand (or textiles and clothing by the museum of london – page 156 – see Fig. 126 Seams joined by (B) back-stitch; (C) seam opened flat and reinforced with running stitch) with the following modification: I am using a backstitch for the join and I also fold the edge one more time to hide the fabric edge inside and prevent the fabric from loosing more threads (because I wash my clothes in the washing machine and not by hand)and therefore instead of running stitch I use the hem-stitch like described on page 44 – see ’2. Hemming’ (2a + 2b) in the medieval tailors assistant (or textiles and clothing – page 157 – see Fig. 128 Double-folded hems: (A) hem-stitch)…
For the sleeves and the insertion of the two “gussets/gores” I prefer the “Two-stage seams” like described in the medieval tailors assistant on page 46 (6a + 6c) – again I prefer to use a backstitch instead a running stitch to sew the fabric together – “Setting in simple sleeves – 7. Sleeves with gussets – making up and setting in by hand” (7b + 7c) on page 47 of the medieval tailors assistant explain rather good what I am doing – I just have to insert one more gore and at the beginning I pin everything together first befor I start sewing (and I don’t snip into the seam allowance)…
If you don’t have the medieval tailors assistand nor the textiles and clothing, you can also find a picture of the seams in the book ‘The Development of Costume’, page 15, 4 Various hems and seams based on finds from excavations of Viking York (Jorvik) and medieval London – for the shoulder seams it is the 3rd picture (counted from top) in the middle row (with my modifications!) and for the sleeve its the 3rd/last picture of the right row…
