This
man’s shirt is made from finely woven white linen and embroidered in black
silk. It has been dated from between 1585 and 1620. The embroidery style is a little early for our period, but the construction and pattern of the shirt is still correct for
the 1640s. This photo courtesy of Fashion Museum, Bath and North East Somerset Council. The reason I’ve decided to post these really nice images from Caroline Vincent is that they show all
those small details that make the difference between a seventeenth century
shirt and a fancy dress one.
A
lot of these details are also shown in Janet Arnold Patterns of Fashion 4, together
with a detailed pattern. This is a recommended book for anyone interested in
linens from our period.
The body of the shirt is made from a single length of
linen 38” wide, and about 8 feet in length, folded and gathered into a neck band
at the top. The length of the shirt is the first point that makes it right for the period. The linen is finely woven, but on closer inspection, the threads
aren’t exactly even and an obvious texture is visible in the surface of the
fabric. For a lower quality, soldier’s shirt maybe, you might want to look at a
more coarsely woven fabric. The two sleeves are cut from the same width of
linen, 24 inches long, sewn to the body of the shirt and pleated into
embroidered cuffs at the ends. The work on the shirt is nice, but not top quality
for the period and should be reproducible by any modern sewer who takes care
and time. It’s the embroidery that is probably the reason why this shirt
remains to be seen now.
For
instructions on how to make a shirt, refer to my blog post. These pictures
should be seen as a companion piece. This kind of sewing will take time and
effort to copy, but having something nicely made will be the reward.
If
you follow my instructions, the first construction point, having cut out your pattern pieces
is to insert the shoulder gussets. This picture shows one in place on
the Bath shirt. The edges of the gusset are gathered into small pleats and sewn
into the collar.
This is a view of the neck opening. The edges are rolled back and hemmed as instructed
in How To Make Your Own Shirt. Note the single tie sewn to the collar (there should
be two ties but only one remains) and the gathers of the shirt into the standing collar band.
Next
part is to insert the sleeve gusset. This is what one of the gussets looks
like. Measuring tape gives you the scale in centimetres.
This
photo shows the side seam where the opening begins. The shirt has two small
squares of linen inserted to provide strength. This is a weak point and many
reproduction shirts rip at this point. The edges are not hemmed as they
correspond to the selvedge of the fabric. This is the advantage of using period width linen.
The
sleeve is gathered in tiny cartridge pleats and sewn into the cuffs, which are
also embroidered. Sleeves were becoming wider and more gathered even
than this one by our period.
And
to finish off, a few details of the embroidery which is mostly formed in
vertical panels, possibly to line up with slashes in a doublet body that would
have been worn on top. Some of the black thread has disintegrated but most of
it is still there, and where it isn’t, you can still see the stitch marks. All detail photos reproduced with permission from Caroline Vincent.
Excellent.
ReplyDeleteKeith.
http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com.au/
exquisite - i love linen, living in sub-tropics, but you would be surprised how difficult to find ready-to-wear today!
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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