Hello 17th century, in other words a Happy Christmas Project

 And now, after a so-so project there is an absolutely happy one I did in december...

Ever since I know N. I knew he is not the dressing kind. He has a couple of Mustang jeans, a dozen or so Puma T shirt, a few Puma hoodie, and thats it. In all the three and a half year we've been together, only twice did I see him in a jacket. And I agreed with him, it does not suit him. Okay, I guess, a real good bespoke taylor might be able to make a suit that fits him better, but he still would not feel comfortable in that. I never pressed him, for me he is perfectly fine in a black T shirt, even at more fancy eventy, like theatre.

With one exeptions. Reenactment. Ever since he started to come with me, and doing our potographs, there were bets going on, how long will it take me... but he resisted. One of the groupd even started to call him Von Pum'a those T shirts became so much his signature looks. 

For me it was a strange feeling, pulling me to the opposite sides, as I really did not want to push him, on the other hand, one of my love languages is to make things for the ones I love, knitted stockings, lace shawls, and the likes. He could be the best dressed reaanactor if he would be so inclined. 

Over the summer something changed, and in Palmanove he said, he will give it a try. 

Hurray. It was so obvious, that one of his Xmas present's will be the foundation of all. A shirt. 

Men's shirts did not changed much for hundreds of years, they are basically the same from the 16th century to the second half of the 19th century. Small changes on the neck, or the cuffs might have happened, but the basic structure stayed the same. 

The most difficult thing was: Finding the fabric. Okay, I have linen in my stash, but... but. In the store I bought the fabric for my renaissance shirt, did not had it, because they could not travel because of Covid restrictions. I found a gorgeous white linen, in a store, but it was way to expensive.  Then I found some middle priced one at a store called Nathalie. I had to buy more than the average, because it needed to be somewhat wider, but I though, whatever I will have left, I can use for smaller projects, like coifs, partlets, neck ruffs, or handkerchiefs.

We agreed that N will not have to build caracter, he will not have to play living history, he can do his photos all he wants, he only needs "not to look out of place", so a generic, nondescript look would be sufficient for every period, and that we will start with the early 17th century, or "early baroque". The shirts are for that period are basically the same as late 16th century, I've looked at many descriptions, many videos, many patterns. 

My main concern was sizing as Norbert is not your average figure. His larger than average waist measurement needs to be taken into consideration, and I desparately wanted to get it right for the first try. 

The most helpful was Morgan Donner's video and even more so her blogpost on making the shirt.

Also the discussion with Axel Bartholmew Boy was invaluable, who pointed out things to watch out for. For safety sake, just to make athings absolutely sure, also looked Mathew Gnagy's pattern, and compared the sizing suggestions to Morgan's and for some reason I felt Morgan's seemed... Dunno what, but I whenever I was in doubt, I used her calculations. 

I started with the most important thing:

The man needs to feel right in his clothes, doesn't he? 

Then while I was already into embroidery, I did the lower point of the neck slit:

Then went on sewing the rest.

I did sew the long inner seams with a machine, but the rest of it was sewn by hand, the edges were folded under and felled down by tiny handstitches, the gussets, the straps on the shoulder, were sewn in by hand, so you can't see machine stitch even if you turn it wrong side out.

So darned proud of that gusset point:

The gathering at the top of the sleeve:

I was wondering, what to do about closures. At the given time period, most of them was done by ties, but I wanted him to feel good in his shirt not to annoy him, with ties. So I made buttons.

The full neckline:

The underarm from the rights side:

The wrist band with double buttons:

The final Xmas package , in other words, a "reenactor's starter package". (I got the stockings back in the fall in Palmanova)

The man himself, in his brand new shirt:

The sleeve cuff (the other one is at the back of the collar:

I guess he likes it (and the fact that he shown the pictures to every family member we've met over Xmas, seems to prove that.