The shirt is finished and it met all my expectations. When I set out to make this shirt, I wanted to first make a side opening version, because they are rarely seen, and two I wanted to test out some construction theories:
- Stiff collars
- Stand out from the neck
- Rounded top edge
- Geometric embroidery
I really feel that I accomplished what I set out to do. By folding over the fabric for the collar, the edge once pleated provided a nice clean edge. The double fabric allowed for thick, stiff pleats. The added benefit is that you need less fabric in the body to pleat up the neckline. The pattern darning created the geometric patterning that I see in the inspiration portraits.
This was not the easiest project. I put a lot of hours in to rip out embroidery and redo it. But with each failure came more understanding and further success.
Below is the link to the documentation for the shirt. It was recently presented in the Arts and Science Competition for the East Kingdom of the SCA. I am also recapping details of the shirt below in a full gallery.
https://medievalhandwork.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/the-italian-shirt.pdf
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- The charted pattern
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- Neckline is pleated.
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- More neckline
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- Neckline is curving
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- gathered up
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- Showing the gathering threads
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- The ungathered test piece
Medieval handwork 
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