I finally made myself a perfect medieval chemise. Perfection existing in the fabric, the pattern, and the notions.
Past attempts at chemise fell short when I tried to use cotton muslin. The stiff weight didn’t drape how I had imagined in one case or another. This time I found a buttery 100% cotton gauze at the local fabric warehouse. It has the perfect hand for some light underpinnings.
I patterned the chemise myself using rectangles, my favorite. Below there’s s a simple schematic from my sketchbook, not to scale. The optional side gore I didn’t end up using and instead left a slit. The underarm gore was crucial and adds so much comfort and functionality. Shown above, an underarm gore is a square or rectangle sewn where the sleeve and side seams meet to increase the range-of-motion that the garment can achieve without adding a lot of visible bulk.
In all this simple design still ate four yards of fabric! This chemise is “ivory,” but I also bought 9 yards of the last of the white in stock with which I may make a fancier version in the future. Puff sleeves anyone?
On the cuffs I hand-embroidered a simple design for a bit of extra scrumptious detail. I like the raw serge edge in this case, for texture.
The neckline is gathered using soft cotton rope in a channel. No modern elastics here! The fabric is light enough that the gathers can be increased to form a high neckline, or let slack for an off-the-shoulder look. Love versatility in a base-layer. My seams are finished on the serger in matching thread, which is the only modern cheat you could say I used in this otherwise historical garment. French seams get kind of chunky and I like how the serger seams are all very flat and comfortable for the layer next to the skin.
