1810 Man's linen shirt
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1800-1820 A linen shirt
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The back of the shirt
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Detail of the gathers at the top of a sleeve
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Details showing the stitching at the base of the front opening; the outside is shown above and the small reinforcing piece of fabric on the inside can be seen below.
Description
The cut of the shirt is based on rectangles; the body is cut as one piece with no shoulder seams and the neck and front opening cut in the middle. There is a reinforcement panel over each shoulder, 10½" down front and back, with a line of stitching along the top of the shoulders.
The front and back are gathered into the collar, and there is an Inset triangle each side of the neck which is also slightly gathered; this eases the strain on the linen at this point to prevent it from splitting, although it does show signs of splittng at the point of the triangle.
The collar is 3⅛" high, with buttonholes at the front, one ⅜" up from the base and another 1" further up; the buttons are linen covered metal rings, with stitching ³⁄₁₆" in from edges all round.
An inset panel of finer linen at the top on the left side of the front is 8" wide and slightly gathered where it joins the rest of the front 10" down. There is no similar panel on the right hand side.
The front opening is 12" long, with buttonhole stitch round its lower end and a small piece of linen at the back for reinforcement; there is some decorative stitching to hold the layers together.
The frills down each side of the opening are not the same. On the right the frill is cotton lawn, 3¾" wide and sewn 11½" down the edge of the opening, gathered for about 7½". The frill on the left is cotton muslin, 4" wide and more tightly gathered for 6" then straight for another 4¾"; it is sewn ¼" in under the edge of the inset panel of finer linen which is itself more tightly gathered into the neck seam with the collar. The frills seem to fall to the right side, the finer one lying over the other one, and they would have been starched, to stand out more; there are two tears near the top.
The sleeve heads are gathered into the shoulders, and there are underarm gussets, about 6" square, allowing for more movement; the underarm seams are open for 4" at the ends with little bars of buttonhole stitch across the top to prevent the seam opening further.
The ends of the sleeves are gathered into 2⅜" wide cuffs, with a linen button and buttonhole ½" from the seam with the sleeves; they are top-stitched ⅛" from edges on their long sides.
The triangular gusset at base of side seams is a 1¼" square of linen folded diagonally, and the back of the shirt is 1" longer than the front.
Contemporary illustrations
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Fashion plate Costume Parisien, 1814
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Johannes Hermanus Molkenboer by Mattheus Ignatius van Bree, 1815. Rijksmuseum
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Fashion plate Costume Parisien, 1819
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Fashion plate Modes Françaises, 1823
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History
This shirt was possibly made by the wearer's wife or daughter. Before the invention of the sewing machine, all sewing was done by hand, and all women sewed, creating delicate embroidery at the top levels of society and making the most basic necessities at the lower end. In Cranford by Mrs Gaskell, set in the first half of the 19th century, Mary, the narrator, says: "There was all the more time for me to hear old-world stories from Miss Pole, while she sat knitting and I making my father's shirts. I always took a quantity of plain sewing to Cranford; for, as we did not read much, or walk much, I found it a capital time to get through my work."