16th Century Italian Camicia

A lady can never have too many linen under-shirts. This is the layer that goes between the body and the fancy silks and brocades and wools we see on the exterior. Linen is a fabric I have truly come to love, more than cotton. It’s light, cool, and absorbs the sweat and oil of the day. This keeps those things off your gown.

Most of the extant shirts, smocks, and camicie of the time are beautifully decorated with embroidery, insertion seams, bobbin lace, reticella, and punto in aria. I decided I wanted to try adding insertion lace on the sleeves and needle lace on the neckline. This was part of what I believe I saw poking out from the ladies’ gowns in the portrait I was making.

I used the following instructions to make the camicia itself: http://realmofvenus.renaissanceitaly.net/library/camiciahowto.htm

I thought long and hard about this, because this lace would have been expensive, surely it would be attached to the outer garment so it wouldn’t be destroyed in the wash? However, we do see the lace goes under the sheer partlet. Perhaps this was a very fancy event and the garment was rarely worn? Perhaps she had enough camicie that washing the same garment more frequently was not necessary? It is hard to tell. But I chose to make the lace part of the neckline, rather than a separate piece on the gown. Here is my process of making the lace and adding it to the camicia: