A Flemish Smock
Plainest of the Plain
An Experiment in Plain Sewing

Introduction:

This simple garment is the product of an experiment in plain sewing. Plain sewing is a facet of handwork often over looked in favor of more elaborate or decorative use of the needle. But this simple collection of techniques is the foundation of skill within the tailors repertoire. Without efficient and sturdy plain sewing to provide the assembly of a garment there would be no canvas for decoration or expression.

The main function of plain sewing is to assemble and protect a garment. To highlight the techniques and their importance I have chosen to use them in a simple garment, common to all levels of society, the smock.

The smock was the foundation garment for both men and women in the 16th century. There are some variations found between smocks made for men versus those made for women, but most of these variations are concentrated in the shape of the neckline and the construction of the shoulders. However, some women's smocks, especially those with high collars, did closely resemble those worn by men. Even Queen Elizabeth was the recipient of two "Flanders smockes wrought with white worke" (QEW, 134)

These smocks have not survived but it is thought that they were high necked smocks similar to the smocks worn by the female half of the family in the "Portrait of Pierre de Moucheron and his Wife, Isabeau de Berbier with their Children in Antwerp." The portrait is attributed to Cornelius de Zeeuw ca. 1563.

Another resource for exploring this garment are extant pieces. Garments in the Victoria and Albert Museum provide greater insight into the construction of this fundamental garment. The pieces I have drawn upon for this experiment include a boy's shirt from the 1550s.

Pattern Generation:

There are many resources for patterns for a woman's smock from the late 1500s to 1600. Patterns for smocks are available on the world wide web and are sold commercially. I chose to avoid the pre-made solution, and invested the time into making my own pattern.

The basic principles of the smock are a rectangle and gore construction that generates very little wasted cloth. This construction is found in the young mans shirt of the V&A collection and in the woman's smock in Arnold. This confirms that the basic rectangle and gore construction was being used for undergarments, smocks, at a time when other items of clothing were experiencing a tailoring revolution.

Neckline and centerline: a closed centerline and a high collar

This basic construction method usually assumes a solid rectangular piece for the front of the garment. However the use of a solid piece of cloth leads to the need to insert a placket into the center slit of the neckline. Forming a neckline by cutting the front of a single piece of cloth also creates an opening, a gap, at the center front of the smock.

I chose to produce a closed center line and inherently stronger join at the base of the opening. To accomplish this requires that the center pane of the smock be split vertically along the center line. The two sides are then joined in a seam. This allows for the two edges to meet exactly and allows the base of the opening to be reinforced by sewing. This treatment is quite uncommon in the SCA, and is not available in the commercial patterns.

Sleeves: an inset of embroidered lace

Each sleeve of this smock has an inset panel of embroidered lace. The lace features cut and drawn work in white. The presence of such work on a woman's smock is demonstrated in the image of a young woman at the virginal. (Arnold, 43) As can be seen in the image the sleeves of the young woman's smock are decorated with open work panels.

Whether the sleeves are made by the insertion of a panel, or by working the cloth of the sleeve directly is indeterminate. The fact that such laces from Holland could have been used is supported by Arnold in her tome on the Accounts of Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe, "the use of rich white embroidery for which Flanders was famous." (QEW, 134)

Other sources suggest that such panels of lace could be inserts. The practice of removing laces and separate inventories for laces points to their separate nature from other items of clothing. However, this area requires further investigation before a definitive answer can be reached.

Materials: a medium weight linen tabby and linen thread

Records of the silk workers to Queen Elizabeth I describe smocks made of Hollande Cloth. (QEW, 224) Janet Arnold defines Hollande Cloth as "a linen fabric first made in Holland ranging from fine quality for shirts and medium weight for linings, to a coarser quality for bed linens." (QEW, 365)

The connection between linen and Hollande cloth is made in a 1597 order to William Jones "for making six pair of doble linen hose from fine Hollande clothe." (QEW, 206)

However, my goal was to make a smock that a woman of the emerging middle or merchant class would wear daily. So perhaps a fine linen would be a bit too extravagant. It seems almost common knowledge that linen was used for smock of all socio-economic classes. But the common wisdom is verified by the Tudor Inventories from Appelby England, 1530-1601.

In this collection of wills and inventories there are several entries for linen smocks of varying appraised worth. An example of the entries taken from the 1579 inventory of Alice Bates upon her death reads --

flaxen smocke 6 pennies
flaxen smocke 12 pennies
flaxen smocke 8 pennies

The varying values assigned to the smocks may reflect wear, materials or other features that are not mentioned in the inventory.

So for my recreation I chose to use a medium weight plain tabby weave of 100% linen. All the construction of the garment is executed in linen thread.

Assembly and time: all by hand, 25 hours later

Part of my own experiment was to see how long it would take me to assemble the smock by hand sewing.

Stitches used to complete this smock include running stitch, back stitch, whip stitch, and button hole stitch. My choice for assembling the smock was based on reports of conservation of pre-1600 clothes described in Flury-Lemberg and observations made by Janet Arnold. The main seams are held together with running stitch reinforced with backstitch. The edges of the seams are protected from wear by being folded over and stitched into place.

I now have a much greater appreciation for the amount of work that went into every piece of clothing, no matter how mundane. It has taken me 5 days to complete this very basic garment. On each of those days I worked an average of five hours. So, in total there are over 25 hours of hand sewing in the garment. Much more that I had initially bargained for. And now I know why my grand mother had a fit when I would lose a piece of clothing.

Buttons: hand made linen buttons

There are some buttons on the cuff. I wanted something very practical, so although the boys shirt of the V&A uses ties, I opted for buttons.

The buttons are hand made. A piece of linen is cut into a small circle and then drawn up into a pouch. The ends of the linen are stuffed into the center of the pouch and then the edges are sewn together. (Crowfoot, 171)

The button holes are needle loops formed by rows of button hole stitch placed over several loops of linen thread.

Decoration:

 This smock is almost completely devoid of applied decoration. The sleeves are the only area that are elaborated, so far. I do have some plans to remedy this in the future.

The initial sleeve decoration was inspired by the image of a woman from Ausburg. Other decoration on her smock is not visible, but there may well have been decorated seams. One extant example of decorated seams is housed in the V&A museum. This smock or shirt has simple vine like motifs wrought along most of the seams.

Ruff and Cuff:

At this moment I have not applied a ruffle at the collar. Examination of both extant garments and portraits has left me debating if I should apply a ruffle. They were indeed the fashion. However, garments recovered from the Gnalic which sank in 1563 have demonstrated that neck ruffles were not the norm everywhere. (Flury, 333) And other examples geographically closer to England exist such as the image of Oliver's wife shown to the left.

 

A Selected Bibliography

The Tudor Inventories from Appleby, 1530-1601. Transcribed Alan Roberts.

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women C. 1560-1620. London: MacMillan London Ltd., 1985.

Arnold, Janet. Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd. Leeds: W.S. Maney & Son Ltd., 1988.

Boys shirt. Ca 1550. Victoria and Albert Museum.

Crowfoot, Elisabeth. Frances Pritchard, Kay Staniland. Textiles and Clothing C. 1150 - C. 1450. Medieval Finds from Excavations in London:4. London: HMSO, 1992.

Endrei, Walter. "The Productivity of Weaving in Late Medieval Flanders." Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor E.M. Carus-Wilson. Ed. N.B. and Harte K.G. Ponting. 1 ed. London: Heinemann Educational Books - The Pasold Research Fund Ltd, 1983. 401.

Flury-Lemberg, Mechthild. Textile Conservation and Research: ... Vol. VII. Berm: Schriften Der Abegg-Stiftung, 1988.

Oliver, Isaac. Portrait of Sara Geerhart.