Man's Elizabethan Shirt

I recently finished up a new shirt for my fiance. He currently only had one shirt, with some machine-blackwork detail on the cuffs and collar, and since he plans to continue playing in the SCA with me, naturally we need to expand his wardrobe!

This shirt is very simple. I actually quite like how plain and white it is. I took a little more time on this shirt to make the details cleaner, which is surprising considering his other shirt is more detailed and fancy!

I ordered linen from Dharma Trading- this is their heaviest weight linen, which is perfect for a man's shirt. It's not heavy enough for an outer garment but not too delicate either. I ordered a medium weight linen for myself for a new smock, which hopefully I'll make soon.

I still need some cording to tie the collar shut. The cuffs close with tiny hooks and eyes. I tried cording for the cuffs on his last shirt- after he twice broke the cording while wearing them, I gave up and added hooks and eyes, which works much better.

Apparently, after coming across someone's research, in period they did not box-pleat the collars and cuffs on shirts. It was all tiny gathers, cartridge pleats, or knife pleats. I learned this after finishing this shirt. Oh well, now I know for next time!