Sewing Closed Shoulder Tunics

How you put your tunica together depends on what kind you are making. Closed-shoulder tunics are generally made by finishing the shoulders and neckline first. Gap-sleeved tunics and single-join tunics are generally made by finishing the shoulder last.

Closed-shoulder tunics include both tunics made with the shoulder on a fold or by sewing the shoulder seam closed. In ancient Rome, this style of tunic was usually woven in a single piece, with a slit left open in the center for the neck. The distinctive look and fit of the horizontal slit neckline is one of the characteristics that distinguishes the Roman tunica from other, similar, tunics. Closed-shoulder tunics can be sleeveless or have either short or long sleeves. Some Roman closed-shoulder tunics were woven as a single piece of fabric, with the sleeves included. Other version had sewn on sleeves. Due to the extreme width of the tunic, sleeve-less tunics look almost as if they have short sleeves. When adding sleeves to a Roman tunica this extra width needs to be accounted for.

Steps 9 -11 are the same for both styles:

9. Now that your neck slit is finished and your sleeves are sewn on, attach the clavi if appropriate. The clavi should be placed 1-2" outside the outer edges of the neck slit and should run in parallel lines down the front and back to the hem or, alternatively, to the lower chest or mid-thigh. It's much easier to put the clavi on while the garment is flat!

10. Sew up the sides including the sleeves. Roman tunicas did not use an underarm gusset, relying on the extreme width and fullness of the body panels to prevent the sleeves from fitting too tightly and restricting movement.

11. Once everything else is done, you can hem your tunica and it's ready to wear (after you wash it to remove the chalk marks, of course!). Make sure that you fix the dye of the clavi or test for color fastness before sewing them onto the tunic! You don't want the clavi to bleed onto the white of the tunic.