Chemise

There is ample evidence for feminine dress in the mid-15th century dress including a base layer chemise or "camisa" in Italian. There are glimpses of this garment in most paintings, but there are very few images to base construction on. Chemise were generally made of linen although sometimes silk or cotton (Herald, 212). I've chosen a linen for my chemise as it seems to be the most common. The bits of visible chemise in my target era do not seem to have the billowy proportions of later chemise, so I went with an economical cut. Looking at both earlier and later evidence it seemed reasonable to use rectangular construction. The chemise was all hand sewn and you can see it cut my cuffs just a tad too tight to roll up so I did some of that terrible period piecing.