November 11, 2026camicia

Cutting and the first seams

I meant to machine-sew the long seams. My Costco Brother had other ideas. After it ate a fair amount of my nice linen thread, I gave up and decided to just hand-sew the whole camicia with linen thread.

Cutting on the grain

To get straight cuts, I pulled a single thread out of the linen across the width and cut along the line it left. It worked fairly well, even though the thread broke constantly and I spent a lot of time hunting for the end. I'm pretty sure my cuts came out nice and straight on the grain, though, so it was worth it.

My linen was 60 in wide, so I could use just two body panels and two side panels instead of piecing together a bunch of narrow widths like they would have in period.

The Elizabethan seam

For the seams I'm following Extreme Costuming's Elizabethan seam. The idea is that you finish every edge of every piece first, then whip the finished edges together. No raw edges anywhere, which matters on a garment that isn't lined.

Turn under every edge of each piece twice (since the camicia isn't lined) and press.
Stitch the folded edges down with a small running stitch. The stitches show on the outside, but they did back then too.
Put two finished edges right sides together and whip stitch them, only going a couple of millimeters into the fabric.
Gently pull the pieces open so the seam lies flat.

The bonus I didn't expect is that when every piece is finished on its own, it's much easier to see how they fit together. For someone who hasn't sewn in a long time, that's been really helpful.

I'll confess I don't actually know if the Elizabethan seam is right for 1490s Italy. It's named for a different time and place, after all. But it's the way I feel most comfortable sewing while I'm this out of practice, and this dress is just for me anyway.

I didn't add any decorative stitching or insertion lace on the seams. That would have been nice, and maybe on the next one.

The neckline

I hemmed the neck edge with a double fold like every other edge before I'd really thought about how the neckline should be finished. Only after the hem was done did I decide to add a neckband. By then the hem was finished and fairly thick, so instead of unpicking it I'm keeping it as a little frill that sits above a flat band.

✓Cut every piece with the pulled-thread method
✓Double-folded and hand-stitched every edge
✓Whipped the body and side panels together
✓Set the gussets into the sleeves
✓Hemmed the neckline (which will become a little frill above a flat band, because I am not unpicking that hem)

Please excuse the lack of ironing.

Close-up of a hand-whipped seam in white linen, with running stitches along each folded edge — Two finished edges whipped together, then opened flat. The running stitches holding each folded edge down show on either side.

A white linen camicia sleeve folded flat, with the underarm gusset sticking out as a triangle at one end — A sleeve with its underarm gusset set in. The gusset is the triangle sticking up at the end.

The white linen camicia body laid flat, with a side panel seam running down one side — The body and side panels, all whipped together.

Next up is slashing the side panels to set in the sleeves, and I'm a little anxious about cutting into those nice finished edges after all that work. It's on hold anyway. I'm pretty much out of linen thread, so the camicia waits until my new thread from Burnley & Trowbridge shows up in the mail.