Blackwork Embroidered Man's Shirt

For my latest project, I embroidered the cuffs and collar for a man's shirt. Since he has a German persona in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), he chose the patterns that he wanted on his shirt. The pattern on the cuffs is from page 10 of the 16th Century Blackwork Patterns found at http://germanrenaissance.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/germanblackwork.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2QY7-GSHyBuVCZTD2btJtWpk6Pk2SKDsAw-nwCpqXE7NpeTX8f-QHBERM. The pattern on the collar is a cross pattern, which is a simple version of the cross patterns found on many of the patterns at the above link. He also chose the shirt pattern that he wanted, based off of a shirt that he already had.


First, I put the linen on a slate frame and embroidered the fabric.

Once I finished the embroidery, I took a picture of the backside, knowing that it would be covered up when the shirt was finished.

Next, I removed the linen from the slate frame. The collar and cuffs were cut out. The collar was made in two sections, as my frame is only 15 inches wide and the collar needed to be longer than that.

Then, I cut out the shirt pieces and began stitching everything together.

After lots of hand-sewing, the shirt began to finally look like a shirt.

Here are up close pictures of the completed cuffs and collar:

Now the shirt is finally done! Please see the finished project below: