We offer inset sleeves, £15; collarless £5; Standing band collar £15; buttoned cuffs £15; Gathered cuffs £15; extra tie on front opening £10. Details, explanations and photos of these appear below. If there is anything else you particularly want on your shirt, just contact us for a price.
Inset Sleeves.
It also reduces the gathering around the neck, making it sit more comfortably.
It is quite a sophisticated answer to the problem, and can be seen on period shirts, prserved in the Museum of Manchester.
Harder for you to iron, but much more authentic!
Cost: £15
Collarless
These shirts have no collar at all, just a narrow calico strip with tie tapes.
Cost: £5
Standing Band Collar
Now this is the collar you need if you wear a proper C17th doublet with a stiffened collar.
The collar, which can be lace-edged if required, comes with a standing band, which is essential to allow the collar to rise vertically inside your doublet collar, then falling smoothly from the top of a stiffened doublet collar, in the classic "Van Dyck" style.
Also known as the "I have no neck" look.
If you try to wear a normal shirt with a proper doublet, you'll find that the fabric of the shirt gets all bunched up around your neck, or you end up with a tangled frill of crumpled collar sticking out the top.
Avoid these sartorial disasters, and go for a proper standing band collar.
Cost: £15
For an addition £10, the collar can be lace-edged.
Lace edging
Talking of lace edging, we offer non-authentic but very nice pointy lace edging:
White for Pirate shirts (the picture, left, shows a non-yoked shirt made in white cotton lawn - whatever the customer wants!) and rich ecru lace to match the creamy calico shirts.
Cost: £10
If you have your own lace, we are happy to incorporate it: we'd ask you to send us the lace before we accept the order, to assess that it is suitable, and - oh dear, small print! - we accept no responsibility for the material you send us (other than our normal high standards of care, of course), and we accept such material only on condition that, for insurance purposed, it has no higher value than £10.
This means that you can take the rist to send us your last couple of yards of irreplaceable antique lace if you wish, but if it's too fragile to sew, we won't use it: and if it gets lost or damaged, we will only compensate you up to £10.
Buttoned Cuffs
Adds a touch of class to the wrist.
And makes it easier to do them up by yourself...
Cost: £15
Gathered cuffs:
Instead of ending at the wrist, the sleeve is overlong by 2" or more, and is fastened by a gathering of cream-coloured satin ribbon.
Lovely if you do a lot of sword-play, can be a bit of nuisance when the ties keep falling into your plate. But oh, so worth it!
Cost: £15
The one illustrated features the optional extravagant lace-edged version, you can have this for an additional £10.
And don't worry about maintenance: shirts with this cuff option are easy to wash and iron, because they open out flat.
Cunning, eh?
As with the collars, if you wish to supply your own lace, you are most welcome to do so, on the understanding that we reserve the right to reject the order if the material is not suitable for use, and that the value of the material (for insurance purposes) does not exceed £10.
Gathered cuffs Mk II:
This is a variation on the Pirate shirt:
This produces the superb Princess Bride style floppy wrist flounces, ideal for extravagant sword play.
Not very easy to iron!!
But who cares about ironing, when you can have a shirt that looks like this?
This style doesn't work in calico, which is too bulky: it only works with fine cotton lawn.
Cost: £20
Extra tie on front opening:
For a little extra modesty, you can have an additional tie, part-way up the front opening slit.
The extra ties can be for modesty, or just because you don't like draughts.
Or possibly because you like having lots of bows up your front!
Cost: £10.
If there are any other extras that you require, do please email us on shirt.maker.1001@gmail.com with details of what you want, and if we can possibly do it, we will.
