The Great Turkish Underwear Project -- Part III: the fancy-schmancy stuff

by admin June 21, 2010

Building A Replica Gömlek

Today we put things together. But there's some more prep work we have to do first. Step One: Obsessively blanket (buttonhole) stitch around all the vertical hems of all the shirt pieces.

You can use any colour embroidery thread you like. I chose this Japan gold thread because one of the 16th century references I have to gömlek says that the pieces were joined together with gold thread. And yes, it's time consuming. But there's only one way to do this. And that's to do it. Step Two: Take a moment to marvel at your lovely edged shirt pieces. .

. . Okay. Back to work! Step Three: Lay the two edges of the shirt pieces together, back to back, aligning the blanket-stitched edges. Using a strong white linen thread, whipstitch through the blanket stitch, joining the shirt pieces together with a spiral stitch. (A number of more decorative stitches can be used here, but I wanted to keep this simple and not vere off into something I may not be able to document in 16th century Istanbul.)

Step Four: Open up the seams and admire the effect.

All done!

Bibliography

And, Metin. Istanbul in the 16th century. 1994: Akbank Culture and Art Department, Istanbul. Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion 4: The Cut and Construction of linen shirts, etc. 2008: Macmillan, London. Scarce, Jennifer. Women's Costume of the Near and Middle East. Unwin Hyman, London, 1987. Sevgi Gurtuna. Osmanli Kadan Giyisi. Kültür Bakanligi , Ankara, 1999.

© 2010 Kass McGann. All Rights Reserved. The Author of this work retains full copyright for this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial private research or educational purposes provided the copyright notice, the author's name and website, and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.