I was asked recently to recommend some good working clothes for Pennsic, and in the process became aware of the images in the Grimani Breviary. Similar in format to the 15th century Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, it shows people of a variety of social classes, including men and women working in fields in various states of undress. I have collected some of the pertinent images here.
My primary inspiration for this is the man in the center of this image:
The red vest-like garment he is wearing is not fitted or particularly shaped. It is caught up somehow at the waist, either by a belt or a closure at the center front. The man at the lower left is wearing a similar garment, again with a line at the waist that is either a very narrow belt or a waist seam. He also has folds at the center back that I suppose are either held by a belt, or perhaps held from the inside in some other way, like the peasant coats in Beham’s engravings. These men are clearly not fully dressed, as their discarded doublets can be seen in the lower left hand corner, along with a pouch and dagger. This is not an ensemble I would wear to court, but for walking around at war, working in the kitchen, or some other informal situation in hot weather, I think it would be acceptable.
While I certainly think it is possible that the vest could be made with a waist seam, I opted for the simplest construction possible. I had a short length of red linen left over from another project that was just the right weight. I used my body block as a guide to layout the neck opening and armscyes, intending to cut the back on the fold. As I laid out my pattern, I realized that the side seams were going to be butted right up against each other. Rather then cutting the seam and then sewing it right back together, I tweaked the front and back armscyes so they met up under the arm. This meant I could cut the entire garment in one piece, and only need seams at the shoulders. I thought it would be best to line it, and fortunately there seems to be evidence that such a garment may be lined in a different color:
Note the man on the right, whose vest is hanging open at the neck, showing a reddish lining.
I have an old pair of joined hose in light blue linen that works fine for this outfit, but it turns out I did not have a shirt long enough to hang below the bottom edge of the vet as shown in the original image. Fortunately, that was easily remedied with a couple yards of linen and a little time on the serger. I also intend to procure a straw hat and try to shape it to match the picture. I also need to work a little on getting my hose to stay up at the right level without a doublet to point them to.