looking at the underwear the women wore that Vermeer painted.

We are looking at the white undergarments that the women wear in Vermeer's paintings . There is usually only a small part of the undergarment showing such as the collar or a bit of the arm so it is quite hard to do the research on it, as the books in the library are limited on the subject also. i have put in a couple of pictures that another student has made .

The pictures that I'm going to use to recreate my dress gives a reasonable idea to the small amounts of the under garment that is being shown. Linen Clothing

"Linen shirts and smocks were worn next to the skin to protect outer garment  from sweat or grease,and  depending on the wealth of the owner, the same shirt or smock may be worn in bed."

the shape of both shirts and smocks followed the changing lines of outer clothing. When tightly fitted two-piece curved sleeves became fashionable in the 1610s the sleeves of smock and shirts became narrower to fit,comfortably beneath them. Conversely,in the 1650s shirt and smock sleeves grew fuller to fill the slashed and open sleeves of bodices and doublets"

Contents quoted from Patterns of fashion-by Janet Arnold

published by Macmillan 2008