Shirt

In the pictureA crimson silk shirt is laid out in a nearly square shape. At the neck is a keyhole-shaped opening fastened with a red cord, and a band of embroidery with off-white flowers and green cone motifs surrounds the opening. Below the opening hangs a medallion that looks like layered petals, and on either side of it stand two crested peacocks facing the medallion. The same floral band also appears on the shoulders at the two upper corners and along the hem. A little green cloth shows inside the neck, and the silk surface has creases and small stains.

BackgroundThe Met's record describes it as a woman's shirt made in India in the late 19th century, of embroidered silk, 66 cm long and 65.1 cm wide. It carries a subject tag for peacocks. It was given by Mrs. Richard C. Morse in 1956. On the almost square body the decoration is gathered in three places, the neck, the shoulders, and the hem, leaving broad areas of red bare. The embroidery is mainly in off-white thread with a little yellow and green mixed in. The peacock is a bird motif long used in Indian art, but the record does not say on what occasions this shirt was worn.

Puzzle tipThe broad crimson ground fills most of the image, so the embroidered pieces are your guide. First fit the embroidery around the neck opening, the medallion, and the two peacocks to anchor the center (the peacocks' tails stretch outward, a clue for telling left from right), then build a rectangular frame with the shoulder embroidery at the two upper corners and the hem band. Fill the remaining red pieces by the horizontal creases and the direction of the silk's sheen, and use the dark stain at the lower left corner as a marker for the bottom. 100 pieces suits it.