Making a (first century AD) tunic

[Cheyenne]

It means that there was much variation on stitch types and edge finishes, the museum pictures are from mortuary textiles. This means that they are more of a 'sunday best' The clothing that people are buried in tend to be their best items in the ancient world and these 'custom' items of clothing reflect just as much about the people burying the dead as the dead themselves, ie: conspicious consumption of the individual after death as well as before!

So I would say that having rolled hem stitching on tunics is not inauthentic as we see a massive culture of repair 'make do and mend' in Roman textiles. If we think about issued tunics - there would have been an element of shortening etc from the original woven items as they are passed through the legion to make them fit the individual - here is also a few pics from the same collection which detail the repairs that we see to even the best items.


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Roman darning on a long womans shawl


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Cloak hood detailing roll stitch repairs

I hope this helps, and many thanks to Mike for the tunic pics.

Embroidery stitching is very much used in Roman textiles. There is mention (and I forget where, so if someone can help with the ref - i'd be most appreciative) that Roman parade armour (particularly the subarmours) were heavily embroidered and tapestried and the most common stitches used on items such as coptic panels etc is couched (where the tread is laid flat and sewn down by another thread from the back) or chain stitch, tightly stitched into spirals to create the image. There are some in the Brooklyn museum which can be viewed on display there