When you come home you will have some shirts to make up for Charles. Mrs. Davies frightened him into buying a piece of Irish when we were in Basingstoke

Here is a pattern for a gentleman's shirt by Linda Baumgarten.

The "Irish" that JA mentions is, of course, Irish linen.

During a presentation to us during the ROP summer visit to England by The History Wardrobe of Undressing Mr Darcy(!)we had the chance to examine the clothes whihc Mr Darcy had discarded,and it was fascinating to note that his shirt was made exactly to this pattern.

His shirt was made by Gillian Stapleton and was copied from an extant 18th century shirt in the Norwich Museum collection.

Note that all the pieces of linen are cut into squares or rectangles, which of course was a very ecomomical use of the material.