So far I've made two camicia's to wear with my Italian Renaissance gowns, and both are entirely hand sewn. I've used normal weight white linen for the two below, but I make another it will be in handkerchief weight to make them more comfortable, and keep the bulk down, as there is quite a bit of fabric in them.

I used the same base pattern for all of my camicias, changing the width or length or neckline depending on what I wanted. There were excellent instructions at Realm of Venus, but they seem to have vanished. Have a look at her site anyway, she does some great work, and has a lot of useful information there. Basically, the camicia is made of of rectangles, including the sleeves. I can't remember how I made them exactly. Google it.

The reference image is from the Met Museum.