Here are some thoughts--machine made. I don't know enough about embroidery machines to describe how the motifs were repeated but it was probably some sort of program or a cam; and the front was put into the machine, and completely embroidered--before it was cut.
If the entire front is embroidered, some of the fabric was sent out for embroidering while the remainder was retained for the back, sleeves, etc.
Now --the stitches look like satin stitches. but I can't really see them in the photo. Satin stitches have long threads side by side. To make the pattern, some are shorter than others; but they are parallel to each other on individual parts of the motif. For example, the centers are probably vertical and parallel to the center front; the petals and leaves are parallel to the center of the petal.
This shirt doesn't appear to have snags, but that is a major disadvantage of satin stitches--the long threads get caught on almost everything.
Oh, a name--Swiss embroidery--it covers a variety of motifs and this has the look and feel of it. The Swiss do this very well. The threads are usually fine and high quality and the motifs have a delicate look even when they are large.
Just looked at the other front--it's not completely embroidered. Do you want to post another photo? Fabric could still be embroidered at the outset with several inches at the edge for the underlap on the right front. Claire
