I’ve read all 107 posts in this thread and I haven’t seen anyone mention the side-strip sewn onto the Shroud. The theory is that it was cut from the Shroud and used to bind the body in the Shroud, and that is why John used a plural word in referring to the “linen wrappings”. It was later sewn back onto the Shroud for safekeeping apparently. What is your take on that?
There isn't one. The so called side strip does not exist. What was thought to be a side strip is merely a continuation of the Shroud itself with a long pleat that was sewn lengthwise at sometime in the medieval period. Close examination of the cloth shows no discontinuation of the cloth or the woof yarn at the pleat, it is merely looped up and the sewn flat by stitching. It is theorized this was done by the Nuns of Poor Clare in 1532 at the time the Holland cloth backing was put on to strengthen the Shroud when it was hung horizontally for display, and as a place to drape the Shroud over a rope (unlikely, as the Holland cloth would have sufficiently strengthened the Shroud-Swordmaker) or at some other time prior to the backing being added (much more likely - Swordmaker). 20th Century displays of the Shroud were accomplished by the expediency of building a plywood backing and pinning the Shroud to it with thumbtacks(!!!!).
In any case, there is no purported "side strip" to account for any strips of linen. The strips of linen are easily accounted for by Jewish burial tradition requiring the binding of the wrists, knees, ankles, and jaw shut with strips of cloth to keep the limbs from flopping akimbo and the mouth gaping open in death when rigor mortis passed. The Shroud, in its original condition was one single piece of cloth. Today, it has patches and a backing as well as "darned" repairs which were repaired by a technique called French Invisible Reweaving, which was done so expertly that the 1988 Carbon Dating sample was taken from a site that had been repaired using this technique and the sample unfortunately included approximately 50% contamination from the newer cotton threads added as part of the repair, skewing the test results and irreparably distorting the results, invalidating the entire C-14 test!