Category: Clothing

On The Horizon

16th century

Now that Castle Wars is past, I’m gearing up to work on some new projects. Serafina helped me drape a body block for myself, which is very exciting. I’ve been making my doublets from a pattern I drafted over 15 years ago and have been tweaking ever since. I’m hoping that having a starting point that’s actually shaped like me will help me get things fitting better. The plan is to make a nice simple mid-16c suit that’s actually comfortable.

I’ve also been working on a dance music related project, but I’ll just leave it at that until I have more to show…

Van der Weyden Gown: Progress and Belt

15th century, Accessories

I put together the first draft of the Van der Weyden gown a couple months back, but it got put on the back burner in favor of  my own Pennsic sewing. Now that the war is past, I’m getting busy on it again (since it needs to be done in three weeks!). I am indeed using the blue silk taffeta for the gown, backed with a couple of different medium-to-heavy plain fabrics. The first draft of the gown was a little skimpy at the hem, so today I ripped out the side seams and added some gores to provide plenty of yardage down below. The gown should be long enough to just brush the ground, with a bit of train in the back. Practicality is not a big consideration for this one. I had originally attached the sleeves by machine (which I was using for all the long seams of the gown), but I removed them and reinstalled them by hand, which gave an infinitely better fit. The sleeves are lined with thin white cotton, with an addition lining of black velveteen for the lower three-quarters of their length. The sleeves are long enough for a four or five inch turnback at the cuff. All I have left to do now is the collar, front seam, and hem.

Sadly, I don’t have any pictures of the gown yet, but I do have one of the belt. It’s made of the same black velveteen on both sides, with a core of heavy wool stitched to a layer of cotton/linen to hold it in place. The buckle I picked up at war from Thorthor’s Hammer, and the buckle plate is made from a piece of sheet brass. The belt is 2.5″ wide and about 65″ long. It will get a matching brass end soon.

Pre-Pennsic Sewing

14th century, 15th century, Accessories

The wife and kids are off visiting grandparents for the week, so I’ve had a very quiet weekend of house cleaning, cooking, and sewing. There were a couple of gaps in my wardrobe that I needed to fill, primarily a new pair of brache (made from some heavier linen that hopefully will stand up to wear a bit better) and another pair of chausses out of a nice soft brown wool. I’m going to try using the chausses as netherstockings for my 16c suits as well, so we’ll see how that goes.

Garters

Accessories

I should be in bed, but instead I decided I needed a pair of garters to hold up my new chausses (they were a little taller than I expected and garters are less hassle than shortening them). So a couple of old Tandy buckles, some sheet brass, two quick rivets, and some leather reclaimed from a friend’s reupholstered couch became a pair of these:

14th Century Chausses and Hood

14th century, Accessories

The Herjolfsnes tunic I made recently is nice, but it can’t really be worn without some other pieces. Last week I made a pair of red chausses out of the same kind of tropical wool broadcloth I used for my last pair of 15th century hose. I used my usual separate hose pattern, with a change at the top to reduce it to a single point of attachment and pointy toes instead of the usual natural shape.hey went together quickly and without any fuss, and I’m quite pleased with them. I mended one of my old pairs of brache and opened the drawstring casing at the sides to allow a place to attach the chausses. I ordered a pair of shoes to go with this outfit that I plan to pick up at Pennsic.

I’ve been wanting to make a hood to go with this, inspired by Racaire’s awesome dagged and embroidered hood from a couple years ago. I’ve tried making hoods before but they always turned out too small or otherwise just plain wrong. I sat down with some horrific polyester patterning fabric and started from a vague idea of the “Nockert Type 3” pattern. I measured my various parts and added a generous amount of slop, then made the first mockup.

My first attempt had enough room to store a second head on top of my own, so no problems with it being too small. The mantle was also way too long (or so I thought), so I trimmed down accordingly and ended up with a nice close-fitting hood. My first attempt at the side gussets had the slits only going halfway up, with small gussets. That didn’t really work. After a few more iterations, I ended up with slits going all the way up the mantle and gussets that were essentially squares with one corner rounded off. That made a mantle that laid right but wasn’t really long enough. I decided to just go with it and started putting the real thing together out of some eggplant-colored, loose-weave wool.

About 1 AM, after completing pretty much the whole hood except the front seam and liripipe, I started to have some glimmers of previous research into this topic. See, I was also enamored of Ragnaveig’s hood with the buttons all down the front, and was planning to make mine like that, but then I remembered that that style of hood was only worn by women. Without the buttons, there was no way to get my head in and out! Despite the teasing existence of one example of a man with a buttoned hood, I decided that I would have to punt and added a square gusset under the chin. Some googling also confirmed that the mantle was way too short, but there wasn’t really a good way to fix that… or was there? This hood in the Roman de la Rose (1350) shows a keen embroidered hood with feathery dags that I thought might be a viable solution. I cut a couple of wide bands, dagged them up and sewed them on the bottom edge of the mantle, and they seem to do the trick.

As a post like this is useless without pictures, here they are:


Revealing the tops of the chausses

 

The hood also makes a keen hat.

This terrible self portrait shows some details on the hood.


A 14th Century Tunic

14th century

So this weekend I built myself a nice simple 14th century tunic based on the Herjolfsnes 43 pattern. I made it out of the same light green linen that I used for Adela’s kirtle (though I may chuck it in a dark blue dye bath). I hate finishing seams after they’re sewn and setting gores and gussets in by machine, so I did it all by hand. I needed frequent breaks to wake my sewing hand back up, but all in all it went pretty smoothly. Next up, some wool chausses!

A Quick Recap

12th century, 14th century, Calligraphy & Illumination, Dance

I’ve been fairly busy lately, but not on any massive projects.

  • The Saltare Dance Collegium was this past weekend, hosted by the Shire of Vulpine Reach. It was pretty well attended, and folks seemed to have a good time. My feet and legs have forgiven me already.
  • I’m working on some new clothes for Pennsic, mostly a comfy 14th century tunic (based on the Herjolfsnes 43 pattern) and wool chausses. I should try to pick up some more appropriate shoes once I get there. I also need to put some mounts on my revised belt.
  • My lovely wife Adela was invited to join the Order of the Laurel (yay!), and I need to work on her scroll. I have people lined up to do most of the work, but I need to get the design and text worked out so they can get started. Hopefully I’ll get that knocked out this weekend. I also need to finish up the gown I’ve been working on so it’ll be ready for her elevation at Coronation in September.
  • I also need to get some 12th century clothes made by Coronation. I think I’ll use the H.43 tunic as the under layer for that and just make another tunic with shorter, wider sleeves to go on top, with some embroidery or something.

Roman Holiday

Household, Roman

picture by Jerusha Kilgore

I went up to Thor’s Mountain for the weekend with Serafina and Philippa in tow, and we had a lovely time. It was a small event, but the company was excellent, the weather gorgeous (despite dire predictions) and the food plentiful and tasty. Wearing the toga was an interesting experience, but not one that I foresee repeating anytime soon. It is not intended to be a practical garment, and it certainly was not. Many thanks to my lovely companions for constantly re-draping me every five minutes.