#historical crafting

[leo-fie]

How many tablet woven bands are enough?

Trick question!

There is no such thing as enough tablet woven bands!

[saffscrafting]

So we went up north for a day and while there, stopped in a used book store, where I picked up a book that was printed in 1904 titled "Dainty Work for Pleasure and Profit"

I was reading the introduction and found this part to really be telling about how much has changed in just over a century.

"It is certainly the first duty of a wife and mother to make home the pleasantest and happiest spot on earth for the members of her family, and to do this requires more than order, system, immaculate cleanliness, more than the purchase of expensive carpets and pieces of heavy furniture. It requires the home-making, home-beautifying talent. It needs the exercise of an ingenious mind and nimble fingers in fashioning dainty accessories in the shape of mantel drapes, screens, wall-pockets, toilet sets, dainty table linen, cushions, photograph holders, and all numberless odds and ends that go to make up the pretty home comfort of a room."

Imagine what these women would thing when a 21st century wife came into their homes and called their hard work "Kitschy", and imagine their dispair at the bare minimalistic homes we happily live in now.

They didn't spend a lot on all their stuff, but to their mind all the pretties they made were necessities, and not luxuries. After all, as the book says:

"Do not let your children grow up amid uncouth and unlovely surroundings, while you are waiting for the dollars to grow. Remember, the young will seek for beauty elsewhere, if it is denied them at home."

[scarletstitchstudios]

I finally made my first yarn wig after 10+ years of crocheting my cosplays...

[imsociallyanxiousgetoverit]

I really need to see the real life occurance of Wood Worker x Historical Fashion Crafter become a trope in Fanfiction, y'all. Or even actual shows or movies. Like this is clearly a thing at this point!!

[the-warped-weaver]

If there's sound, don't worry about it, my husband was playing Fable 2 while I worked.

[thehaberdasheress]

Dearest Tumblr: My business is running low on money. My shop needs an algorithm boost before the holiday rush starts. I would like to be able to pay myself and my two hired minions this month. So that means it's time for... SERIOUS SAVINGS.

I design easy-as-hell embroidery patterns, sell sewing supplies I test and use myself, and have just added art nouveau print-on-demand items like umbrellas, dresses, and mugs.

Find me at thehaberdasheress.etsy.com

And because I love you more than all the other platforms, until this Sunday September 16 you can use the promo code TUMBLRSECRET for an additional 10% off.

(Also. If you just want to throw money at me without any kind of compensatory merchandise, I have absolutely no shame anymore. Here's my Paypal.)

[antiqueartist]

Remember this???? I finished it!! I finished my corset cover yoke!!!! I'm so very proud of it even though it took FOREVER

I've learned I'm too ambitious for my own good but as long as I can keep finishing these projects I'm not going to do anything about it :")

Anyways, onto the actual sewing!

[hattedhedgehog]

As part of my historical costuming intensive course, in only a few very hectic weeks I learned how to metric pattern draft, fit and sew a tailored 1830s mens ensemble! Now that we've had our photoshoot and final exhibition, I'm excited to share the results of the hard work.

I came to really appreciate that my tutor for this module pushed us to make samples of pockets and the trouser fly before it came to the real thing, even if the desire to rush ahead made it frustrating to be told to do another practice version. "Anything worth doing is worth doing again" has become a very valuable motto.

I'm 100% going to wear elements of this in daily life, it's incredibly comfy.

[mesterspets]

I made this entire outfit for an event in the spring, and didn’t have time to shoot it until the autumn. Good thing the trees are matching me now!

[yuri-puppies]

an inventory of labru and farcille double dates

with thanks to this fanart by @hawberries for the inspiration and to @holmsister for the park date idea

art museum: the toudens wandered off when a local moth flew by in the courtyard and they realized there might be a nest nearby. several people comment on what a handsome couple kabru and marcille make, why, they could be one of the portraits.

theatre play: both toudens are asleep before the intermission. kabru and marcille can't stop shit-talking everything from the acting to the set design out loud and are about to get kicked out.

park: marcille is so ready for a cute picnic under the trees, and she gets it… with kabru. the toudens are rolling in mud with a stranger's dog. this is not even a dog park.

gym: marcille is the only one who thought this was a date.

beach: see daydream hours sketches. marcille came here to look cute and have a good time and is now chasing the other three around with a sunscreen bottle.

science museum: marcille has her lowest-cut top and is planning to Cling TM throughout the grosser exhibits. she underestimated: a) how many children there would be around b) how grossed out she'd get c) how much more interesting the mating rituals of the greater sage-grouse are than her tits. at least kabru isn't there to make fun of her, since he became entranced by evaluating the effectiveness of the various knowledge translation strategies at the anti-pollution exhibit. laios has started giving an impromptu lecture on the dangers of exotic pets in the reptile exhibit to several transfixed children and their baffled parents. the staff has gone from trying to stop him to calling for the volunteer coordinator to recruit him.

[leo-fie]

More easy tablet woven band while I procrastinate the "band of doom". This time it's orange and dark blue diagonal stripes.

[codacheetah]

I joke abt Loop being a critter a lot but I do honestly wonder if they'd be considered like. Not a "creature" per se but part of some kind of mythological species from the Island's culture. To make a wish so severe and so powerful so as to completely destroy yourself, and be remolded in the shape of the Universe, well that just feels like the kind of thing that would get infinite fables written about it. Some parents warn their children that if they're too irresponsible with Wish Craft and ask too much of the Universe, they'll become a star as punishment (and if this is told to young children I have to imagine the next threat is "and you won't be able to eat all your favorite snacks anymore!") Some people however revere Stars as the most dedicated followers of the Universe, favored so much for their direct communication with it that they've been reshaped to match the stars that guide them. Idk

[scarletstitchstudios]

My first yarn wig will always have a special place in my heart 🥰

[useless-catalanfacts]

For centuries, clogs were the most common shoe for peasants in many parts of Europe and some other parts of the world. Clogs are shoes made of one single piece of wood that protects the foot from humidity outside, making them good for working in the fields or walking through mud or snow.

Here in Catalonia, the most common shoes were usually espadrilles (espardenyes), but wooden clogs (esclops) were also very common in winter. Catalan clogs were made of pine tree wood or poplar wood, which was then smoked to protect the wood. There were artisans who specialized in making them, but ordinary farmer families in the countryside would also make their own. People stopped using clogs around the 1950s, when mass produced rubber rainboots/Wellingtons arrived. Then, clog makers had to close their shops, and most of them moved to work in factories or in building work.

Nowadays, there are very few clog makers in Catalonia. Until a few years ago, the person in Catalonia whose job was making clogs was Jordi Coll, who died in 2009. He had been a clog maker in his youth until clog shops closed, but he started again in his old age. Now, there is another one: the man in the photos included in this post is Josep Pratdesaba, who grew up in a farmhouse in Taradell (Central Catalonia). He explains that all the family used to meet every evening around the fireplace in the kitchen, where each person would do the personal work they had to do, including making clogs. Now, he makes clogs in his free time and goes to fairs and festivals to make them and talk about it to the public, where elderly people explain the anecdotes of when they used to wear them and the young children watch with amazement how he turns a log into a shoe.

Photos by Jordi Borràs Abelló for this article published in La Mira.

[the-warped-weaver]

I have to give my wrist a break for a few days.

My tendinitis is acting up and now I have a bit of swelling going on.

In the meantime, here's one of my favorite pieces I've done. This was my first full sized flame pattern sash.

[dresshistorynerd]

This is kind of random, but would it have been a struggle for a big busted women to wear fashionable silhouettes in the medieval era? I’ve heard some costume historians discuss that there were forms of bust support, but most of what I’ve seen pre-1500s seems like it would have been a nightmare for any ancestor with a similar bodytype to wear. Am I just from a line of women doomed to horrible back pain? (On the flip side of the situation, I’ve found corsets and stays to be rather comfortable, so that’s not a problem)

As a fellow big boob haver, I have good news for you! There were pretty good Medieval bust supporting garments and I have tested one of them.

With sturdy fabric, tailoring and lacing you can create pretty good bust support. Lacing was popularized first in 12th century in form of bliaut, and in 14th century tailoring became standard for everyday garments. I don't know how well bliaut supported the bust, but since it doesn't fit super snugly, I assume it doesn't distribute the weight of the boobs as well as tailored supporting garments and therefore isn't as supportive. I'm also not actually sure if there was proper bust supporting garments before that, I haven't looked into it. I know Romans bound their breasts with cloth wrapped around the chest, so maybe that technique continued (at least for those who especially needed it) till lacing and tailoring became a thing. For more about how supporting garments developed in Europe through history, I have a post about development of lacing, which coincides pretty well with that history from 12th century forward.

Personally I have experience with Medieval Bathhouse dress, which was used in the Germanic Central-European area roughly in 14th to 16th century. It's called the Bathhouse dress because most depictions of it are from bathhouse settings, but there's depiction also in bed chambers and other contexts, so I think it's pretty safe to assume it was used more generally as an undergarment. It often had separate cups for the boobs (see the only extant garment left of it, the so called "Lengberg Castle Bra"), but not always. Unlike most other undergarments at the time, it was sort of a shift (the lowest layer) and a supporting garment combined into one.

I sewed my own recreation of it (with some alterations because I made it for my everyday use, not as a historical recreation) and did a post about my results, where I go deeper into the history of the garment too. I didn't construct it very well and I did an error in the design of the back, which cause the strain of the shoulder straps to focus too much on very specific spots in the back panel, which eventually made the fabric there break too many times. (There were some other smaller design flaws too, like the waistline is lower than my natural waist so it rose and wrinkled annoyingly.) I did use it daily (except when I washed it) for a fairly long time though and it was super comfortable and helped a lot with back pain (and shoulder pain caused by use of modern bras). I hate that I've had to go back to modern bras because I haven't had the time to remake it yet. (I'll probably make a follow up post once I get around to it, where I go through the issues of the first version and how I addressed them in the next attempt.) Well fitted and shaped bodice which is then laced does surprisingly much even without any additional reinforcements.

I haven't made a Medieval kirtle (though I will some day), but it was the more widely used Medieval supporting garment, which eventually replaced Bathhouse dress in the area where that was used. Kirtle is worn over a shift, but it broadly works similarly. Kirtles could be front, side or back laced depending on the time period and how the Kirtle was constructed. Multiple layers of kirtles could be used and looser overgarments (like houppelande) were often used on top of it. Kirtle was used by everyone, including men, but for those who didn't need bust support, it's purpose was mainly to create the fashionable silhouette. Here's three depictions of kirtles from 15th century. First unlaced, but has lacing on the front, second close up of the side lacing and third shows nicely how both front and side/backlacing shaped the bust.

Morgan Donner is a costumer, who focuses a lot on Medieval costuming and has a big bust, so while I haven't personally tested the supportiveness of kirtle, she certainly has. The kirtle bodice part needs to be patterned to accommodate the breasts by giving it round shapes and the kirtle needs to be a little too small so there's room to lace it to fit well. Lining also helps to reinforce the fabric and make it more firm and supportive. Here's Morgan's pattern from the tutorial in her website and how the kirtle eventually fits for her. (Also look at the handsome boy in his handsome matching outfit.)

She also has a video relating to the same kirtle project, where she explains her method to pattern a kirtle specifically so it's supportive for big bust.

In 16th century more stiffness was added to kirtles, first with very stiff lining and then with boning, but that doesn't necessarily add to the bust support, rather it just allows the kirtle to shape the bust and the body in general more and better support a heavy skirt. Firm fabric secured snugly with lacing is already very good at distributing the weight of the boobs to the whole torso.

In conclusion, at least since 14th century people with our body type were not doomed to eternal back pain and even before that some ways to help with it were probably used.