#medieval sewing

[milkywayan]

Late 15th Century Nun

I have teased this for a while, that I am planning to make a medieval nun habit, and well... here we are! I have started! (edit: here is a disclaimer in case you have any strong feelings regarding this project)

I have done a lot of research, and am still doing more, as I want this to be nice and as accurate as possible. Nun habits are different from order to order and from region to region. And of course depends on the nuns rank. Currently I am trying to base mine of German nuns, as I have most sources for that, but ideally I would like to portray a nun specifically from the 'Nonneseter kloster i Oslo', as I live and do reenactment mostly in Skandinavia and for this cloister we have some sources on! A big source is also this book:

which is amazing! If you can read German and are interested in medieval nuns, I can 100% recommend it, it is well written, well researched and gives such amazing insights into the life of nuns it is great.

The habits are either white, grey, brown or black, and consist of a base dress, sometimes a scapular, sometimes an overdress or a cloak. And of course veils in different styles, in some regions also a nun crown.

I am still researching but currently my plan is a white base dress, and then build onto it by also making a black scapular, a black overcoat and a black veil (on top of the white). I already got a thin nice white wool for the veil!

And I also recently bought a few meters of a nice, thin, white wool for the base dress

it is very nice and soft.

I reused the pattern of my 15th century gown for the top part, as I know it fits and has the shape I'm going for, and also the sleeves are fitted. The habits have usually quite wide sleeves so I made them wide too

these are the cut pieces. You see that both the front and back are just straight, this is because they will get gores. One in the front, one on the back, and then some in the side seams. As of my plan now, they will start in the waist, so the skirt part will be full, while the top remains as it is now, which is loose, but fitted.

I then proceeded to sew the shoulders, sode seams until the waist, and the sleeves

it looks a bit boring, but hey that is nuns for you! Dont mind the stretching, I was wearing a shirt underneath and that messed the fit up a bit.

Next step now is to see how large the gores have to be, to cut them out and sew them in.

I am going to prepare that step, but not sew it yet, as I prepared it for a medieval weekend I am going to in July. So soon I will sit in Sweden at a castle with good friends and show some medieval sewing to tourists, huzzah!

I have not been sewing for a few months due to stress, so it is nice to be back and have a project. also buying all that black wool will bankrupt me I already see it!

Also, here are a few more medieval nuns for you!

[the-merry-otter]

Hey you have every right to kill me for asking this, but what is it about hose that makes them so difficult to get right? Like I’m genuinely interested in this akjdjs

To make a long story short, you’re basically trying to make skintight socks with non stretch fabric. Due to the way a leg Works, this means they then have to be veeeery carefully tailored so that they have the least amount of wrinkles possible, and also so that you can still get them on and off. The ankle is the trickiest area for this.

To help with this, you cut the fabric on the bias (diagonal) so that it has a liiiittle bit of stretch. Due to this, The Perfect Fit ™ is technically achievable, it just takes (for me at least) hours of patterning, and also occasionally sewing the damn thing while it’s still on my leg xD

The good news is, now that I have the pattern, any future hose will be vastly easier to make, as any tailoring will just be the final tweaks as I get everything in the right spot!

[beanbowlbaggins]

Medieval Cirilla Dress

Day One

I laid out my print out pattern and taped it together on my bed. Back pain level at 7/10.

Day Two

I laid out everything to measure and revise my pattern.

Day Three

I forgot to take a picture of my tracing step. I didn't have a colored chalk; all there was, was pink chalk for a pink fabric. I ended up using a water soluble pencil, which was really just a blue crayon.

I steam ironed for the first time. I realized I've never actually smelled fresh linen before, but I can see why it would be a popular candle scent.

I sat down in the evening to read up on historical hand sewing techniques. I have Bernadette Banner's book, Make, Sew and Mend: Traditional Techniques to Sustainably Maintain and Refashion Your Clothes.

[cuties-in-codices]

medieval parchment repairs

in a psalter, south-western germany, late 12th/early 13th c.

source: Hermetschwil, Benediktinerinnenkloster, Cod. membr. 37, fol. 19r, 53r, and 110r

[dresshistorynerd]

Sewing a turn of the 15th century French kirtle in doll scale

Another day, another historical doll outfit! This time it's Late Medieval. This was a popular style from about 1380-1420 France and Alpine area, but I specifically based this dress on French illuminations from the early 15th century, which mostly effects the details, like headwear. As always I hand stitched everything and stuck to historical construction methods as much as I could.

Chemise

I made a very simple chemise. The construction is based on what we know from extant finds, made out of simple rectangles and triangles, like earlier unlaced kirtles. Based on illustrations, chemise was fairly slim but unfitted enough it didn't need closures. I made it from linen, because it's not very gathered and won't bulk up too much, so I don't need to use my very fine cotton voile.

Cote

Cote is just the French word for kirtle, so appropriate here. This is the supportive layer cote, which was sort of an undergarment, but was considered fully dressed, if informal on it's own. The sleeves on this underlayer were always long and either fully fitted or gathered at the wrist. Some fitted sleeve styles had a flare at the wrist which covered the hand. The very fitted look was achieved with buttons. The silhouette was smooth and fitted, the waistline was slightly above the natural waist, though that was not as pronounced in France as in Northern Italy. Abdomen was emphasized, round lower stomach was the body ideal. The cut of the dress left plenty of room there. To fill that room I folded the chemise under the abdomen as a sort of padding. This was common to do with any kind of skirts, primarily to raise the hem when working, but why not for this purpose also? The necklines were fairly low and very wide.

I used cotton because I didn't have suitable thin enough wool that wouldn't have created too much bulk on this scale, but the cote should have been made from. The cotton is tightly woven and sells the look of a woven wool in this scale well enough for me. I didn't finish seems or line it to avoid bulk. I did give the lacing a cording to reinforce it and avoid wrinkling. The cotton was originally white, but I dyed it with iron oxide, basically rust, which at least is very much historical.

Hose

I made the hose from cotton as well for the same reasons as I did the cote. Long pointed style became fashionable around this time, as well as sewing leather soles in the bottoms of the hose instead of using shoes. Though often pattens (wooden flipflops basically) could be used when walking outside to protect the leather soles.

Cornettes or horned hair

I tied the hair with a tape on cornettes, where the volume of hair was tied on the temples to create a bit of horned appearance, especially when combined with the horned headwear. The sort of fillet which became more of a forehead loop seemed to have been tied into the hair, which I did.

Cotehardie

Cotehardie meant literally "bold cote", and in France that was what the formal outer cote was called. It was basically the same as cote, but made from more expensive materials and often had large hanging sleeves. I went with widening triangular sleeves, since they were perhaps the most popular sleeves at the time. I used fine fulled wool (verka) I had enough scraps left from. White fur was popular lining material, but obviously I can't use fur in this scale, I wish I had some light white velvet, it would have been pretty good, but I didn't. I lined the skirt and the sleeves with white cotton to imitate the look without adding too much body or extra bulk. I decorated the neckline with a simple golden trim. I thought about adding a bit of golden embroidery around it too, like seemed to have been popular, but my local crafts store had run out of golden thread so I decided to go with this only.

Accessories

Unlike the belt used with houppelande, which was below bust, the belt used with the kirtle or cotehardie, was very low, under the abdomen to emphasize it. I went for a silk belt look, which I'm imagining is embroidered/woven with golden thread, since embroidery that small would have been too painful. I had an old broken necklace, which I could use for the metallic parts.

With the pouch I went for the tasseled drawstring look, with simple embroidery manageable in this scale. I used linen for it.

Headwear

I made her a chaperon, which likely was where the escoffion got it's beginning, escoffion being the round tube-like headwear worn on top of the head seen in several primary source images above. Early form of escoffion was becoming very popular at the time, though chaperon's were still seen on women too. Chaperon, as seen below both on the left-most woman and the man in the middle was actually just the hood rolled into a circle.

Because the horned look was popular, the escoffion and chaperon were often worn over the wired horned veil, so I first made that. I made it from cotton to make it as light as possible. It was just a square I hemmed. I just used some wire to poke out the horns from her hair and pinned the veil close from the back and onto her hair from the top.

Then I made the open hood. It was just the regular hood which had become very popular during the last century and which had ever longer narrow tip, but it was pinned and worn open, probably because of the hair style and to again create the horned look. I made if from the same cotton I made the hose, even though it too should be from wool. But it was already too bulky as it was.

And finally I could make the chaperon. Here's first chaperon without wire or veil under it and then with those. The effect isn't as pronounced as I would have hoped because the hood is too bulky, but there is an effect which is nice.

[quiltingwitch]

Swords for a sword lover, finally complete ⚔️

[theartofmadeline]

wanted to share the medieval hennin that I made for the ren faire this weekend! I crafted it totally from scratch and i'm just really happy with how it turned out :)

(progress pics & steps in the reblog!)

[angelacostumery]

I'm not sure which is more surprising, the fact I finished this, the fact I photographed this, or the fact it actually fits. Usually I get two out of the three at best.

Anyway, this is my creatively titled "red dragon dress" which I sort of made to celebrate House of the Dragon being back, but also because I like dragons and wanted an excuse to use some of the many scale print fabrics I have hoarded while on my time away from making things.

(I may not be inspired to sew but I am always inspired to waste money on Etsy.)

It was made from a chemically pleated satin, a red jacquard, black brocade, and probably like forty yards of trim. It was fun to play with fabrics and texture again, I must say, even if this project tested my patience at times!

In total it took about 9 days of work from design to drafting to completion, spread over a period of two weeks. Made and modeled by me, as per usual. 

I hope you  like it, and if you would like to see how I made it, you can see me making it over on the YouTube -- part one [the bodice] and part two [the everything else].

[grimmborg-in-the-bog]

Since i showed my fancy viking outfit i thought i should show my normal/working clothes.

it's pretty much just a basic wool dress, hair out of the way, and a belt with a knife. super practical and simple <3

[kiwibes]

I dont know if this belongs here but I am part of a historical dancing troupe and I would really appreciate anyone willing to follow our instag account (@caprioolgent). I know that it is not a tumblr of course (not sure if such content would be appreciated here?) but it is really hard to get these types of organizations in the spotlight

So I started the account to reach more people than with our website and fb. I do it mixed english and dutch for the international folks! I have never before done sth like this so bear with me!

Short introduction! We are a small dancing troupe in Ghent (Belgium) and we specialise in reconstructing and performing late medieval, Bourgondian and Renaissance dances. Roughly 14 to beginning 17th century.

The majority of the costumes are selfmade. We try to stay loyal to the historical silhoutte but we are flexible because of difference in sewing skills of our volunteers, real wool textile being expensive, it is a large time frame so we don't have a costume for every 30 year-block in the renaissance period etc. Most of our court dances are french, italian, spanish or english.

So if you wanna make my day please give us a follow🥺 and if you have any suggestions, anything you would like to see please feel free to let me know!

Thank you!

[chiropteracupola]

Morning rituals.

[milkywayan]

Had to take pictures of my things for an event this summer that I applied for, so here, finally a nice compilation of the things I have made these past two years. I documented all in seperate posts you can find in my pinned post if you like!

[the-merry-otter]

*quietly chanting* uneven stitching is historical, uneven stitching is historical, uneven stitching is historical, uneven sti-

[beanbowlbaggins]

I googled how much fabric I'd need to make a chemise and kirtle, but now that I'm drafting the dress I see that it calls for a lining, or at least facings to make the linen sturdy enough for eyelets. I already have a pink linen, and a beige embroidered linen. I just dont want to line my sheer dress with the extra pink fabric.

So my next thought was that I don't have enough of the pink, so I decided to just order more now that I know I love it. (so I ordered enough to make a second dress from it.) Then I found another cream colored linen to use for facing because I dont want to use the embroidery for the lining at all; thats just a waste given how pretty it is (and I plan on using the extra yard if beige linen for a matching veil and wimple). So that's how I arrived at a cream linen.

[zwierendezwam]

Wore my new kirtle to Muiderslot today!!

[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.