Summer greens

I have for a number of years had a large pile of a wonderful thin but tight woven wool fabric with an amazing drape to it. It was bought without a specific plan and over the years I have made so many different plans for it but none were realised.

Since I started focusing on my main period of garb, the German late 15th Century, and managed to make my own interpretation of the pleated panel kirtle (Hausbook, Dürer kleid, Nürnberger kleid or whatever you choose to call it) my research also showed me variations of a deep V-neck kirtle without pleated panels. I thought that would work fine as more of an everyday dress and decided to make one out of this greyish green fabric that had been laying on a cupboard shelf for years.

I looked into some more period depictions and decided on a very simple version with plain long sleeves with the same shoulder- and back as my brown shortsleeved kirtle, and with a frontlacing going over the V-neckline. The two green ones shown here are both taken from a larger piece depicting a tourney with audience by Master of the Hausbook. So, not all dresses depicted by him are what we tend to call Hausbook dress. They are both rather simple, with a plain long sleeve and a marked waistline and the deep V-neckline I find so appealing. And to my great joy I noted the wonderful diversion of headgear in this the very same picture.

 This drawing is by another master of the same period and region, Ishrael van Meckenem, and shows a woman with a really deep V-neck, laced across inbetween what looks like some kind of clasps. The sleeves are a bit more elaborate though.

Here is yet another depiction by another artist, showing the V-neck.

And here is a rather nice pic of the back, showing the deep inserts of the sleeves.

I started with the bodice and cut it with a white linen lining, stitched it and then I cut the skirtpart in four panels, sewed them together and then attached the skirt to the bodice, not taking enough care to adjust the length of the bodice. That turned out really bad, more on that later. Last I assembled the sleeves, rather tight and with one large gusset over the shoulder. Here is a rather bad pic showing it all sewn together.

As you can see when looking closer, the skirt does not fall well below the waist, it kind of crumbles and makes creases, and the bodice itself is all wrinkled along the sides. When wearing it the shoulder seams move upwards together with the entire bodice and it felt all wrong. Almost in despair I asked: can I live with this or will it agonize me forever? At last I decided that it just doesn´t work and simply cut it loose above the waist and ended with shortening the bodice approximately three centimetres. It really did the trick I tell you! And I should know better...

All done it got worn properly assecorized today and documented on the first spin. And look how much happier I am with a properly placed waistseam!