Fake it til you make it

Since I got the kids my hair is just not as full any more and braiding it is not as fulfilling any more. But braids are not optional when reenacting German 15th century, they show under the headdress all the time. I was considering buying fake hair, but I don´t like modern fake materials (I can tell you stories of how much money that has saved me when stopping me from buying mixed material fabrics...). So just before leaving for Double Wars, a week-long event, the Curious Frau laid out pictures of fake hair made of strings or yarn, and even in fancy colours.

On the altar you see St Klara´s fake hair in bright blue and her gefrens in yellow. This had to be tried, I thought, waking up at four in the morning of departure and remembering a set of bright blue silk/mohair-yarn in my yarn basket. It was found in time and at the event I tried it out. I divided it into three, made a small braid holding it all together in the middle. The braided part I put in the neck and then divided my hair and braided it together with the blue yarn. The yarn being longer than my own hair helped keeping my braids together and lengthening them so that it easily wrapped around the forehead. These pictures show it worn with a simple orange gefrens.

I´ve got stripes!

I fell in love with this beautiful but oh so simple striped veil the first time I saw it and have ever since been looking for a woven striped linen. And that is hard to find, I tell you! But this weekend me and the husband ran away on a little vacation of our own in London (yes, without kids!) for my birthday. The birthday was wonderfully spent with shopping in the textile district at Goldhawk Road. And there I found it, an orange striped rather thin linen. And dead cheap too. Now it will be carefully washed following Marias instructions (http://indemejarecristi.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/a-short-guide-washing-guide-for-linen-2/) and then hemmed. I think I just might make into one three metre long veil...or two 1,5 metre long ones. Either way it will give my rather slim closet some well needed variation.

Keeping track

How often have I not scolded myself for not saving my patterns? So this time, sewing a new short-sleeved dress with a new sleeveversion, I decided to for once be a good girl and drafted all the pieces on cotton fabric, marked every piece and put it in a marked envelope. I have done this with some items, but often forget.

Some of my patterns have gotten used by many more than me, and the most popular one is the one I made for my knee hose. And it is so much easier to show someone how I made something when I have the pattern.

All dressed up Housebook style

This started out as a keen interest in the late 15^th century German garb a couple of years ago, and I have made some tryouts aiming for a dress with the pleated panels in front and back as seen in so many drawings and paintings from the time and region. However, I struggled with how to get enough bust support with such a lowcut dress with the pleated panels and never found a good way of doing it. Until the first pictures of the Lengberg finds hit the internet, showing supportive underwear from just the right time and place! Here was the answer to all my garbquestions. No need to make the dress work supportive, it is all done by the under-garments. And since I lost a lot of weight and changed size, the need for making new garb got urgent and a friend then asked the trick question – When going new, will you focus on just one time and region and explore it completely? I raised to the challenge and this is the first results. The accessories are not all completely new but made by me within the last three-four years.

My Lengberg brassiere all done

The aim is getting a complete and welldocumented outfit suitable for a merchants wife in one of the southern German towns of late 15^th century, like Nürnberg where Albrecht Dürer resided.

In some details I have to refer to pure guesswork, where no good sources of preserved garments and/or good detailed artwork are to be found, but I then aim to do an educated guess, based on sources from other geographic regions than my chosen one, either actual finds or artwork.

  The shift

 My inspiration for the shift is a variety of paintings, mainly by Albrecht Dürer, showing both men and women wearing elaborate smocked and embroidered shirts/shifts, all showing in the deep V-necked kirtles or jackets. When examining them closely, you´ll find that it is most likely a very fine and tight smock with white-work embroidery covering the pleats and then a small ribbon or golden lace attached to the neckline. In most of Dürers female portraits the shift shows covering the shoulders and neck as well, but in his selfportrait it is clearly a different model, with a tight smocked frontpiece and the shoulders of the shirt not showing at all. In other depicitons of women the dress is always a deep V-neck but there the shift is only showing in the bottom of the V as a small insert. I have therefore chosen to make a simple shift with some more work done on the front panel, that will be the only thing showing. And after quite a lot of experimenting I had to give up the idea of actual whitework over the pleats. In some close-ups it looks like couched whitework and that is simply too much to chew on for me right now. So my shift, in a rather sturdy hemp that holds the pleats nicely, is inspired by Dürers shirt but not as elaborate. The embroidery is a simple smock done in golden and white silk. The cut is a simple one, a A-shaped backpiece, two frontside-panels, the inserted pleated frontpanel and arms with a square gusset. This cut seems to be in style, as far as style goes concerning undergarments, for centuries, shown in English 16^th century fashion and in the early medieval days, shown in preserved garments like Thomas Becketts shirt or Infantin Marias shift from the 12^th and 13^th centuries. The shape of undergarments of course vary as they start to show, with wider arms if shown in slits or open and laced arms, but when not showing and worn under a tighter straight sleeve the arm of the undergarments is adjusted. I have therefore chosen a straight arm in my shift, not to tight so that I can push them up when needed and so that it is not too bulky under the straight arm of the dress.

The dress/kirtle

I have long wanted to make what is popularly named “the Housebook dress”, after the numerous pictures done by an anonymous engraver and painter, who lived and worked in South Germany in the last quarter of the 15^th century. 

The three pictures above shows some of the variety of dresses in his and others artwork, but they all have the characteristics of a deep V-neckline showing the shift and pleated panels in the front. In the St Catherine-picture you clearly see the cut of the dress, with a waistseam, not showing in the pleated frontpanel, which was propably one whole without the waistseam. Most of the width in the skirt seems to come from the pleats and not from the sidepanels at all. In Dürers portrait of the young girl the same inserted pleats show in the front and the dress seems to be with a waistseam, however not that obvious. In this portrait it is also noticable that there must a front opening.

Others have made dresses like this before, one real inspiration has been Bettinas Pages but where she has chosen whole sidepanels I really feel that the fit of the dress improves by giving it a waistseam, and one can find both with and without waistseam in the artwork. Considering the back of the dress there are some depictions showing that there is an inserted pleated panel there as well, and that the arms are inserted deep into the bodice, similar to the “Grand Assiette” in for instance the Charles de Blois pourpoint or the Queen Margareta kirtle, both dated to the late 14^th or early 15^th century. I have sadly not found any source of a preserved garment with the Grande Assiette-sleeve from late 15^th century, but there is plenty of examples in the artwork. The sleeves vary as well and I have chosen to make mine simple, a straight full length arm with some width for comfort and room to move, since I want this dress to be used for all occasions, not just for finery. Since I have chosen a good quality dark brown wool, I find that I do not have to reinforce the pleats or couch them in any way, so I have simply gathered the top of the panels in pleats using a strong thread(I tried silk with the first panel, not to be recommended since silk is way to slippery to make good and sturdy knots fastening the string before pulling the pleats together, so I turned to linen thread instead), and reinforced with some parallell seams across the pleats on the backside. 

This is one of the two frontpanels, stitched for pleating, with the seams 1 cm apart.

This is the turnout

Measuring in order to know how large to make the cutout in the bodice.

The bodice is fully lined in white linen and I have chosen to keep the lining in one piece covering the inserted pleated panels for extra strength and support. Another possible way to make the pleats would be sewing them one by one, like in on of the Herjolfsnes garments, and I might give that a try next time.

The frontpieces of the bodice with cutouts for the pleated panels.

Front of the lining, showing the lining extended so
that it completely covers and protects the pleats.

Backpiece with lining, stitching all seams
together before assembling the bodice.

Stitching the backpieces together.

The back with inserted pleated panel.

The front will be fastened together with hooks and eyes, similar to Bettinas dress, since I cannot see any other way of making it. A lace with small ringlets, as she suggests at first, might be a possible solution but hooks and eyes works best I think. There actually is a preserved linen lining from Lengberg, of what must be a girls dress, and it is sewn with coloured silk. It is mentioned that there is a metal hook still preserved in the bottom of the front V of this lining. However, there is not an actual opening, but this find shows that linen lining was used, as well as silk thread for sewing.

I´m quite happy with the turn-out of
the sleeves  with the large armscye.
I have used one big gusset in the sleeve.

The headdress

In many of the depictions a veil with pleats over the forehead is shown, often with the Gefrens covering the neck and with a long band/vimple either tied up around the chin or hanging loose over the shoulder. My headdress consists of a square linen veil, folded in tight little pleats in one end, stitched to stay in place, and of one narrow long piece to be used as the vimple, tied around the chin or simply wraped around the headdress and then left hanging loose at one side. There are even more elaborate headdresses, probably with some kind of upholstered ring on top of the head, similar to later times Wulsthaube. My veils can be used like that as well, using my Wulsthaube that I made some years ago. In some depicitons it is clear that the vimple is actually a part of the pleated veil, in others it seems to be a simple square veil with pleats simply snugged in at the neck.

The gefrens is a little fringe of wool yarn fastened to a ribbon to tie around the head under the veil. There are depictions of young women using only the gefrens over their braided hair and there seems to be a variety of colours, even multicoloured ones. Mine is simple green, and made by using the loose threads as weft into a woven ribbon using a rigged heddle. 

The lady on the left is wearing the full headdress with veil, vimple and gefrens,
while the lady on the right just wears the gefrens over her braided hair.

Belt, purse and stockings

Now for the last finishings. No attire is complete without these things, a belt, a purse and a pair of stockings.

The belt is the simplest belt ever, since I haven´t found any pictures of elaborate women belts in the artwork from this time and region, but simple, thin belts just enough for holding a purse. Black leather in a 1 cm wide strip, with a very simple brass buckle, sewn to the belt.

The purse is another story, I found these purses with a number of smaller purses attached to it, in drawings and etchings by Albrecht Dürer.

I made mine in a good quality dark blue wool in a foursplit pattern, and four smaller purses attached, one on each of the four pieces. I have used beads of bone and metal for fastening the lucet cords use for the purse, all made in green wool yarn. And around the opening I used a red lucet cord for reinforcment and adornement.

The stockings or kneehose are in the area of the educated guess. I have not found them in the artwork, nor in any preserved examples from this region. Kneehose have however been found among the Herjolfsnes garments, made in wool and with no whole foot, and a hose fragment has been found in Lubeck as well as one possible kneehigh hose from London. All these preserved examples are in wool, sewn and dated from late 13th century to 15th century. Sewn stockings are therefore my choice for keeping my feet warm.

My hose are sewn in a soft pink wool fabric, in three pieces, one leg, one covering the foot and a sole. Although most preserved hose are sewn without a separate cut sole, there are examples in artwork showing a sole, sometimes differing in colour, suggesting a reinforcing sole, maybe in leather.

                                                                 

And this is how it all looks:

A need for bling

I generally state that I like it plain, without fuss, bling, brocades, velvet and such. And most of the time it´s true. But everynow and then I get the need. Need for bling. But I prefer bling with a purpose and bling that really adds to the authenticity and feel of my garb. So when I decided to go all in for the late 15th century German dress, I found myself challenging a friend...

This is what she showed me the other day:

 And the artist? Go and look her up! http://www.etsy.com/shop/evajohannastudios

Push up or tying down?

A small update of my Lengberg bra-project. It did not turn out as planned, in the last fitting it was too big so I had to cut down on some excess fabric over the chest and thus loose the lace insertation I had done. I must learn that I am really thin over the chest. Bummer! Then I realized I had erased all project-pictures from the memorycard of my camera. But luckily I had quite a few pictures in my phone as well, just bear with the poorer quality.

I decided to try to pimp it up with some lace,
 cut from an old linnen bed sheet.

Since it will be laced in one side I cut the pieces bigger on the
 one side so that  I got  a strip of double fabric to make the eyelets in.

And here I thought I was done, not counting the eyelets.
All hemmed and all seams felled.

But when trying it out one last time it was just too big over the chest,
 not giving enough support, so  after some hesitation I had to
 loose the lace and take it all in about four centimetres.

Twenty eyelets in total, thinking a tight fit will not
 let it move around as much but stay in place.

So this is the finished piece, now all that is left is
 attaching a skirt and making a lucetcord in white silk.
Then I will try to take some  pictures with it on...

And for those of you that are interested in more of the background facts, here´s something for you.

Castle Lengberg is situated in the Austrian part of Tyrol, and was at the time of the renovations, that caused the brassieres to be dumped alongside other waste underneath the floorboards, owned by the austrian noble Virgil von Graben. Virgil was a member of the Meinhardiner family, one of the most influential at the time, and he was the master of Lienz, Lengberg, Heinfels and Sommeregg. He was close to the Habsburgs and did extensive reconstructions of Lengberg as well as other castles. He hosted a large party when the Lengberg Castle chapel was reinvested in 1485, and most of the renovations was probably done by that time.

This means that it was most likely members of his household that wore the garments found. This means they may have been worn by members of high society and the wealthiest in the region, with extensive connections with the noblest families in Europe.

And there are also written sources from the time and place of these finds.

"There are some written medieval sources on possible female breast support, but they are rather vague on the topic. Henri de Mondeville, surgeon to Philip the Fair of France and his successor Louis X, wrote in his Cyrurgia in 1312–20: “Some women… insert two bags in their dresses, adjusted to the breasts, fitting tight, and they put them [the breasts] into them [the bags] every morning and fasten them when possible with a matching band.”

These ‘bags’ served the same purpose as antique breast bands – that is to contain too large breasts. However, the “shirts with bags in which they put their breasts” that Konrad Stolle complained about in his chronicle of Thuringia and Erfurt in 1480 seem to have obtained the opposite effect, as he concludes his description with the words “all indecent”.

An unknown 15th-century author of southern Germany was definitely referring to breast-enhancement in his satirical poem as he wrote: “Many [a woman] makes two breastbags [bags for the breasts], with them she roams the streets, so that all the young men that look at her, can see her beautiful breasts; But whose breasts are too large, makes tight pouches, so there is no gossip in the city about her big breasts.” As we can see, medieval bras worked both ways." (Beatrix Nutz is a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Innsbruck(http://www.historyextra.com/lingerie))

So, following this, and considering the fact that there were no less than four brassieres in very different shapes found in this one place, there must have been just as many ways to make a brassiere or supportive underwear as there were people making them during the late medieval times. I thus am convinced that my version, although not entirely true to the original, may well have existed, with good support and quite a lift for the bust.

Golden finds at the spring sale

On my way home today I passed the stores and went in looking for a new striped skirt I had seen in a magazine, and what do you know, they had a mega sale on the winter skirts. I had looked at some golden brocade pencil skirts earlier when they were on some discount, but passed since they are just a bit too plastic for me. But today they were down to 30 SEK each (approx. 3 Euros). No less than four skirts got to follow me home, two of the golden brocade ones, since I figured one would make a perfect set of pin-on sleeves for my 15th century garb.