Amber kirtle

I have for quite a while yearned for a very plain kirtle for working, with a higher neckline than I usually do and a wider sleeve so that I can easily get them up and out of the way for cleaning dishes and the like. I gathered a number of images on what I was aiming for and then suddenly I bought The fabric on an impulse early this spring, a thin wool in a twill weave and a lovely amber colour.

Some of my main inspirations are mainly three paintings. In all of them you can clearly see a front opening, the two latter ones also show a higher neckline and they are also very plain in model, no details like open sleeves, visible decorations or anything.

Detail from the Paumgartner Altar. The front opening here seems to be slightly bulging, an interesting effect that I tried to accomplish with mine as well.

Detail from the Schottenaltar

Lots escape by Albrecht Dürer

My version of this kirtle is not lined other than two small strips of linen along the front opening, to serve as a support for the hooks and eyes. They are placed evenly and with at most two centimetres apart along the front making it a steady fastening.

Detail showing hook and eye-closing in an Italian painting

 

My version of the closing, I choose a simple inserted piece of lining instead of lining the entire bodice.

The skirt is simple and fabricsaving, a twopieced front and a straight back with some small pleats towards the waist. And I made the bodice loose so that I can easily fit an extra kirtle under it should the weather be colder. The sleeves are a simple S-curve with a small inserted gore towards the shoulderseam.

And here is the result.

I might need to make a new dress for this shift

As many may know, I am a huge fan of the art of Nüremberg artist Albrecht Dürer. One of my absolute favourite pieces is his portrait of the Young fürlegerin with her hair in braids. I have looked at this so many times and I still find new details in it. Now I want to look specifically on her shift, or hemd as it is called in German.

It is a lovely hemd, with an embroidered smocked front and black lining along the neckline. But as one looks at many different portraits and paintings from the same time and region, I noticed something about that neckline. The back seems to be drawn down towards the front so that the back neckline also covers the entire shoulder. I will try and illustrate what I mean with some more pictures.

Wolf Traut, Portrait of a woman, Nüremberg 1510

Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of a woman

Detail of a painting, showing the Young woman in green in a similar hemd

The back seems to be a rounded line, not indicating a seam or anything other than over the front shoulder where it meets the front.

I found this a bit intriguing so I had to experiment a bit with a simple version af a hemd, where the back is wider than the front, thus curving down over the shoulder and forming that seamless line down the front.

So my version is a plain shift in two pieces, two sidegores and sleeves and in order to clearly illustrate the slanted backpiece/shoulder, I put in a small lining of the neckline in black silk. Here it is:

The shoulder part hanging down in the front

The hemd when done

Construction with sidegore sewn directly to the sleeve

Worn with my blue Hausbook dress over it

And clearly I have nothing to wear on top of it, since all my dresses are fairly high in the neck and doesn´t show anything of the shoulders.

Just added a little piece of bling

So it is done, my new smocked shift. This time I tried hard not to make a neckline that scoops too low, a thing I always manage to do with my shifts. It took a few times of pinning, trying it on, repin it and repeat.

The inspiration is mainly the finely smocked shifts and shirts from really late 15th C Germany, such as Dürers shirt, and I looked into the larger number of extant Italian camicias of the 16th C for the cut and also decorations. Here are one example of the sleeve and gusset that I liked:

I did however choose a different layout of the gusset since I did not want to much fabric to gather in the armpit of my rather slimfitted kirtlesleeves. Another great inspiration is the shift of Mary of Hungary, ca 1520:

When I displayed my last smocked shift (read about it here: http://www.renikasanachronisticadventures.blogspot.se/2013/04/all-dressed-up-housebook-style.html), I did get the question why I had made such big and coarse pleats in the neck insert. I thought about it and figured I was just taking the easy path and thus challenged myself a bit this time. So I made the pleats so tiny I had problems getting them to form, and got the tip on damping the fabric and then gently pull in the direction of the pleats, and the linen gently pleated itself.

One of the main reasons for making this rather plain shift with a simple white smock was that I wanted to use the lovely antique golden lace I got from my mother in law, forming the edging of a lovely but really worn brocade table cloth. And there are some extant camicias with golden lace on the edge, excellent inspiration:

And this is how it turned out, with a side gore inserted and replacing the armpit square gore. The cuffs are plain and simple, since they will not be showing at all.

It took some effort to get the bias sewn to the smocking on the neckline and then attaching the lace, but I do think it was worth every minute and every pricked finger, this will for sure be a well used smock.

 First I pinned the bias strip over the smocking, trying not to stretch it too much.

 Then I sew the bias down over the edge, thus forming a firm edging for support of the rather heavy golden lace.

 The lace was pinned on and then sewn with a fine brown silk, that does not contrast too much to the rather old looking lace.

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

Is that a tarantula on your head or just a fashionable hat?

During the late 15^th and early 16^th century begins a trend in the Germanic countries, where hats and headgear not necessarily differs between men and women anymore as in earlier centuries. In paintings and drawings both men and women are depicted with the same type of hats. One particular form only seen there and then is what I call “the squashed tarantula-tophat” or simply the spaghettihat. It is basically a cap with a large tassel on top. Here seen on a young woman drawed by Master of the Housbook, a German master working approximately 1475-1495.

I wanted to make a striped version, as seen in one of the *oh my god I could just faint*-pretty selfportraits of the German painter Albrecht Dürer. This selfportrait was painted in 1498. I´m guessing that his hat is made in silk since it is just so thin and delicate in the tassels and fabric.

As you can see, his hat is worn and a bit torn in the seams, but being young, arrogant and good looking, that just is his style I guess. I made mine in wool, and choose to do it in dark green and white instead of black and white. So instead of looking like a football referee I now resemble a football supporter.

In the Dürer portrait the tassels are gathered together with a piece of string, so I made mine the same. Other pictorial examples show hats where the tassels have just been cut and hang straight down without being gathered at all, as in this one:

One question that arises during this little project is whether this hat actually is a gender-neutral hat from the beginning or if it just became a trend among young people where the men gave their hats to girlfriends thus creating a new fashion? Food for thought. I have no clue but find it fascinating. And in the pictorial examples I´ve seen so far it is young people that wear this kind of hat. Older people seem to prefer more conservative headgear, as white linen head-cloths in different versions for the women and hats for the men.

Better late than never

I started on a new hemd in January. It didn´t get done in time for the Carnevale in February. Ah well, I thought and brought the pieces on my journey to Finland, thinking that hours and hours of dreary ferry-travel would do the trick. But alas, no.

Now it is finally done and I´m pretty pleased with myself.

It is sewn in a rather heavy nettle fabric, a bit golden white, and is mainly inspired by the german-swiss embroidered smocked hemds seen on both men and women in the late 15th and early 16th century.



Dürers portraits is the main inspiration for the undergarment




This is the result, however it will look a lot less bulky with the tight overdress

 I wanted to try the techniques with letters and fancy patterns in white on white but had to give it up. The fabric is too heavy and the pleats in the inserted front panel is just to coarse. So I settled on a more easier counted geometric pattern in golden silk and some rows of white stitches to keep it all together. The back and side panels are flat so that they do not take too much room under a tight fitted bodice. The front is made of a panel out of the full width of the fabric (150 cm) folded in the top and then pleated it in rather big pleats (1 cm). This will show in a rather deep V-neckline.



I haven´t given up on the idea of a more elaborate embroidered smock but then I need a finer linen and time and patience that I do not have at the moment. This is however a lot more elaborate than my first attempt as seen on my profile picture, so with time I will get there for sure.