This place exists for me to keep track of my sewing projects, to see my growth and to share what I have made. Most of the time I focus on late 14th and early 15th century fashion but I also hope to branch out to different centuries and daily wear. Blogs have helped me tremendously on my costuming journey so by writing one myself I hope to contribute at least a little myself.
I thought I'd post an older project as well. This one is still very special to me even thought it in storage and it has not been worn since 2011.
The Ravenclaw robes are one of the projects that got me started into sewing and it is one of the earlier projects I still have.
These were made in 2011 and worn at the Elf Fantasy Fair in Haarzuilens. It is now called Elfia but still held at the same location. Since I am a true Ravenclaw I settled for a ravenclaw robe for myself. I also made robes for my friends and we all represented a different Hogwarts House.
The robes are made of a sort of suiting cotton that can be used for uniforms and it is lined with black and dark blue cotton. It also features a wand pocket on the inside and it has pockets in the side seams. I still am quite proud of them. My mother helped me out with them and they came out great.
So in 2017 I decided to make my boyfriend a medieval outfit as a birthday gift. He is one of those people who never really know what to ask for their birthday and literally cannot come up with anything. So I came up with the idea of giving him a handmade medieval outfit. He really enjoys the middle ages and I really love historical costumes. He also likes dressing up. So a costume would be an ideal gift and as additional bonus, it is made with a lot of love.
Initially these were my plans for the outfit: The outfit will consist of a plain linen shirt, hunter green joined hosen in a twill weave, a dark blue doublet or pourpoint in a plain weave and perhaps a dark red doublet or surcotte in a twill weave. The green wool has a nice stretch on the bias which makes it perfect for hosen. If I happen to have any fabric left I am going to make a pair of sleeves for myself as the fabrics is really nice and it is a shame I don't have more because I really would have liked to make a dress out of it. As for the blue wool. I am most likely going to make a pourpoint because my boyfriend generally likes more loose fitting clothes and a pourpoint would leave his arms free. This may change as I continue my research on the garment. The red wool I have is currently not dark red yet. I intend to dye it a few shades darker and this needs time and research first. I also would like to make a dress out it so I can only start making a doublet once I know how to lay out the pattern pieces and how much will fabric be left.
Here are some pictures I used as inspiration.
The pourpoint
Mining by Robinet Testard, late 15th century
La flagelación, Martín de Soria, 1485, Iglesia de San Salvador, Museo Diocesano de Huesca (detail)
L'Annonce aux bergers. Danse champêtre.Heures de Charles d'Angoulême, Folio 20V. French, late 15th century. (Detail)
Doublet and Hosen
Giglee painting: memling's detail of the left panel of the triptych
Source unknown.
These pictures provide part of my inspiration I also make use of pictures of reenactors found on the internet. I sometimes have no source or permission for them so I don't feel comfortable posting them here. Lot's of them can be found on Pinterest so if you are interested in historical fashion I'd advise anyone to take a look there. There is a link to my own boards in the sidebar.
Like I said before. Initially these were my plans for the outfit. We ended up going for a earlier look and settled for the 14th century as we both liked it better and my boyfriend definitely preffered the look of the longer doublets. He chose a simple cotte or tunic (as described in the Medieval Tailor’s Assistent) and seperate hosen. Luckily for me because a doublet and joined hosen would have been way more challenging and I was running out of time. The outfit consitst of a wool cotte, a wool hood lined in linen, a linen shirt and wool hosen that were made from the same fabric as the hood.
The wool for the cotte was rather heavy so I think I am going to adjust it to a surcotte later and make a lighter woollen cotte as well. We also have fabric left for a blue linen cotte and a slightly thinner linen shirt. I think he would prefer the lighter fabrics in summer as he is going to wear this outfit at summer events.
Here is the 14th century outfit on my dressform minus the hosen. My boyfriend is about 15 cm taller than I am so the outfit looks a litte weird on my dressform
In September 2017 I found a really lovely dark blue wool fabric at one of the stands at Middeleeuws Ter Apel. I immediately fell in love with it but there was a catch. There were barely two metres left of it. But I had to have it and I had to devise a way to make a dress out of it. The seller suggested I might make a sleeveless kirtle with a waist seam out of it and I agreed. So when I got home I had to device a pattern that made optimal use of the fabric. But not after I had done some research about these kinds of dresses.
The sleeveless kirtles I encountered mostly seemed to be Italian and gathered in the waist. And gathering fabric was something I could not really afford. The kirtles below seem to be less gathered and appear to have a waist seam. So these are the main images I took my inspiration from. I also decided that I would make the kirtle front laced.
Franchesco Cossa: The Triumph of Venus, (detail) 1470
Birth of John the Baptist, Meister 'G' of Turin-Milano prayer book, (detail) 1422-1424
Domenico Ghirlandaio: Birth of St John the Baptist (detail), 1486-90
Domenico Ghirlandaio: Birth of St John the Baptist (detail), 1486-90
DomenicoGhirlandaio: Announcement of Death to St Fina (detail) Circa 1474
Note that most of these kirtles appear to have a gathered or pleated skirt. I however do not have enough fabric to gather or pleat my skirt. Luckily there are examples of kirtles with a waist seam that do not appear to be pleated or gathered. Some of the dresses do show plating at the back though. They are of Flemish or Dutch origin but unfortunatly for me they usually have short or long sleeves.
Hans Memling: Passion of Christ, Greverade Altarpiece, (detail), 1470
Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition of Christ, (detail), ca. 1430-35
Hans Memling: Passion of Christ, Greverade Altarpiece, (detail), 1470
Hans Memling: St John Altarpiece, (detail), 1474-1479
Rogier van der Weyden, Seven Sacraments, (detail), 1445-1450
The fabric was a plain weave so it did not have a noticeable direction in which I should lay out the pattern pieces. This gave me a bit of freedom. I drew out the pattern on paper first and I drew another diagram to show below. The scale of the drawing is about 1:10 (the bodice pieces are not really to scale). The piece of fabric was about 190 cm long and 145 cm wide. As you can see the skirt consists of five pieces. The two pieces on the sides (the top and the bottom piece in this view) are sewn together to form a trapezoid. Once you have finished this you will have four equally big trapezoid shaped pieces. Personally I chose to have the two piece trapezoid at the front of the dress so the lacing will have a bit of space to continue lower than my natural waist.
The skirt pieces are about 110 cm long, which is long enough to create a floor length skirt. The hem circumference is about 270 cm. This worked for me but I personally find the skirt a bit on the narrow side. I yet have to cut the bodice pieces. The skirt will be left unlined but the bodice will be lined with linen. And if I happen to have enough green wool left from my other project I will make a pair of separate sleeves to go with the dress.
I was a little unsure what to write but I believe a blog like this needs an introduction post. Well... Where to start. I tend to try to document my sewing progress every now and then. Together with my normal blog and Instagram this is going to be yet another attempt to document my work, share progress, and share the finished results.
The projects I will be showing are my sewing projects from 2017 and therafter. Previous projects will be in the past as they are long gone and I hardly have any pictures of them but they have provided a good learning experience. My current focus lies on the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th century but other periods and fantasy projects may show up as well. I also hope to be able to create everyday wear inspired by history and made using historical sewing techniques.
As a bonus here is a picture of my 1910 sewing machine.
