How to Create an 11th century Andalusian Tunic with Double Lapel Collar
In this post, I will be describing how to construct the stacked double lapel collar found on tunics from Al-Andalus. I will not be talking in-depth about how to construct the body, nor about acceptable materials to make your own tunic. The body is based off of Kvetun's reconstruction of an Egyptian tunic found in Naqlun cemetery dating to the same era. I have erased 2-4 of the seams from the original example done by Kvetun for my pattern, in the assumption that they are piecing seams as whole panels were preferred for this project. The fabrics I have chosen for my tunic are an unbleached pants weight linen, a dusty rose shirt weight linen, and the contrasting collar fabric is a reproduction silk from Kazar Bazar.
In it's simplicity, I believe that the double lapel collar application is a flap of contrasting fabric stitched over a side slit keyhole neckline.
I am unsure if the double lapel collar had both lapels with silk/contrasting fabric, or if only the top one was silk. These instructions assumes both lapels are made of silk, as well as the tunic itself to be fully lined.
In-depth instructions below
I highly suggest to do the collar work by hand. I have not tested this method by machine, and therefore do not know how this will behave under the static arm of a sewing machine. If someone is interested in trying this by machine, let me know how it pans out.
Start with your body fabric and lining lined up but flat. The collar work will be extremely hard to do once you add the sleeves/gores. The lining method I used is not historical, and I believe it falls under bag lining. Both the lining and the 'shell' were constructed separately, creating two whole garments, then the lining was slid in to the shell. The unfinished seams facing each other. I chose this, as it will also hide all the stitching from creating this neckline, but also was more convenient for a commissioning process as I struggle to finish gore/gusset seams on my sewing machine.
With your body and lining fabric pieces lined up, snip in the neck hole at centre of the body and the shoulder line/seam. The neck hole should be set 1/3rd above the shoulder line as the body fabric with 1/3rd of the neck hole overhanging will be the 'back' of this garment, and the part with the other 2/3rds will be the 'front'.
On the front side, from the centre of the neck hole circle (not the shoulder line), mark a line 30+ cm down. 30cm is the minimum. But whatever this measurement is for you, be sure to maintain this number through the project. Cut along the marked line to create the keyhole/ 'P' shaped slit.
Next, remove the lining fabric from the body entirely. The majority of this collar application will be done on the shell/fashion fabric.
Starting with the 'under' lapel first, this specific set of instructions is only relevant if you plan on having both lapels be silk and want to reduce the bulk from the layers contrasting fabric, outer fabric, and lining fabric. If you would like an easier version of this step, or if you do not care about having bulk, you can applique the contrasting fabric over the top of the body fabric with similar dimensions to the layover flap.
The dimension calculation for the body fabric to be cut away is:
[Neck slit length] - seam allowance = length
[Neck diameter] - seam allowance = width
For example, the neck diameter I used is 13cm, and the neck slit is 30cm. I use 1cm seam allowances when hand sewing. So the rectangle I cut out is 12cm by 29cm.
Cut out your rectangle under the neck hole but from the side with the most fabric opposite from the neck slit. Next, you will do the opposite calculation to create the replacement part of the fabric.
With the same information from above, the insert rectangle I made is 14cm by 31cm.
Press in 1cm, 'wrong side to wrong side', on the base of the narrow edge of your rectangle. Then line your contrasting fabric rectangle 'right side to right' side along the long edge of the body fabric that isn't the main keyhole slit. Stitch the inserted rectangle down. Fold the rectangle over to fill the space you just removed. Press the seam.
Next, where the narrow width lines up on the base of the rectangle and the body of the fabric, stitch into place, but do not stitch the whole way. Leave a 0.5cm gap on the side next to the neckline slit. This will help when you attach the contrasting fabric to the lining. (Depending on your choice of lining method, sewing this rectangle panel to the lining can happen at this stage (historical flat lining), or after you attach the separate sets of sleeves to their respective shell and lining bodies (bag lining)). The insert should look like this before you trim away to re-shape the neck hole:
Next, cut a rectangle using the following equation, from both the contrasting fabric, and the lining fabric.
[Neck diameter] + (Seam allowance x 2) = width
[Neck keyhole slit] + (Seam allowance x 2) = length
The specific calculations I used were: 13cm + 2cm = 15cm, 30cm + 2cm = 32cm. The two rectangles should be width of 15cm and a length of 32cm.
Sew these two rectangles together, 'right side to right side', around 2 out of the 4 edges in a backwards 'L' shape, and leave the other 2 sides un-sewn. Leave these 2 edges un-sewn because the narrow top edge is going to be trimmed down anyway, and the long side edge will be sewn to the body. Trim the seam allowance in the backwards 'L' shape, and turn the panel inside out and press the edges.
Align this new lined rectangular panel up, 'right side to right side', with the long raw edge to the side of the neck slit on the opposite side to the replaced panel. While on the photo it directs to line this panel up [1cm] past where the neck slit line ends, do not do this. Instead, it should be about 0.25cm-0.5cm. Stitch this panel down entirely, ignore the instruction to leave a gap.
Once again, the panel gets turned over, the seam pressed flat, and the panel gets stitched down on the front in an 'L' shape to secure it down.
You should end up with something that looks like this before trimming to bring back the circular neck hole:
Once you're ready to add the lining to the shell permanently, make sure you flip the entire garment inside out and finish any raw seams.
This step is when I was also able to sew the lower lapel to the body lining in my project, with how I was doing the lining. But again, if you're flat lining, you do this step much earlier.
One of the final steps to create this collar, is binding it using 3-5cm width strips of the contrasting fabric. Bind in a similar technique to bias binding.
Using a straight stitch, sew the binding strip, 'right side to right side', on the front side of the body, starting on one side of a lapel panel, leaving ~1cm fabric over hanging the edge, and following the neck hole all the way around to the other lapel panel in a sort of loop-de-loop, again leaving ~1cm fabric hanging over the edge. Trim seam allowance if you please, but you must snip notches into the curved parts of the seam.
Then turn the garment inside out, adjust the contrasting fabric so it is pulled out of the neck hole and accessible to you. Wrap the over hang from one lapel inwards, making sure the narrow edge is sitting above the attaching stitch line. Next fold the top unattached side of the strip down to meet the base fabric, then bring the fold that was created down to touch the stitching line. Stitch the fold of the binding down using a whip stitch. Before you reach the end on the other lapel, tuck it's overhang back in, similar to how you started the first lapel. Once everything is whipped down, you may knot off and bury the thread.
And the final finishing touch would be to add a button and loop* closure for at least the top lapel. This button can be a bead/other period appropriate button material, or a button made from matching fabric.
*Depending on the type of loop closure you're using, this can also be inserted between the two rectangular layers making up the top lapel panel.
On this day (26 December, 1489 CE {22/23 Muharram, 895 AH}), the Andalusian city of Almería fell to the joint monarchy of Castile and Aragon that would later become Spain.
The city was founded by the famous Umayyad Emir of Córdoba and later the first Umayyad Caliph of Córdoba, Abdur-Rahman III, in the year 955 CE.
Its Muslim population was almost entirely composed of indigenous (Iberian) converts to Islam, who were later joined by southern Arabian (Yemeni) tribes who settled in the region.
Pictured is the Alcazaba of Almería (Alcazaba de Almería/Citadel of Almería) which was founded by the aforementioned Abdur-Rahman III, and which gave this city its name: "al-Mariyyah" or "the Watchtower".
Eid al-Adha Mubarak, Mubarak, Mubarak, siblings in the Din 💚
I can't offer a proper hearty meal to you now, I hope I will be able at some point in the future, oxal·láh. Until then and for now though, I can offer you —as a historian— taking a look at a passage from the history of Hispanic Muslims. The pic above is a fragment from an article titled El cuaderno de un visitador de moriscos ("A visitor of moorish's notebook") [1979], by Elíseo Vidal Beltrán; about Franciscan Friar and Royal Visitor Bartolomé de los Ángeles' account on Valencian Morisques from Ribarroja del Turia still openly commemorating 3Eīd al-'Ad7ā (Pascua de las Adaheas, or "Ad7ā's Easter", as late Andalusī-era, Romance-speaking Iberian Muslims used to call it) at some point between 1528-29 AD/935-36 AH, well after the Spanish Catholic Church and the Spanish monarchy began to forcefully trying to convert all remaining Hispanicate Muslims to Roman Catholicism.
Below is an English translation, but I'm hiding it so as not to trigger anybody reading (at least those who cannot read Spanish) because it contains a brief but fairly graphic instruction on how to carry out the killing of an animal following the Islamic procedure (Allāhu ā3lam).
As it goes:
[...] The visitor has noted in Ribarroja "many new —relapsed— aldaeñas, which they [the Moorish] raise in order to hold the Moorish Easter next year, after Ramadan".
Lastly, in Ribarroja —in relapse— exemplars of the Qur'an have been requisitioned, carried by two individuals, adding up to five books.
c) Social issues
The issue can be noted in three regards: the Moorish's passive and practically unbreakable resistance; [their] Lords' opposition, which further bolsters the aforementioned attitude; the inoperative position by part of the clergy, in direct contact with New Christians [converts to Catholicism from Islam]. The text shows repeatedly, as cases of stubbornness, the persistance of Islamic practices. Repeated visits by Friar Bartolomé at Ribarroja —sheet 3r.— have had a similar outcome exposed in regards of Yátova [another Valencian town with Muslim inhabitants] —18, v[erso].—:
__________
66 "aldaeña" means "aldahea" / "aldehea" / "aldea" or "adahea" / "adehea" (al-ḍāḥīyah). Generally, a ram sacrificed on the occasion of the "Easter of rams" or "of the adaheas", "Greater Easter" or "Sacrifice['s Easter]". According to chapter XXI of the Gebir, "Summa...", "the sheep is better than the goat, and from the sheep, male is better than female; and the goat is better than the bovine; she-sheeps are better than [all] goats, even if they are he-goats... It was well regarded that they who are plentiful of estate sacrifice one calf per capita at home; this is willful, in case a single one does not suffice. The serf have no obligation to kill [any] adahea... Put the adahea facing the alquibla [Qibla], legs and arms tied up, and while beheading [the adahea] recite "Lord, accept this from me, as you accepted it from your friend Ibrahim...!" The feast is held on the tenth day of ḏū l-7iŷŷa. Mohamad Rabadan, from Rueda, in his "Song of the Moons of the Year", states:
In this very long video, I give an introduction to one of the most significant, yet often misunderstood thinkers and mystics in history - Ibn 'Arabi.The vide...
This 80-minute documentary is probably the simplest and most entertaining explanation about the Sufi doctrine of “The Unity of Being”
