HSM April: War & Peace - the 14th Century Linen Coif

April's Historical Sew Monthly Challenge was War & Peace: The extremes of conflict and long periods of peacetime both influence what people wear.  Make something that shows the effects of war, or of extended peace.  

After getting dressed up for pictures in my new side-less surcoat, I was reminded that, while I love having the veil, I hate the work it takes to get it on right.  I had been wearing my veil pinned to a matching silk fillet (strap around the head) and barbette (strap under the chin), but the process of pinning those pieces in place, then pining the veil to them had grown cumbersome.  I was looking for something both more secure, and requiring less fiddling to get and keep on straight.  Hence the coif!

There are any number of excellent patterns and instructions out there, but the one that I found most useful was posted by the Maniacal Medievalist, which used lots of measurements and math to get something close-fitting and properly fit.  I made slight alterations to the pattern in that edge against the face is bound in the same narrow strip of fabric that extends down into the ties, rather than having a turned under edge with separate ties attached.  I felt that this made my ties more secure, but had the drawback of leaving me with short ties, due to the size of the scrap of linen that I was using.  As much as having things secured under the chin tend to annoy me, I'm thinking I may just leave the ties undone, or tie them instead behind the neck.  Either way, the cap stays relatively secure.

I left a bit of ease in the back so I'd have a place to stuff my hair, if I succeed in growing it out.

Octopus made a fantastically patient model for me while I kept fiddling with camera settings.

Seen from the back.  Lower edge was turned under twice and whip stitched.

Once the cap was complete, I tried it on and was a bit disappointed in the center seam.  The two pieces were sewn together, then the seam allowances folded back under themselves and secured to their respective halves. I was a touch unsure about the security of the seam, and so decided to do some sort of decorative top-stiching to secure it.  Well that went downhill and I ended up doing a more elaborate layered herringbone design reminiscent of some of the St Birgitta's caps I'd come across in my research.

Detail of the herringbone stitching down the center seam.

The details for the challenge

What the item is (and how it is a product of war or a lengthy period of peace: Medieval linen coif.  I kind of see the entire medieval period as an unsteady period of war and peace, and war again.  However, 600 years in the future, historians could probably say the same of today.

Fabric: lightweight white linen
Pattern: here
Year: 14th century
Notions: linen thread, bamboo viscose crochet thread for the embroidery
How historically accurate is it? 9.5/10, with a half-point docked for the embroidery thread
Hours to complete: about 8, starting from measuring and drafting out the pattern.  About half of that was spent on the embroidery.
First worn: Planning to wear it for Figments & Filaments later this month
Total cost: maybe $2.  All of the materials were in the stash and really only a very small bit of them had to be used.

Sideless Surcoat - Historical Sew Monthly Stashbusting Challenge

Building on the generic Medieval fantasy costume that I started working on last month, I made up a relatively straight-forward sideless surcoat.  Went the easy route and again brought out the Burda 7977 for this instead of using one of any number of fabulous tutorials that are out there.  The goal here was to bang something out quickly so that I could show off the kirtle at Figments & Filaments here in Kansas City next month.

I was already planning to avoid buying anything new for this project, so it fit in nicely with the Historical Sew Fortnightly Monthly challenge for March which was "Stashbusting".  I found a five yard section of wool suiting that had a subtle brown and tan twill weave to it that I picked up at a steep discount eons ago with the notion that surely I could use it for something.  Thems dangerous words right there.  Well, to make it a little less 'shiny suit' and a little more Fourteenth Century, I serged the raw edges and dumped the lot of it into the washing machine on warm, and dried it on medium heat.  This resulted in an every so slight bit of felting which softened the overall hand and color nicely.  The contrasting was done in black silk velvet that was leftover from my Queen of Hearts project, and plus the thread, that's all there is to it.

Lol.  My neighbors must think we're so weird.

Not sure why it's riding up like that in the back.
Must have caught on the belt I'm wearing over the kirtle.

Another shot at that paternoster and the decorative edging on the sleeves of my kirtle.

You can almost tell in the close up shot above, but for the velvet, I just laid out the pattern pieces and cut strips about four inches in from the arm hole openings.  The velvet was sewn to the WRONG side of the arm openings, then folded to the outside, encasing the seams.  I then top-stitched about 1/4" from the edge, then again about 3" in from the edge and trimmed off the excess.  The top stitching largely gets lost in the pile of the velvet, so I didn't think it detracted from the historical look too much.  To finish those raw cut edges, I just used black silk thread to whip stitch and short intervals all the way around.  The collar and hemline were treated in much the same way

Medieval Fantasy Kirtle and Paternoster (Rosary Beads)

So I made myself a second kirtle for a medieval fantasy group project that I got roped into and I found myself wanting to come up with an outfit to wear it with.  Hence the non-specific Medieval fantasy-like project was born.

I used Burda 7977 for the kirtle and ended up fitting it with bust darts to give it a bra-less snug fit, so not terribly historically accurate, but comfy as hell.  Darts were a much easier fix to do when fitting myself, as opposed to trying to re-work the armscye.  There is not enough yoga in the world that would let me do that properly and I was too impatient to wait for help.

The dress is a mid-weight (4.7 oz) linen from Dharma Trading Co, dyed a pale green to match the details in the as-yet unfinished overdress.   Machine sewn for all weight-bearing construction seams, since learning when to say no to hand-stitching is one of my goals in life.  But I did cave and tack down the felled seams by hand.

This is the second time I've made up this pattern, but the first time that I attempted the double sleeves thing it has going on.  They actually turned out pretty nice and I think I'll leave off the lacing on the over sleeves so that they hang open a bit for some flair.

Here you can see the hand stitching to finish the seams, as well as where I used gold silk thread embellishment to hide the top-stitching around the neckline, which was also how I treated the lower edge of the cuffs of the over sleeve.

Once it's on me and I'm wearing shoes, the hem will sit just off the floor.

While I was fitting with the back safety-pinned closed, I realized that I could slip the dress on and off without un-pinning it.  Therefor, the lacing didn't have to be strictly functional.  So to save a truly epic amount of time, I skipped binding the eyelets and just gently used an awl to help thread a rayon yarn through the edges.  I was able to keep my lacing intervals much narrower this way, so to avoid too much puckering of the center back when worn.

I came across the idea for a paternoster while browsing through medieval costume sources online, looking for accessory ideas.  While not a particularly religious person myself, I latched onto the notion of the rosary being an acceptable way for individuals to express their tastes and show off wealth, without being considered "too flashy" in doing so.  As the outfit I was making was gearing up to be an upper class representation, the rosary became an essential accessory.  Sarah Edgecumbe has put together a fantastic pinterest board on the topic, with LOTS of references from paintings.  Also, paternoster-row.medievalscotland.org, as well as this SCA paper were super informative.

I ended up making mine from materials that I already had on hand.  Fifty 5/16" light red beads meant to resemble coral, separated by larger beads of "jade", also quite decadent.  Christ Laning has an entire blog post devoted to the red beaded paternooster that helped cinch my choice of beads.  My fantasy lady apparently has expensive and exotic tastes.  I strung them all on gold silk cord and I made a small tassel from the same.

The whole thing isn't large, but just enough to wear wrapped around the wrist and offer me something for my fidgety hands to play with.

Fly-by Progress Post: HSF 18 and Head-to-Toe Hats

I had decided to participate in the Head-to-Toe Accessorizing challenge, in addition to wrapping up the year of Historical Sew Fortnightly. 

http://trystancraft.com/costume/accessorizing-head-to-toe-challenge/

 

I completed two hats or head coverings in the month of August.  The first is a black silk hat to wear with my late 1870s mourning dress and it's doubling to fill the HSF challenge #18: Re-make, Re-use & Re-fashion.  I kept putting off posting the this thing as it was a pain to try to photograph, but getting around to doing my hair up in a wig, during daylight hours when someone else is around to snap a picture just wasn't happening.  So your imagination at placing a fancy updo in place of my plastic sack covered wig stand may be required.

 

 

The Challenge: #18: Re-make, Re-use & Re-fashion: Sew something that pays homage to the historical idea of re-using, re-making and re-fashioning.

 

Fabric: Black silk velvet, black silk gauze, black habotai silk

 

Pattern: Truly Victorian 1880's Buckram Hat Frames

 

Year: 1880-ish

 

Notions: milinary wire, nylon net (basting four layers together made a passable substitute for buckram), black silk ribbon, black silk thread, and the repurposed part, black feathers (likely dyed chicken, from the looks of them) repurposed from an old feather boa that I quit using because it would stain my skin when I sweated.  And the only not black in the whole getup, a white pearl-headed pin for pinning the veil up and out of the way.

 

How historically accurate is it? Meh, I'll give it a B+.

 

Hours to complete: six

 

First worn: opportunity hasn't presented itself

 

Total cost: around about $40, but that's guessing as nothing was specifically bought FOR this project.

Made to accompany: late 1870s Mourning Gown (of which I don't have a picture in completed form.  Must be getting on with that.)

 

* * *

 

Black silk seems to be the theme for the month, as the other head covering accomplished is this snood, made of black silk velvet decorated with criss-crossed silk ribbons held in place with white faux pearls.  The headband is interlined with silk twill and the snood itself is lined in black habotai.  All of the fabrics and ribbons (save the velvet) were dyed black by me.  The ribbons were various short links of brightly colored pastels and oranges from my mother's stash from her crafting days.  I couldn't think of what to use so many short pieces of odd colors for, but overdyeing everything black worked out pretty nicely.  There is a very subtle hint of "something else" to the finished colors in the ribbons and I think that really helps add interest to the final product.

 

Luckily, the 18" diameter that I needed for the snood was

exactly how big my standing embroidery hoop is. 

 

 

The gory details:

Tutorial from RedDawn.net.

Fabric: 18"x18" square of black silk velvet, cut down to a circle after decorating.  18"x18' circle of black silk habotai.  2"x22" strip of black silk twill.

Notions: black silk 1/8" ribbons and white faux pearls.  Black silk thread.

Hours to complete: about 6, five of white was sewing down the ribbons and pearls.  After decorating, the snood goes together fairly easily, just gather circle into a head band and go.

 

I don't really have much in the way of Medieval costume, so this is more likely going to get tossed into the bin of costume accessories to get paired with whatever black fancy dress needs a hat when historical accuracy isn't high on the list.

 

Hmm... have also realized that this now makes three separate garments which have been made out of the black silk velvet that I acquired last summer, none of which are the costume that it was intended for.  Perhaps I should be getting on with that.