|
This lecture will look
at different ways to construct clothing for the 'Early' period
within the SCA.
Most of these patterns and methods are what can only be described
as 'conjecturally' period – ie. the method of patterning
cannot be fully documented because we simply do not have the
extant garments to examine. However, the geometric cutting method
is known from later periods and other countries. We know the
widths of cloth they were dealing with. There were some extant
garments found in Greenland (the Herjolfsnes finds) with similar
patterning. So we can 'conjecture' that they 'might' have used
'something like' these methods. And I will also include patterns
that are quite definitely a modern method, although none of these
methods use 'paper patterns' that you are probably more familiar
with.
TUNICS
The tunic is a loose fitting garment, often belted, worn by both
men and women, although the women's seem to be mostly full length
(at least to the ankle) whereas mens tunics could be as short as
hip length and worn with some kind of trouser. All seem to be
layered - an 'undertunic' and an 'overtunic' at the very least.
For the tunic styles, we'll start with the well known T-Tunic
from the Known World Handbook, this is usually the first style of
tunic anyone ever makes. <Click here for instructions and pic>
The good thing with this version is it's easy to pattern, it can
be made with only two seams to sew, so it's a good costume for
beginner sewers to make as their first project.
The downside is it's very wasteful of fabric (there's lots of
fabric left over that you don't use) so you end up using a large
amount of fabric for a not very voluminous garment (the hemline
is usually no more than 4 times the width of the fabric - say,
4.4m all up).
A variation to this style is shown by
TechnoSystem StrangeGirl http://chimericalgirl.net/costume/costume/mygarb.html (copyright
Branwyn M Folsom) but this website seems to have fallen off the
web so I include her patterns here.
 A
Simple Smock - a Lady's Underwear - Average sized ladies bust 34"
to 38"
©Branwyn M Folsom
|
 A
Simple Smock - a Lady's Underwear - Larger sized ladies bust to
54"
©Branwyn M Folsom
|
 Simple
Norman-style Gown - Average sized ladies bust 34" to 38"
©Branwyn M Folsom
|
 Simple
Norman-style Gown - Lager sized ladies bust to 66" waist to
55"
©Branwyn M Folsom
|
Branwyn's Smock pattern is quite economical of
fabric, and her pattern for 'larger sized ladies' is getting close to the
Greenland styles. Her overgown is also more economical than the T-Tunic, and has
a very voluminous hemline (maybe 6.3m), but most of the fabric in this cut will
fall at the side seams, rather than evenly all around. However this may be the
look you are after.
A more period cut for a tunic
is explained by Lady Muireann ingen Eoghain ua Maoil Mheaghna (Maggie Forest) on http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Tunics/TUNICS.HTML
Cynthia du Pre Argent (Cynthia Virtue) has a
worksheet for a very similar garment on http://www.virtue.to/articles/tunic_worksheet.html that you may find useful, too.
This method, like the T-Tunic, is drawn straight on the fabric, but it
is not a beginners garment. There are more than two seams to sew, and you need
to know how to sew in a gusset and a gore. But this cut will give you a very
full hemline (dependant on the number of gores you have, but 5.3m would be a
minimum) for less fabric than the T-Tunic and with very little waste fabric.
COTEHARDIES
Also known as Kirtles. Basically the same tunic shape but tighter, and more
likely to have a set in sleeve.
First there's the 'fancy dress costume' style - easily accessible as a
commercial pattern, it has a 'princess' seam running either from the shoulder or
armhole to give shape to the bust, but not to support it. Takes a lot of fabric
to make one, with a fair bit of wastage, and this is definitely not a period
cut.
Another approach is to take Maggie Forrest's method in the Tunic section, the
one with all the gores and simply make it tighter. It should be snug enough to
completely support your breasts, even if you are a D+ cup. The key here is
rather than pushing them up and out like a Victorian corset, the dress should
squish them up and back towards your chest wall more like a sports bra. This, of
course, now means you can't just pull the dress on over your head anymore,
you'll need to have an opening in one of the seams, and some way of fastening it
closed again. Depending on the time frame, they seem to have used lacing,
buttons & loops, buttons and conventional button holes, or (by conjecture)
been sewn in, since some statues don't appear to have any visible opening.
Robyn Netherton is probably one of the better known advocates of this style: http://www.barony-of-arnhold.org/gothicdress1.htm but there are number of others - Mistress Corisander Seathwaite
gives a good description of how to do this process on: http://sca-garb.freeservers.com/articles/corikirtle.html
The down side of these methods is that it is a
two person job, as one person does the pinning and the other is the one being
pinned.
An excellent site has been done by Tasha Kelly
McGann on http://www.cottesimple.com/fem_silhouette/intro_fem_silh.html
where she compares patterning this gown with a straight centre-front seam and a
curved one. She also has an ingenious sleeve pattern based on the pourpoint of
Charles de Blois http://www.cottesimple.com/blois_and_sleeves/elbow_hinge/elbow_hinge.htm
A simple description of this method is to take
four panels of fabric, the length of your shoulder to hip, and each more than
one quarter of your bust measurement wide. Pin loosely to the body (with the
seams as front, back and side seams) and gradually pin the fabric closer to the
body, adjusting the fit as you go. Robyn make a good suggestion by getting the
person being pinned to lie on their back when pinning the bust area. This put
your breasts in a better position to where you want them to be without having to
fight gravity as well. When you get to drawing in the armhole, be aware that you
need to make a 'high' or close armhole - a wide, more 'comfortable' armhole
will actually be more uncomfortable once you get the sleeves in as you will find
that the upper arm 'binds' and you won't be able to move your arms up. A good
way to mark the armhole is to ask the person to move their arm forwards and back
so you can see where the fabric creases - that's where you need to chalk in
your armhole line. Then construct the garment using this a pattern, exactly the
same way as doing a tunic, but bear in mind if you use a different fabric than
your pattern you may need to do some more adjusting to get the fit again, but it
should be fairly minor.
A note on fabric here. Use linen, or wool, for
this garment. Both these fibres (apart from being historically correct) have an
inherent 'elasticity' which make this pattern work so well, and make this a
comfortable garment even though it is tighter than you might normally wear. Silk
and cotton, while also natural fibres, have a crisper feel and do not work as
well. And don't even think about using a synthetic. Some rayons can work but it
depends on the individual piece of fabric. Rayon is sometimes mistakenly called
a synthetic. It's not, but it is a man-made (ie. manufactured) fibre from wood
pulp, which is a natural product. It is sometimes call Art Silk, or artificial
silk, as that was its original purpose when it was invented in the 1920s.
Although not English, another version of a
cotehardie style dress, based on the many gored dresses in the Greenland finds
has been done by Dame Helen (mundane name?) on http://www.damehelen.com/cotes/index.html
but once made up it looks to be a very similar garment.
If you are interested in some further reading on
period construction and pattern shapes. Muireann (Maggie Forest) has an
excellent article on http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/garments/garments.html and Marc Carlson has conjectured patterns from the
Greenland finds on http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/%7emarc-carlson/cloth/tunics.html
SIDELESS SURCOTE
Worn over the cotehardie, unfortunately this is not a style that
has captured the eye of the on-line costumers, at least in
regards of how to make the pattern. Marc Carlson has done a
conjectured pattern based on a (presumably) mans tunic from the
Greenland finds (Herjolfsnes no.37) http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/%7emarc-carlson/cloth/herjol37.html that could be interpreted as a surcote. There is some
discussion on whether surcotes were actually worn by your average
noble lady, those that hold this view argue that it was worn by
queens, and was adopted in memorial brasses and the like when one
wanted to appear 'queenly'. (See the article http://www.pennib.net/FeoragDubh/Nutshell_2004-03/sideless_surcote.htm by Lady Melodie de l'ours blanc, based on notes taken from the
lecture "Will The Real Sideless Surcote Please Stand Up?" by Robin
Netherton).
But given the number of examples in art that we have, I'm not
convinced, so I am including patterns taken from 'Patterns for Theatrical
Costumes' by Katherine Strand Holkeboer (copyright 1984) that although are
from a 'theatrical' source, they're better than nothing.
The sideless surcote seems to have started out a very simple
overgarment with mere slits for the armholes. Presumably a tunic without the
sleeves/gussets. Over time, the overall shape of the garment appears to have
stayed the same but the armhole is gradually deepened and widened to the more
recognisable 'Gates of Hell'. It then evolved to adding a separate, fuller,
skirt to the bodice.
Michaela de Bruce has a picture (no pattern) of one of this later sort
on http://costumes.glittersweet.com/sca/sideless.htm
 ‘Patterns for Theatrical
Costumes’ by Katherine Strand Holkeboer (copyright
1984)
|
HOUPPELANDES
The basic, almost certainly non-period, pattern for a houppelande
is very similar to the first mentioned T-tunic – except that
it has a shaped neck-shoulder-armhole, with set in sleeves.
Mistress Corisander Seathwaite has an example of this sort of
pattern: http://home.james-gang.org/greydove/docs/houpburg.pdf Like most modern interpretations it is very wasteful of
fabric, and because of the construction, the bulk of the fabric
is positioned under the arm, rather than showing the foldlines
coming from the shoulder or neck area, as we can see in paintings
of the time period. Now while this is admittedly an era of
conspicuous consumption, I'm not convinced they would actively
waste fabric that could be more usefully employed is showing off
how much fabric they used.
Cynthia Virtue, I think, has come up with an excellent
reconstruction of a houppelande on: http://www.virtue.to/articles/circle_houp.html Her theory does give the foldlines coming from the
shoulder and by its construction incorporates the 'V' shaped seam
in the back neckline that we see so often in mens garments of the
era, and its use is structural, not as a 'design' line. The
resulting hemline is a full circle, so the garment gives the
appearance of being as lush as some of the paintings show. Like
the example above, it too uses a lot of fabric, but with much
less wastage.
Dame Helen also has a good article discussing a variety of
different methods for constructing a houppelande: http://www.damehelen.com/houpe/index.html, including one that may solve how some of the
houppelandes do not appear to have an armhole seam, but I've not
tried it myself. Did they really have no armhole seam, (or
neckline seam for that matter), or was it just 'artistic
licence'? Unfortunately, as previously stated, we have no
surviving houppelandes, and until we dig up someone who
conveniently fell into a bog in Ireland while wearing one, I
guess we'll never know.
However, if you are doing a set in sleeve, Cynthia Virtue has
some interesting comments on how not to construct the typical
'bag' sleeve: http://www.virtue.to/articles/bag_sleeve.html with a pattern of how she believe it should be
constructed. Mistress Corisander on the previously cited website
also has several patterns for suitable sleeves.
Dags (decorative ‘cut’ patterns on the edges of
garment) are used extensively on men’s houps and cotes, and
on both hems and sleeves, but are far less common on women’s
garments. In the original handouts I included some patterns of
dagging, drawn by Baroness Genevieve de Chateau Licorne as
published in various volumes of the 'Boke of Divers Knowledge'
edited and published by Ann Nielsen. As these are copyright
(1996) I am unable to include them. Please contact me if you
would like copies.
Ysmay de la Mor
Lynne Cook
PO Box 109
SEMAPHORE SA 5049
or e-mail: president (at) australiancostumersguild.org.au
©The
author retains copyright. Please contact the author (see link
above) for permission to reprint/distribute their work.
|
