I found a beautiful, soft 100% wool fabric on Tippet.fi . It was a dark blue
and needed a flash of accent color. Embroidery would be way
too much work for my schedule so I went again for the late
14th century fashion fad, colorfully trimmed dagging. With
the fine wool the edging of course had to be silk. The local
fabric store unfortunately only has very lumpy dupioni,
which is not period, but to which I resorted anyway as I
found it in a nice warm red shade.
The pattern for this project comes once again partly from
Thursfields "The Medieval Tailor's Assistant", partly from
my own reasoning and other sources. The bodice is based on
Jarno's modern shirt pattern which I flared from the armhole
down as wide as the fabric width allowed. The shoulder seam
is shortened to a more late 14th century fit and the armhole
dropped a bit to give space for the wide sleeves. The
finished hem width is about 3 metres. A houppelande could be
very full, but as I intended this one to be more practical
this width is acceptable. For extra movement allowance and
also as a decorative element I added long slits at the hem
on front, back and sides.
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I've had problems with Thursfield's sleeves (and also
Jarno's sleeves in general) before, so it should not come as
a surprise that my first sleeve mock up that came straight
from "The Medieval Tailor's Assistant's" diagram was an epic
fail. My next attempt was to draft a whole new modern shirt
sleeve pattern according to the slightly altered armhole,
but with a 2cm allowance on the sleevehead as the sleeves
sits higher on the shoulder than a regular shirt sleeve.
This pattern finally worked, and while it may not be quite
period I decided to use it anyway. The lower part is flared
according to the book's diagram. The collar also comes
straight from MTA, though it's a bit lower to be more
comfortable.
The dagging in the hem is cut 13cm deep and spaced evenly
with 10,5cm between the slits. The sleeve dagging has 9,5cm
long diagonal slits 10cm apart, their direction changing in
the middle of the sleeve.
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I had 3 metres of wool, and it was just enough when I cut
the large sleeves in three pieces. I lined the sleeves the
the red silk quite high which covered the joining seams
neatly on the inside. The rest of the silk I cut into bias
strips for the edging. I had bought 1,5 metres of silk,
which I had originally thought being perhaps too much, but
for once I was right in buying some extra. The edging
consumed an unbelievable amount of material.
I began by facing the front buttoning edges with cotton
tape. Then I sewed the center front seam and began to work
on the hem binding, as it was most convenient to make while
the pieces could still be easily laid flat for pinning the
bias tape. I experimented with both 1,2cm wide and 1,8cm
wide tape, but while the former was elegantly narrow I chose
the latter as the wool frayed very easily. I sewed the
binding on with back stitch and left some extra on the side
slits to be finished later. Then I worked the back hem
similarly. While the pieces were still flat it was also
convenient to make the buttonholes on the front opening
before closing the shoulder seams.
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The
collar is interlined with heavy linen which I sewed on the
seam allowances by hand. It's lined with the same wool and
the top edge is finished with a silk tape. Having finished
the collar I worked the remaining two buttonholes on it. As
the loosely wowen wool frays easily I used proper buttonhole
stitch instead of blanket stitch this time. Despite my close
stitches the material still managed to fray on some places.
With most of the bodice details finished now I closed the
side seams. I pressed them open (like the shoulder seams
too) and turned the seam allowances by hand.
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Then it was time for sleeves. I joined the pieces, leaving
the sleeve seam still open, and basted the silk lining on
from about 5cm from the seam line. I sewed the upper edge of
the lining on the wool by hand, and thanks to the softness
of the wool it's almost invisible on the outside. On the
sleeve end I marked the dagging lines with a pencil and
machine stitched close to the pencil line. I trimmed away
the extra seam allowance (save close to the sleeve seam),
cut open the slashes and began binding the edges.
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As both sides of the binding would be visible on the sleeves
I sewed the outer side first with back stitch and then sewed
the inner side on the silk lining to get a neater result. By
the way, I'm fully aware that bias cut binding is totally
unheard of on late middle ages (and also much later), but
once again I decided to ignore this fact as straight grain
tape with the soft, slightly stretchy wool would probably
have been a disaster, or at least required much more skill
and patience than I had at the moment. Bias tape, on the
other hand, worked beautifully and most of the remaining
unevennes disappeared with pressing.
After finishing most of the binding I closed the sleeve
seams. On the top of the sleeve which was left unlined I
pressed the seams open and turned the seam allowances under.
I ironed the seam line on the silk and sewed it by hand so
that the stitches caught the seam allowances of the wool and
thus kept it in place. Then I worked the remaining bits of
the binding on the sleeve and side slits.
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As the wool was very soft, just sewing the gathering threads
on the sleevehead reduced it with exatctly the 2cm needed.
Even the shoulder seam mark ended up in the right place.
Thus setting the sleeve was, for once, pure pleasure. I
pressed the seam allowances on the bodice into a flat felled
seam, which, though curved, settled beautifully on the soft
material.
Then the one thing left was to sew on the nice and shiny
pewter buttons, that also came from Tippet.fi,
as did the pewter decorations and the buckle on the belt
too. They bring a nice bit of bling on the dark outfit.
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I also made a pair of red woollen hose to wear with the
gown. As the gown is so long I could make them separate,
without troublesome lacings and only fastened at the center
front.
Houppelande turned out very nice in the spirit of
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. It's also very
comfortable, and has become one of Jarno's favorite period
clothes. The rich red silk and the pewter buttons look their
best on candlelight, and thus this outfit is a must for a
feast.
Many thanks for the photoshoot location: Finlands National
board of Antiquities /
Häme Castle
The shoes are made by Lauri Niskanen. Many thanks for
completing the outfit!
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