frualeydis | Entries tagged with 13th century

I was too busy to take many photos at Drachenwald's Autumn Crown in the Netherlands: the first in person event since March 2020, the first since I got better from my exhaustion, me entering the tourney with my dear frend Sir Måns, the long delayed elevations of the lovely Baroness Anna von Syveken and Baroness Magdalena Grace Vane to the Order of the Pelican and the Laurel respectively... well the list is long.

And their was such an elevated sense of joy throughout the whole event - when we finally got to see each other in person again.

So, here we go. For the tournament I chose not to mach Sir Måns 16th century waffenrock, that I just had made, but to go for as romantic as you can get: 12th century, in my green wool bliaut. I also wore my husband's wool cloak, lined in silk. I had braided my hair with red wool yarn, to make longer braids, and sewed brass points to them I made thos braid ends in 1998, but haven't actually used them at an event. They're very basic, just sheet brass with a simple pattern made by a needle and cut and folded to a cone. I really should make new and prettier ones.

The coronet is made by Johanna Lawrence

Sir Måns and I actually got to the finals, and I nearly fainted while we watched the fight then.

The finals was against Count Morales, and this photo is from when they met earlier in the tourney.

After the tourney I changed to my very comfy silk brocade gown, as did sir Måns. These were our investiture outfits when we became baron and baroness of Gotvik in 2016, and we thought it wise to be prepared with matching outfits, just in case ;)

At this event I also received a beatiful scroll for an award that I got in May, in an online court. It is for the Orden des Lindquistringes, a Dracehnwald award for service.

It was made by Lord Maredudd ap Gwylim, and is based on a late 12th-early 13th century manuscript.

In all a wonderful weekend, well worth the two whole days travelling there and two whole days travelling home.

Now I really need to start working ;)

Around 20 years ago we, the members of the medieval group Nylöse, had the idea to organize a 13th century Spanish event. It really was the perfect period for our interests: there's preserved music in the form of Alfonso X El Sabio's Cantigas de Santa Maria, and we had an active choir, Alfonso X also made a book of games and we had many enthusiastic board gamers, there is plenty of iconographic sources for the clothing, AND very well preserved clothing from the same time, which makes us clothes nerds really happy, and finally: there are preserved collections of recipes, and we all also liked period cooking.

However, for one reason or another this never happened. One of us made Spanish clothes, and that was that. I was working on my PhD, and there were so many other interesting things to do.

But this year, I don't really know why, I actually started on 13th century Spanish clothes.

My original plan was to make a saya encordata from blue silk that I bought with a gift card that I got for my 50th birthday from my friend Anna. That was in autumn 2019, so the fabric has been there for a while ;)
In January this year I finally got around to it. I think the thign that got me going was that I and a friend were ordering fabric from puresilks.us (I needed thin white silk for a regency petticoat), and when we had made teh order they didn't have any of the fabric and I had to either cancel or change the order, and with the situation being as it was (and is) in India I didn't want to cancel the order. So after a lot of discussion I bought striped silk for the pellote, the Spanish version of the sideless surcoat. And when I had that I finally got the motivation to start.

I started with the pellote, because it isn't very fitted, and my brain is still very much not recovered from my exhaustion.

Here it is, worn with a jersey dress of my own making ;)

Then I started on the shift, which, if you're fashionable/rich enough should have embroidery on the sleeves and around the neck.
I use aida for guidance, I do not see well enough to count the threads on fine linen, nor do I have the patience for it.

The next step was the so-called saya encordata, the laced saya, which is the red garment in the illumination above. Being still a bit wary about using the silk for my first try, and havign been really tmepted by this striped wool from Göteborgs Textil for years, I made a first version in striped wool. The 13th century Spanish people loved stripes, and so do I.

It wasa little tricky matching the stripes between teh straight front and back pieces and the gores, but in the end I did it from the right side, with small whip stitches, and I am very happy with it.

It does the job of keeping the bust in place admirably.

As you can see I have also made a veru Spanish headwear from the 13th and early 14th century. It is a 4 metres long strip of cotton fabric with 20 metres of cotton tape pleated on with box pleats. I should probably have gathere d it instead, but it so much easier to get the figure 8s if you box pleat the tape. Next time I will gather it. The 8s should also be smaller ideally. But it was my first trial.

You can see what I am aiming for in this Spanish sculpture.

I don't want it quite that high though, there are plenty of examples which are lower, but this one shows the construction so nicely.

Anyway, I am working on the lacing for the silk version, so any day now I will have the full outfit finished. If I'm not distracted by making modern clothes - I made a new pair of shorts yesterday.

So, I've been busy with lots of stuff, but I have done at least one thing that I would have done at Double Wars every day, and here are some photos to prove it :)

Tuesday the 19th

This day I enjoyed one of my favourite pasttimes in the current middle ages, as it is called in the SCA: hanging out in my underwear :)

There is nothing as nice as hanging out in your hand sewn linen shift; before getting dressed in the morning, as in this case, I hadn't even rebraided my hair, or after a swim or shower, or a hot day in your wool gown.

Wednesday the 20th

I had breakfast on the balcony in my shift this day too, but you've already seen that.

This day there was a zoom event, the online version of the traditional Double wars Sill(y) party. Sill means herring in Swedish, so people had prepared with pickled herring and other food and drink. I don't like herring, so I just hung out with some tea and embroidery. I am wearing my cotton Italian c. 1300 gown.

Afterwards I put on a woollen cloak and sat on my balcony, enjoying the spring evening. The blackbirds were singing like crazy, and if it hadn't been for the sound of motorway in the distance and my neighbours smoking on their balconies, and someone playing techno somewhere I could have imagined myself at a camping event.

Thursday the 21st

A very typical Double Wars thing, is the lavish, and not particularly medieval brunch that you can order in advance, when you sign up for the event.

On thursday morning I made a smaller version of this for the family: Rice porridge, bacon, American pancakes. And hoummus, which isn't part of the traditional Double Wras breakfast, but which I had made for a Lebanese meal some days ago.

Then, since I am participating in Medieval May on instagram and that day's theme was luxury, we can say that I got dressed for court ;) 13th-early 14th century silk brocade gown.

What I really did that day was to walk 10 kilometres and meet my best friend and then get thoroughly sloshed on prosecco in the sun, which is a very Double Wars thing (without the walking), and then I walked the same distance home, late in the night.

Friday the 22nd

Well, I was mostly hung over, but I worked on the embroidery for my 12th century wool gown, and actually got to attach it to the gown.
The embroidery is silk thread, metal thread and glass beads on silk.

My presentation at the IMC was about clothing and textiles in six courtly romances translated to Norwegian and Swedish in the early to mid-13th and early 14th century respectively. One of these, the so-called Möttuls saga was probably based on the Old French Le Cort Mantel, and was adapted into Old Norse by a cleric known as Brother Robert, probably of Anglo-Norman origin, for King Haakon IV of Norway (1217–1263).

The Norse text can be found in its entirety here.

The tale is about a wondrous cloak which tests the fidelity and virtue of the woman who wears it, and the story in the Norse version is rather comic and somewhat bawdy. The cloak is very beautiful; made from red silk and is gold embroidered all over with leaves. it is held together with cloak ties and if the woman wearing it is virtuous, it should reach all the way to the floor. A man brings the cloak to the court of King Arthur and demands that all women at court should try it on.

Unsurprisingly all but one of the women at King Arthur's court fall short in this test; the cloak is eithr too short or too long, and often both at the same time, indicating, according to the tale, in which position the woman had been unfaithful.

So much about the story, but when I worked with this material I felt a very strong urge to have such a cloak, though without the magic. Silk cloaks are not unheard of in medieval Scandinavia, I found three in Norwegian wills when I did my PhD dissertation:

* One, from 1349, is made from blue silk and has skillmala, an unidentified type of ornament.

* One, from 1353, has no mention of colour, but was lined with ermine and edged with sable and also had lade, a word that means woven or embroidered trim.

* The latest one, from 1366 was green, lined and edged with ermine and had gold ornaments, These were probably cloak clasps, since bezants, the metal ornaments so common in medieval fashion were usually silver or gilt silver.

Cloaks from this period were semi-circular - one such cloak was found during excavations in the church of Leksand in Sweden. The cloak, which is dated to the 12th or 13th century, was made from a diamond twill wool and had a border of woven trim along the straight edge of the semi-circle. This cloak was probably long enough to reach to the wearer’s feet in the back. Marc Carlson has a page about it, which shows an estimation of the cut, and more information can be found in Margareta Nockert's article ’Textilfynden’, in Tusen år på Kyrkudden, red. Birgitta Dandanell, Falun 1982.

As I wrote in my last post I looked around for reasonably priced silk when I was in London, but I didn't find any in a colour I liked. However, this week I passed the town of Borås, known for its textile trade, on my way to a friend's 50th birthday celebration, and there, at a shop called Furulunds, I found a gorgeous raspbetty red silk. The photo does NOT make it justice.

A little more than one year ago, when Contessa Isabetta del Verde was queen of Drachenwald, she founded the Society of the Golden Egg. The Society of the Golden Egg is a challenge household for the arts and sciences in the Kingdom of Drachenwald, within the Society for Creative Anachronism.

This is the web page of the society, which will tell you much more, including ongoing projects. Members of the household are either in the process of making their challenge or have finished their challenges, after which you remain a member of the household for three years. After that you will have to make another challenge if you want to stay.

There are currently eight challengers, and I am one of them.

I liked the idea of the society from the start, but since I research and make stuff all the time I wasn't sure if I needed this/it was for me. Especially since even the largest projects, such as Valeria's Eleonora di Toldeo gown, tend to be finished much quicker than in a year.

But then I found this, which if we take into account the fact that I have started working 75 % instead of 50 % probably will take a year - at least if I include research, blogging about it and making an article. It really is the perfect project for me:

A quilted auqueton from 13th century France

A Golden Egg challenge by Aleydis van Vilvoorde

The project is to research and recreate the auqueton of St.Isabelle of France, the sister of St. Louis, who lived 1224-1270. While St. Isabelle did become a saint the garment in question is not a religious habit, but a secular garment worn for warmth, and a rather fashionable one too, since quilted garments had recently become popular under the influence of muslim manners of dress. The garment has its name from the Arabic al coton. While fashionable it was not only a high-status garment; quilted garments made from linen or half cotton/linen and with cotton wadding were made as ready-to-wear, at least in Italy, in the period and since the materials were relatively cheap (and labour very cheap in the Middle Ages), they were actually a cheaper alternative to wool garments to keep warm.

When making it I will be using the correct materials and with period sewing techniques but make the garment in a size that fits me. The aqueton will also act as the focus for wider research on quilted non-military garments in medieval Europe. Included in the challenge is that I will blog about the research, tests and finished results. I will also write at least one article on the subject for Dragon’s tale and present the finished aqueton and the research on a web page at my blog.

The project is a challenge in several ways: I have never quilted a garment before, so I will learn new skills. Patterning for a quilted fabric will be an interesting challenge which will mean making samplers to see how much the fabric shrinks from being quilted. it will also be a challenge to make all that hand quilting in less than a year. My goal is to finish the challenge so that I can present it at Double Wars 2019.

To sum it up why it is perfect for me:

• It is from one of the time periods I mainly make and wear.

• It’s a preserved garment

• It involves the new fashions for quilted clothing, and cotton, which is something I am very

interested in researching further.

• It will provide opportunity to continue my research in the field of cotton and quilted clothing of

the high Middle Ages.

• It is rarely done, the reconstruction of Sihame Cornetet linked to below, being the only example

that I have found.

• It will be a challenge to make all that hand quilting in less than a year, and I need something to

push me.

• It is a practical garment to keep warm. Though wool I does this admirably, so this is the least

concern.

I have started on the research: The garment is one of those included in the recent book by Elizabeth Coatsworth and Gale R. Owen-Crocker: Clothing the past: surviving garments from early medieval to early modern western Europe. I have also studied Sihame Cornetet's analysis from her blog. There you find many interesting photos and information, and she has also has begun a reconstruction.

Apart from reading my first step was to make a test quilt, to see how much the fabric would shrink from quilting.

Yesterday, during the sewigng meeting that I host for the barony of Gotvik every other week I took some linen scraps of the approximate weight that I am going to use and I measured and marked a rectangle on it.

The cotton batting is spread very thinly, just like the original. When I make the actual pieces I will probably comb it to make it a little more even though.

I then quilted it with waxed linen thread, using running stitches. The finished piece is still flexible, due to the thinness of the cotton wadding, and it didn't shrink noticably.

The next step is finding if there are any older publications in French about this garment and if possible hunt them down. Actually starting on the quilting will have to wait until next salary, because I have bought quite enough fabric this month already.

So instead I cut out and started on the short sleeved linen shift that I mentioned in my precious post.

The other challenges include cooking, brewing, clothing reconstruction, spinning and weaving and lace making - you can read about them here.

There is also a facebook group for the Society, which will keep you updated about what is happening with the various challenges.

I ran out of hand sewing at our sewing meeting on Thursday (after putting snaps in the doll spencers and taking in a knitted cardigan that was too big for me. So I started on my late 13th-early 14th century Italian cotton gown. And since I am a very fast hand sewer, and I had some time for sewing at the Yule party, it was finished this morning. AND Rickard had the time to take photos before leaving for work - he works 2 pm to 10.20 pm Saturday and Sunday every other weekend.

Here's a link to the page about it.

Lots more photos there, and discussion about sources.

Today I have also finished a "net" caul made of metal braid for Valeria's Eleonora di Toledo outfit, I will probably start on the matching partlet tomorrow. Unless I have gotten some more yarn then and can finish my stepdad's christmas present. The are a priority.

I'm putting off posting about it on my strict costuming blog until I have made Måns' gown too, and have photos of us together, but Rickard took some photos of me today.

It's still shorter than I'd like it to be, mainly because brocade with metallic threads tend to be rather stiff and I didn't take that into account enough. But it's pretty.

Without belt

With belt

The inspiration. Of course I can't go without a veil, not at my age and general respectability ;)

Last week I started on my new mi-parti gown from blue and white brocade (shown in this post). To my surprise the direction of the pattern was different on the white and dark blue fabric, so I had to do some invisible piecing on the blue, to make it long enough. Unfortunately a lining the pattern made the whole thing a little shorter than I wanted. First I thought about piecing the fabric again, but then I decided to make a ca 4 inch (10 cm) wide strip of matching white and blue silk dupioni or taffeta, or something else that withstands being dragged at the floor better at the hem.
I'm going to go downtown today to get that fabric.

Yesterday I cut the sleeves and sleeve linings and sewed them to the body of the gown and it looks rather nice. Though the dark room makes funny stuff with colours and the flash likewise ;)

It's actually almost 4 metres (over 4 yards) wide at the hem, but it doesn't show well in the photos. I will put in the orange lining today, and hopefully also the silk strips at the hem. Then I can start on baron Måns' matching gown. I decided to not have any buttons on my sleeves, but he will need them to get his hands through the wrist openings, so I hope that they arrive soon(ish).

I re-made it! I'd better not get that weight back again now :)

The lighting is wonky, since it's dark both outside and inside now.

I've written a long blog post (or at least image heavy) on high waisted fashions of the late 13th century and the first half of the 14th century in Italy. I have also reached the conclusion that some of them actually must have very high waist seams. it doesn't fit with anything I have learned this far, but I can't explain away images like this.

Blog post.

Last Thursday I took the tram to another part of town to get mroe plywood, and now both boxes are finished:

( More photos )

On Sunday Rickard, Maja and I went to Gotvik's fighter practice before taking a walk through Gothenburg's biggest parking, catching pokémon. It was a glorius day and the trees and the leaves made me all giddy with their beauty.
The reason for the trip was, however, to deliver my 40-years present to Daniel, the baron: the pair of ermine patterned hand sewn linen braies:

Here modeled by Rickard. Info and documetnation can be found in my other blog.

Spring Crown was held at Rockelstad castle. The oldest parts of the castle are from the 17th century and it has a beautiful park by a lake. On their web page you can read about the history of the place and see more photos.

Me posing before the castle after breakfast, which was in the old brewing house by the lake. The yellow house is the old bowling alley.

( More )
I didn't take many photos. And actually Valeria took all the photos of me :)
But if you want more, which you certainly do, have a look at Jessica Granath's photo album on facebook. She took lots of photos both of the tourney and from inside the castle. The family still lives in it, but it was open for visitors one hour. I didn't get to see it then, because I was busy judging A&S comeptition entries, but I hope that we will have events there again.

I finished Baron Måns' tunic today. Since he's away doing RPG at GothCon, and I wouldn't ask him to come here an model besides - I'll get photos next weekend when we wear it - I asked Valeria to do some modeling:

She's bout seven centimetres shorter and has both narrower shoulders and shorter arms, but you get the general idea :)

The tunic is split at the front and back. I had intended to only do one band of embroidery, like on my gown, but some research revealed that if they had a border it was at the hem, around the neck and sleeves. I wrote about it here. So it took a little longer to make than my gown.

Sine I last updated I have finished most of the embroidery on Måns' matching, split wool tunic. What remains now is the sleeves and I count on finishing them next week.

I have also started on a dress for my friend Caroline's traditional "Blåkulla-party" on Thursday next week. According to Swedish folklore witches flies to a hill/mointain called Blåkulla on Maundy Thursday or Holy Saturday, depnedign on which part of the country you come from. Here in the southwest it's really Holy Saturday, but Thursday fits better for a party. It's not a pagan party, more a reaction to wiccans and witches always getting questions about what we/they do at Easter, because of the abovementioned folk tradition. So we explain that it's a Christian holiday nad has nothing to do with us. But, since no pagan traditions celebrate Easter and people are still (usually) free from work on Good Friday it is an excellent time to hold a mixed pagan/occultist/juste generally interested party with the folk traditions as inspiration.

It's from red cotton muslin that I bought cheaply when I was in London last tiem and I have used a cut out template to decorate it with stags, owls, acorns, pine cones and oak leaves in gold and silver textile paint. Then I made flowers and feathers and stars and spirlas with glittery paint. It is rather boring work, but listened to Harry Potter on audio book while doing it. Fixing the paint is of course even more boring, since every motif has to be ironed for five minutes, but I usually bring a book and sit down on the bed next to the ironing board when I do thigns like that. I have already done the bodice and sleeve parts,so "only" the skirt pieces remain.

I probably ought to work, because I have deadlines on one article and got the peer review back on another one, but I knwo that I won't make it through next week of work if I don't rest during the weekend. Especially since we celebrate the Vernal Equinox tomorrow, which is fun, but takes physical energy.

The weather is nice and sunny, so I think I'm going to sit down on the balcony and have some tea and start on that embroidery.

I have written one blog post about 13th century women's headwear since last time, it's here.

I have also fixed four rather ugly cheap porcelain dolls that I bought on flea markets when Valeria and Vendela were little. They're much better now, but need new clothes.

Now you can find a page bout the embroidered gown here.

And this evening I will cut out Mån's matching gown. Wool, embroidered with cotton - it was impossible for me to get hold of a suitable silk yarn within resonable time. I comfort myself with the fact that there was cotton in Europe in the Middle Ages, though not very common.

I will make a page about it with documentation and more photos in my costume blog later. I've written about my striped and lined veil there previously.

My friend Alfhild took really good photos from the event. I also took some of my faminly. Here you are!

Alfhild's:
Me and Måns swearing on the baronial coronets:

( More )

Mine/my family's:

Lady Elisabetj tablet weaving:

( More )

So, for the ceremony I was bare headedand since my only reaches just below my shoulders I invested in som fake hair (the kind you clip in).Again, I hop Alfhild has many pretty pictures, these were taken in the basement with our rather crappy camera.

Looking happy with the princess.

I'm home form the event. Maja wanted to leave just after the feast and I was tired. My friend Alfhild de Foxley took good photos of us, and tomorrow I wil hopefully get some of them. But here's one, after the ceremony, before the feast. In the basement, where we slept.

I really want to blog aboput all the things that I have made for the investiture and so on, but I can't since it's a secret until then. But then I realized that no-one on my friends' list is going to be theer, so i can show stuff here:

Måns and I will have matching 13th century outfits. this is mine. Indian silk brocade.

scrolls for the previous baron and baroness: The order of the Ancient Dolphin (fro retired barons and baronesses)

A wool pouch with an applied wool fleur de lis and silk lining. I am making opouches liek this for the two male autocrats, and the female autocrat plus the two head cooks will get purses from the same brocade as we have in our tunics. I'm not being gender stereotypcal here, but going on what I think that they will actually use. The models will also be adapted to the time periods they mostly wear.

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frualeydis

Evas historical costuming blog

November 2021

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Eva's journal

I take pleasure in many things

Entries tagged with 13th century

Navigation

Drachenwald's crown Tourney

13th century Spanish fashion

More from my Double wars at home.

The tale of the Mantle

SCA: The start of a Society of the Golden Egg challenge

A new medieval cotton gown

The mi-parti gown is finished

My mi-parti gown, some progress

Re-made shiny 13th century gown

High waisted fashions in 14th century Italy

Boxes and braies

Spring Crown photos

The embroidered man's tunic is finished

Doing stuff

Documentation and discussion

My embroidered 13th century gown is finished

Some good photos from the event

My "new" hair

A first photo

Secrets, secrets