All posts filed under: Sewing

Things I sew – historical and modern

14th century dress construction: fitting thoughts

Published by The Dreamstress

In addition to having finished the buttons for it, I’ve got my 1370ish medieval gown all sewn together: Actually, it’s been sewn together for almost two weeks now, but I’ve been busy working and making class samples (one seen in the photo with me) and having events and generally living life, and haven’t been able to do much work on it. To sew it, I cut a linen lining for the bodice (using a great piece of vintage linen with very little give), flat lined the bodice sections, and sewed the dress together. I’m doing all the main seaming with machine sewing, because between winter chillblains and arm stress extensive hand-sewing will just be too painful this time of year.  I know it won’t be totally historically accurate this way, but I also know even if I did hand sew it probably wouldn’t be totally historically accurate anyway. I’m thinking of this as a learning garment — a working toile if you will. I know I won’t get it all right, but I also know …

Making Medieval cloth buttons

Published by The Dreamstress

When I starting doing research on a medieval gown one of the things I really knew I wanted was buttoned sleeves. But the buttons? Those terrified me. Obviously they were little circles with the raw edges tucked inside, but I was sure making them would be a bit of a nightmare: very fiddly, and impossible to get even and solid. But when I mentioned that I was worried about buttons, Sarah directed me to her tutorial on Som Når Det Begav Sig.  It’s in Swedish, but there are photos which make it self explanatory (and Google translate when it isn’t), and links to sources and other tutorials at the bottom. I ended up using a mix of Sarah’s tutorial and The Medieval Tailors tutorial. My buttons don’t look as exquisitely tidy as Sarah’s as I make them, but my fabric is much thicker than the fabric the Medieval tailor is using, and I found that using a strict interpretation of his tutorial only worked if I was making much bigger buttons. And I want really little …

Draping and cutting a 14th century gown

Published by The Dreamstress

As I mentioned in the HSM ‘Out of Your Comfort Zone’ post, my challenge for this challenge is medieval: specifically a gown (kirtle) from the last quarter of the 14th century. I’ve never made a medieval gown before, and my only dabble in medieval has been a shift (and really, a medieval shift is hardly different from an 18th c shift).  So this is a totally new period for me, and definitely out of my comfort zone. To help, I’ve been relying on the following books: Crowfoot, E., Pritchard, F. & Stainland, K. Textiles and Clothing c.1150-c.1450. Great Britain: Boydell Press,  2001 Thursfield, S. 2001. The Medieval’s Tailor’s Assitant – Making Common Garments 1200-1500. Bedford: Ruth Bean Publishers, 2001 And the following websites: Costly Thy Habit La Cotte Simple Som När Det Begav Sig (no, I can’t read Swedish, but google translate is a wonderful thing) Some Clothing of the Middle Ages The Battle of Whitsby, 1361-2013 The Medieval Tailor And a fair amount of messaging Sarah of A Most Peculiar Mademoiselle (and Som När …