The Dreamstress

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At last, a first layer to my medieval ensemble (HSM 2017 Challenge #1)

I’ve been terribly backwards with my medieval sewing, making the gown, veil, belt and circlet, but not a proper shift (the nettle shift doesn’t really count).

It was so easy to skip the shift when I could get away with using one of my 18th c shifts, but the problem with using 18th c shifts is that they have 3/4 length sleeves, which get caught beneath the long medieval sleeves, and make a horribly bulky line on your arm.

So a medieval shift was a must, and I’ve actually been working on one for over a year, doing bits of hand-sewing whenever I had a plane ride or a lecture to attend. This shift didn’t make either long trip to the US, as it had too little left to do to, and would have ended up done, and useless weight in my luggage, far too soon.

But it did get finished over New Years, though when I tried it on in preparation for the Levin Medieval Market, the neckline was a bit high, so I had to cut it down and re-do it.

But now, it’s finished, and I finally have a medieval shift:

I know. This has got to rate as the most boring thing I’ve photographed yet. Even worse than the not-exciting petticoat.

The only thing slightly interesting about this shift is that, because it was sewn mostly on airplanes, and I didn’t have a lot of space to figure out exactly what was going on without seriously annoying my seatmates, the seams are all sewn in different directions, with half of them being flat felled to one side, and half to the other, leaving no proper ‘right’s side to the shift.

I even managed to hem the sleeves and hem to one side of the fabric, and the neck to the other. Le sigh.

(and yes, it has been worn, and hasn’t yet been washed, so it has slight grubbiness where the cuffs showed, and the red of my gown rubbed off under the arms).

But, it was very comfortable to wear all day in summer heat, and provided a nice cool layer beneath the wool of my dress.

Next time I’ll make the sleeves a bit narrower, and try to get the seams all facing the right way, but for now, I’m very happy with my shift.

What the item is: a 14th c medieval shift

The Challenge: #1 First & Lasts – the first layer of a Medieval outfit, and the last to be made

Fabric/Materials: 2m of lightweight linen (around $15pm, as I would have bought it on sale)

Pattern: None, just using basic geometry to make a standard shift pattern.

Year: Anywhere from around 1200-1430, but I’m using it for ca. 1369

Notions: silk thread

How historically accurate is it? Unfortunately I didn’t take research notes on it, and it took so long to make I can’t remember how accurate my pattern was, or if I just did a quick adaption from 18th c, so it’s hard to determine. The fabric, construction methods, and stitching are all documented.

Hours to complete: 12, but all of it quite leisurely

First worn: For the Levin Medieval Market, 11 Feb

Since we didn’t have a proper one, and since this may rank as the least interesting post I’ve ever written, it’s going to serve as the link post for the HSM 2017 Firsts and Lasts challenge, so that at least if my shift isn’t enthrallingly interesting, you can go down to the comments and find links to other people’s far more interesting projects!

So, if you did make something for Challenge #1, please leave a comment with a link, so we can go admire your make!

Rate the Dress: 1870s Japonisme swags & sparkle

Published by The Dreamstress

I truly never know what you will make of a dress! I thought that last week’s sheer red aerophane number would be just too wacky. The 1820s are such a wacky era to start with, and this was a particularly out-there example. But, while it only managed one 10, the overall reaction was very enthusiastic. A few of you couldn’t get past the part where our modern mind screams ‘but her undergarments are showing!’ (trust me, that’s not how it would have been seen in period – I think I’m clearly due up to do a whole post about that!), but despite that (I know, it is so hard to stop looking at things from a modern perspective, and try to imagine it in period, I catch myself doing it all the time – like the way I hate fringe 😉 ) it came in at an eminently respectable (heh heh) 7.8 out of 10.

This week I’m staying within the same general colour scheme, and sticking to a fabric with a similar shot effect.

Day Dress, American, Martha J. De La Mater, c. 1876; The Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY N0129.1966

This afternoon or reception dress by New York based dressmaker Martha J de la Mater combines chrysanthemum patterned silk brocade, russet brown shot silk taffeta, bead fringing, and fanciful, almost theatrical, even for the 1870s, skirt draping.

Day Dress, American, Martha J. De La Mater, c. 1876; The Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY N0129.1966

The chrysanthemum patterned silk brocade shows the influence of Japononisme, quickly becoming popular in the wake of Japans opening its borders to the West after centuries of enforced isolation. Japanese goods and artwork had been trickling into the West since Commodore Perry and the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, and were prominently featured at the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia, setting off a huge craze for all things Japanese in America.

Day Dress, American, Martha J. De La Mater, c. 1876; The Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY N0129.1966

The dress isn’t quite complete, as it’s clearly missing its buttons, and would have benefited from a bit more in the way of skirt supports, but hopefully you can look past these to envision it in its prime.

Day Dress, American, Martha J. De La Mater, c. 1876; The Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY N0129.1966

What do you think? A gorgeous showcase of how up-to-date the wearer was, or a misplaced mania for the newest fad?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

The Levin Medieval Market

Published by The Dreamstress

There aren’t a lot of historical costuming events in New Zealand, and one that I’ve never managed to get to is the annual Levin Medieval Market. Levin is only an hour and a half up the coast from Wellington, and I (finally) had the weekend free this year, so I decided it was time to go.

I put the word out to friends, and not only did Hvitr & Madame O put their hands up, Hvitr already had a 10th c Viking outfit, and Madame O committed to making a 1360s ensemble like mine if I’d help her with the pattern. Juliet came down from Palmy, and we four went to the fair!

Very conveniently, Juliet’s parents live in Levin, so we Wellington girls headed off just past 7am (gah), drove up, met Juliet there, got dressed, and then headed out

I was warned ahead of time not to get too excited about how medieval the day would be: I was told to expect standard market fair with the Order of the Boar doing fighting demonstrations and a few other re-enactors.

I’m really glad I had the warning, because it was very true. It was a few reenactors, maybe 15 stalls with any real relation or attempt to be anything medieval, 30 stalls with handmade things ranging from fabulous to twee, and another 30 stalls selling imported tat. And two stalls with plants that Juliet and I drooled over but couldn’t buy for reasons of practicality.

There weren’t really any reenactors doing anything but battle-y stuff either, which was quite sad. I would have loved to have seen a tent about food, or textiles and clothing. (Psst, if anyone involved is reading this, if you’ll give us a tent or pavilion space like the one the musicians have down below, I’ll show up with 3-4 other people in 14th c dress and we’ll sit and sew and do clothing and sewing demonstrations all day! We could probably even wrangle some food historians to talk about our lunch.)

Much to my surprise, our group had the most accurate medieval clothing of all the women I saw. We ran into one person I know could have beaten us, but she’d worn her old first attempt for reasons of practicality. We were all reasonable beginners in the era, so I was hoping for some really polished, impressive outfits, but alas, either everyone else focuses on other things, or they had all decided to save their outfits for a less hot day.

Even more to my surprise, we didn’t get asked questions about our outfits, or asked for photographs! There weren’t many people dressed up, but I’ve still never felt more anonymous in period attire. It was lovely, but very odd. (I did have a tiny run-in with a costume snark (wearing totally modern cheap polyester clothes, natch) who sniffed because my outfit wasn’t entirely hand-sewn while I was chatting to a Morris dancer about how we were handling the heat while standing in line for the loo. She then proceeded to declare that the Morris dancers outfit wasn’t right either. C’est la vie!)

So now, the day in photos!

One of my favourite stalls was a blacksmith who travelled around in his own caravan-house, with a portable forge, and…

…wait for it…

…his pet chickens!

The chooks got let out of their coop at the market, and just wandered around, foraging in the very nice grass, and being adorable.

We had lunch very near their stall, so we threw them a few bits from our picnic.

We brought a full picnic, because while there were food stalls I (wisely) distrusted that they would have eats I would be enthusiast about.

We packed nice cheeses and breads and swamp dragon eggs (green and scaly with big hard round yokes) and fire dragon eggs (green and stripey and bright pinky-red inside) and rhubarb and ginger cordial, and Hvitr got ambitious and made delicious venison pies from a Medieval recipe:

Yum, yum!

Madame O bought amazing antique loom drops from when NZ had a larger textile production industry:

I desperately wanted some (of course!) but couldn’t think what I would do with them. As soon as I got home I realised I could have used them to make a really neat coat-hanging rack for our entry, which we really need! Gah!

Juliet admired beautiful NZ made wool blankets (but it was too hot for them to be really appealing):

And both Juliet & I bought beautiful hand-whittled wooden spoons from a maker who was sitting there whittling as he sold. We noticed them early in the day but decided we would come back for them later, and when we did we found the ones we wanted, with spiral handles, had already sold. Alas!

Maker to the rescue: he took the ones we liked best, and quickly whittled in some spirals for us! Now we have gorgeous spoons (mine is heading to my parents in Hawaii) and a great story!

The best part of the market was after lunch, when the events had died down a bit, when we discovered that the horses from the medieval horseback demonstrations were just chilling in little stalls, and we could go pet and cuddle them:

The other best part was after the market, when we hung out in Juliet’s mum’s much cooler garden and took pretty pictures:

We have decided that the day was wonderfully fun, but next time we’re just going to have our own picnic, so we can get up at a more civilised hour, and pick a cooler location (where we don’t have to walk to the carpark).

And I have decided that wimples are where it’s at, because I forgot to apply sunscreen to my chest and got a rather nasty sunburn. Ouch!