The Woes of Bag Lining.

I usually don't bag line. And this gown demonstrates exactly why. 

This gown was my Griffin Needle Challenge projet, and was rushed through due to the nature of a 2 day sleepless garb sewing challenge, and then sat in a basket for a few months, because life. 

Theses photos are the sleeves which were bag lining and sewn closed without any hanging or pad stitches. The lining stretch vertically over 4", and also a significant horizontal stretch.  Also because it was only one line of stitches, and fraying occurred in the inside, some of the seams blew out, just sitting in a basket. I pretty much have to take apart the sleeves to fix it. 

Did I mention that its HOURS of hand sewn work to rip apart? Sigh. 

This set of photos are of the seam and hem finishing  on the areas that were flat lined and allowed to stretch freely before the hem was cut. There is only minor bits of the lining puckering and it's smooth at the hem. Adding in a few invisible pad stitches should keep it that way. I flat felled the seams to fully encase raw edges, and have a second row of stitches, meant zero fraying or blow outs of the  seams.

Also a photo of my "helper"

And a couple in progress photos!

Planning a houppelande, the details! Embroidery musings and Linings.

An Orphrey from 15th century France. MET 

So in my previous post, I laid out a basic idea for a Houppelande that been bouncing around my head for years. 

This fabric I bought for it was purchased years ago, because it was silk velvet and a period pattern. However with the research I've done since, I recognize how blatantly modern the treatment of the gold flocking is, and was originally considering doing an all over embroidery to push it into a more medieval aesthetic. 

**UPDATE** I've chosen a new fabric I'm only going to be embroidering sleeves, one or both given the time frame I have to go on.

This is due to the time involved, delay with new fabric arriving and the fact that I can easily document one or both sleeves being embroidered, along with some possible epaulds, dagging and/or tassels. Although this a bit more of a masculine stylization, In period the patterning and drape of this garment would have been the same for either sex, but masculine garments tended to be more decorative. 

I'm purposely choosing a more masculine decorative style for this project because It helps highlight my skills, my knowledge of the grandeur that this garment would have had in period. Especially given the new fabric lacks any decorative elements. And it's extra shiny!

For this particular Embroidery project I am referencing this post on Embroidery for this period from the cottesimple, in addition to looking at extant embroidery textiles. 

Here is a Pinterest board of extant embroidery are artwork depictions. 

And a second focused more on the 14th and 15th centuries.

I've chosen this piece for my inspiration. I wanted something that was Gold work, clearly French, not overly religious and early 15th century, ignoring the figures, it is also something simple enough and can easily be done within my current skill level, resources and time frame. 

But doing an embroidery directly on a garment takes special consideration in the planning process.

An intresting tidbit concerning the Paris embroidery workshops-

The guild regulations for embroiderers in Paris

Fashion Fabric Lining

*Update* even with the change in embroidery I'm still planning on lining it. 

Most my previous embroidery has been done on finished and unlined projects. For this project I simply don't want the embroidery to go through a lining, it's messy and needs to be protected.

So I have to consider how I'm lining it. (Not the removeable fur lining) In order to embroider the garment finished, I would have to bag line the garment. 

The problem with bag lining that I've experienced is that it's not as sturdy. The lining is a lightweight fabric, acting almost as a separate garment, and often seam allowances are unfinished. That tends to not handle the pressure on the seams as well, which means it tears. And to repair the seams means taking an entire garment apart. This could be helped by completely finishing the seam allowances, and adding pad stitching, but is a time consuming process that doesn't solve most of the problems. Because of the difference in fabric weight and stretch a bag lining always ends up wrinkling, at points where it is pad stitched, and major stretch at the hem. Not to mention pad stitching just dosen't look as nice as a seamless lining and I don't like the texture of it.

However, in my experience, flat lining is a lot sturdier. Because the lining and fashion fabric are treated as one fabric during seaming, and then flat felling the seam allowances, creates two lines of stitching that allows the lining to share pressure with the fashion fabric, adding strength. The seam allowances ends up completely encased, without much chance to fray. The lining also dosen't stretch as much, and rarely needs pad stitching. If a seam blows out, then the repair is much simpler. Flat lining is simply is less work also. 

 

I theorize that bag lining became a more popular choice for garments with the invention of the sewing machine. 

I also have the added problem is that modern silk velvet has a chiffon ground, that has no structure.

In such a large garment of silk velvet that has a lot of give and stretch, there is going to be a lot of pressure on the seams, and it's going to need a stabilizing interlining, I am choosing a lightweight 2.8oz linen for the interlining which will help the silk velvet behave and move more like period velvets, in addition to providing a stable ground for the embroidery. It has the added benefit of  reducing the amount of the vivid fashion color that will ghost through to achieve the snow white lining that was fashionable.

So this interlining will be flat lined and felled with the velvet for strength and integrity of the garment. 

I've chosen a simple white satin 12mm silk for the visible lining. It is comparable to silks in the inventories chosen for linings, and the simple white will not change the aesthetic of the houppelande if the fur lining is removed, while hiding any embroidery threads. Plus shiny satin was in vogue. 

One observation by Famiglietti stands out- In 1401 Duke Phillip ordered 102 gowns (Houppelandes) in green velvet lined with white satin for his son's wedding guests to wear. The two for the Duke and his Duchess were matching, each with one sleeve encrusted with jewels, and the other sleeve had their initials embroidered in crimson and encircled by foliage of Pearls. (Tales of the Medieval Marriage Bed 1300-1500, R.C. Famiglietti,  p65)

But, for this project I am currently only adding embroidery to one sleeve. But do plan to add more in the future. 

To keep the future embroidery backside mess hidden and protected, then I'll need access to the interlining. I have no choice to bag line the satin. The flat lined and felled interlining will be taking on the pressure of the garment so the satin will not be a strucural element. So despite the extra work of additional stiching I'd rather not have to take the gown entirely apart to add future embroidery. 

I'm going to use a needle point scroll frame that can turn the fabric, similar to the one pictured below. (Embroidery hoops are inconsistent and would damage the textile.)

I'll have to cut my fabric into the panels, which also happens to be consistent with narrow loom fabrics of the time, then mark the diagonals on the cutting pattern so I'm not going to be cutting through any embroidery. 

*Update* new fabric is narrower by 9" so now I have devised a new cutting pattern based on more period widths of fabric. 

For the fashion fabric, the lining, and the interlining for the fur, I'll be using this cutting diagram, and piecing the linings as necessary, pretty much ignoring the fact that half the fabric will lay upside down. It's period to do so, and even the extant garment I'm basing this pattern on has velvet panels with the nap changing directions. 

Look at the piecing on this extant velvet piece from the Cleveland Museum and the fact that the embroidery was clearly done after the piecing was. 

But with the fur, it's a different story. It's has a nap that *I* simply cannot ignore. 

Have you ever pet a furry pet backwards? It's not exactly the greatest, and with my sensory overload issues I cannot. So even though I'll be using plates, I'll also have to order extra plates and do a lot of disassembly and piecing to make it work. 

I'm still in the process of choosing the right fur for this project which will be another post!

Planning a new Houppelande, learning from the Past.

Giovanni Boccaccio, De Klaris of mulieribus, Traduction Guest of En français Livre Des fatal Noble and renommees. 

1403. Folio 78r

This is a long term Project that is still in the planning and gather phase, but I wanted to gather all my info in one place, and figured it might be helpful to other folks. 

I've made 3 separate Houppelandes in the past, and a Burgundian gown. 

My first one is here on my old blog. 

Way back in the "beginning" of my SCA adventure. Patterned linen, completely unlined, and based on a gore pattern to be extremely fabric frugal. It was probably created out 4 yards of wide fabric. 

Ironically at the time, I thought it was patterned very wrong because it wasn't a circle based pattern. And while it did have some pattern issues, I discovered with the documentation of the Prague houppelande, that I was actually on the right track with a gore based pattern. 

I also did a lot more research into the visual changes found, which can be found here. And a Houppelande Class Handout

So given this Prague Houppelande Documentation, and my new research I set out to make a new Houppelande.  

This particular Houppelande was a huge improvement! I was cotton velvet, with a wide guard to make up for the lack of velvet fabric. It lined in faux fur, to be closer to the information given on the Prague houppelande documentation. The pattern made the drape fall the right way, and I made a break though discovery for gore based sleeves. Unfortunately much of the process pics of this garment were lost. 

Upon this garment I went on to make a second one, this time for a friend, and it became an A&S entry for a competition, which I ended up wining for my division. Woot! 

The documentation for that Houppelande is here. 

Since that time, I've wanted to take the the lessons learned from the last two houppes, along with some more recent research into the inventories, silk trade, and fur usage to create another Houppelande. 

The kind of reproduction silk velvet I would prefer to use, just doesn't exist. Velvet at this time is just starting to be available in larger quantities, and is considered a very in vogue textile. Throughout the inventories you see formal court houppelandes listed as velvet, either woven or embroidered with gold. 

**Update** I've changed the fabric, 

See this post for my reasons why.

See this post for my geek about the new fabric. 

I've obtained some gorgeous silk/rayon velvet blend, 54" wide, with a gold foil motif that is a facsimile of a 15th century Ottoman motif.  

I found this fabric suitable in the drape, the base fabric content is silk, and rayon often used a modern substitute for silk. It's a crushed velvet, which is unfortunate, and not period, but the gold motif that is period makes up for it. And it came with enough yardage for such a project. It's also purple, which is the preferred color of the lady in one of my go to inventory entries.  

The original extant piece that this pattern clearly is representing. I might do a bit of embroidery to push my fabric closer to this period example.  

This manuscript image shows the Queen Isabeau in a houppelande of red and gold in a floral vine pattern similar to the fabric I have. 

15th century Venice textile- the MET

This is a green and gold silk produced in Venice Italy in the beginning of the 15th century, which has a very similar vine and floral pattern, that could have easily made it's way into France through the Italian trade guilds. Venice was also known for it's silk velvet production.

So, while not perfectly correct for my location, there are a few European silks of the time, creating a similar vine motif, and due to the lucrative textile trade, it's not unfeasible that something resembling this fabric could end up in Parisian Court. 

*Update* with the new fabric and more concise information about the width of period velvet and fur plate I've updated my pattern. See this post. 

I've laid out a cutting diagram, that will best utilize the fabric. Because I'm following a gore based pattern, and not prioritizing keeping the pattern direction vertical, (which is period, even seen on the Prague houppe) I need about 8 yards of this fabric, with a bit to spare, to figure out the collar, and the epaulets. 

 

The big thing with this gown, it that I'm going to be using real fur! I've used real fur in smaller projects, facings, hat, plastron, faux ermine blanket etc. but this will be my first time lining and entire garment in real fur. My partner in crime, at Lyon Fur, has the ability to obtain reasonably priced vair plates. 

I'm choosing to order these Black Vair plates, due to cost, solid color making it easier for piecing, and because there was a huge trend in the late 14th/early 15th century for black furs, so even though this particular fur is a less expensive form of vair, it still would have been considered fashionable for the court of Charles IV.

**Update** the sample plate we ordered was too stiff to pair with this particular fashion fabric,  would ruin the drape and would make it unsustainably heavy. Due to camera settings, and screen settings it turned out to be a dark redwerk instead of the black squirrel it initially looked like. We ordered a gris sample, considered minivair in conspicuous places, with a suitable redwerk in hidden areas, but ultimately decided to use ermine. Ermine yep! No tails, but ermine.

The plates measure 55cm x 115 cm, so if I laid them out just like the fabric, I'd need 14 plates, but fur is something that has a very obvious fur direction, so I'm going to order a few extra, 20 total, and going to have to piece several gore panels. luckily I have a modern fur machine on hand to help. I've not yet come up with a cutting diagram. 

One of the things we see referenced is that fur linings are often removeable, probably because they have separate cleaning needs, and because a furrier would have been a highly skilled profession. The inventories show that houppelandes tended to have their own dedicated fur lining.  So I am going to be interlining the fur with linen and pad stitching for stability, and basting the fur in.   

I am also considering lining the fashion velvet with a thin silk, so that it can still be period appropriate, and versatile when the fur lining is not being worn.  

*Update* I have seen enough evidence to support a silk satin lining, and so chose a white 12mm harborti silk for the lining. 

Church of Santa Maria in Piano (Loreto Aprutino, PE, Abruzzo - Italy). 

St. Ursula, fresco dating back to 1420 c. Houppelande with red (silk) lining.

The Flow Of Silk

The Roman Empire was pivotal in connecting the world, it founded trade routes from all corners of the Known world. Allowing for a steady flow of luxury goods, silks, spices, and knowledge to flow into western Europe. With the fall of Rome, much of that was lost, plunging western Europe into isolation. However Byzantine, the Levant, India, and eastern Asian cultures thrived, trade and preservation and building of knowledge continued. We find dye resist fabrics produced in India in both western Asia and Egypt in large quantities. 

7th century Byzantine

With the spread of Islam, a lot of this knowledge became more accessible to Western Europe. The Crusades organized by the catholic church seem to have a side effect, of exposing the goods and knowledge Western Europe was lacking. Which Knights then brought home, and showed their peers. Creating a larger demand for luxury foreign goods.  

Before the 13th century silk was rare, affordable only by the select nobility and the church. Extant examples of silk are small, such as trims, embroidered pieces, or that of the church or royalty. Most of which was made and imported from Iran, Byzantine, Mongolia and eastern Asia through the silk road. Often called Tartar cloths.

11^th Century: Silk serge an wool. Byzantine

Silk production was established in Italy in Lucca in the 12th century. which was a highly guarded secret which allowed for a monopoly to flourish. 

In the East, the Islamic Mongol conquest of the 13th century created trade opportunities. Trade routes in the Mediterranean thrived. Silk production was expanded in Spain, North Africa, Southern Italy, and the middle east. The sultanates encouraged the production of silks and trade, often inviting Italians merchants.

The Reconconisita of Spain also meant that Spanish Silk workshops were now under control of Christian rule and enveloped into Northern Europe trade.

Also durring the 13th century, due to Mariage alliances between French, Spanish and Italian royal households encouraged and the flow of Immigrants from silk producing regions to Paris, which became the center for foreign luxury goods in North western Europe. 

Addtionally, at this time a small industry of smaller silk goods began to be produced in Paris and other North Italian cities. By the end of the 13th century these places were able to produce small amounts garment quality silk. This was in addition to the large influx of foreign silk from Lucca and the east brought by the Italian merchants. 

Silk lampas with gilt. 13th century Spain

The Met Islamic textiles collection

The shake up in the economy after the Plague meant that skilled workers were less readily available and wages were higher. People also had more money after the plague, creating a higher demand for luxury goods. Since silk had less intensive labour costs, and luxury prices, it was a very lucrative market. 

Lucca had political strife and the guild system that tended margainalize silk workers, so highly skilled weavers were enticed with tax breaks and social incentives to other areas of Italy, Genoa, Milan, Venice, and Paris, creating competition, and so Italy, and Paris became flush with European produced silks. 

Cloth of gold, 13th century, Central Asia Yuan Dynasty

Cleveland Museum of Art

The French and English inventories I study show a steady increase in silk garments throughout the 14th century. By the end of the fourteenth century most prosperous folks had at least one garment made of silk. 

Late 14th century, Italy

Cleveland Museum of Art

This competition, along with the nobility's desire to set themselves apart, encouraged more variety and complexity. So started to break from the traditional roundels with animal figures to produce wild patterns, Arabic influences, tartar patterns, shot silk, velvets and in the early 15th century Florence, goldsmiths were employed to create cloth of gold.

late 15th century Polychrome Velvet,  Italy

To Protect the concept of nobility, Italy’s sumptuary laws stated that certain classes could only wear black silk, because black silk was a much more expensive dye process, making it out of the reach for most folks. But instead of curbing silk, It created a huge demand for black silk production, And people who travelled to Italy saw this sea of black and copied it, so that by 1400 Black silk became the in vogue colour to wear in Northern Europe. 

16th century Italy, silk velvet with multiple heights with gold and silver gilt

Further Reading-

6 Panni tartarici: Fortune, Use, and the Cultural Reception of Oriental Silks in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth-century European Mindset

Maria Ludovica Rosati

A Workshop Larger than a City: The Florentine Textile Manufacture, in Textiles and Wealth in 14th Century Florence. Wool, Silk, Painting, Exhibition Catalogue (Florence, 5 December 2017-18 March 2018), ed. by C. Hollberg, Florence, Giunti, 2017, pp. 64-73

Wool in 14th Century Florence: The Affirmation of an Important Luxury Production, in Textiles and Wealth in 14th Century Florence. Wool, Silk, Painting, Exhibition catalogue (Florence, 5 December 2017-18 March 2018), ed. by C. Hollberg, Florence, Giunti, 2017, pp. 42-51

The development of the Florentine silk industry: a positive response to the crisis of the fourteenth century, Sergio Tognetti 2005, Journal of Medieval History

Dressing the King and the Beggar: The Various Levels of the Textile Market and their Prices in Medieval Valencia (13th - 15th centuries), Juan Vicente García Marsilla

Ertl, Thomas, and Barbara Karl. Inventories of textiles - textiles in inventories: Studies on Late medieval and early modern material culture. V & R unipress, Vienna University Press, 2017.

Farmer, Sharon A. The Silk Industries of Medieval Paris: Artisanal migration, technological innovation, and gendered experience. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.

Ferrand, Guilhem, and Jean-Pierre Garcia. Les inventaires après décès de la Ville de Dijon À la fin du moyen age: 1390-1459. Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Midi, 2017.

Monnas, Lisa. Merchants, princes and painters: Silk fabrics in Italian and northern paintings, 1300-1550. New Haven Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008.

Monnas, Lisa. Renaissance velvets. London: V & A Publishing, 2012.

Newton, Stella Mary. Fashion in the age of the black prince a study of the years ; 1340 - 1365. Woodbridge: Boydell Pr, 1980.

Snyder., Désirée G. Koslin, Janet E. Encountering medieval textiles and dress. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2002.

The Right to Dress Sumptuary Laws in a Global Perspective, c. 1200– 1800 Edited by Giorgio Riello Ulinka Rublack: University of Cambridge, 2019

Some sources for extant fabrics

 

The past few weeks I've taken a deep dive into exploring extant textiles, partially because I'm trying to have a small side business to help support my geek, but more so because I am fascinated by fabrics. 

Two really cool collections that I didn't know existed online are the- 

RISD Museum textile collection which seems to have a wide variety of textiles from around the globe, but leans heavy into the European side of things, and isn't really searchable, but still helpful. 

Ashmolean- Eastern art online Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art They have a huge data base for Islamic, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese. Spanning from Egypt to Japan. The collections are divided by Culture, and in the case of the Islamic collections by colors too. The information on each piece is very detailed. 

The Met is also a very valuable resource for textiles, they are generally grouped within Culture and you might have to use the advanced search to narrow down your options, but they generally have detailed information about it. 

One of the things that I am learning though this fixation is that textiles were a lot more moveable than I previously imagined. I'm seeing many fabrics made in India that are in Egypt. A lot of textiles with Arabic on them associated with Italy or Prague even.  Also my perceptions of what I thought were clear stylistic divisions in culture and time period are not as compartmentalized as I thought.

Queen Anna Burial Fabric (Lucca Italy 1350)

 

I found this sketch of a 14th century Fabric on Pinterest. with the caption

"Pattern drawing of silk fabric of Burial vestment of queen Anna. Royal crypt of Prague castle. Production: Lucca, Italy, 1350. raport 19,2cm, lampas a fond double etoffe, lancé, broché. By: Gollerova-Placha (1937)"

My google skills came up with that it was published in this book in 1937-

Latky z prazske kralovske hrobky Les tissus du caveau royal a Prague Die Stoffe aus der Prager Königsgruft Gollerova-Placha, Jitka Published by Praha: Statni graficka skola 1937.

I really like this pattern, but there does not seem to be any other information available, at least in English or French.

My interpretation of 14th century Maghreb outfit

There is so much background research that went into this, it's hard to know where to begin. 

Best to probably begin with where I started. The Amazigh culture of the Maghreb is ancient, but it’s history is mostly oral. What is written is recent, and mostly myths and legends. Much of the history has been lost due to modern Arab influences and French colonization. But with the re-emergence of their culture much more is being recorded in their own perspective.  

I started looking at emerging research, talking with people about their traditions, and compared that with the earliest writings of the French in the late 18th century.  While it is clear that there has been a lot of influence after that, those early notes and photographs are anthropological valuable.  

The earliest photographs show many layered garment that are attached with large fibulas, reminiscent of ancient Roman garments. Along with a large quantity of jewelry.  

But these images are not mediaeval, and can be very problematic due to the nature of French colonization that followed.  So, I had to find records written earlier than this. What I did find are small things that add up to a bigger story. 

The Romans had much to say of the region, the Maghreb was considered the bread basket of empire. Many people from the region become important figures, saints and even emperors. They wrote about the pottery, the woven textiles, and the jewlery. 

Some of the descriptions of textiles, pottery and even the fibulas matched the photographs and writings of the French in the 19th century!  

How did a culture well established in Roman era, survive waves of Arabic invasions and dominant culture? 

The early Arabic Muslims were tolerant and tended to rule in the cities, and left the mountain villages and nomadic tribes to their own devices as long as they paid taxes. Many city dwellers adopted the Arabic culture, while the tribes retained their freedom. 

The first contact the Amazigh of Eastern Algérie had with the Muslim Arabs, was the Fatimids. The Fatimids hired the Katama berbers to be their supporting army, and they were pivotal in the Fatimid expansion into Egypt and the founding of Cairo. However eventually the Berbers fell out of favor and many returned back to their ancestral home. When the returned, they brought with them a new art form learned in Egypt. Enamel! 

The Katama created a distinctive technique. Green, blue, and yellow enamel embedded between fine silver and dotted with coral. 

My version of the jewelry is put together with several craft store findings and used an enamel paint to mimic the style of the antique bijoux. 

Ibn Khaldun was a prominent medieval writer in the 14th century Arabic world, he had berber origins, and wrote down many histories, including that of the berbers. 

Bougie (now Bejaia) was a prosperous city that was a melting pot of culture and knowledge, under berber control. Many Moorish berbers settled in the area, as the Reconquista forced them out of Spain. Scholars wrote how the woman would wear the tight fitting Spanish style of gown underneath their outer garments.  

Given these notes, and that cotton and bright colored are both extremely common in this area, I chose a fitted gown that was a bright blue cotton. 

Because Roman descriptions, Ibn Khaldun writings, the notes of the Ottomans and the early French postcards all depicted a similar style of outer garments, I felt comfortable using the postcards as inspiration for this recreation. I choose a bright pink herringbone wool as the Shawls. They are folded and held at the shoulders with the fibulas and belted around the waist. 

I don't have the hair necessary to recreate the braided hair (shown in some photos, but also very popular in 14th century Spain) so I choose to wrap a couple scarves as a headdress and added a gold silk veil. 

Tattoos were a very symbolic part of Amazigh culture. And the ones that I drew on had deeply personal meanings. But that's not for this post. 

I do want to update this outfit, find a Shawl or two with more accurate patterns. Add a few more jewelry elements, and probably bright trim. And maybe the hood I've seen depicted many times.