A Medieval Grocery

Every year at WW I have a tradition of taking over the kitchen for a night and creating a mediaeval style feast, this year of course is no different. 

My persona is late 14th century French, so I tend to focus on French food culture of the time, and find recipes that are French, English or northern Italian from the 13th-15th centuries.

Recipes of the time were written down for the people who could actually read, so they are a reflection of the privileged, and not the layperson. Most people would have learned to cook by tutelage and intuitively knowing what combinations worked together to create dishes. Because vegetables were such a common everyday staple that most any person could prepare, vegetable recipes were not often included in these recipes, or would simply be called wortes or pot herbs. Here is an excellent article explaining this. Here is an excellent article explaining this.

Le Ménagier de Paris, writes many things for his young wife, indicating they have enough education to read and can clearly afford some of the luxuries of city life. This text indicates that there was a kitchen garden along with many vegetables to be purchased at the market. Showing even the bourgeoisie would have had a diet consisting heavily of vegetables.   

Humoral theory also plays a key role here, most vegetables coming from the ground would be considered dry, hence needing moisture added. Adding oil or sauce to raw vegetables would have been a way to balance the humours of raw vegetables, in addition to boiling or frying. We have enough recipes of various salats surviving to indicate that simple salads dressed with oil, herbs, or sauces were actually quite common, even for the noble table. 

Most medieval people would have had ale, bread, cheese, eggs, and some form of potage as daily staples. Having enough meat, time, and facilities for many separate stand alone courses was a huge status symbol, Grand feasts had a prescribed order of courses, Start with fresh fruits, a lighter vegetable course- salads, savory tarts, a light meat course- fish, chicken, a heavy meat course- beef, venison, pork, followed by cheese course with a digestive, and finally desert. Many of these dishes would be seasoned with expensive imported spices. 

However if we look at the recipes that do exist, along with vegetables available in the era we can come up with a large list of common foods that were used. 

Seasonal produce-

Asparagus

Carrots

Parsnips

Turnips

Rutabaga

Radish 

Beets (leaves mostly, roots were developed post period)

Shard/Spinach/lettuce/greens

Purslane

Dill

Fennel

Cress 

Celeriac

Cabbage

Brussels sprouts 

Cucumbers 

Leeks 

*Onions

*Garlic

Shallots

Scallions 

Ramps

Mushrooms

Truffles 

Capers

Olives

Beans- Fava, Chickpeas, Haricot, Vetch

Peas 

Marrows- summer squash, zucchini 

Gourds/pumpkins (not quite the same varieties as new world ones) 

Rhubarb 

Wild edible greens and seeds

*Garlic and Onions were considered poor man’s food, and several accounts of the nobility recounted how they were a necessary evil. 

Citrus fruits- Oranges, lemons

Berries

Apples 

Pears (cooked)

Plums 

Cherries

Strawberries 

Mulberries

Persimmons

Quince

Figs

Dates 

Grapes

Currents

Melons

Wild fruits

Herbs, fresh or dried- Thyme, basil, lemon balm, mint, rosemary, marjoram, parsley, sage, dill, fennel, tarragon, rue, mustard, sorrel, lovage, chives, hyssop, savory.

Floral seasonings- Rose, lavender, violet, primrose. 

Spices- Mustard seed, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, mace, long pepper, saffron, Gangrel, grains of paradise, black pepper, anise. (often imported) Spice mixes were common- powder fort, powder fine, powder douce.

Meats- 

Chicken

Goose

Duck

Pheasant

Quail/grouse

Pork

Boar 

Lamb

Goat (kid)

Beef

Swan 

Venison 

While most of the above meat was not a daily food source for peasants, if they farmed or hunted their lord’s land (with permission!) they would generally get a portion of their efforts after giving a percentage to the lord. City dwelling presents would have to make do with whatever they could scavenge or afford at market. Other common peasant protein sources could be- poor cuts of meat, sausages, hedgehogs, rabbits, eels, fish, snails, frogs, eggs, green cheeses, beans, peas, in addition to whole grain breads.  

Fish, mussels, eels, crab, scallops- these weren’t considered meats, and could be eaten on holy days such as lent. Salmon and trout being common. 

Pantry staples-

Honey, vinegar, verjuice*, olive oil, lard.

*A juice made from unripe grapes- sweet yet acidic (Sub grape juice mixed with wine vinegar)

Walnuts 

Almonds (almond milk, Mazapan)

Hazelnuts 

Chestnuts

Pinenuts 

Dairy- Fresh milk, Cream, Butter, whey, cheeses.  

Eggs-from all forms of poultry 

Wheat and rye flour- *breads, crackers, pastry crusts, pasta 

Meslin 

Oats for porridge 

Barley for Ale and stews (Northern)

Rice- (Southern- Italy or Spain unless imported)

*Traditional yeast leavened bread was most often purchased directly as they were highly regulated if you lived in town, or one would bring a loaf to a local bakery to be baked since most folks didn’t have a bread oven in their homes. The nobility often would purchase refined wheat breads, whereas peasantry would have more rustic whole grain breads.

Preserved foods-

Various sausages/jerky

Pastry coffins- meats sealed in a salt crust with gelatin gravy

Salted fish and meats

Cheeses

Salt and vinegar pickled vegetables

Jams/jellies/fruit leathers

Ale/wine/cider

Dried beans and peas

Cookbooks to investigate-

Le Viandier de Taillevent

Le Ménagier de Paris

The Forme of Cury- a roll of ancient English Cookery

The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages, Terence Scully

Cooking in Europe 1250-1650, Ken Albala, Lisa Cooperman

The Medieval Cookbook, Maggie Black

A Medieval Kitchen: A social History with Recipes, Hannele Klemettila 

Medieval Cuisine, Food Fare Culinary Collection, Shenanchie O’Toole

21 French Medieval Cookery Recipes + 10 Unknown Facts About Medieval France, Bethany Willson

A Boke of Gode Cookery http://www.godecookery.com/ 

Medieval Cookery https://medievalcookery.com/index.html 

Medieval Recipes https://www.medieval-recipes.com/ 

People Bought their Clothing

This is a brain rambling I've been tossing around my head for a while. 

There seems to be a misguided assumption that a mediaeval household had to be a self-sufficient jack of all trades. I know I thought so for a long while myself. Loosely based on the idea of self-sufficient American pioneer homestead, ner to do households with a bevy of servants or slaves, or post industrial revolution homemakers when fabric, patterns, sewing machines and other modernised machines became more readily available to the common people, modern day Amish, and a healthy dose of puritanical bootstrapism that is at large in modern mainstream American society that has been fed to us by generic history and the media.

Take clothing, the assumption is that this was the work of the mediaeval housewife.

And I've come to the conclusion that assumption is largely wrong.

While in some earlier periods mediaeval households, or very isolated areas, might have been expected to be more self-sufficient that’s definitely not the case by the 13th-15th centuries that I study. 

A few things happened during the 13th and 14th centuries. We see a breakdown of the feudal system, leading to the rise of cities, industry, education, trade, a trend towards more nuclear families, and an emergence of a middle class, people who had wages, and hence buying power leading to a more monetary system. The merchant guilds became a powerful force that would protect the specialisation of highly skilled workers. Tailors were in high demand and well regulated. The average household would spend 15-20% of their annual income on clothing, and with the rising wages clothing became more tailored and specialised. 

Clothing in this time period was layered, each with a very specific purpose and use. 

• Body linens were essential for absorbing sweat and body oils, which would be frequently changed and washed. 

• A fitted or supportive layer, often of wool, often lined, and containing facings, buttons, or tailoring techniques that would provide shaping and structure and would be appropriate for home or casual work, and often aired out and infrequently or spot washed.

• Then an outer layer used for fashion or warmth, of your best fabrics often lined in fur and again needing some advanced tailoring skills, embroidery, or padded too and often not washable. 

You wouldn’t be considered appropriately dressed if out in public without all 3 layers present. In addition there were other specialty garments used for proprietary, work, warmth or formal situations- hose, hoods, hats, hairnets, purses, aprons, veils, mantels, pellise (furred inner layer), scholar robes. 

The household inventories show us what people had of worth when they passed away. From my study of the Dijion inventories in the 1390-1410, and the Dalme inventories, it is clear that most middle class folks would have at LEAST 4-5 supportive garments and about the same number of outer garments often lined or furred, along with several of the specialised garments. Bourgeois, nobles or government officials had about double that amount of clothing, expense of fabric, embroidery and fur highly correlated to the status. These inventories don’t show us the body linens, hose, aprons or the work clothing that would have no resale value. But they do show us that the average household had large amounts of unused linens and threads. But not much in the way of other unused fabrics. A person would probably have at least the same amount of body linens on hand as supportive garments since these get the most use and laundering. Leading me to surmise that an average wardrobe would consist of around 25 garments. 

It is estimated that a skilled tailor could create a body linen in 2-3 days, a supportive layer in a week and a fashion garment would take 2-3 weeks to create, and about the same to fur. Not including any decorative elements. Keep in mind working hours were often 10-12 hours a day. Using these estimates a skilled person would probably need to invest close to 1500 hrs, Or 150 10 hour days, to complete a single personal wardrobe. Granted these items would not be done all at once, but records indicate that an everyday robe (cotte, surcotte and mantle) would be issued twice per year for people in the royal household and staff. Each robe set would take approximately 300 hrs, or a month working full time, to produce.

Now imagine if you in your late adolescence or early 20’s had to expertly pattern, hand sew and upkeep a wardrobe for each member of your family. Then add bedding, kitchen and bath linens, curtains, and diapers to the grunt work of sewing. In addition to cooking, cleaning, laundry, managing children, in a time before washing machines, refrigeration, lighting, or vacuum cleaners. 

Now imagine if you had a specific job or roll in addition to household tasks. Most women “worked” in one form or another. 

You simply couldn’t do it all. Most modern stay at home folks with all the modern technology couldn't do it without outsourcing some things. If in doubt, watch some of Ruth Goodman’s series on mediaeval, Tudor or Victorian life, and the Victorian Housewife benefitted from a lot of the post industrial revolution items to make life much easier- cast iron stoves, gas lights, carpet sweepers, and wringer washers, caning supplies how modern!!!

Even mediaeval farmsteads didn’t live in isolation, they lived in hamlets and small villages where there would have been a community, including seamstress/tailors, weavers, bakers, smiths, clergy, leather workers, woodworkers, and inns with food within walking distance. People travelled, had markets and fairs to buy things. Even serfs or servants would receive gifts of clothing, Guild statues and contracts often including clothing twice a year. People barter and trade services, and there was a thriving second hand clothing industry.

A noble household would have had skilled servants, a village community to support the house, merchant contacts and older members of the household to help run everything. Many hands make work light.

When we read through the Goodman of Paris’s instructions to his young wife there is a lot of discussion of where to buy stuff, and how to handle specific merchants. Those would be common elements of town life.

My point being that at no time in mainstream mediaeval society would households have been isolated from a community of goods and services. There was a thriving second hand market, clothing was often handed down or bequeathed, it was a part of contracts, and people traded services. While a mediaeval woman would have to know how to stitch, and would have probably been responsible for sewing household linens, undergarments, repair and adjustments of garments, and possibly adding decoration, it would be near impossible to clothe one's household without help. The time alone needed to construct a basic appropriate wardrobe would be impossible unless you had no other duty but to sew. Clothing patterning and construction skills in addition to having the tools, or even space to do so are not something most households would have the privilege or specialised knowledge to have. 

People bought clothing, probably the majority of it. And if they didn't then they bought a lot of other things to make up for the time.

Further reading-

Figured Riches: The Value of Gold Brocades in Fifteenth-Century Florentine Painting

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

Textile Production in Proto-Historic Italy: From Specialists to Workshops, Margarita Gleba

"Weaving identities in southern Italy", From the Household to the Factory: Modes and Contexts of Textile Production from Prehistory to the Pre-Industrial Period, Online EuroWeb Conference 24th – 26th of November 2021,  Alexandra Attia

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

MEDIEVAL CLOTHING AND TEXTILES ·7· Edited by Robin Netherton and Gale R. Owen-Crocker

5. London Merchants’ Cloth Exports, 1350–1500 / Eleanor Quinton and John Oldland 111

6. Laboreria Sete: Design and Production of Lucchese Silks in the Late Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth Centuries / Christine Meek 141

MEDIEVAL CLOTHING AND TEXTILES ·10· Edited by Robin Netherton and Gale R. Owen-Crocker

3. Wefts and Worms: The Spread of Sericulture and Silk Weaving in the West before 1300 / Rebecca Woodward Wendelken 59

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

Burns, E. Jane. Sea of silk: A textile geography of women’s work in medieval French literature. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

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

Power, Eileen. The Goodman of Paris = (Le ménagier de paris): A treatise on moral and domestic economy. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2006. https://books.google.com/books?id=DYHOAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Cloth and Clothing in Mediaeval Europe, Essays in memory of professor E.M. Carus-Wilson 

• Cloth merchants' inventories in Dijion in the fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries,  Françoise Piponnier 

Life and work in Medieval Europe P. Boissonnade

Medieval money (England)

Gitte Hansen Everyday Products in the Middle Ages: Crafts, Consumption and the Individual in Northern Europe c. AD 800-1600

Angela Ling Huang, Carsten Jahnke Textiles and the Medieval Economy: Production, Trade, and Consumption of Textiles, 8th–16th Centuries (Ancient Textiles)

The Rise, Expansion, and Decline of the Italian Wool-Based Cloth Industries, 1100–1730: A Study in International Competition, Transaction Costs, and Comparative Advantage, John H. Munro, University of Toronto, c 2012

The Global Middle Ages

List of price of medieval items

Scott, Margaret. Medieval clothing and costumes: Wealth and class in Medieval Times. New York, NY: Rosen Pub. Group, 2004.

Inventories-

DALME online inventories

Inventaire du mobilier du chateau Chailloue de l’annee 1416

Les inventaires apres deces de la ville de Dijion a la fin du Moyen Age (1390-1459) tome I : 1390-1408

Buss, Chiara Giannelli The gift of 880 wool and silk garments on the occasion of four Gonzaga marriages. The Magna Curia of 1340

The household inventory as urban ‘theatre’ in late medieval Burgundy

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

Household Inventories of Medieval Europe

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

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.

A Fur Blanket

So this project started out as a joint project between Godefroy at Lyon Fur and myself for a teaching opportunity at the open fur workshop at Warriors and Warlords last year. Being how busy and hot that event was, the project wasn't completed at the event. Due to health, life, and other projects of higher import, this project sat in my project pile for nearly a year, but now that camp season is here again, I wanted it done for chilly nights, plus it would be good way to refresh my fur skills before attempting the houppelande lining, and I simply needed the space it was taking up for other projects in the works.

The Historical Precedence

Visual imagery of fur Blankets- 

There was surprisingly small amount of visual evidence of fur blankets. Most bedding features a colored top and snow white back that can be seen when folded over. That snow white could depict a white fur, or most likely white linen. 

However I have found several images that clearly depict fur being used as a blanket. 

A link to my fur blanket image Pinterest board

But we do see the majority of fur blankets had a decorative top and the fur underneath. 

This one in particular was inspiring, because although the grey underside could be debatable as fur, the pattern is similar to the fabric I chose for this project. 

Mentions of fur blankets in writing-

Like the images, fur blankets are not often mentioned in the inventories, reserved for the nobility as it seems like the majority of fur use was for wearable items, and the majority of blankets are wools or serge lined with linen. 

But here are two examples I could find of fur being called out as a blanket-

30. Noble Jehan Sauvegrain, seigneur de Baurates [sans lieu] 1397, novembre (Les inventaires apres deces de la ville de Dijion a la fin du Moyen Age (1390-1459) tome I : 1390-1408)

• Item 1 coverteur de gris que l’en dit estre a maistre Jaques de Chevanches selargien qui est en gaiges pour XX frans ; (Item- 1 coverture of gris that is to be bought by Jaques de Chevanches for 20 francs)
• Item une coutrepointe de velvel noir fourre de gris blanc et par dessus de soye noire: (Item- 1 black velvet quilt furred with Gris (and) Blanc, topped with black silk) 

The first item being a simple grey squirrel blanket, and the second seems to be a checkerboard of grey and while squirrel, and black velvet and silk on top. 

As I discovered in my houppelande research, white, especially linens, were thought to purify and cleanse the body, and given sweat and other human secretions, bedding would want to be washed often for odors and pest control, just as people do now days. Beds often were enclosed with drapes, trapping in body heat, so I suspect most folks would use their fur lined mantels on top of existing bedding when needed.  A fur lined blanket wouldn't have been a necessity, but instead a display of wealth. 

The Process

Godefroy ordered a 2m x 2m premade white rabbit plate, and a couple dyed black rabbit skins, thus chosen for it's economical cost, and to showcase the powdering technique that was used to create faux ermine in period. I chose to use a linen/silk blend fabric from my stash for the interlining, and a 4.6m meter length of 30" wide Fleur de Lis silk, neither of which were quite enough for me to use as a garment. 

Fleur de Lis extant fabric, silk with gold thread. 13th century Italian.

This fabric also would have been considered a bit out of fashion for my persona, so makes it a great choice for bedding since the typical cycle was for a fashion fabric to become decor fabric once out of fashion. 

I do recognize that rabbit (coney) would have been considered a lower status fur, and would have been unlikely to have been paired with luxury silk, and a simple linen would have been the choice for interlining. But this project isn't meant to be a reproduction, but an object that would have been recognizable in period, and at the time of conception this project needed to be budget friendly. 

I prepped the interlining and silk cover beforehand. The size of the blanket was determined by the size I could eek out of the silk, by adding a 4" black satin ribbon as a border, I ended up being able to piece together a rectangle of 74" by 70" wide. While piecing willy-nilly is very period, I did manage to match the pattern to make the piecing almost seamless. This cover and the interlining were machine sewn with silk thread and the silk seam allowances were treated with a zigzag stich to prevent fraying. 

We then cut the fur down to 72" x 68", slightly less than the cover. 

And went about marking out our placement of the powderings. We made sure to verify the grain of the fur. We want the spacing to be similar to that of what ermine tails would have been in period. For this we chose a pattern of 10" apart in rows 4" apart, staggered, using a straight edge and a small elongated diamond template to mark each one.  Making sure to orient the diamond template so the long edge is the same downward direction as the fur.

You can see the grain arrow, the lines and even a diamond we didn't get cut out.

Once marked, we would cut through the leather only with an exacto blade in the white bunny, and then also use that template to cut a black diamond from the black bunny, again making sure to keep the long end aligned with the downward fur direction. We then used a fur machine to insert the black diamonds into the white ground. A few of them were hand sewn in by whip stitch, which is the same kind of stitch the machine makes. At this point we had achieved a corner of the powderings inserted before time ran out and it sat in my pile. When I picked up the project, there was no more time for more powderings, so it will remain a feature. 

The next step was to attach the twill tape to the edges. The twill tape helps protect the edge of the fur, gives a nice finished edge when turned over, and a place to attach the interlining and fashion fabrics to without damaging the edges. The twill tape is sewn onto the fur side, and folded over to the leather side.

Again this was done by machine. 

Once the the twill tape was on, I folded it over to the leather side and tucked the ironed interlining underneath, making sure to center the interlining in the right direction. Then hand stitched it all down with a heavy quilting cotton, using a leather needle and a thimble, making sure to pierce through the leather.  Because fur is thick, and forgiving these stiches are close to 3 per inch, closer stiches are perforate and tear the thin leather on the fur. 

I noticed that the edges on the top and bottom of the fur stretched at some point, making it not square, and the bias tape then wrinkled when flipped over, and I had to be careful stitching to manipulate it flat, one corner was bad enough for me to rip apart completely and cut off a couple inches to get it square. 

I suspect that if I had pad stitch the interlining before the twill tape it might not have stretched so much. Those were also the edges where the machine kept skipping stitches and went over twice.

Dauphine is here to "help" show you! 

Then the process of  quilting the entire thing! This was done mostly laying on the floor with a pillow under my ribs. The quilting pattern happened organically, each corner needed to be stitched down as I was sewing the till tape to prevent it from shifting, because I needed to know where the center point was for the fashion fabric, the center cross was done. Then I continued to fill in the pattern from the corners in each quadrant. Each row of stitching is about 4" apart, and the stiches are close to an inch apart. I didn't measure anything and just eyeballed it. Since this is a hidden layer it didn't need to look pretty. Also because of my 'helpers' and lack of space I had to  fold this up and put away frequently, and the linen likes to wrinkle in this humidity. I should have done the quilting before the edges to make sure the fabric was perfectly smooth, but didn't so there are a few places where it wrinkles slightly. 

My other "helper" Vagabond being a fabric weight.

And then we repeat the quilting process with the fashion fabric. This time I centered the fabric and started quilting in rows from the center out. For this I used the silk thread that matched, and used invisible top making sure my needle passed between the interlining and the leather before creating a tiny back stich on the surface. The invisible stitch makes it so that the stitching wont ever catch and tear which has been a pet peeve of mine with many blankets and quilts in the past, and also doesn't distract or mar the fancy silk. 

See the red line for an approximation of the top stitching

At some point in the beginning of stitching the top down, it shifted an inch and I didn't notice until I was at the edges of pad stitching. Leaving some sections of the border a half inch, and others 3". Doh! I suspect that part of this was caused by the top stretching when I applied the bias tape, and I wasn't paying enough attention to that detail. 

It was too noticeable of a mistake, looked SO sloppy, and I just couldn't. Nor was I going to rip out and redo 15 rows of invisible top stitching. So instead I removed the border, and took fresh 4" black satin ribbon, and top stitched it to align with the edges of the fur, and let the silk be skewed underneath and it you can only tell it's off if you really look at it. It also gave me the opportunity to add a touch more bling, in the form a gold cord.   

Concept of updated border. 

I'm happy with how this project is turning out, but if I did it again I'd create a quilting frame so that it wouldn't be bothered by my 'helpers' (seriously couldn't keep them off it, and the protestation when I locked them out was epic) and stay in place for the duration of the project in addition to being a lot more ergonomique to work on. 

I would also use an edging that was real silk satin, and probably more bling, but this was originally a stash fabric project to focus on the fur work. 

I'd also wait until after everything was pad stiched to put on the binding, and the issues I had with things not being square by the end would be sloved if I could have squared it up at the end. 

We don't have any surviving furs from period, fur is a natural material that degrades fairly quickly if not maintained, and so most of our knowledge of fur work comes from vintage sources. Twill tape for binding was common practice on vintage items, however I learned after the start of this project that the text by Veale stated that leather binding was used at the end of the project. I also discovered during the interm that the twill tape binding on my fur trimed gown, plasteron, and tippets, held on to dampness and caused the fur to become crunchy, needing to be replaced in a few short years. Since I was on a budget and timeline I chose to still use the twill tape since this shouldn't be on damp ground. But then twill tape also stretched different than the fur leather did while attaching it, and a source of later frustration. 

A leather binding at the end as indicated by Veale should minimize a lot of the problems I had.  

The gold cord helps to pull this together nicely.

Now I've noticed how much this blanket looks like the background of a 14th century Manuscript painting.  

And how sexy it looked in my camp!

Resources for fur- 

Grant Johannes (Aka Godefroy du Lyon) at Lyon Fur. 

A fur primer for 14th and 15th century European clothing by Tasha Kelly at Cotte Simple

Veale, Elspeth M. The English fur trade in the later Middle Ages. London: London Record Society, 2003. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-record-soc/vol38

Delort, Robert. Le commerce des fourrures en Occident à la fin du Moyen Age (Vers 1300 - vers 1450),

Clothing in the Court of Burgundy 1.1.2 The Furs (English translation per Charles de Bourbon)

Wadmore, James Foster, Some account of the Worshipful Company of Skinners of London, being the guild of corpus christi, Blades East and blades, London 1902