I’ve been working on a 5-century historically accurate outfit. It’s pretty much the only time in European history where one garment is used (a kirtle) for all of them but it changes so radically in those 5 centuries.
It goes from loose fitting to form fitting to voluminous before taming back down again to being really loose over those 5-centuries.
It’s proving to be a fun challenge on how to get this done with only one basic kirtle. A little origami or magic might have to be used, lol
Currently I’ve finished all the headdresses. But will get the outfit for the 1200s (a bliaut) finished in time for Halloween of this year.
The Arundel headdress has a wire harness to keep the veil out. It was quite the unusial headdress to make and has over 500 seed pearls in it.
All of it will be hand sewn, as are the headdresses shown in this post.
WHat a cool project to undertake! Each of these headdresses is amazing in detail. I, too, hope you have some time other than Halloween to wear these - they deserve time out in the world!
It is indeed cheaty lace. I tried 3 times to sew it like it’s supposed to be but, with my rheumatoid arthritis, my hands just couldn’t do it (it looked ghastly!)
So, instead of trying again I took it out my miserable sewing job and added the lace to save my hands.
I agree with you that pants made from that material would indeed look fantastic. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last very long. It’s a silk blend organza and would tear like tissue if used to make pants.
All of this is so amazing! The weird and wonderful headcoverings of the Middle Ages have always fascinated me. You see them in drawings and I’ve always wondered what they would have looked liked in real life, and what it feels like to wear them. Are they heavy?
Yes, they are weird and fascinating…and is why I HAD to make them!
There is no documentation of how they were made so we can only speculate what was used. Wool, linen and silk fabric mostly because that’s what was available at the time. But we don’t know if they had batting/wadding on the inside or multiple layers of felted wool or a wire framework.
Since we don’t have all the info on them, and no documentation, it’s a form of living archeology to recreate them. I chose to use items close to what was available back then, such as linen and silk organza for the veils, wool batting for stuffing where needed, and linen fabric for the exteriors.
My modern versions are not heavy at all and are surprisingly comfortable to wear (I’ve worn all of them around the house to make sure nothing needed to be altered before I considered them finished.) But, again, since it’s impossible to know how they were made then we don’t know how heavy the original headdresses actually were.
The only thing I don’t care for on some of them is they cover the ears damping down sounds a little bit…this can make it a smidge more difficult to hear things.
