Diary started Feb 23, 2010.
Gollar first worn Sunday December 4, 2011.
Summary
German dresses are lovely.. but if you leave your tata’s uncovered they’re going to get cold. I’ve wanted to make a Gollar for a long time. A Gollar is a short, sometimes fur-lined cape sometimes with a collar worn over many of the German dresses. A few years ago for Valentine’s Day my honey got me a full pelt of sheared beaver. I am totally going to use that to line my Gollar.
Research and Background
Textiler Hausrat mentions that Gollars can be seen as a component of feminine clothing in Durer’s costume study of 1500. While primarily a fashion of the first quarter of the 16th C, it does continue until 1570′s. Even women of lower middle class standing were permitted gollars made of “Atlas, Damaskat, or other silk fabric” and were noted in inventories as damask or atlas and fur lined. (pages 80-83 translated by Katherine Barish, located in the Yahoo Group files of Jutta Zander-Seidel’s “Textiler Hausrat, Kleidung und Textilien in Nurnberg von 1500-1650″, ISBN 3422060677).
My goal is to create a garment that is consistent with the fashions portrayed in the woodcuts of Landsknecht from about 1520 Germany.
Details to include:
- Capelet. Should go to the points of the shoulders and down low enough in the back to cover my back. Smooth fit that still allows use of the arms.
- Dark wool outer fabric
- Lined in fur (sheared beaver)
- Hidden buttons for closure (should be able to be buttoned closed)
There’s some hint that the standing collar is a fashion of Saxony(ie both the “Woman aged 27″ and the black and white next to it are wearing Saxony style dresses). I’ll need to look into this more.
Inspirational Pictures
The German single-leaf woodcut, 1500-1550, Max Geisberg ; rev. and edited by Walter L. Strauss, New York : Hacker Art Books, 1974.
Niklas Stoer – Schuldthos c.1530
Guarded Style:
Paumgartner Altar (detail of right wing) by Albrecht Durer, 1503
c. 1514
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528). Melancholia I, 1514. Engraving. Approx. 9 1/2 x 7 3/8 in. (24 x 18.5 cm).
© Konrad Liebmann Foundation, Stiftung Niedersachen, Germany(link)
c. 1520 H. Holbein, Baseler Bürgersfrau beim Ausgang
Nach der Handzeichnung. Oeffentliche Kunstammlung, Basel
Hans Baldung
Saxony Style:
Unknown c. 1525 Woman Aged 27
c. 1528
From the Back
Edhard Schoen G.1235-1238. Army Train 1532
Sources
Pearl and Coral Gollar Project
Process
– 11/28/2011 I’ve contemplated this for a few years. This coming Sunday I’m supposed to wear my German dress while walking in a parade. It’s December.. in California.. so I don’t expect to freeze.. but I do expect that a gollar and gloves will be welcomed additions to the outfit. So on Tuesday night I finalized the gollar pattern (based on the bottom portion of my hood pattern) and finally cut out the wool and fur. I had to cut the fur out in two sections in order to be able to get the pattern to fit on the pelt. Even then I will have to patch in a triangle to make up for a bit where the pattern ran off the edge of the pelt. I stitched these two big pieces of the fur together. The seam is obvious.. but the pelt will be on the underside of the gollar so I’m not worried about it.
– 11/29/2011 Started stitching the wool to the fur along the neckline. The plan is to stitch the two pieces together inside-out and then flip them around so the right-sides are on the outside of the gollar. Stitching is going faster than anticipated. That said, I need a thimble. Ow.
– 12/1/2011 Acquired a thimble.
– 12/3/2011 Finally finished sewing the gollar together.
– 12/4/2011 Trevor gave me a set of hooks to use to hold the gollar on. Sadly it wasn’t until I sewed the first hook/eye on that I noticed that the right front and the left front are different length. I’ll need to shorten one side to even them up. Other than that.. I wore this in the parade. It was nice and toasty. Gollars are made of win (even badly uneven ones).
