14th-15th Century, Garb/Clothing, Patterns

Conjectural late 14th/15th century men’s cotehardie pattern

This pattern will create a man’s late 14th/15th century cotehardie without a collar with a hemline falling at just above the knee. Click here if you’re looking for the women’s pattern. When drafted the pattern includes 1/2″ seam allowance on all edges. Because of the tight fit this probably needs some type of closure (rather than pulling it on over…

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hourglass
16th Century

Bodice Support

Women are not cones. We are (for the most part) hour glass shaped. In order for a bodice to be supportive and look flattering at least one of the seams needs to have a vaguely hourglass shaped hunk taken out of it. This is an ongoing debate in the re-enactment community. Do you pull the fabric out of the center…

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16th Century, Antwerpen, Sewing, Tayloring

Fixing fit problems: Armseye

One of the nice things about following more period correct methods of construction (ie, the methods laid out The Modern Maker series of books) is that the methods lend themself really well to alterations. That is, without very much fuss at all I can fix a fit issue (or make a garment fit someone else) without having to completely de-construct…

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Waisted Kirtle

Autumn Gold Kirtle

Autumn Gold sleeveless waisted kirtle started 7/24/2019. Worked on sporadically, and then finally finished on September 25, 2019. Details: – kirtle will be side laced. – edges will NOT use bias binding – this one will use one layer of interlining in the whole bodice and a second layer of interlining at the center front. I’ll be pad stitching them…

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16th Century, Waisted Kirtle

What the tuck?!?

Last night I finished stitching the tuck** onto the bottom of my Autumn Gold kirtle. Just as I finished stitching the tuck I looked at it and had the following mini-conversation and epiphany. Me: This tuck would be really convenient for pregnancy.Also me: Or for young girls who have not gotten full height… or hand-me-down clothes.Me: Yeah. But that stitch…

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Accessories, Antwerpen, Garb/Clothing

Huve – Antwerpen white linen coif

Antwerpen white linen coif started April 2, 2019 and finished April 7, 2019. Special thanks to Aleit Pietersdochter over at The New Cut who is working on documenting 16th century Dutch costuming terms and dug up the terms “Huve”, “Huive”, “Huyfd” which seem to be the proper name for this white linen coif. Although a lot of the Antwerpen market women wear their hair…

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Front view of Cobalt Kirtle no. 2.
Garb/Clothing, Waisted Kirtle

Cobalt Kirtle no. 2

Blue sleeveless waisted kirtle started June 21, 2019. Finished on July 2, 2019. I’m getting back into the swing of things. I need a new dress. The plan is to make a cobalt blue linen kirtle and wear that under a bright coral wool Antwerpen gown. This is the second kirtle I’ve made using the Cobalt blue linen from Fabric-store.com.…

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16th Century

Late period doublet for a 5-year-old

Grey linen lined in light tan linen doublet sized for a 5-year-old started March 9, 2019. Finished March 20, 2019. In order to be a “properly dressed little boy” my son will need a doublet. This will be used both to cover his under shirt and to point his breeches to keep them from falling down. The doublet I’m making…

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16th Century

Late period breeches for a 5-year-old

Brown wool lined in natural linen breeches sized for a 5-year-old started March 6, 2019. Finished March 11, 2019. Continuing with the theme of “clothe the child” I made a pair of “Gorinchem breeches to fit a child aged ten years” shown in “The Tudor Child” (p. 94-95)(https://amzn.to/2ld5iZS).  My son is only 5.. but he’s a HUGE 5-year old. Technically…

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16th Century

Late period shirt for a 5-year-old

White linen shirt sized for a 5-year-old started June 15, 2018. Finished March 4, 2019. To be fair making this shirt went fairly quickly. Unfortunately I started making this for my son and then got pulled off to a lot of other projects. It probably only took about a week to sew it together but that was spread out over…

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