Bibliography of Historical Tailoring and Cutting Manuals

To the best of my knowledge, there is no place online that gathers the various--freely available--Victorian and earlier cutting systems.  Professional tailors--and cutters, which is a separate job, often in the same shop--use cutting systems rather than actual patterns.  The main difference, of course is in fit and style--a pattern may come graded to a number of sizes, but these are still ideal and won't necessarily fit; cutting systems, on the other hand, use scales and mathematics to give proportions and how to draft for the body of the customer.  They typically also have notes on modifying the draft for varying postures and such.  The majority of the systems were for menswear, and that is my focus--however, there were variations for tailored ladies' clothing as well, and I will include those that I find.

From E. Dilday's Plain and Concise Method of Garment Cutting, 1856

Documentation: A Bibliography and Bonus Outline

Some time ago, I found that people didn't realize that there are resources out there on writing documentation, either for competition (which is the general focus) or just because you're interested in it.

I am not going to tell what is required--a number of articles have already been written, by people with more experience than I.  However, I will give my thoughts each of the various articles; plus, below the links there will be my personal outline, which I use to ensure I don't forget anything. 

Norse Shoes: The Second Pair

Last year, I put together my first pair of Norse shoes--ugly things, and can be found HERE.  This time, I used a somewhat different pattern, attempting (unsuccessfully) to base them on the Staraya Ladoga pair, as well as making them much closer fitting (the last pair was made to wear with many socks), and in better leather.

So, this project is a fairly generic pair of Norse shoes, made for warm weather and Summer wear.

Staraya Ladoga shoe sketch.  Supposedly from

Swann, June, History of Footwear in Norway, Sweden and Finland,

Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 2001

Norlund 78 Hood, the Finished Project

This is a project I started quite a while ago; it's been almost two years since I drafted the mockup (April of 2014).  I had to wait until I got around to making the Dungiven doublet first, because I was using the same fabric.  Anyways; this project is a slightly scaled recreation of the Norlund 78--Museum No. D10606--hood, from a Norse settlement in Greenland.  It is my entry into the Historical Sew Monthly (link to the right) Protection Challenge.

 The Find:

This garment I chose was one of a number found at Herjolfsnes, the Norse settlement in Greenland, as part of an archaeological excavation by Poul Norlund, starting in 1921.  From what I can tell in Woven Into the Earth--my main source of material--the body it was buried with decomposed to the point of uselessness, but it was found with what may have been a child sized shroud [WitE, pp. 215].  It is a vadmal sewn hood, with a liripipe, and extremely short cape.

1570s Tall Hat: Construction

This post is exactly that--the image heavy, step-by-step article of how I made the tall hat.  It is not the Documentation, with all the information on the style and my thought process.  That article can be found HERE, and should be read first.

HSM February--A Pleated Tall Hat

For my entry into the Historical Sew Monthly February challenge, the theme being Pleats, I chose an Elizabethan era tall hat.  Which has, as you might guess (and can see), a pleated crown.

The finished Tall Hat.

The Project:

An Elizabethan Tall Hat or Pleated Tall cap.  This form of headwear was seen starting in the '70s (1570s, that is), for a good 30-40 years.  It was typically made of a heavy felt base, covered with pleated silk.

Sources:

This project of an Elizabethan tall hat was based on several examples in period artwork, but particularly on an extant example in Patterns of Fashion 3, by Janet Arnold.  There are a few variations of the garment in the artwork of the period--shorter, tall, and decided crushed (which seems to be the more common in Northern Europe during the '70's).

Philip II. By Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (1553–1608)

Vaandrig, Abraham de Bruyn, (1550 - 1587)

Featured Garment: Männertracht aus Braunschweig (23v)

It's back!  Well...occasionally, anyways.  Lately, I've been in a mood for German Renaissance--not Landsknect, but 1560s to 1580s; i.e for pluderhose.

Yes, pluderhose. Yet again.  I'm really not sure where my minor obsession with them came from--the challenge of drafting and understanding the blasted things, the drapey-fittedness...just liking to say the word.  This week's example is from one of the 16th Century German clothing books, Kostüme der Männer und Frauen in Augsburg und Nürnberg, Deutschland, Europa, Orient und Afrika.

Honestly, this Featured Garment is fairly typical--I don't see much that is truly unusual about it, beyond the beauty of the draping.  It has a lovely simplistic elegance in the design (well, with the exception of those shoes...).  On to the discussion:

From Bayerische StaatsBibliothek

 Doublet?  Check.  Jerkin?  Check  Fancy Pants?  In spades.