The HSM 2016: Challenge No. 6: Travel

For the June Historical Sew Monthly Challenge (Due the last day of the month. Ish.), the subject of "Travel" was chosen; Make a garment for travel, or inspired by traveling. The original idea stated "Clothes and accessories worn or useful during travel, on foot, riding, in a carriage, on a ship.”.  A rather broad, and possibly tricky theme.  Throughout history--more in some periods than others--special clothing or accessories might have been used for traveling, by carriage (or automobile), boat, foot, or horse; a number of these items could overlap with the Protection Challenge (March).  You might also get ideas from The Great Outdoors challenge of 2014.

1880s Dress-Improver: HSM #4

The April Challenge for the Historical Sew Monthly was a real challenge....to figure out what to do.  See, the challenge is Gender-Bender; Make an historical clothing item which is either for the opposite sex, or has elements inspired by the opposite gender.

As a guy, the second option is almost out--you don't see historical menswear inspired by lady's fashion.  My first choice was men's stays, based on a late Regency pair which is essentially a back brace, complete with spring elastic (made of....springs); unfortunately, this had to be discarded due to issues sourcing good quality boning of the right width (I would still like to make it someday, though).  Other options that came to mind was the Skjoldehamn find, which we don't know gender of (using Schrodinger's Authenticity to slip it in, as it was remarked by one person I asked).  Other thoughts I had were possibly a pair of boots or shoes with heels (I have seen it stated that heels started as a male fashion, and as a female one), or a coat from the 1820-40s, as male and female fashions at the time sorta mirrored each other (wide shoulders, narrow waist, wide/full skirts); both those these would have required a fair amount of research, and some arguing--not against doing so, but I ran out of time.

Revenge of the Pluderhose: The Panes of Torment

I'm kinda seeing a trend in how I feel about the garment, here *looks pointedly at the title*.
This, the second of the series of posts on the making of /period/ pluderhose, deals with the panes and lining....originally, I was going to include the codpiece in this post, but I suspect that it wouldn't be a bad idea for it to get its own post.  I will not (yet) be showing how to do the lining--that is, the poofs; that particular set of images will wait until I actually begin construction of the garment--they are not exactly complicated, and use a lot of fabric.

Now, if you are reading this, I hope you've been following along and already have drafted the foundation breeches from PART I.  If you have not, you should go there and make them forthwith, because you build the panes from the foundation breech pattern you've already fitted. Strictly speaking, the foundation breeches aren't 100% necessary--the Svante Sture pair doesn't seem to have them, and longer pairs may not have them; so if you are doing without, you will more or less follow the directions there, ignoring the taper of the legs.

If you are doing this correctly (ish, being as there is no true way) there is little shaping of the panes, and what there is follows the foundation breeches; what this means, is that we will be cutting from the panes to give some of the shapes..  However, the pane length is at least 15% more than that of the foundation breeches--I made them closer to 30%--, to allow the draping.  Like the foundation breeches, I am basing it on Erik and Nils Sture's pluderhose.

At some point before beginning, you should decide how many panes you desire--I have seen examples that (appear to) have anywhere from Four to Seven.  Five appears to be the most popular number, however.  More panes would, of course, require more fabric in the lining since you will have more sections .

Seven Panes!

Joachim Ernst von Anhalt by 
Lucas Cranach the younger, 1563. 
Four Panes

Brunswick Man. 1573. Five panes.

        

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.