A Wild Irish(wo)man's Inar

A couple of months ago, my Donna and Pelican was asked to join the Order of Defense, the peerage for fencers in the SCA.

As she had nothing nice to wear for her elevation about 6 weeks later at Winter Coronet, we discussed options, and settled on 16th Century Irish (her Persona and mine) menswear--partly so she could borrow pieces from my wardrobe, and partly because the main outer layer really doesn't require much fabric.  So...I set to procrastinating.  For the better part of a month.  Not a big issue...even with handsewing an inar doesn't take much time, since there really aren't a lot of seams.

Photo by Twobears Photography

However, since it was for a special occasion I wanted the garment to be bling, and elected to try to keep my doing so a secret except from select support crew who were sewn to secrecy. 

Stolen: Dwarven Vest?

Nope…it’s a 16^th century Irish inar.  While the garment appears to be too small to modern eyes, the fit is actually just right…for the style.  The inar was the “outer” garment of the Wild Irishman outfit, and was worn over the loose,tunic-like leine.  To the best that I can tell, the garment is unique to the culture.

Garment Description:

The inar is a short vest or jacketlike garment, most likely made of wool.  It is slightly fitted (primitively), has rudimentary sleeves, and a separate skirt (which is also short).  Did I mention the garment is short?  It comes to maybe hip length, with the waist seam somewhere around the sternum.  The neckline comes down almost to the sternum as well.  As such, it is a somewhat odd-looking piece of clothing, especially being worn over the extremely loose and bloused leine. 

Project Roundup: More Irish stuff, yet another waistcoat, and dyeing

I haven't been sewing as much as I would like...for some reason, I've been more tired than usual, and it effected my motivation.  Plus, my major project was on hold until I managed to dye the silk then buy materials.  Excuses, I know.  But this will probably be fairly short.

Like before, they should be in more or less chronological order...

When I last posted a Project Roundup (my term for my "dress diary" posts, I had just finished my handsewn Irish leine...this meant that I needed to make the inar to go over it.

Image is a closeup of a Durer drawing.

The Inar.  For reference, the inar is a short, jacket like garment made of wool, and with a short, pleated skirt.  If it seems like I am stressing the word short...that's because the entire garment barely comes to my waist.

Whose sleives hang trailing down Almost unto the shoe: the 16th Century Irish Leine

This project has been a long time coming; many (relatively) years ago, I wrote an article on 16th century clothing---my first serious research article, in fact.  It is only now that I have actually gotten around to making a suit of Wild Irish clothing, consisting of the leine and inar, as well as the shaggy brat.

The Project: 

This piece of documentation discusses bottom layer of the 16^th century project….the leine.

The leine--a word translating now as shirt--appears essentially as a linen tunic, almost universally "saffron yellow", although lady's versions do appear in white, and I suspect that the lower classes might make due with natural coloured linen (ranging in colour from blue-grey to a lighter yellow[i]--I will discuss this more later).  For both sexes, pendulous or bagpipe style sleeves were the norm, as was the use of massive quantities of linen cloth.  Men, at least, wore theirs bloused over a belt, to bring the garment to knee length.

Project roundup: Leine, waistcoats, and...stuff

So, I kind of promised that I would work on dress diaries more often...obviously, since my last blog post was over a month ago, I slacked.  Shame on me, I know.

But, here it goes.  In the last month or so, I've been working on three major projects, plus some others; testing my glove drafting (which I later taught a class on, and will write a post on later) with a trial pair in upcycled leather, sewing on the 16th century Irish Leine, and both developing a house waistcoat pattern for myself and making the first piece from it.

The photos are in approximately chronological order, and jump between projects...so pay attention:

To start, gloves.  Since I've been playing with 1560-70s Northern Europe, I wanted to work on a pattern that would be appropriate to that....it was both easier, and more challenging than I expected.  Actually drafting them wasn't that difficult...finding examples from the correct period which show any detail was.  Still, I managed, even if I'm still not certain of whether there should be a gusset into the thumb.

The Other Next Project; Wild Irish

I'm also starting another project this week--just waiting on thread.  I've been planning it for quite a while...even bought the fabric almost a year ago.

 And that is: 16th Century Wild Irish.  I figured it is time, especially since I wrote the article on 16th century Irish clothing more than a few years ago.  The outfit is really quite simple; the basis is the leine of golden yellow linen, the inar of red wool, and that is essentially all.  A fringed woolen brat is also a requirement, but I made mine a good 4.5 years ago (and use it every day).  No shoes, pants, or hat required.