The Armour Archive

Hi everyone. I'm making a doublet for this weekend's event, and I am planning on slashing the fashion fabric layer. I want the intermediate layer of fabric to peek through in some areas. Is it really as simple as making small cuts on the bias? I'm feeling paranoid, since I won't have time to fix any screw ups. Thanks.

Robert The Stout.

It'll peek through when you flex, bend, or move. The pulling-out fabric thing for the most part seems to have fashionable earlier on in the 16th century, but not really past then. Even when cut on the bias, there may be some fraying so don't freak out. Some people have had success with ironing on fusible interfacing to hold things together a bit more if you're worried about that, whereas others advocate painting the back with resin or wax to accomplish the same thing. I don't know how true to the period the latter two options are; needless to say, the first definitely isn't. I recommend using a very sharp chisel to do the slashes rather than Xacto knives or blades which drag and pull the fibers further.

Thanks. How large should be slashes be? Also, would the back be slashed also, or is that up to the tailor?

Yes, the back would be slashed too. Just be mindful of the relation between seams and slash placement. I have no idea which period/date you're after, so I can't answer about sizing.

My recollection from an article on pinking and slashing that Janet Arnold wrote for Costume is that gum arabic was sometimes painted on the backside of fabric to control fraying. The whole cloth wasn't painted, just the slashes. I don't remember if in the pieces she examined whether it was applied before or after cutting. I've bought Windsor & Newton prepared gum arabic from a hobby store. If you use it test it in an inconspicous place as it can soak through to the front of the fabric and look unattractive.

Tracy

Its very simple if you use the right fabrics. What fabrics are you planning to use?

The fashion fabric is wool broadcloth. Intermediate layer is medium weight linen, while the lining is also linen.

I'm most likely not going to get to the slashing in time for the event. I'm still finishing the eyelets, and I'm feeling really paranoid about this. FYI- this will be part of my Baronial Investiture garb.

Robert The Stout

I would expect that to fray some, but it will take a good while. The finer the weave/thread, the less it will fray. Cut with the grain (warp or weft), and it will fray less than cutting on the bias- you are cutting twice as many fibers on the bias.

I've found it to be far easier to slash fabric while flat, before sewing pieces together.

If I'm cutting the slashes before sewing the garment together then I tend to use a rotary cutter for most of the cutting and a strait edge to keep everything strait along lines I have marked. I use to rotary cutter to cut all but the last 3/8" or so of the cuts, then finish them with scissors.

If slashing after I've sewn layers together I tend to use a Xacto knife with a fresh blade for most of the cuts, unless they are longer than a couple inches. The way I make cuts using an xacto knife is not the standard way that most people probably cut things with one: placing the material on a surface and dragging the blade through the material, with a thin cutting board stuffed in between layers to avoid cutting the linings, as Dansknecht says this will drag and pull the fibers... instead, I hold the fabric in my hands, manipulate the fabric so I've gotten the outer and inner layers away from each other; then starting at one end of where I have marked my slash I poke the tip of the xacto knife through, the blade edge facing out/upwards/away from all layers, then push the blade along rather than pull and hold the blade at a shallow angle (closer to parallel than perpendicular to the plane of the material) - this way pulling and tugging on fibers feels lessened compared to dragging the blade along through the fabric and cutting board.

Dansknecht wrote:The pulling-out fabric thing for the most part seems to have fashionable earlier on in the 16th century, but not really past then.

In the german woodcuts and whatnot I see the trend of pulling lining fabric out through the slashes as more of a (very generalized) 1530ish to 1550ish thing.

Baron Alcyoneus wrote:Cut with the grain (warp or weft), and it will fray less than cutting on the bias- you are cutting twice as many fibers on the bias.

I find the opposite to be true (though you are right about cutting twice as many fibers when cutting on the bias). When I cut with the grain, the threads running parallel to the cut will over time creep out into the slash and free themselves from the fibers running the opposite direction. This leaves a more frayed looking edge, and a couple random threads hanging out in the slash... that doesn't happen to me when cutting on the bias.

One thing I see many of the Landsknechte do which I feel is inappropriate is to make slashes as eye or almond shaped holes... In art from the period (and in my own interpretations) you can find what look like eye/almond shaped holes. In my own outfits I have made inch to inch and a half long slashes, which over time as the garment becomes broken in will stretch to become shapes like that... I feel that this is an important part for getting the slashed look to come out right. I can elaborate more on this if anyone wants me to, just can't put it out in words right now... its all in how the fabric between rows of parallel slashes stretches in one way down the length of a form, and stretches the other way around the form in the unslashed bands, and that creates the look of the slashes sort of bumping out... but it takes time to break in.

I would be very interested in reading more about slashes, methodology, etc.

I made a Waffe and hand-stitched slashed red wool trim onto the blue wool bodice...and it looked distinctly Italian. Can't explain why. I removed it and did it all over again w/o the slashes. Uggggg.