The Armour Archive

I posted slides and teaching notes from a lecture I gave this past weekend in Tennessee at Menhir, a Meridies A&S event. I also put up a short page showing a variety of brass rubbing depictions of women wearing the distinctive cap with kite veil seen in the 1470s and 1480s in England.

Building a 1480 English Lady's Outfit -- this is a PDF and may take a while to load.

The English bonnet circa 1480 and its veils

Perfect! Thank you very kindly, Tasha.

Ooh! nice! Thank you for sharing your research.

Thank you, Tasha. Have you thought about going to the very end of the 15th century and making an English gable hood or French hood?

Your PDF mentions that for the outer gown, you cut the panels with the flare already added, instead of separate gores. Were both methods used in that period? I've been wondering when straight panels with gores gave way to flared panels for male and female gowns of the lower and middle class.

Tibbie,

It has crossed my mind to try the oft-neglected turn of the 16thc, but I'll have to add it to the end of a very long list of more urgent projects.

My choice to cut the flare into the skirt rather than to add gores was one of expedience -- I needed to get the gown done in time for that lovely pas d'armes in Atlantia in the fall of 2009. Gores would have added a lot more sewing. In the period, we find that fabric width ruled decisions like this at least some of the time, as well as the far more frequently-discussed topic of maximum use of the fabric ("conservation"). We don't have many extant garments to go by, but the few we do have tell us a lot. Incomplete sample set discussed below.

For instance, in the early 15thc, we have the Golden Gown in Uppsala Sweden. That was cut from rather wide cloth and as a result, the flare is included in the skirt, with very short gores added below knee level to continue the line of flare. This tells us that when they had the width, they weren't always uber-concerned with such things as placing bias to bias or bias to grain in the skirt, for the purpose of maximizing the effect and aesthetics of drape. I think much has been made of this by contemporary dress historians, especially us amateur ones, who bring a level of detailed analysis to this stuff that only a zealous sort of passion can inspire. "Amateur" comes from the Latin word for "lover", IIRC.

In the 14thc, we have two male garments in France (CdB and Chartres) which both have tiny little gores at the bottom-side of their skirts used in the same way as described above. These three highly luxurious examples are all directly related to fabric width because in all three, it is clear the gores are not present for any other reason except to extend the curve or line of a part of the garment. Minimizing fabric scraps (another way of defining "fabric conservation") does not appear to be a high priority, at least in the making of the Golden Gown and the Chartres pourpoint. The CdB pourpoint, however, was certainly cut with conservation in mind. But the gores at the bottom-sides of its skirt are ruled by fabric width alone.

Getting to your actual question -- when would lower/middle class people have moved from gores to integrated flare -- I believe the answer is: whenever they had the opportunity to, if the width of their fabric allowed it and they were able to make use of the fabric scraps generated from that tailoring choice. I don't think there was a point in time within the scope of SCA periods when such a tailoring change happened all at once as a major sea-change (like many believe that fitted, set-in sleeves did for the 14thc). I do think this happened later on, after fabric became mass-produced, wider, and much cheaper.

Hopefully I've answered your question!
-Tasha

Thanks for the answer, Tasha. I have a further question about bias-to-bias seams. I know they're considered stretchier than bias-to-grain or grain-to-grain seams. This is of course a good thing for hosen, tight sleeves, or garments tightly fitted to the torso. However, will a bias-to-bias seam on a skirt be strong and stable enough or will it sag and wrinkle? Does this depend on the fabric, i.e., will a bias-to-bias seam be stable with a heavy, stiff fabric but saggy with a light, stretchy fabric?

Tibbie Croser wrote:Thanks for the answer, Tasha. I have a further question about bias-to-bias seams. I know they're considered stretchier than bias-to-grain or grain-to-grain seams. This is of course a good thing for hosen, tight sleeves, or garments tightly fitted to the torso. However, will a bias-to-bias seam on a skirt be strong and stable enough or will it sag and wrinkle? Does this depend on the fabric, i.e., will a bias-to-bias seam be stable with a heavy, stiff fabric but saggy with a light, stretchy fabric?

Bias-to-bias always runs the risk of sagging and stretching along the seam. I like to hang dresses up for at least 24 hours if they have bias-to-bias in their skirts. Some people hang them for longer -- like 3 days. After I've let the fabric relax a bit, I'll cut the hem. Yes, the looser the weave, the more it will stretch and vice versa.

As a complete aside, now that I'm getting into 20th c. sewing with patterns, I'm amazed by how many skirts have bias to bias.

Hi, Charlotte. It was your site (Costly Thy Habit) that seemed to discourage bias-to-bias seams. I *think* there are bias-to-bias seams shown in Patterns of Fashion (late 16th-early 17th centuries). However, the fabrics were often stiff and/or heavy and/or lined/interlined and perhaps less likely to stretch, therefore.

Yep, generally I do. That's why I was so surprised to see them in patterns!

I actually have done some dresses with bias to bias, especially when cutting in wide brocades. I care about directionality, even though it seems that medieval people did not. I've found that the best way to cut a full skirt on directional brocade is with wide panels, but the skirts have bias. Again, they're stiff fabrics, but I haven't had a problem. I think as long as you hang them (as Tailoress mentioned above), they'll also be fine.