Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 07:05:22 -1000
From: Julie Adams
Subject: Re: H-COST: German Costume Patterns
Shannon, you can check out my web site. http://www.znet.com/~savaskan/germans/
I have a costume guideline (originally created for our landsknect group) up
there for womens costume. It really needs and update and I never put in the graphics.
It has some reference books at the end. The only women's pattern I know is by Medieval
Miscellania. It was about $20 the last time I heard. I believe it is carried by
Alter Years and Amazon Drygoods. There are several problems with the pattern which
requires a great deal of refitting for most people. The bodice is usually too long
waisted, the skirt has too little fabric in it and should be cut in at least gores.
The bodice edge of the placket front bodiced curves oddly at the bustline. It does come
with some documentation though and if you have no other starting points it could
be useful.
Julie Adams
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Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 08:47:48 -1000
From: Julie Adams
Subject: Re: H-COST: German Costume Patterns
Gil, there is no existing bodices of this style so much of it is theory and
trial and error. I'm not sure of the details of the instructions because I just browsed
the pattern and then saw several results. Here is some info
from a private email I sent to someone awhile ago with similar questions, so this
may have info you didn't request or be somewhat jumpy.
We call the front piece a "placket" that is usually white (though I've seen
it in black and gold) with the embroidered/pearled band. We call the dress
style "placket front dresses" because we seen them even in Durer woodcuts
as early as about 1506. The latest one I've seen was dated 1550 and was on
a camp follower. That is the only campfollower or lower-middle class person
that I've seen wearing one. All others wear a square, round or high-necked bodice.
All other people wearing them are either rich courtesans, noble
women or upper-middle/patrician class women.
Look at some of the Lucretia pictures where the placket is pulled down and
the women's bust is showing. It pulls down and flips over on both sides and
you can see the edge of the embroidered part showing at the edge (Friedlander 237,
166). The embroidered part should normally cover the bust area. It looks wierd if
it is too narrow (I've seen people try to used 1.5" trim ).
We treat the placket as a separate piece that is hooked in between the opening of
the bodice. Many people stiffen his piece more than I believe they were stiffened.
If it is stiffened too much, it gives a sillouette like a Tudor one. There needs
to be some stiffening around the waist to prevent the lacings from digging into the placket
and flesh, so that it still looks smooth. I use a canvas backing to my placket and
some boning in the waist area where the lacing crosses it. The bust should remain
natural and curving, not flattened. Most women wearing these are very thin people. If you
are overweight *at all*, they do not work well without a corselet as support. The
sillouette will be wrong and the placket will shift and wrinkle. If a corselet is
used, the corselet should not confine the bossom.
I found this to be the case in folk bodices seen in the Bayerisches Museum in Nuremberg
that were 100-200 years later. They were the same style, but different fabrics.
I was able to see that they used "S" hooks placed sideways that were used as lacing
hooks just inside the edge of the bodice. They were invisible from the front (I had
to get real close and sneak a look from the side to see them). I think this is how
they were done in period. Lacing is always zig-zag or back down and back (making
it look like single lines), never criss-cross and always starts under the embroidered band.
Since "S" hooks are impossible to find, we normally make a lacing strip with grommets
in it that is attached just inside the edge of the bodice and tacked down between
each one, but coat eyes (of hooks and eyes) can work too.
You can do the skirt/bodice attachment two ways. You can sew the skirt to a
band and then baste the band inside the bodice and inside the placket. Or you can
baste the skirt right to the bodice and placket. The skirt opening is on the left
side edge of the opening of the bodice (jacket edge). The placket can even be sewn
down all along one side to the inside of the bodice, except for the bustline. The bodice is
hooked to the placket bust at the top and bottom edge of the embroidered band on
each side of the bust. This allows a natural rounding of the bust in the placket,
and can also make that look that some of them have where the edge of the bodice curves slightly
at the bust (Freidlander 168, 301 center). The placket needs to be hooked at the
waist as well to prevent slippage. To close the dress, you often need to start lacing
from the top, then when it nears the bottom, the placket hooks and skirt hooks are
closed.
When you cut the bodice, the opening is cut away toward the side in a fairly straight
line. Many people underestimate how funny this looks and don't cut away enough. Then
when the laces are tightened it ends up with a point in the center front, looking
rather Durndelish or like a milkmaid...They are very weird to put on because before lacing
the opening seems like they are at your sides.
The high-collared look is either made by a partlet (called a Goller) or the
bodice is cut with the high "wicked witch" collar. This works well cut as one piece
with the bodice pieces. No separate collar pieces are needed. They can be stiffened
with milinery wire or equivalent. Some sleeves clearly show chemise at sleeves and/or
elbow. But in general, the chemise is not used to puff through the small puffs. Those
are usually false puffs or the sleeve is lined with something.
A number of costumers developed this technique besides me: Elizabeth Pidgeon-Ontis
(who illustrated Juanita Leish's book "who wore what" and is featured in "The art
of the costumer"- Renaissance Military Society (RMS)), Cathy Berte' (aka Duchess
Sophie, OL - West Kingdom, RMS), and Erin Harvey Moody (aka Lady Francesca von Hesse - currently
West kingdom - has two Embroidered Tudor/Stuart reproduction caps in the current
Folger Library exhibit) and Julie Bradley (RMS).
You can see tailors woodcuts showing sleeveless gowns with bodices attached
to the skirt, you can see, but its important to remember that Jost Amman Book of Trades
woodcut is much later than Cranach. The Furrier I believe it is, shows the pleats
of the organ pipes being set and hung. This is an important process to making them
hang right if you don't sew the pinched pleats all the way to the bottom of the gown.
Hope this helps, feel free to ask for clarifications..
Julie Adams
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Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 06:22:14 -1000
From: Julie Adams
Subject: Re: H-COST: Found the Curtain dress
I think this is a good point. One thing that I've noticed in German Renn clothes is
that there are brocades that are period, but in Germany, they don't make them into
clothes... You see them in bedspreads and apholstery, but not on bodies. Some of
these fabrics are worn later on by Elizabethans. Its just important to remember that not
all fabrics that are period are necessarily made into clothing...
Julie Adams
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From: MaggiRos
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 20:08:54 -1000
Subject: Re: H-COST: German Costume Patterns
You have to remember the 16th centurey Artists Conspiracy was in full swing :)
Hundreds of pictures were painted giving no clue at all how people got into
their clothes, or where they put their seams. This was done as part of a
serious conspiracy to make life for re-enactor/costumers impossible. Trust me.
I'm sure it's true. No, no really. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying
to sell you something.
MaggiRos
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Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 06:56:02 -1000
From: Julie Adams
Subject: Re: H-COST: German Costume Patterns
Thats true. I find this especially true of men's clothes. I am cutting a new waffenrock
for my hubby and working on the square necked front, but with a split skirt. None
of the pictures show openings and few show seams. There are a few examples where
the square part looks like a bib and some ties are shown at the breast where they attach
to the main body of the garment, so I plan to try this one. But all in all, most
of it is hypothetical.
The reason we believe the placket front garments close where they close is
1) because many have high-necked bodices which don't have any good place to
put a closure, 2) that is how folk-costumes from slightly later are opened,
and 3) because it is proven to work and give the right "look" that we see in the paintings.
Julie Adams
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