Repairing Your Historical Clothing is Period (I promise!)
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- We've all heard the old historical reenactment chestnut that "people in the past didn't repair their clothes" or even that "soldiers wouldn't have time to repair their kit in the field".
Horse apples. HORSE APPLES, I SAY.
There is so much evidence for historical people, both civilian and military, fixing and repairing their clothing that this video will have not one, but two Jimmy rants on the subject! Join me as we look at some of my favourite historical clothes from Hedeby, Bernuthsfeld, Egypt, Scotland, and Norway that have been patched, darned, sewn, trimmed, re-hemmed, bodged, cobbled, and translated into a new lease of life.
May it inspire you to fix that sock, sew up that hole in the crotch of your pants that you know you really should fix soon (yeah, same), or just allow you to see pictures of me from a decade ago.
Fix your kit. And clean your maille, you animals!
Bit of reading:
That tunic: gallerysearch.d...
costumehistoria...
blog.nms.ac.uk...
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The whole bit about sergeants was absolutely hilarious to me, mostly because my great-grandad was Director of Artillery for Ireland and, despite only having one eye, was terrifyingly good at spotting stray specks of dust, let alone holes in uniform.
Glad I'm not the only one who, when hearing "camp follower," immediately pictured someone following the soldiers around going "Coo-eee, call that a uniform? Has more holes in it than Swiss cheese, doesn't it, darling?"
Many years ago, I was at a festival who had gotten a Scottish weaver for demonstrations - the weaver told us that in the real old days, if the house caught on fire, people would rescue the clothing and cloth, because it was quicker and cheaper to build a small wood house then replace the cloth.
Nowadays it’s the TV that gets saved first 🤦🏻♂️
I can well believe it.
Woolens and linens were very expensive before the invention of the power loom. I'd easily bore you explaining all the steps involved in making cloth from the plant or fleece. You can tell this based on dowries, wills and other documents.
Now I dont have a cat anymore I would probably do the same, though its a tossup between all my antique sheets and my great grandmothers sewing machine
@@cuttwice3905 I have a mad project to grow and process my own linen. I've barely started, and already I am VERY VERY CAREFUL with scraps of all sorts of fabric, because of how much effort (human or mechanical) is needed to make it!
People often comment how well people were dressed in the 'old times' even though they were poor. This is the reason why. Clothes were expensive but quality and would be mended and remade to try to be a little fashionable.
And generally taken care of. People nowadays think even ironing is too much bother. Well if you don't iron your clothes, they tend to develop permanent folds which are likely to be the first place where the fibres in your clothes start wearing out...
"Hurry up and wait" is something I frequently hear from veterans
Oh yes, it's a thing. As a direct result we invented a number of games...an alarming number of them involved throwing things at each other. Rocks. Medicine balls. Our own patches (after they became velcro- we called it patch darts).
I have a book about the clothing of the Black Prince based on documents. One of the things was that one of the yearly payments for work done was a "suit of clothes " . Once a year you got clothing! Clothing also was handed down in wills, as well as sheets, blankets and tapestries. Fabric was EXPENSIVE! That was why making it was one of the first things industrialized.
Tapestries ordered and hung by Henry VIII cost as much as a battle ship.
A good linen shirt took an acre of land and a year to make. A viking ship sail took many women and sheep at least 2 years of work, in fact it took longer to spin and weave a sail then to build a boat.
What's the book called? I'd love to read it.
@@lenabreijer1311 thanks!
That’s not really a fair comparison. A crew of men could build a longboat in a few days.
@@kokofan50 it would probably take more then a few days lol when you have to create the planks without power tools. And you have create the nails and roves to stick them together.
@@lenabreijer1311 making the boards is the easiest part. You split the boards then hue them. Also, longboats only used a few nails at the stem and stern. The long part is carving the keel, but with a few dozen guys on a longboat crew, that much wouldn’t take long.
One "Stitch in Time" episode was about the coat of a Georgian-era laborer depicted in a painting, working out the base style when it was new and the sequence of repairs and alterations as it got handed down over decades.
Yes! I thought of that episode too! Didn't they determine that the coat was probably 75 years old by the time it was painted, based on the changes in style?
Those who could darn 'invisibly' were much admired as your item would look as new. Those who could repair as decoratively like that blue tunic were also much admired.
"The great predatory sergeant" is a fearsome visual. I love it. With the cost of clothing prior to the modern era, I cannot imagine people not mending. As for sewing, weren't sailors renown for being able to sew?
This is such a great subject.
I keep hearing the Sergeant in R. Lee Ermey's voice.
My grandmother would buy a dress every 2-3 years as Sunday best (or, more exactly, to go to the restaurant or see her specialist). When the dress started to get a little worn out, it would become the shopping dress that she would wear to do town market. Then the dress would become a housedress and it would finish as a mop. I do have tea towels that were spun and weaved by my great-grandmother as a bedsheet. Only rags were thrown away. And I still do that
As an ex soldier myself I can confirm that the Sgt was indeed a cruel animal 😂 😂
My father was in the USMC and his gunny literally had the last name “Mortis”. They called him “Rigor Mortis” for a reason.
Am I the only one who now NEEDS more videos of Jimmy teaching us to darn things and polish our armor? Absolutely wonderful video as always. Get well soon Jimmy!
I spent hours making a linen tunic. Because I don't want and can't afford to do that again any time soon, I put in the occasional twenty minutes patching a hole, darning a thin place, and replacing popped stitches. I deliberately saved the scraps so I'd have something to use for patching.
I'm the same way. I spent too much time and effort making my historical clothes to not mend them when they get damaged. I think reenactors who let their clothes fall apart must be wearing things that they bought rather than made.
Modern people too often think of clothing in modern terms. This is a nice reminder.
Maybe we can bring the darned sweater in as a fun trend.
I try to always darn my wool socks (most of them hand knitted by my father's mother, now passed, 15-20 years ago) in different colours each time to make a visual map of all the years they've survived and been loved.
Some of them actually look really lovely now, even the parts that are a bit of a mess.
Strong opener! Hahaha the video in general is great but I liked before we even got into it 😂
A modern US Naval Destroyer comes standard with an industrial sewing machine. It is intended for repairing even the upholstery!
ALL HAIL ÞE GLORIOUS BEER TENT! And always important to take care of your kit! It’s your cloþing, and critical to take care of it like such. It costs money and labor to make, and you should take pride in it. People in the past made þeir clothing þemselves or had þeir immediate family make þem for þem, and they took care of þeir clothes and þeir armor and weapons, as people still do. Raggedy kit isn’t auþentic, it’s lazy. Take care of your stuff people. Its easy enough for anyone to do or learn to do, so take a few hours to learn how to do it if you don’t already know, and if you do, þen take a few hour to sew up your coat and polish up your mail
I deeply deeply appreciate your effort to bring the þ back into the written English language. It makes me so happy for some reason! I love it!
@@berkleypearl2363 Þank you! Im trying my best, and I’m glad to see it’s making people happy
17:39 I definitely relate to this bit; just a few weeks back, I went from "I'll *try* and buy secondhand, if I can" to "the only things I'll buy new for my kids and I are undergarments."
Sewing is an underrated skill in the military. When I was in the US Army in 2003 we were stationed in Kuwait and we were required to sew little patches of infrared reflective material on all our uniforms prior to our invasion of Iraq (for friend/foe identification) and where we were we didn't have access to a sew shop so it was each soldier's responsibility. I was one of the few people who actually had any sewing skills so I had set up a little cottage industry making money sewing the patches on other people's uniforms.
A stitch in time saves nine!! I was reminded of Japanese boro stitching. I read a textile book once that claimed that once a piece was worn out it was thrown away. I almost threw the book away!! It would have been shared around with every family member of a suitable size, and then cut up to make kids clothes. And as it got thinner and softer it would have been made into baby clothes, nappies, and scraps used as rags. A few years ago I went to a Trench Art Quilt exhibit. In a side room was a "Wagga" quilt, opened out to show worn out baby clothes sewn in as wadding. Modern 'make-do- and-mend has nothing on the past!
People tend forget quickly. I seen corset with 3 fabrics, I seen stunning silk dresses with 20 patches. I remember how my gran and mum patch my dresses, my gran was the best, she made flowers as patches. My gran also wore her wedding dress as her going out dress, it had been dyed blue and hem shorten and she was buried in it. Yes, when it comes to look poor, people thinks it being tattered clothes ( seen rich kids pretend to be poor) , while poor try their best to keep their clothes perfect and patch.
Old sailors used to call it "A patch on a patch with a patch in between."
I remember my grandmother teaching me to sew up runs in nylons in the 80s, because in the 30s and 40s stockings were valuable and you kept them as long and as well as you could.
A while ago, I found a (Polish) contraption for mending stockings in a charity shop. A sort of tiny hook that extends out of a handle and back in to make catching the stitches easier, allegedly. (And then soon after I had to stop wearing them altogether because I have atopic ecsema and my skin decided it can't stand nylons anymore...)
So yeah, mending them was so widespread that a commercial tool for it was made!
I might surmise that those of you who are passionate about period reenactment are likely to have much more historically accurate period clothing compared to the typical Movie costuming which might be tragically inaccurate in films and tv.
I'm not a reenactor (yet) but I grew up poor so my mum mended many of my clothes, and my classmates made fun of me, so as soon I had more money I bought a lot of (cheap) new clothes because I didn't want to be seen in old clothes. But Now, thanks to UA-camrs like you and Bernadette, and the internet now embracing more sustainable ways of living, I love darning and patching clothes and learning how to make it look pretty and be proud of it.
Thank You for another lovely video Jimmy. My gran was born in the 1890's, she would take a switch to me if I wore clothing in that condition. It had to be clean, and patches where appropriate. That said, I need to get my treadle sewing machine out and back to work. I have several things in the repair pile, that need some tlc.
Thank You again.
Good! I've a few 18th c peasant dresses I made that need some seeing to. Brilliant help
Wrinkles are period, Jimmy. I have to admit that I still have garb that I made 25 to 30 years ago. I learned how to double stitch/French seam the majority of garb as I had a former SCA Knights Marshall and two children who grew up in the SCA. Of course people repaired their clothing back in the day, mainly because the average person didn't have two weeks (or more) worth of clothing to fall back upon.😊
P.S. I had one of my daughters' Merydwen and Seanna, infant tunic that I handed over to one of our SCA friends when she had her daughter on the Maternal/Child unit where I was the Nursery Charge. I also made Briony's baby, Branwen (?) a new Viking garb tunic to wear. That was well over 35 years ago. I don't know if they still have them,or if they have handed them on. Lori aka Mistress Briony Blaslagen, has a Laurel in costuming, and yet she was thrilled with the first two pieces of humble garb that I gave her.
Been running sewing classes with my reenactment group recently. I've not got much experience with making garments, but the skills I do have have been enough to start teaching the guys the basics with a machine and by hand.
I'm just as proud of the neat but visible repairs I've made to make kit wearable again, as I am of the kit I made from scratch
I'd really like to learn to resole my own shoes. My 14th century boots need new soles and I'm too anxious to explain to the local shops what I need. @.@
I'm going to need to anyway though because I don't want to buy new shoes if I don't have to anymore. I want to get my existing shoes repaired at a quality place (even my modern shoes) and if it costs as much as a custom new pair of shoes, only they're my comfy old shoes then I don't care.
eheheh, i enjoyed the rant. i actually started patching my clothes out of poverty too! but i made it a hobby at the same time, i love visible mending and combining thread and fabric colors. my favorite pants have begone ripping more quickly than i can sew them together again sadly 😢 i might have to invest in slightly less cheap thread as well...
I had to stop in the middle to learn about the Lendbreen tunic and, by extension, the Thorsberger tunic. I'm enchanted with the Thorsberger seam method, I don't know how I hadn't learned about it before now!
I do Scottish reenactment (14th-18th centuries timeline group) and when I decided to add a 15th century kirtle to the mix, I had to outsource the making of it to a well known regional supplier. While the kirtle was perfect (Gwen at Historic Enterprises is the best ❤️) there was a slight error with the sleeves: a bit too short due to my own faulty measuring and only one button per cuff. Thanks to the manner in which Gwen makes the sleeves, I was able to take some of the fabric, flip it outward, extend the sleeve slits, and make a late 1400s/early 1500s cuff with several brass replica Tudor buttons going up to my forearm. The sleeves finally looked like they properly fit my arms and I had the extra buttons I wanted. It took maybe an afternoon of work.
Does it look noticeably hand-done? Of course.
But does it look like something a merchant-class woman from that era and that place might do to keep up with fashions? It sure does!
Man, I loved getting hand-me-downs from my sister (modern clothes AND the historical), she had great tastes! I actually have a few shirts from her I've had since about Junior High School & I'm now 40. I didn't have to do much repair over the years, considering they made things to last back then.
The British army provided you with a housewife I still have my brothers with the remains of wool and thread from his national service.
I have my uncle's sewing kit from WWI. US Army, went to France. My father's older brother. I have my father's cribbage board (US Navy) from WWII. These things are so precious.
Housewife? (Apologies if Jimmy explains in the video, it's not quite done yet).
I guess it's the nickname for the army sewing kit?
@Mirjan Bouma it goes way back they were known in the 18th century. In this case it was issued by the British army it would contain shirt buttons thread in uniform colour needles and usually wool for mending socks or darning repairs. My brother was a great one for walking and camping he always carried it in his rucksack to do running repairs.
"It's too hard" really just means "I can't be bothered, because I'm lazy".
👆
I once heard a quote which is, "It's not hard, it's just tedious." I call myself out by saying this when I don't feel like doing the things I should because the task isn't fun.
Why was your jumper banned? I think it looks great with all those different colors darned in. 😆
I’ll look forward to that shoe making video! I’ve been watching Nicole Rudolph making shoes with historical techniques and it was fascinating! I think the last pair she made was a pair of Oxfords.
Clothes are there to protect you, so it's hugely important to keep them good! They keep you warm, they keep the sun off, they may even keep an sword at bay for a bit. So of course you have to keep your kit in one piece, regardless how many patches you have to put on!
The dress worn by my mother at my elder sister's wedding (1950's), was kept, worn by me, kept, worn by my daughter, kept and worn by my granddaughter! A skirt I got in Mexico as a six year old saw several summers of use by me, a few more summers of use by my daughter, and even more summers of use by my three granddaughters!
The very real maile my dad bought on a whim was rust free and was kept rust free - the best way to make it last a few more centuries.
im not a reenacter but my grandparents raise me and they take care of their clothes and they teach me how to do it. so yeah im mending my socks or jumpers and i take good pride to do that. and when i do repair i always remember them and think they would be proud of me
This video makes me very self conscious abuot the pile of clothes I need to mend, patch and darn looking at me from its corner. And that's without counting my "medieval" dress (something I whipped in out of a tablecloth in a few days) that really needs to get fixed at the neckline...
Jokes apart, this was very interesting and I really liked to see the photos of historical clothes mended over and over!
I love channels like yours and Bernadette’s who discuss repairing and taking care of your clothes (not just for reenactment but also everyday wear).
We had a black tie wedding to go to. We found my husband's great grandfather's wool tuxedo jacket in an attic and it fit perfectly. I darned over two dozen moth holes. Gran and great aunt were thrilled to see it worn again.
Extremely cool!
I have one of my grandmother's wool overcoats which I believe she got in New York, probably in the 50s, and there's a large patch under one arm that's been zig-zag stitched over and over to reinforce it, as though it was heavily worn and getting threadbare, and while the lining is falling apart, the wool and mending are fine. I also have a blanket from my other grandparents that was a wedding present of theirs, and I've patched multiple large holes from age and shelf wear and it's still avocado green and warm and I'll keep mending it whenever it needs it. Wool and quality fabrics will last forever and good materials for historic gear will take mending well and make an outfit look far more authentic as they gain patches and stitches. Japanese sachiko stitching and mending techniques are exquisite and studying that technique, stitching around a tear and then over to weave a new piece of material over the hole looks cool af. Also, thank you for reminding me I have a silk Tudor kirtle that needs to be mended if I want to wear it for Faire this weekend!
Patched kit is authentic kit. My husband was going to through out a wool blanket/cloak because it was moth eaten. I darned it with my spindle spun wool. It's beautiful and still useful.
Re-watchint this one and the angry ramble Bernadette shut out always has me in stitches 😂😉
as a fiber major who is looking to follow weaving and embroidery, i agree you fix things. pattern darning is amazing.
Never saw someone so passionate about clothrepair and I love it! It is much easier than it sounds. It doesnt have to look perfekt. Make the cloths unique with the repairs!
Apart from anything else, a torn garment lets in the wind and cold. Anyone who spends time outside will mend it asap!
I have literally been mending my clothes for the past 3 days-my very modern, bought and stubbornly fraying clothes that seem to develop holes every time I sneeze. I’ve been practicing patches in the hopes the new bit of fabric will hold things together longer. Now, I’m no expert-I’ve only been sewing for a few years at this point but even hand sewing the patch in really isn’t that bad.
That said, some people are just looking for an excuse to justify their behavior.
It’s good to see you, Jimmy! Hope the knee things are going well. My own swelling has actually gone down a bit finally and I’m enjoying the relief while it lasts 😅. Thank you for sharing and having the energy to engage these sorts of people.
You've inspired me to dig that pair of socks out of the fiber recycle bin and just darn the toe!
Just discovered your videos. Really great. I’m in Hawaii and lots of parallel issues here with regards to making up history, culture, pretending it was real. My attitude about it all is much like yours. I’ve also participated in the Eistefod festival in my teens with a choral group from Hawaii and we even placed 3rd in that. It was great.
It's so good to see you again! I loved your tunic of many colors... I have no idea why your friends had a problem with it! 😊
I actually spent the weekend in a field getting drunk with my friends.
It sounds like a lot of people need to spend a day with some wool and a drop spindle because if you realize the sheer amount of time and work that goes into producing cloth and thread, you're a whole lot more likely to care about it. (and honestly, the act of mending clothing makes me care more about it!)
I can't believe you just called me a creature! Demon would be more appropriate....
🤣
A demon is a creature - of nightmare!
Thank you thank you. I've been an reenactor for 40 odd years and this has really annoyed me since I was a teenager, I was 3 months old when I started.
I haven't bought clothing for myself in years! I do buy fabric to make clothing, but i make it to last..and having 3 boys, i totally understand how that blue Egyptian tunic ended up in that condition! I've started using heavier and heavier for my boys so that i can pass items to the next one.
I agree - mending itself is period, Not mending your clothing is just unacceptable.
I do have Bernadettes book took 6 weeks to get to Australia and i can sew quiet well but to have a simple beautiful book with clear easy instructions to follow is invaluable.
CATCHOW IS BACK
What’s p o p p i n
@@TheWelshViking fellow nerds 😭😭
I *can* imagine you talking like that, and it's wonderful
+1 for the shoemaking vid.
Always on the lookout for anything I can do while sitting down at LH that gets people asking questions.
I love repairing my clothes and homeware items, I really do feel connected to my ancestors when I am in the process of making or repairing items. It gives me a sense of connection to all those that have gone before me and cared for their things out of sheer necessity.
Jimmy, the US Army no longer issues sewing kits, although I own several as I've bought new ones for about $5 every time our uniforms change. Uniforms issued for combat deployments come with an iron on patch with each piece (blouse and trouser). Woe be it to the Soldier with dirty or unserviceable kit. You are correct, a Sergeant, possibly a First Sergeant or Sergeant Major, will eat them alive.
My favourite period underdress. It' been rehemmed twice already and is in need of third. This time I have redo the cuffs as well. But big reason for this much wear is that during the summer I wear it almost daily at home. Also, it was originally made floor length because I didn't own period shoes.
I do camp follower for a 16th century pikemen camp. I do help with some clothing but i cook a lot. I repair my kit all the time. I'm learning colcha embroidery and using it to help with my mending. One shift i have had to retire because I can't keep up with the new holes.
Hei I hand sew and repair all of my Viking inspired clothing, tunics, hoods socks and my wife has not long finished make a mitten as I lost one on a train, the wool was Shetland wool, hand dyed and spun by the Yorkshire spinners.
Awww, c'mon Jimmy.... Tell us how you really feel.... 😆 But, seriously. You make fantastic points. People clearly cared, and it's asinine to think they didn't.
That much darned jumper is a delight!!! It's a shame it got banned.
14:15 I don't know how true this holds further back, but those guides on how to be a wife/woman from the 1800's are pretty distainful if you let it hit the point of hole. The idea is you're meant to be reinforcing preemptively where the fabric is thinning. And they are wildly distainful if it hits the point of patch or rip.
In regards to children's clothing repairs,,,,
I actually donated all my girls L.H. clothes to the local theater last year....
I have 3 daughters, each 3 years apart.....my youngest was under 6 months old at her first event....other people from our group also had girls...
Hand-me-downs galore !
Repairs , & alterations !!
We could have probably written a book with a photo for every page showing everything from growth pleats in, out, alterations for width, and just about everything else.....and that was just girls clothing.😃
We definately had a pretty good lived in look for daily wear / work clothing for everyone.....it was good enough that museum visitors on occasion would think we lived in the museum, 1860's Montana , Victorian era all the time 😮
Guess we were doing something right. 😉
Now my pile of winter tights is looking at me expectingly
I keep thinking about how fun it could be to have camp followers (in the modern sense of the word camp that is). Also darning samplers are the coolest thing i've ever stitched and you've given me an idea to use the pattern to finally fix that hole in my denim jacket :)
Bernadette❤ Anyone who quotes Bernadette or Morgan Donner on a video automatically gains my approval. Amazing creators. I thank the universe for them. And I thank the universe for you. I'm learning a lot from this channel. Great job.
Wow, that's so suprising, i thought the soliders would were colthing that looked like garbage picked up from a bin, thrown into mud, and dried above an campfire.
:)
Great video, im waiting for more!
I’m starting a petition to have every video be opened with “Kachow”
I watched this video while repairing my pyjama shirt, which felt very appropriate
Going to the first point, my uncle was a 15th century reenactor in the 80s and 90s and I was a 15th century reenactor just before the pandemic (I too have joined the Viking age dark side since then) and it's wild how different kits standards were back then, apparently it was often sewn with cheap calico and they repurposed WWII era helmets at first, though they did improve over the years.
All of my 15th century kit (other than a couple hoods I made more recently) is second-hand, needs a bit of love and care, one linen undershirt that's a bit too small probably has more of my stitching in it than all the previous owners and the original creator lol
I larp I don’t reenact but the get drunk in a field with friends is definitely shared between the two hobbies
we are going more and more to secondhand shops for clothing. mostly better quality then the shops these days
yup, a stitch in time... repairing clothes have been a IMPORTANT thing throughout history, same with tools.
I mean clothes where expensive as beep, a good shirt was big part of a weeks pay for a carpenter in 1808 (the best comparison I found with a quick Google) , apprentice only got two hose one coat, one pair of shoes (or two wooden clogs) and 3 shirts in year, socks was bit more generous and you got one leather apron every two years...
Hello, Jimmy! Welcome back!
And yes, I am very period with my clothes. I do like to repair and upcycle them rather than throwing them away. Because fuck capitalism and fuck wastefulness!
I am also not buying any new things at the moment, apart from underwear and socks maybe. A lot of modern undershirts have elastan in them and that tends to dissolve in some parts of the shirt, particularly on the upper back. :( That's something you cannot patch well.
I want to transition to more handmade clothes in general. Either by upcycling my old stuff or by making something new out of natural fibers. I have recently gotten several linen "boutique" garments - oddly shaped tops and jackets mostly, but also two linen pants. They aren't quite my style and also don't fit me well, but I have good ideas what to make out of them.
I'm just about to finish a cute skirt that I made out of a long top/shirt thingy. It is grey with a large flower print and I have lengthened it with a wide piece of machine bobbin lace and made an underskirt for it.
I also want to make a few early medieval inspired tunics to wear in everyday life. I think the early medieval men's fashion works best for my lifestyle (cycling, gardening, wearing backpacks) but still looks cool and is very comfortable. It's not my period for reenactment, but I want to incorporate it into my civil style more. Historybounding, so to speak.
It'll become my interpretation of Solarpunk fashion. ^ ^
Oh, and in a few weeks I will probably give a workshop on historical practices regarding fabric and clothes and how we can adapt them for today. We'll have a sustainable fashion week in my city and this workshop will be my contribution. I hope there will be interest for it and I will get a few participants.
As a conservator I guarantee you people mended their clothes. Sometimes incredibly well, sometimes terribly. But they mended and altered them. I worked on shoes from C.1350 AD/CE which had been repaired and altered.
My mom always gets annoyed when she sees I've repaired my clothes (just day to day clothes) because it "makes me look poor"
Makes you look smart and conscientious, is what it does.
Another excellent one :) when I was in Iceland, I was gifted some puffy hero pants 😂 all hand made and older than I am. Ive repaired them as did the previous owners and theyre lasting and going strong. The problem i always had was with shoes. Maybe i walk funny 😁 but always burned through shoes and was constantly repairing them.
Considering holes and tears due to thinning of the fabric:
I think it was actually already considered as a sign of neglect, if you let it come this far, for an actual hole to form, and did not darn your garment beforehand to prevent the impending damage!
Fond memories of summers with the SK - I was in Sir Charles Gerrards' Regt of Foote (as a Camp Follower) and am proud to say I was once sold for a guinea
But - YES - we would help with the kit - also carry LOTS of water with us - I followed musket and was also on hand for misfires - sorry - off on a tangent :)
So true. I've been wearing the same five pairs of jeans for almost 20 years now. My favorite shirt is 23 years old and I wear it at least once a week, a little worn but still looks nearly new
I had a really nice tunic that was damaged along the bottom so i cut it short and now it's a under under tunic for when it's cold.And the rest has been cut up as patches or made into flour bag's.Plus my trousers have a few patches one because a axe went into them and missed the leg lol
I'm willing to bet that that child's tunic was made from an adult's tunic that had gotten worn out along the seams.
Perfect video to watch while mending my coat 👌
Preach!
No, not issued in the U.S. Army. One is given an advance on pay and a list of items to purchase such as boot polish, brush, hygiene kit and sewing kit - hussif.
I was a spinner and a quilter before I did re-enactment but I don't think I knew anyone my age that could spin or sew (outside of my class that I was learning in, and in fact I don't think anyone in my 'art based' textiles degree course even knew how to spin or cared). I'm now in my 40s and I despair that I am still seen as one of the younger ones in my groups. These skills are not hard, but they are dying out, why? - I don't actually know why but I suspect it is partly my parents' generation not teaching their kids and my generation not caring. Hopefully the attitudes is changing and younger people have more of a desire to fix things rather than fill the planet with badly made fast fashion.
Too many reenactors are obsessed with pristine kit. Every season is an opportunity for brand new, shiny, kit. The same people complain about authenticity and the people who are re-using kit from previous years, with obvious darns are seriously looked down upon.
Thank you for this rant. I sew (it's Bernadette's fault), methinks that would be what I do at reenactment, I would set up with my needle, thread, and some patching scraps! I am in South Africa so we don't do that 😂
Passion such as this is rare these days!
Excellent Viewpoint!!! I have Bernadette 's new book, and have begun repairing! Friends are now giving me things to fix 😂 what size sox did you say?? ❤
Thank you for this video!
I learned to sew with my grandfather's Korean war sewing kit. I use it to make larp, cosplay and heavy metal battle jackets
Trouser legs dragging on the ground is _not_ suitable for a Scandinavian climate because the hem will get muddy and awful. In other words, a Viking Age Norse warrior wouldn’t have worn them like that because it would be awful to wear and awful for the cloth.
Also, the undertunic of the Skjoldehamn body has a few patches as well, to add to the list of mended garments in archaeological finds. That’s right: the leg wraps have silver beads on them, and the undertunic is obviously patched.
Hi Jimmy & Community! Quick question to the topic of equipment - havent seen any so far but do you know if there also were hauberks with buckles/Closings on either chest or back - like we can find them on several examples from the middle east, persia or late normanic italy & the genoese (and rare cases slavic europe)? Would be cool to know since I really like the designe & comfort it comes with.
You seem to have several examples of where they were used already!