Making a *thrifty* medieval dress (15th century kirtle on the cheap)
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- Using historical garment construction methods, thrifted fabric, and natural dyes, I make a medieval 15th-century linen work dress!
The research I did for this project relied heavily on information that's been collected and generously shared online through various SCA-related websites. Links below.
00:00 Intro
1:20 Inspiration
2:07 History rant
4:50 "Gothic" art?
6:17 Methodology
7:04 Construction
12:29 Botanical Dye
14:30 Dressing up like manuscript art - Historical Hair
16:30 PHOTO SHOOT
17:51 Closing thoughts ft prancing in dress
I'm an amateur sewist and amateur historian, so nothing presented here is an expert opinion. Kind feedback and corrections are welcome and appreciated.
--Further Reading & Links--
Diagrams of extant medieval garments
www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-...
A pattern of the Moy bog gown by Kass Mcgann reconstructinghistory.com/pro...
---Dye Notes---
For anyone interested, here is my dye process.
-Washed with normal detergent
-Scoured with washing soda and a drop of dish soap for ~4 hrs
-Mordanted with staghorn sumac leaves (fairly low %WOF, steeped for ~6 hours), rinsed and dried
-Washed with detergent
-Mordanted with alum
-2 hr hot onion skin dye bath (skins of ~40 brown onions)
-Rinsed and dried
-Final wash with detergent after 3 days to sit
--Notes, Corrections, Clarifications --
-Though the term is lifted from medieval texts, 'cotehardie' probably did not actually mean 'women's gown' in the middle ages. It is, however, a common term in use today to describe the outer Gothic Fitted Gown.
-On white nationalism and medievalism: various forms of 'medievalism' have been employed by white nationalist movements (notably the Nazi party and present-day Identitarians) to construct ethnic origin myths and/or to construct a historical basis for a white/european sameness. These 'medievalisms' are often compatible with the myths of the middle ages that exist within the popular imagination (both are grounded in Romanticism), so I think it's important when we nerd about this history to not leave space for that garbage.
-The Christian faith has indeed spread in a grassroots way in some times and places in its history. Christianity as the institution of the Catholic church is a different story, and that is more what I was referring to.
--Images--
In order of appearance. Public domain unless otherwise specified. License information below.
Thumbnail: Lady and unicorn from Platearius's Livre des Simples Medicines, illuminated by Robinet Testard. FR 12322, f.188v / Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Garment from Herjolfsnes. Photo by Lennart Larsen. CC BY-SA 2.0 / National Museum of Denmark
The Hunt by Paolo Ucello / Ashmolean Museum
Detail (4 figures) from Way of Salvation by Andrea di Bonaluto
Horse from a fresco at Castello della Manta.
Kirtle from a Book of Hours. MS 677, f. 211r / Morgan Library
Buncha ladies in dresses, via Wikimedia
Blue kirtle from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Illuminated by Limbourg Brothers, ms.65, f.6v / Condé Museum
Christianity map via Wikimedia
The Baptism of Clovis by Master of St Giles / National Gallery of Art
Madonna and child by Giotto
Nun marginalia from a manuscript of Roman de la Rose (what one?), via Wikimedia
La Cattedrale, Milano by Giacomo Brogi, via Wikimedia
12th-century sculpture at Chartes Cathedral, France: by Cancre, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia
Tebaide by Paolo Ucello / Galleria dell'Accademia, Firenze
Michaelangelo's David
Ferial psalter and book of hours, illustration by Bernat Martorell / Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat
Big Ben: by Paasikivi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia
Sexy boatneck from The Book of the Queen, Selected Works of Christine de Pizan, 1410-1414, MS Harley 4431, f.129r / British Library
Herjolfsnes illustration by Herbert Norris (d. 1950), from Costume and Fashion, published 1924.
Veronica Gambara. Painting by Antonio da Correggio c. 1517-1520 / The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Lucrezia Sommaria. Painting by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio c. 1510 / National Gallery of Art
Italian hair taping from a manuscript miniature: MS lat. 757 f. 380v / Bilbliothèque Nationale de France
CC BY-SA 2.5 description: creativecommons.org/licenses/...
CC BY-SA 4.0 description: creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Music---
"Journey in the New World" by Twin Musicom CC BY 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: www.twinmusicom.org/song/258/j...
Artist: www.twinmusicom.org
"Anon - Medieval Dance Tunes." Medley of medieval music performed by Paul Arden-Taylor, Elizabeth Wright & Malcolm Peake. Public Domain. Via Musopen
"Village Consort" by Kevin MacLeod
Link: filmmusic.io/song/4585-villag...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
"Horses and Trains" by Jesse Gallagher, UA-cam music library - Навчання та стиль
I'm so thrilled that people are finding and enjoying this! 😍
I make videos at a pretty slow pace but I'm having so much fun and there are definitely more coming!
The next one may involve leather 😎🏍🔥
"I roughly know exactly where they're gonna go" is something I suspect most people who have made stash projects have thought about their pieces. I genuinely enjoyed this video, especially the historical tangents.
Haha YES. I'm always just surfing this wave of having enough of an idea of where something's going to do the next step, but not quite enough to feel like I actually know what I'm doing.
and thank you so much!
Those eyelet holes are beautiful
thank you!
A very well researched and executed project! You really nailed the look of the inspiration piece, too bad your "unicorn" didn't want to cooperate.
One thing we should remember is that although there was the "usual" way of cutting and piecing and sewing garments, each cotehardie, kirtle, shift, etc. was made for a specific body shape. More times than we'll ever know, the seamstresses and tailors undoubtedly ran into the same limitations of fabric that you did.
And as you said, clothing was treated as a precious commodity so it was worn long past the time it was in the height of fashion. Styles also changed more gradually so its not unusual to have no clear cut start and end date, there's some overlap.
So all the guess work, weird piecing, extra darts and seams you made to make this fit are absolutely historically accurate.
Love your videos! And just an historical note, making your pattern or idea work with the fabric you have is completely historically accurate!!
thank you! And that is a great point. Absolutely!
Yup yup yup!! That's exactly what I thought too!
Damn, I truly got blessed by the youtube recommendations today
(take note, algorithm 😎)
How on earth is this only your fourth video... good heavens... just hit the notification bell... *_really_* well done...
I don't think I've seen an onion skin dye that's worked out to that deep a colour. Love having the cat as a stand in for the unicorn.
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked it and I'm excited to keep the videos coming your way!
Please more historical tangents!!! The editing and commentary on yourself and the world is *chef's kiss!*
Thank you! :) More historical tangents coming up!
THAT MUSICAL EDIT WITH THE HORSE. Almost spit out my sandwich, that was great!
awesome! it made me giggle too :p
That color you got from the onions is amazing!!! 🧅
Love your narration style --- and its so good to see someone else who does costuming entirely by thrift and internet. Subscribed!
Thank you! This is so encouraging!!
Love the historical tangents, and the natural dyes!
Good to see someone else's sewing process successfully includes "making it up as I go along".
Grabbing the cat to try to pose like the picture, made me laugh out loud!
💕😍💕😍💕
I love the historical tangents!!!
Omg! I love this dress SO MUCH!!!!
I love your juggling of (historical research + scant real examples + your own creative/practical solutions). I kinda do that too, so your process is very informative and inspiring. I love your calm & deadpan attitude: cute, intelligent, funny!
Thank you for your wonderful video.
For a beginner seamstress you are quite gifted!
I loved your thrifty medieval dress and I adored your substitution of a cat for the requisite medieval unicorn. When Rodrigo Borgia's mistress, Giulia Farnese, was (ironically?) painted -- *repeatedly* -- as a virgin with a unicorn, a goat was used in lieu of the unicorn. So unicorn substitution was a historically authentic measure....
Totally great video. Was going to make an office-ready kirtle next and am now looking forward to it even more. Btw, the sleeves with the little pieced-in gores, from some archeological work I was able to read, are actually historically correct.
Great! I love how you priced it together. So period in my opinion. After combing fiber, Spinning it, weaving it into cloth, I don't think any would be waisted! Later dresses show tiny tiny pieces used and I have done so in many pieces I've made.
Thank you, and I totally agree!
The dress turned out gorgeous! And it was so satisfying how you used every possible fabric scrap.
Thank you! :)
Loved it so now I am looking to see what other treasures you have shared - thank you!!
So glad!
I embraced the rectangles-and-gores style dresses for using up stash about the same time this came out :) I finished my first kirtle in 2022 and omg hand done eyelets are so awesome. I love rectangles-and-gores dresses for stash because I can just draw out my fabric on grid paper, I know from experience how wide the two strips need to be and I can nudge things around to either get sleeve fullness, length, pocket size or swoosh depending on where I add or take away fabric, and I also liked armpit gussets so much that I'm putting them in anything that's just a bit tight up top and it's become my secret weapon for battling my increasing bust size because apparently my body has decided it wants to be top-heavy instead of pear-shaped. I adore how fabric-efficient these designs are and am trying to make more of my wardrobe in that style because having big chunks of leftover fabric does not bust my stash!
And coincidentally, I just did an onion skin dye on greyish striped wool (I used 800g wool and the bag from 10 lbs of onions stuffed with the skins) and it came out just how I wanted it, however every time I try cotton in onion skin dye, I get off-white at best.... I'll have to try it with the linen I've got, because though orange isn't usually my colour, I really like THAT orange, and I also figure that when I collect black walnuts in the fall that combining onion skin with the greyish brown that black walnut gives will give me a lovely warm brown, which is exactly what it did with my greyish brown wool. That wool is becoming a Victorian walking skirt, but I still need to sort out how I'm closing it. Perhaps putting skirt hoooks in the middle of an inverted box pleat at the centre back, dunno yet, I'm winging it.
Love this! I'm also trying to do historical sewing basically all thrifted, i found an empire waist dress thats going to become a regency gown!
Awesome! Wishing you the best of luck on this repurposing adventure!
LOVED the historical interlude!
Amazing is what I thought about the dress. The onion skin dye is the darkest I have seen, gorgeous. I love the comical narrative in places. Love it and will keep watching.
"i'll jump back into my body now" is the perfect way to end a voiceover (also your brief breakdown of European culture was *chef's kiss* immaculate)
hehe thanks :3
YOUR DRESS TURNED OUT BEAUTIFUL...A BIT SHORT, BUT BEAUTIFUL NONETHELESS. BRAVO! ESPECIALLY ON THE SLEEVES. GENIUS SAVE.
So glad I’m finding this channel when it’s just starting out, I can’t wait to watch you grow! That being said, the amount of effort that went into this video deserves way more views and subs. Keep up the good work, I love the focus on thrifting and being sustainable with fabric!
um wow! Thank you so much!! This wins the prize for sweetest and most genuinely encouraging comment so far (although, I have been floored by ALL of the kind words from total strangers) haha. I'm excited to keep the videos coming :)
Oh Lydia, you are lovely. Beautiful dress and yes, I love the historical tangents. That onion colour is devine. ❤️💕❤️
Why thank you, other Lidia! Glad to know you like the tangents :)
The color of this was amazing. I normally hate that particular shade of mustard yellow in modern clothing, but on this historical garment, it fits and looks great. I've been working on making a dress form and a kirtle dress is going to be the first thing I make when I get a way to fit something to my waist without having to wear it at the same time.
Yes! My wardrobe is entirely grey and olive green, and somehow I love this dress.
Ooo how are you making it? I've never had one, but I have been cultivating a healthy amount of envy watching videos of people draping on dress forms and it may be time haha.
I saw a video that used an old fitted T-shirt to make a pattern for a supporting bodice or kirtle.
She put on the shirt and her assistant wrapped her up in duct tape so it was snug. (You can have a bra on tor the fitting but this finished garment should support the breasts.
I get the feeling that you’re very good at jigsaw puzzles...you got very lucky with your onion skins! Your dress looks stunning, by the way!
I did get lucky! After the tannin "mordant" it looked a bit blotchy and I thought it wouldn't work. I'm not exactly sure why it did, to be honest haha. I think the sheer quantity of onions was key.
Thanks!
Great outcome!
Thanks!
You are hilarious! Thanks for having the humility to show the struggle! Very well done, in the end!
Tangents are fine, and you looked wonderful. It's a style that could do with a revival.
I really liked this video, and thought the balance of crafting/sewing and historical info was perfect.
I also love your sense of humor and your cat. 😊
I love the historical tangents, they really add so much depth and explanation to the piece you are making!
Keep the historical research! You’re great at it!
Hilarious and fascinating! Looks great! Also that thumbnail image!😂🦄
I really enjoyed hearing how the architecture was influencing dress styles (or vice versa). I'd read that dresses of that period were based on making you look longer and taller, but had never heard that connected to church architecture. I also liked getting to see how you made all your alterations to make the most of a small piece of fabric, just as a medieval seamstress would have!
Just found this video as I am doing research to prepare for my own kirtle-making quest. You're "help me Morgan!" comment made me laugh so hard! I also regularly seek guidance from the Almighty Morgan.
Great video, very fun and helpful!
Haha glad you enjoyed it! Good luck on your quest!!!
What an absolutely beautiful colour and a lovely gown. I love your slightly tubby unicorn 😊
Thank you! She is truly a magical beast.
love the tangents as you call them...love everything history and especially clothing related
Glad you liked it! :)
That color is so gorgeous!!! Absolutely stunning!
I absolutely love the history you add to your videos and that it isn't just a sewing video. Thank you
Wow, I'm impressed. The dress turned out beautifully and fits you so well.
What a lovely dress! It turned out so nice!
I really appreciate how informative and thorough you are with your historical explanations. I ALSO really appreciate the sidebars of humour everywhere. That brings me a lot of joy. I will readily absorb more of this content!
Glad you enjoyed it!
You are fun to watch and I love your method of telling your story, plus some of your own make it work creativity. I love that you decided to dye it too, I've played around with dyeing yarn but never got results like those with onion skins! . Your gown looks great!....Vicki
History tangent was the icing on the cupcake that compelled me to subscribe. Also couldn't stop laughing over the IRL elusive unicat at the end...
I'm currently binging on your vids. I particularly like UNRELATED IMAGE and the cat in this one, but I'm enjoying them all
I just found your channel and I'm already in love with your editing and personality 🤣🤣🤣👏🏻👏🏻💙💙
Aw, shucks! Thanks so much!
Fabulous job! I’m impressed! Great work Lydia!
Thanks Kim!
Thanks for leaving the bloopers and quirky moments in, they add a unique and geniune character!
I noticed the cup and hand gesture while talking combo in an earlier scene, so it felt like good novelistic foreshadowing when the spill occured ;)
really enjoyed the historical tangent. you really spilled the tea! (-; the dress also came out so beautiful, and the color you got from the onion skins is so vibrant and happy!! thank you so much for sharing
loving the unrelated footage while learning about the history of western europe 😌
I LOVE your historical tangents!
It turned out so lovely!
Thank you! :)
new here... Love the history you stitch into the sewing.
Pretty dresses AND historical tangents!!! ❤
Absolutely love how you put this video together, very entertaining and informative and omg! your cat is excellent!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it! :)
Love this video so much!! I'm making a medieval dress atm but got so freaked out because fabric can be soooooo expensive so I'm so happy to see you create such a beautiful dress without spending as much!
Glad you liked it! :) Honestly, I'm excited to gain the confidence to cut into some proper expensive wool one day. Hope your dress is going well!
I've just discovered your channel through CoSy and I'm thoroughly enjoying working through your back catalogue of videos.
Hooray for chopsticks. They make excellent point turners as well as eyelet wideners, and a bamboo one lives permanently in my sewing tray.
Piecing and bodging to make a garment that will fit you out of the piece of fabric that you have seems very appropriate for the period. I've done it a few times and it always seems to work out somehow, because it has to.
Yes! It always works when it has to, even if "working" takes on a slightly downgraded meaning haha.
Thanks so much! I'm so happy you're enjoying my videos!
You will be a star. Guaranteed. Stay with it … please.
The dress design is so cute, it's simple and flattering! I would love to try this
You should!
I loved this and think you did very well. As I watched I was thinking how your need to piece little bits of fabric together was probably very accurate to what most people would need to do at the time. I have great sympathy with the 'slow fashion, movement and perhaps more accurately the process of thrifting and remaking garments from 'found' or discarded fabric. I am verrry bad at sewing (a sewing machine serial killer) but in the 80s or so I started to make my own clothes, mostly without patterns and to my own designs using very simple techniques. In my area there were many clothing/furniture factories, so many 'remaindered' fabric shops, and as a result I used a number of unusual fabrics (cheap as chips - £1 a metre).such as curtain or upholstery material, and borrowed techniques from things like Kimono making (I had 2 vintage kimono from my mum;s family). I ended up wearing only my own designs for work, and was once told that I 'presented myself extremely well' (!?!?!?!) : I think I never spent more than about "5 on an entire work outfit. But since I wear almost exclusively thrifted clothes even now, things may not have changed that much!
This was fun to watch. You made it work with the fabric you had - good job.
Beautiful! As an oil painter, your poses give an inspiration. Keep up your craft.
This is perfect. You did an incredible job!
I love this! I love tangents!
What a gem!! Well done. Look forward to your next sewing creation
Thank you! 😊
Ahhh you’re so cute can’t believe in all my views of medieval/historic sewing videos I haven’t seen you before… anyway glad to have found your account
WOW! Amazing work!
LOVE the tangents!
I thought there wasn't anything new to be said about late medieval gowns but this is a really excellent video with a lot of smart points
(Also welcome to the "how do I even pronounce Herjolfsnes" club)
Thank you!!!
Your problem solving feels very familiar…… Nice job. The dress turned out so nice! Love the “tangents”
Nice job with your dyeing! I’ve done this before, but not gotten the color so consistent. A side note: I wanted to see how dark I could get the eggs (it was Easter) so I simmered them for hours. Paper came out a deep pumpkin, the eggs went all the way to a deep deep rust. I loved it. No, I didn’t eat them, they were works of art ❤️
Finding this late. Very nice work!
very inspiring and i absolutely LOVE the color the dress came out!
Thank you so much!
This is just so fabulous, you did such a great job!!! I'm inspired to try my own
Unikitty!🐱😁
Seriously, I like your narrative style & your voice. I also like medieval-type clothes.
I hope to watch the rest of this when I'm ready to settle down again. For now, I boost the algorithm & like.
Amazing work! I've been on a bit of a kirtle high lately and it was fascinating watching you piece together this garment and do your research (on that note-- thank you for citing your sources!! I will be hunting through them hehe). The dying process was fascinating, I had no idea onion skins could produce a hue that vibrant
Question-- what is it you're wearing underneath the kirtle in your final photoshoot (the smock thing, not sure what they were called in this time period)? is it just smth you had lying around, or did you make it especially for this project?
Thank you!
I only sorta-kinda cited sources so let me know if you need anything specific and I'll track it down!
I'm just wearing something I had lying around - the 1830's chemise from another video - but I whipped up some detatchable sleeves to make it *look* like a proper medieval smock.
Thank you for the info & your excellent content! Great job 👏
Wow, that color is amazing
Thank you! I'm so proud of it.
A lot of work!! Loved the dress. And the picture too!
Thank you so much!
Beautiful job with the dress! I love that you are using natural dyes. You should do one with red onion skins, too. 😊
Loving this! Excited to be at the channel early!
Thank you, and welcome! I'm so glad you found me :)
Please tell more about the pretreatment of fabric to take the onion skin colour. I have occasionally played with natural dyeing, but dabbled only and have forgotten most of what I discovered 25 years ago. Would you please make a video to share what you have discovered?
Thank you! Awesome video.
Gold star for this!
You are absolutely delightful - I'm So glad I clicked on this video! Visited out of boredom, but am staying for the historical tangents, sewing, natural dye experiments, shenanigans, and your ridiculously cute cat.
PS: do you have an Instagram that we can follow?
Yay! I'm so glad you liked it :) Yes! it's @lydiarobb.art
Im making a kirtle out of pure cotton bedsheets i found for $2.5 @ the thrift shop. The tip on onion skins to dye it. Hmmm I might have to try that, the yellow you got is so pretty.
More final-look reveals need to end with cats begrudgingly posing, too 🦄
Actually a danish museum "Bornholms middelaldercenter" Has made patterns based on the Herjolfsnes finds and sells them in their online store, though the instructions and historical background pages are in danish, i guess you can stille use the patterns:)
I thank the UA-cam logarithm for suggesting this video. Really enjoyed your historical tangent. Thank you for all that research. It was fascinating and inspiring watching you make the fabric yardage work for you. You’ve sparked a few ideas about how to use my personal thrifted stash. (And I decided to try growing my hair longer after watching Morgan’s tutorial). Subscribed. 😊
Yessss, all the stash projects! Welcome! :)
I’m fairly new to your channel but I absolutely love how you teach….I know in another one of your videos you said you don’t like reading but yeah. I’m definitely learning a lot from your videos!
The historical research kept me engaged. I love to know all the things!
Watching a year after you posted this.but I throughly enjoyed it! If the hemline was cut to current fashion lengths the dress could still be worn on weekends today without looking strange. PS also liked the historical tangents.
Not the video (or creator) I was searching for, but the thumbnail grabbed me! Well done!
EDIT: And subbed for the mind that included the intro to cultural hegemony, religion, and myths that lead to bigotry.
Love it ❤ great onion dye 👌
I loved everything about this video! I'm subscribing right now! Please talk more about the the dye process? I want to try.
More dye videos are certainly on the "to make" list :)