(re)Creating Edith's Coronation Gown

8/14/2019 (re)Creating Edith's Coronation Gown

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C REATING A G ARMENT FROM A M EDIEVAL ILLUSTRATION :Q UEEN E DITH S C ORONATION G OWN

Alianor de Ravenglas

In the SCA, we often find ourselves in the position of having only pictorial evidence of

the garments we would like to (re)create. In order to do more than just achieving an outward

reproduction, we must extend our research beyond the illustration from which we draw our

inspiration. In this paper, I describe the process I followed in (re)creating a garment depicted in

Matthew Paris manuscript The Life of Edward the Confessor, which is dated to roughly 1250.

My hope is that this explanation of the process that I followed will show that (re)creating

garments from illustrations is something that is available to any SCA costumer.

Illustration 1: Ediths Coronation 1

1 The Life of Edward the Confessor.


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Alianor de RavenglasQueen Ediths Coronation Gown

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STEP O NE : EXAMINE THE ILLUSTRATION

The first step in this process is a detailed examination of the illustration that inspires the

outfit. In this case, I was working from Illustration 1, an illumination by Matthew Paris. This

plate depicts the coronation of Edith, Edward the Confessors Queen. In this examination of the

illustration, I tried to notice as many details about the outfit as possible. I made notes on what I

observed, which are transcribed below.

Blue gown - very full even from the shoulders (look at folds on torso). Wornunbelted.Has 5 bands of *something* - I'm pretty sure it would have to be tabletwoven trim- on it. See edith_trim.jpeg. Not possible to do this pattern with regular tabletweaving - it'll have to be double-faced and then just work out the pattern that way.

=> Just above bustline=> at waist (assuming that her elbows are at about waist height, which

mine are)=> around hips (to line up with ends of arms)=> at knees=> just above ankles.=> Also at the ends of the sleeves - don't appear to line up with any of theother bands.

Need to figure out spacing of bands.Why don't the ones on the sleeves make sense?Sleeves are slightly shorter than those on the undergown - a couple of inches, I'dguess.

Neckline is finished in contrasting (similar to trim) color and there's a small circleright at her throat.

These notes served as the starting point for the (re)creation of the outfit.

STEP TWO : R ESEARCH CONTEMPORARY GARMENTS

In the case of this particular manuscript, there is a question of the difference between the

time when the manuscript was executed (circa 1250) and the time of the events it depicts (the

events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066). Did Matthew Paris clothe the characters in

this story in his ideas of the clothing of the 11 th century, or do the clothes we see in his

manuscript reflect the fashion of the mid 13 th century? One way to answer this question is to

compare the clothing depicted in the Paris manuscript with contemporary illustrations.


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Illustration 2: Gowns with 3/4 sleeves worn over a

tunic with tight long sleeves, worn unbelted. 2 Illustration 3: Women wearing tunics with mantles. 3

Illustration 4: The woman on the left wears a tunic and mantle as well as a veil (more or less)secured to bands. 4

If we compare Ediths garments to those in Illustrations 2, 3 and 4, we see a number of

similarities. In Illustration 2 shows tunic styles identical to Ediths: a gown with 3/4 sleeves

worn over a contrasting tunic with full length, tight sleeves. Illustrations 3 and 4 show tunics

worn with mantles of the same style that Edith wears (probably a half-circle cloak), andIllustrations 4 and 5 show veils similar to the one that Edith wears. Based on these illustrations, I

have concluded that Matthew Paris drew Edith in the garments of his time rather than those of

the early 11 th century.

Based simply on an examination of the garments as they appear in the manuscript, we

would conclude that Edith is wearing two tunics, a veil, and a mantle. With this information, it

would be possible to create a set of garments that would passably recreate the look found in

the illumination. My goal, however, was not only to reproduce the look but to use the illustration

to guide the creation of a full outfit as it would have been worn during the 13 th century. As

such, more research was necessary, specifically, examinations of how the garments of the period

were constructed, how they were worn, and what accessories usually accompanied them. 2 Manesse Codex.3 Murthly Hours folio 170r.4 Murthly Hours folio 162r.


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In the thirteenth century, womens and mens clothes were very similar. Both consisted

of layers of tunics. These were made from the most commonly available materials of the time:

linen and wool. In the illustration of Ediths coronation, two body garments are visible (the two

tunics mentioned above). Based on other illustrations and on what we know about the manner in

which clothing was worn during the 13 th century, we can conclude that a linen shift would have

been worn beneath the two visible garments. At least one such undergarment is extant: the St.

Louis tunic. This garment is a 13 th century linen tunic, associated with Saint Louis and can be

found in the treasury of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. 5 While the extant garment is associated

with a man, evidence and common sense suggest that women wore similar garments.

Illustration 5: The aggressor wears a plain undertunic with braies. 6

Illustration 6: The newly-made knight wears anundertunic in the right-hand panel. 7

Illustration 7: The white of the shift shows under the central figures skirt. 8

First, let us examine the pictorial evidence for these garments. Illustrations 5 and 6 show men in

their undergarments; in illustration 7, we see a suggestion of the womans shift under her tunic.

Common sense tells us that, given all the other similarities between mens and womens

garments of the period, women would be wearing an undergarment similar to that worn by men

despite the minimal visual evidence of those garments.

5 Jones.6 The Life of Edward the Confessor.7 Matthew Paris, Knighting.8 Manesse Codex.


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Ediths head is covered by a veil on top of which a crown is about to be placed. Clearly,

the covering of a womans head was common practice during the late 13 th century; every

illustration of a woman reproduced here includes some form of hat or headrail. In Paris

illustration, the veil appears to just be draped over Ediths head; a similar concept appears in

both pictures in Illustration 2. In other 13 th century illustrations of veils (such as Illustrations 4

and 8), however, a system of bands is visible.

Illustration 8: She wears a veil with bands. 9

This method of constructing and wearing a veil has several things to recommend it. First,

given the other types of hats worn during the 13 th century (the fillet hat, which appears in

Illustrations 3 and 4), using bands to hold on a headrail was certainly not unheard of. Second,

this method is far more practical; the bands hold the veil securely in place and can be completely

camouflaged by the veil itself.10

As such, I decided that my (re)creation of this set of garmentswould have to include a veil secured with bands.

The only part of Ediths ensemble not suggested in any way in Paris illumination is what

she wears on her feet. Pictorial evidence of mens garments shows that they wore hosen on their

legs. Often, these are shown in a variety of colors. Due to womens fashions, particularly the

length of their gowns, there is very little pictorial evidence of womens hosen. Despite this, it is

a safe assumption that women wore something similar. As such, this (re)creation of Ediths

ensemble includes a pair of cut hosen.

9 Murthly Hours folio 149v.10 Virtue.


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Illustration 9: A man wearing black hosen. 11Illustration 10: The man on the right wears red

hosen.

Illustration 11: He wears blue hosen and ankle boots. Illustration 12: He wears red hosen.

STEP THREE : G ARMENT CONSTRUCTION

Having researched the general styles of the garments of the mid- to late-13 th century, the

next step was to decide on the style and materials for the garments themselves.

TUNICSWe know that most garments during the medieval period were made from linen and

wool; we also know based on extant garments the basic structure of 13 th century tunics.

Illustration 13: Tunic with long gores. 12 Illustration 14: Tunic with short gores.

Again, Marc Carlsons research on extant garments supports the design I chose. He describes

Nockert Type 5 tunics as

Garments consisting of two straight-cut main pieces -- front and back -- joined together 11 Ashmole Manuscript, folio 24 r.12 Drawing adapted from Houston.


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with a shoulder seam. Side gores inserted between the main pieces, combining with themto form sleeve openings. No gores actually inserted in the main pieces. Pocket slits occur.Long sleeve, tapering downwards, cut with an upper and lower part. Gores under thesleeves. 13

This description does not specify the length of the gores; they could reach the gussets (long

gores), or they could only come to the waist (short gores). In this set of garments, I used both

long and short gores.

The first layer of the outfit, the undertunic, is made of lightweight (roughly 3.5 oz), loose

weave linen. 14 It is falls to mid-calf and has short gores (as shown in Illustration 14). Each of

these gores is split; rather than being one isosceles triangle, each gore consists of two right

triangles sewn together along the flat side. I cut the gores in this way because doing so

allowed me to conserve fabric. This garment was hand sewn using cotton thread because cotton

is easily and affordably available, unlike the more-accurate linen. Flat-felling these seams isespecially important, since the loose weave makes it rather weak. For this tunic, the flat-felling

was done using a running stitch.

The second layer of the outfit, the gown, is made of a 55% cotton/45% linen fustian. 15 In

the 13 th century, this gown would have been made either of linen or of wool; I chose to use the

linen/cotton blend because it was more affordable than the appropriate weight linen and because

I was unable to find 100% linen in the desired shade of red. Like the undertunic, the gown has

side gores that begin at the waist. In this gown, however, I have inserted two gores into each side

seam. This lends a very full skirt (with a circumference of roughly 120) without the headache

of inserting gores into the body panels. The sleeves are fairly loose at the top of the arm and

quite snug near the wrist, very much like the blue tunic shown in Illustration 6. For this garment,

I stitched down the flat-felled seams using a hem stitch so that no stitching would be visible on

the outside of the gown. I used a cotton/poly blend thread because it was more affordable than

linen and provided a better color match than any 100% cotton thread I could find. The gown is

roughly 63 from shoulder seam to hem; since I am 64 tall, it puddles on the ground when worn

unbelted.

13 Carlson.14 I purchased this fabric from fabrics-store.com (http://www.fabrics-store.com).15 This is the material sold at JoAnns Fabrics as a linen-look solid.


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The outermost layer of the outfit, the overgown, is made of a fine Pendleton wool twill. 16

Before cutting, I machine-washed the fabric and dried it in the dryer in order to pre-shrink it. It

became a bit more fuzzy, but did not full very much; the pattern of the twill is still quite visible.

This garment has a slightly different structure than the other two. Rather than using short gores,

I used gores that begin at the gussets (as in Illustration 13). These longer gores lend the neck-to-

hem fullness that is so apparent in the Matthew Paris illustration (Illustration 1). As I did with

the red gown, I inserted two wide gores into each side seam. This also lends a lot of fullness to

the gown; it, too, has a hem circumference of roughly 120. These sleeves are short (roughly 3/4

length) and do not taper from the body to the wrist. I again stitched the seam finish down using a

hem stitch and used a cotton/poly thread due to affordability and color match. This gown also

measures roughly 63 from shoulder seam to hem.

TABLETWOVEN BANDS

The Edith gown has one very unique feature: it is marked by patterned bands that run

horizontally around the garment at regular intervals. In considering my options for how to

reproduce this aspect of the garment, two options were immediately obvious. I could either

make or commission custom-woven fabric for the overgown, or I could treat the bands as having

been applied to the finished garment. I chose the latter option for a number of reasons, the

primary ones being 1) I do not weave and do not have the funds to pay someone to custom-

weave fabric for me and 2) I do tablet-weave and tabletwoven bands seemed a plausible way for

such bands to have been produced.

Having decided to tablet-weave the bands, I had to make two further decisions: the colors

of the bands and the pattern that would appear on them. Due to the partial grisaille style of this

manuscript, I could not make a decision about the color of the bands based on the way the bands

appear in the illustration. I selected two shades of purple (one dark, one lavender) based on what

was available at my local yarn store and what looked good (to my admittedly modern eye) with

the blue and red fabric that comprises the tunics.

I experimented with various double-face patterns and eventually decided on one slightly

different from the pattern depicted in Paris manuscript. Rather than working empty ovals

with dots in the middle (as shown in Illustration 3), I chose to work long solid diamonds with

dots in the middle (see Illustration 4).

16 I purchased this wool from Phoenix Textiles (http://www.fabric.com).


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Illustration 15: Bands as they appear in theillumination Illustration 16: Bands as woven

I made this change for a number of reasons. First, I wanted the bands to be relatively narrow andin order to achieve a long enough oval with the yarn I am using, the bands would have to be at

least twice as wide as they currently are. Second, the weaving of the empty ovals would have

been considerably more difficult (in terms of keeping track of the pattern) than the solid diamond

pattern. I have not seen any evidence of this type of pattern in medieval double-faced bands, but

example A in Illustration 17 clearly has a chevron pattern, which is not much removed from a

diamond pattern.

Illustration 17: Extant Tabletwoven Bands.Silk tablet-woven braids from mid 14 th-century deposits, (A) No 145, (B) No 450, (C) No 451. 17

The final pattern is a mix of ten single-color cards and six double-faced cards. I decided

to only thread the cards involved in the pattern for double-faced weaving to protect myself from

mistakes: if I accidentally flip a background (read: one-color) card, there will be no impact on

the overall pattern. The cards are threaded in an alternating S-thread/Z-thread pattern. The table

below shows the threading pattern (L stands for Lavender, P for Purple).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16A L L P P P L L L L L L P P P L L

B L L P P P L L L L L L P P P L LC L L P P P P P P P P P P P P L LD L L P P P P P P P P P P P P L L

S Z S Z S Z S Z S Z S Z S Z S Z

17 Crowfoot et al.


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Illustration 18: Hosen.

To make these hosen, I wrapped a piece of linen (turned to the bias) around my lower leg and

pinned it such that I could put on and remove that tube easily. I then did the same thing for the

foot, so that there was a seam along the bottom of the foot and one at the toe. The foot and the

leg are then attached. All of the seams are finished by flat-felling, which yields a good flat seam.

The hosen are held up using garters made from scraps of the wool that the overgown was made

from. This material had enough stretch naturally that it did not need to be cut on the bias in

order to work as garters.

VEIL

The veil and bands for this set of garments are made of the same loose-woven linen that I

used for the smock. In period, they would have been made of either linen or silk; in any case a

very lightweight fabric is necessary for the veil to drape correctly. I constructed the bands as

rough 1-inch wide tubes, then turned them and stitched the open end shut. The veil is a simple

circle, roughly 27 inches in diameter, hemmed with a rolled hem as has been found on fourteenth

century silk veils. 20 I wear it pinned to the bands so that it drapes similarly to Ediths in Matthew

Paris illustration.

MANTLE AND SHOES

I chose to leave out two elements of Ediths complete outfit: the visible mantle and the

shoes that I assume she would have been wearing. In the case of the mantle, I chose to eliminate

it because it is a garment that I would not be likely to wear. In the case of the shoes, the

appropriate footwear is a pair of turned shoes, similar to what the men in my illustrations wear.Unfortunately, I am not a leatherworker, and have not yet been able to convince anyone to make

shoes for me or afford to buy commercially-made turn shoes.

20 Crowfood et al.


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CONCLUSION

The process of (re)creating a complete outfit from a medieval illustration is not one that

we as SCA members should be afraid of. Using my (re)creation of Ediths coronation gown as

an example, the steps to be followed are:

1) Detailed examination of the illustration of the garment to be (re)created. In this case, this

was an examination of one part of an illumination by Matthew Paris.

2) Research into the constituent elements of outfits of the time. In this case, I first needed to

determine whether or not Paris used contemporary or historical fashions in this historical

document. I then

3) Construct the garments. Decisions in this process are guided by the research into the

design of garments of the time.

I hope that I have shown that (re)creating garments from medieval and renaissance illustrationsor other art sources is accessible to most SCA costumers. All it takes is a commitment to serious

research into medieval garments and a willingness to undertake a project that may (but will not

necessarily) take years to complete.


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SOURCES CITED

~1325. The Manesse Codex. http://www.tempora-nostra.de/manesse/manesse_start.shtml~1280. The Murthly Hours. National Library of Scotland.

http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/murthly/index.htmlCarlson, Marc. Some Clothing of the Middle Ages.

http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/Crowfoot, Elisabeth, Frances Pritchard, and Kay Staniland. 2001. Textiles and Clothing 1150

1450. London: Boydell.Houston, Mary G. 1996. Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13 th , 14 th , and 15 th

Centuries. New York: Dover.Jones, Heather Rose (Mistress Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn). 2001. Another Look at

Saint Louis Shirt. Tournaments Illuminated #137 pp. 22-23.Paris, Mattthew. ~1250. The Life of Edward the Confessor.

http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MSS/Ee.3.59/.Paris, Matthew. 13 th c. Knighting.Virtue, Cynthia (Maitresse Cynthia du Pr Argent). 2000. Simple Steps to Look Great in a

Veil, or Veil-and-Circlet, with photos. http://www.virtue.to/articles/veils.html.

(re)Creating Edith's Coronation Gown

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