Photos of my 17th century (1620s) costume

 I didn't get so many good photos of myself in my outfit when I was in Vadstena, so before it was time to pack it up into storage I decided to go out and have a photo shoot with my husband. The 17th century is the first time period when it's starting to get easier to find good locations around here. As a friend who works as an antiquarian at the county museum once said "we don't really care about wooden houses unless the are earlier than the 17th century, because there are so many of them". I decided to go to nearby Gamla Staberg, eventhough the main building and garden is mostly late 17th and 18th century, there are still some older buildings around that made a  nice background for the photos.

HSM challenge 3 - a 17th century hip roll

 This is how to get big hips, and it's all lies. HSM challenge 3 was "comfort at home"

Make something to wear around the (historical) home or that would be generally only seen within the household (informal at-home wear, nightwear, undergarments).

I figured a hip roll, that would only be seen with the household could fit. Now when I started thinking about early 17th century I first didn't think about doing underwear, for a more simple look suitable for a farmer or some poor townspeople you don't really need them. But the more I thought about I wanted to make a proper hip roll to just get that typical silhouette.

Matthew Gnagy, the Modern Maker, has an instruction video on how to make the hip roll, and since I have his Modern Maker volume 2 with the pattern I decided to make one. The hip roll video is part of a series on how to construct a woman's full ensemble, and I really recommend watching it all. I used it to make my skirt, and I have been listening to them all and he gives really good advice on pattern making, fitting and how to make everything come together, even if you are not doing an exact copy of what he is making in the series.

One thing he mentions in the video is his argument for why this kind of construction is more likely than simply cutting out a tube or large crescent shaped pattern. The pattern is in his book and you need 16 pieces, something he mentions. Each piece is fairly small though so it was easy to cut it out from scrap pieces. I used a sturdy evenweave cotton, which was good because I couldn't get all pieces on the same grain, so some are cut on the cross grain as well. It is a modern fabric, and I decided to make the hip roll on the machine, since nobody will see it anyway.

I started out with sewing the piecces together, first 1x1, then 2x2 and so on.

All the pieces were sewn together, I used the wrong side of the fabric to not have such a loud colour pattern visible. I topstitched all the seams down to one side, to make them a bit sturdier. For a while I had thought about maybe using them as channels for boning, but I used too small of a seam allowance to be able to do that.

Then it was time to stuff the roll. Matthew Gnagy warns against using poly filling, since it usually gets warmer than using wool or cotton, but poly batting was what I had at hand, and this is a scrap project. I first rolled the batting into a roll before pushing it in. It was a bit complicated to get the filling in, I worked from both sides so that filling would meet in the middle.

I didn't stuff the roll very hard, both because I don't want an extreme roll and becausue it was so fiddly to get the filling into it.

The ends were gathered together and sewn shut. I also added two pieces of cotton tape to tie it in place.

Me wearing the roll. I got a bit surprised first that I had made it too big, then I realised that I had put around the waist, when I put it on the hips it fit perfectly.

Here I am wearing it under my supportive kirtle and to the right is the kirtle without the hip roll, to oshow the difference in the silhouette that it gives, but not too much difference in length of the kirtle.

I wore the hip roll at the 1620's weekend in Vadstena. I found that it felt like it was going to slide down all the time. Most of the time it stayed in place, but I had to push it up a few times. I am wondering if it would stay better put if I switch from tieing the tapes to having them fastened with a button instead?. The tapes were hard to get quite as tight, and I had to retie them from time to time, a button might keep everything more firmly in place.

Here are photos of me wearing the roll under the rest of my 1620s outfit.

Just the facts

What the item is: a stuffed hip roll
How it fits the challenge: It should only be seen while undressing at home
Material: scraps of cotton, probably less than 1 m in total
Pattern: Matthew Gnagy The Modern Maker volume 2
Year: early 17th century
Notions: poly batting, cotton tape
How historically accurate is it? There are no surviving patterns, but Matthew Gnagy gives a good reason on why he thinks this is a good pattern, also all the materials are modern and it is machine sewn so 30%
Hours to complete: It was quick and fun so max 3 hours
First worn: At Vadstena Military Days 17-19th of April
Total cost: really a scrap project, the fabric were from a pair of curtains that I got from work when they were switched for other ones. Maybe it would have cost around $15 to buy everything new.

Better fit for my 17th century jacket

 When I wore this jacket for the 17th century event last year I had not had time to finish it properly. Also since making it I have changed how I want to wear it. I thought of it more as a jacket to wear over other clothes, as a last warm layer, and I made it quite loose to fit over a my long sleeved green wool gown. Now I see this more as a jacket to wear on its own, and with that I want to make it more fittet.

The most blatant problem though was my mistake with the sleeves, cutting out two of the same side and then having to recut one of them, so it was clearly shorter than the other one.

So the first thing that I had to do was make them equal. So I simply cut off the longer sleeve. Then both of the sleeves were too short, so I had to add some cuffs.

I tested a cuff shape with scrap fabric first until I was happy with the shape. Cut out four pieces and sewed them together before adding them to the end of the sleeve. The sleeve is a bit larger than fashionable at the time, so the cuffs are also a bit on the larger side, but I did not feel like taking them, rather keeping the loose fit.

The next step was to take in the front, quite a lot, to get a better fit. Thankfully all the hooks and eyes were sewn to a separate piece of fabric that I had attached to the main fabric like a facing and then added the lining over. 

So I opened up that seam took out the strips with the hooks and eyes and then I could take in the front seam, by simply trying it on. I can't get a perfect fit in this way, not like when you take in both the front and side seams, or even better make a better fitting bodice from the start, but I could at least make it less loose in the front.

The final alteration was to add shoulder wings. This is a very typical feature for clothes in the late 16th and early 17th century, so adding them permanently would place this jacket firmly in this time period, but I made them detachable so I can take them off, and that will make the jacket more of a generic style that works for a longer time period.

The size of the shoulder wing was tried with a scrap piece first.

I cut them out in two layers and sewed them together. The rounded edge is then sewn to the the shoulder seam, but with quite large stitches so that they will be easy to take off I want to. In hindsight I should probably have made the wings a little larger, they are on the small side, but this was really the last scrap of fabric that I had. Here are photos of the new fit of the jacket.

1620's weekend in Vadstena

Every year Vadstena castle, which was finished in 1621, has a military weekend with and invites reenactors to recreate the 1620s. The focus is military, but there was a camp to show off the cooking and crafts as well. I had met some of the people organizing it last year and decided to go. The 17th century is a new era for me, even if I had dipped my toes into it, but for this event I felt that I had to up my game, since the other recreators are really good. 

I will post more about my clothes as individual posts, but this was the full ensemble.

I had brought things with me so that I could show what a table in a tavern, and the ingredients that they used, looked like. It is based on an archaeological excavation in Falun, and I have written more about it here. 

For my own main meal on Saturday I didn't cook anything but had brought with me a mix of pickled vegetables, greens and meats to make what was called a "grand sallet" in the time period in England.

What is really nice with the event is that we were allowed to be in the casle at night, and if you had the proper gear you could even sleep in one of the towers. I bought a modern airbed with me though so I slept in a modern part of the castle.

The focus was on the military though and there were people from Sweden, Finland, Poland and the Netherlands there, and it was impressive to see such a large group of infantry working together.

There were also some musketeers, and two horses but I didn't get any good photos of the cavalry.

It was a really nice experience going to an even that is so limited in time, and everyone were really dressed up in clothes from the same era, early 16th century.

Still I'm not a big fan of the 17th century, and I didn't go from the event inspired to make a lot of new clothes, except that it would be nice to have a nice apron and not the worn and dirty that I have. Still I will definitely try to make it to Vadstena if the event returns next year because it was a great weekend.

HSM challenge 5 - A black 17th century cap

HSM Challenge 5 - pleats, tucks and trims

Make a garment or accessory that is either pleated to create shaping, or features pleats, tucks or trims as embellishment.

For my early 17th century wardrobe I really wanted to make a black cap. These black caps are seen in portraits of Swedish priest wives.

They are also common in Dutch art from the middle of the 17th century, a little later than my intended time period.

This is a painting of Gerard ter Borch from 1661. The Dutch seem to have a more tight fitting cap, and they have also added the peak in the front, but there are no under caps visible anymore.

I really had to go with artistic inspiration for my own cap, since I couldn't find paintings that showed the back, or surviving extant examples. The general shape is quite close to the the cap that is worn with most Swedish traditional costumes - "bindmössa". A bindmössa is usually made out of silk and mounted on an interior made from stiffened paper or fabric. The undercap has been changed into a loose piece of white fabric, usually with lace or embroidered, that is pinned in place before putting the cap on.

This image shows me wearing my cap together with my folk costume. Thankfully for these traditional caps there are patterns available online. If you are interested in traditional costumes I really recommend the site Digidräkt.se. It is a site dedicated to the costumes worn in Ovansjö parish, but they also have lot of free patterns made from extant pieces from mainly the 19th century. These patterns are great starting points for quite a few pieces that works for several time periods, including bodices, skirts, shirts, trousers and sewn and knitted hose. I printed their pattern for the skarpmössa/bindmössa. It is a cap that is made to fit snuggly thanks to several pleats in the back.

I first made a test version out of scrap wool to test the size. It is unlined, but bound with a strip of bias from the same fabric. The bias strip was important to make the edge firmer and keep its shape. It worked great, but I felt that it was a bit on the smaller size, especially when I put my hair up in a bun in the back.. I will use this as a more simple, poorer cap though.

So the pattern worked, now it was time to make the final version.

I started out with cutting the original pattern in four parts and spreading them out. The second image shows the new pattern in blue, compared to the original paper pattern.

I used cotton canvas as the foundation layer. Since blue canvas isn't historically accurate and since it wouldn't be seen I sewed it together on the machine. The original pattern had three pleats on each side, but with this larger pattern I added two more to get a good fit, for a total of five pleats on each side.

I used the cut out canvas as the pattern for the lining, a nice linen fabric from the stash.

I didn't do the same five pleats in the lining, but simply pleated it over the canvas until the two layers matched, which mean fewer but larger pleats compared to the canvas layer.

The lining was sewn to the canvas along the center seams and all along the edges. The lining was all handsewn.

The outer wool layer was constructed just like the lining, but here I made five pleats on each side in the back.

To finish the edge I used a fairly wide strip of bias and sewed it in place.

The finished cap is quite heavy and rigid and sits well on the head, it's not quite as pointy as it looks from the back.

Just the facts

What the item is: a fitted wool cap
How it fits the challenge: It is shaped by pleats in the back to create a tight fit
Material: 0,5 m wool cloth, 0,5 linen, 0,5 cotton canvas
Pattern: Based on a traditional cap from Ovansjö socken, available at digidrakt.se
Year: 17th century
Notions: Linen thread for the lining, regular sewing thread for the canvas and silk (because it's the only black thread I had) for the wool layers
How historically accurate is it? Very hard to say since the pattern is 150 years wrong, and it is very much my thoughts on how it might have been constructed in the 17th century to get the cap we see in art, also the canvas is a modern fabric and that part of the cap was sewn on machine, so maybe 30%
Hours to complete: One evening
First worn:  Will be worn at Vadstena Military days April 17-19
Total cost: $30