This weekend was supposed to be the first time our 16th century guild would do a public event together. It was going to be partially outdoors, and it's December so I needed something warm. I decided to go for a furlined gollar or cape. The event was still planned in early November, but then the second covid wave hit and it's been postponed.
The pattern of the cape really shows how helpful it is to be part of a costuming community. I took a photo of a pattern that belong to Marlein, she has a post about it here. It was a fairly simple pattern, so I didn't copy it exactly. I then made a small pattern, basically just long enough to cover the shoulders, and that pattern I lent to Ann-Sofie and Monica. When it was time for me to actually make my cape, well Monica had my pattern, but I was having a crafting session together with Ann-Sofie, so I could use the pattern that she had drawn from my copy, that at the moment was with Monica. All of us now have made our versions of the cape, and I had looked forward to us all wearing it together showing how you can adapt a base pattern in many ways depending on what lenghts, fabrics, and linings you use. Well that will have to wait when it's possible to have an event together again.
The side seam has a slit so that I can get my arms through and work with them, while still keeping the cape on. That will make it a lot easier when working and moving around.
The length of the side seam is 60 cm, this is a bit on the shorter side. I would probably have liked another 10 cm, but then I'm not sure I would have had enough fur to line the whole cape.
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| The finished cape with the scraps of fur that were left. |
I have more posts about the construction here: A proper winter gollar, and here: The collar of the gollar
Some comments on the the historical accuracy. The pattner is accurate and the fabric is a felted wool similar to the kind that would have been available. I chose a pale pink colour because I didn't want to have a brown cape, but I also wanted a cape that would be suitable for a middleclass kind of person, so I didn't want to use a colour that was too strong like red or black. In local texts from the 1520s there are complaints about clothes being "too colorful", and I didn't want to go in that territory.
The fur that I've used for lining is from a vintage fur coat and it's mink. The mink is a North American species and would not have been available the time in Sweden. The furs that are talked about in the upper classes are usually squirrel, marten and for the really exclusive clothes sable. Squirrels were definitely hunted here in the area. Since I don't want to use "new" fur I had to go with the available fur and then I went with mink. Also about halfway into the project I got the chance to hear a lecture on the reuse of clothes in the 16th century Swedish court. And there I learnt that fur linings were always detachable, they were probably never even stored together with the outer fabric. So my version of attaching the fur directly to the outer wool fabric is totally wrong.
In the end I have a piece of clothing that looks good, and will be really nice and warm, but I am a bit unsure on how accurate it actually is.
Anyway, here are just the facts.
The Challenge: Community
Material: 1 m of pink melton wool, 1 vintage fur coat (approximate size XL)
Pattern: A schaublein from "Drei Schnittbücher"
Year: First half of the 16th century
Notions: Linen and silk thread to sew with
How historically accurate is it? The overall look is very accurate, but it is the wrong kind of fur (mink wasn't around then) and the construction of adding the fur directly to the main fabric is wrong, the time period it would have been made as a detachable lining. I would say 50%
Hours to complete: 2 weeks, most of it was about piecing the fur scraps together to get them to cover the whole cape.
First worn: Not yet
Total cost: $60 (half of it fabric half of it for the coat)
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