One item missing from my kit is a heavy gown suitable for wearing to outdoor events in cooler weather. While a hood can be added to regular gowns, another option is the pellanda, or in French, houppelande. This loose fitting outer garment was worn by men, when it was usually knee or calf length, and by women where it was longer. The sleeves were generously proportioned and it was often fur lined. These gowns appear in the middle of the 14th century and continue in common use well into the middle of the next and beyond.

Inspiration

Materials

For this gown I have chosen a worsted, olive green wool. It is difficult to tell from paintings whether the material for these was woolen, worsted or some kind of velvet. Paintings from France often have a highlight pattern consistent with velvet, but those from the Tacuinum Sanitatis are more consistent with a woolen fabric. I have chosen to line the sleeves and the neckline of the garment in faux fur. Gowns lined in fur may have been lined throughout, but in the North Carolina winter, this is a good compromise between warmth, weight and fluctuating winter temperatures.

Method

Usually I prefer to draft my patterns myself, but with a less fitted garment like this one, I thought I would take the easy way and use Period Patterns no 26. Though whether it is actually easier, as I am preparing to widen the armscye, I am not sure.

I am creating the view V gown but opting for the neckline of view III.

I have chosen to hand-sew the seams, but I may break down before the end and use a machine to finish the seams and complete the hem.

Work in Progress

For the first event I summited a work in progress. Here the outer piece is fully assembled, but once I added the lining to the first arm, I found the armscye to be constricting, so I had to make some alterations before continuing.

Finished Gown

Since the last event, I have adjusted the armscye, added the collar and lining. I chose to make the buttons of cloth.

The next piece is going to be trickier. I’ve always wanted period shoes. I made some early-period turn-shoes years ago, but they turned out a little tight even then, and I’m at least a size larger now.

Inspiration

Many of the ladies in this period can be seen to be sporting lovely poulaines. Most of the extant shoes are made of leather, but there is a lovely example of a pair done in cloth with leather soles. The images are under copywrite, so I will just have to link them here. I have some nice heavy weight leather that has been sitting around for a while, suitable for sole leather, but none in a lighter weight for the uppers, so these seemed perfect.

Method

I started by placing paper cones upon my feet and wrapping them in tape. This I cut apart to make the pattern.

From this I created a mockup, which fit. Don’t ask me why I had leopard print fabric sitting around, I don’t know.

Once I had made adjustments, I used the mockup to trace the soles onto the leather.

Next came the hard part. Did I mention that this leather had been sitting around for a while? Putting an awl through old leather takes strength and patience. Since the sole leather was so think, a straight turn shoe wouldn’t work well. I attempted to place the holes from flesh to edge, so that the bottom of the sole would not be punctured. I marked the holes with a punch so that they would be even and then punched with an awl.

Don’t let this video fool you, it was almost never this easy.

The top, I cut out of the same wool as my dress, with a cotton lining. The shoe at the Boston museum had a linen lining, but my skin tends to itch when in contact with damp linen, so I usually use cotton for things that may go next to my skin. I sewed the uppers on in two parts and then joined the pieces of the upper together.

That’s as far as I have gotten, and once I had them together and tried them on, I almost cried. They are too big. I left a little extra room for the seams, but since the leather doesn’t fold in when turned, they didn’t need that much space. I’m going to have to re-do them. If anyone has suggestions on how to condition old leather to make it easier to get an awl through, I’d love to hear them.

This next one is a little easier than the two previous. I am a weaver, but I typically weave on an eight shaft floor loom, and have done very little card weaving. I chose a simple but striking pattern that would not require too much thought.

I did up a test piece first in the pattern I wanted using relatively inexpensive 10/2 cotton:

Close examination of the selvedges showed me that I needed to change the border so that it rotated entirely in one direction so that there would not be long floats of the kind seen below:

This required me to put the selvages on a fishing swivel so that they would not shorten faster than the other threads which were being twisted and then untwisted. For the final belt I chose a thicker silk yarn: 260 yards in 50 grams. Since I wanted it to complement the lining to the pellanda, I chose black and silver silk. I also used a thinner weft thread than the warp threads. This makes the center dot in the pattern less obvious, but also made the edges much smoother.

Eventually I’d like to cast my own buckle for it, but for now, I chose to purchase the buckle.

For some time I have wanted to experiment with ivory alternatives. There are some beautiful combs in the 14th-15th centuries. When I purchased the buckle for the belt, the same site had some faux ivory blocks, so I ordered one along with my buckle. The dimensions of the block were not suitable for carving a comb, but occasionally found with the ivory combs were a hair parting tool that would match the dimensions of my block.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O103075/hair-pin-unknown/

This example has an end carving of a small lion, so I opted, unsurprisingly for a squirrel.