Period
Fabrics & Sewing
CLOTH
WIDTHS - LINENS - WOOLS
-
TIRETAINES -
SILKS - VELVETS
CLOTHES
FROM ART - SEWING
- CLOTHING
CARE
- COLOUR
NAMES - FABRIC NAMES &
DESCRIPTIONS - FUR & LEATHER
NAMES
Please select the link for the following information about period fabrics and making them into clothes.
- COLOUR NAMES - A listing of colour names referred to in medieval documents
- FABRIC NAMES - A listing of fabric names referred to in medieval documents
- FUR & LEATHER NAMES - A listing of fur & leather names referred to in medieval documents
- CLOTHES FROM ART - Interpreting historical art to make medieval clothing
- SEWING - Looking at stitches and seams on archaeological finds
- CLOTHING CARE - Traditional medieval clothing care
Cloth
widths
The
width of a horizontal loom which required two workers permitted fabric
to be made in a length of as much as 30 metres and as wide as two metres.
The fulling process required to produce certain fabrics reduced the width
of the material to about a metre and a half. The ell was the most common
length used for the measurement of cloth. In England, it was usually 45
inches. In 1304, two woment wool merchants, Aleyse Darcy and Thomasin
Guydichon, are recorded as having sold to the Earl of Lincoln:
..."one piece of cloth, embroidered with diverse works in gold and silk.. eight ells (thirty feet) in length and six ells (twenty-four feet) in breadth"...
for the huge sum of 300 marks. It doesn't record what the cloth's intended use was, but it does give us an idea of the possible size of cloth manufacture at that time. Illustrated at left, a French illumination dated at approximately 1470, Boccaccio's de Claris Mulieribus.
Linens
Information from the "Tacuinum
of Vienna" describes linen clothing thus: the nature of linen
is cold and dry in the second degree. It's optimum is light, splendid,
and of the beautiful kind while it is described as useful to moderate
the heat of the body. The dangers of linen, however, are that it presses
down on the skin and blocks transpiration. In order to neutralise the
dangers, one is instructed to mix it with silk. The effects are described
as drying up ulcerations and is primarily good for hot temperaments and
for the young, in summer and in the southern regions.
As with most other fabrics, linen came in varying degrees of quality and
fineness, from thick opaques to the very fine and the quality varied for
it's intended use and the status of the wearer. Linens were used for bedding,
napery, underclothing, light-weight summer clothing and veiling.
Processing the flax into fibes, weaving and finishing was primarily done
in rural areas. By the mid 14th century, the development in looms abled
workers to produce a much longer fabric woven all in one piece, which
required great skill and was prized. In the late 14th centuryFlemish linens
were known as the finest. Some samples of linen damask show a thread count
of between 60 to 200 threads per inch, making them suitable for veiling.
Wools
Wool was the staple of medieval clothing for all classes- the quality
varying hugely between the worsted fabrics of the poor to the very fine
wools produced in England which were exported to Europe.
By the 13th century, Italians woolens
and cottons were being sold internationally. By the second half of the
14th century, Paris was at the very top of the field in the production
and export of middle range woolens called "biffes". Wools produced
in Flanders in the 14th and 15th centuries became better and eventually
rivalled the English ones for quality. Shown at left, a detail from the
illuminated manuscript, the Duk du Berry's "Book of Hours"
for the month of July depicting a man and a woman shearing sheep.
The shorter the woolen fibre, the tighter the weave and the heavier the
finished cloth.The difference between better woolens and the lesser worsteds
was essentially the fulling and finishing. After fulling, the wet woolen
cloth was stretched, burls removed, imperfections repaired before being
placed over a bar and then teased before the final shearing. Dry shearing
could be performed by repeated napping and clipping to produce a silky,
smooth finish. Often woolen clothing was dyed twice- once in the wool
and again in the piece. Prices for woolen cloth cvaried depending on the
finishing process- the more times a cloth had been sheared and finished,
the more expensive the cloth.
Wills often made specific mention of woolen clothing and often specified
the worth of the garment indicating what quality it might be. In 1313,
Anicia atte Hegge, a widow from Hampshire, made a will on the surrendering
of her holding to her son which included the stipulation that among other
things, she vwould be provided with various items of clothing including
a woolen garment every other year worth 3 shillings.
Woolen clothing and it's properties are discussed in the medieval
text "Theatrum of Casanatense" as having a warm and dry
nature, the optimum kind being "the thin kind from Flanders".
It's usefulness is it protects the body from cold and holds warmth although
it's dangers were that it causes skin irritation. Neutralization of the
dangers are advised with the wearing of thin linen clothing, presumably
underclothing worn between the wool and the skin.
Tiretains
Tiretains are produced with a linen warp and woolen weft. It was commonly
believed to be a fabric which was low-priced and lightweight- a fairly
popular fabric for those of low status. Recent research suggests that
tiretains were bought and used by nobility and royal household accounts
show the purchase of it also. It appears to be used for the use of lightweight
summer clothing, usually lined with silkand in one instance, lined with
fur. One assumes that silk linings were not used in conjunction with a
low-cost fabric popular with the lower classes.
From these accounts, we can reasonably deduce that tiretains could be
of a much higher quality than supposed.
In one record of the 1315 accounts of the Mahaut of Artois, there is a
mention of tiretain being perchased at 26 ounces, indicating that silk
was an ingrediant of that particular piece of fabric. It is speculated
that in that particular example, the silk may have replaced the linen
warp.
It appears also that kermes, an extremely expensive dye, was used to dye
tiretain. In 1268, two kermes-dyed tiretains were purchased for the English
king. In 1328 the widow of Louis X owned an outfit of black tiretain,
also dyed with kermes. INdeed when the French queen Clemence of Hungary
died, it was noted that 4 of her 35 garments were of tiretain of different
colours and her husband the king had a coat also lined with tiretain.
One assumes that a dye as expensive as kermes was not wasted on a fabric
which was not of a suitably high quality, and the fact that it was purchased
for king's clothing also indicates that the quality of the fabric was
far superior to the rough fabric it was previously supposed to be.
Silks
Silks were expensive but popular with the wealthy not only for their luxurious
texture but it's ability to hold dye and produce brilliant colours not
available in other fabrics. Oriental silks were imported from the east
and patterned or brocaded silks are written about. Many discussions I've
had centre around what kind of silk that exactly is.
It is assumed that it was of a reasonable weight as it was brocaded. Since
there appear to be no extistant silk garments with brocaded patterns,
there is a little conjecture as to what kind of pattern the brocade was.
It seems unthinkable that traditional oriental designs- those of chinese
characters and foreign symbols would have been approved as suitable- and
would have been imported back to the courts of Europe. Certainly the church
would have been unimpressed about pagan symbolism and preached fervently
against it being worn and it does not appear that they did so among their
many other tirades about women's dress. Certainly small geometric patterns
would have been socially acceptable, but was that all?
At an exhibition of chinese scrolls I saw one on display dating from the
late 14th century which seemed to answer my mystery. The scroll "White
Robed Guanyan in a Landscape" appears to be entirely intact as
an artifact with ribbon ties and surrounding mounting silk. Amid other
scrolls with their traditional characters and oriental lattice-patterned
silks, this one stood out as completely different. The backing fabric
featured large flowers, possibly magnolias in an hourglass patterned setting.
This pattern is certainly consistant in size and design with paintings
and illuminations from the 14th and 15th centuries. A conversation with
Anna May Pang, curator of the exhibition in May 2008 proved disheartening
where she explained that wallhangings were often remounted many times
over, particularly if they had been originally mounted as screens or in
temples. She has encouraged me to contact the National Gallery of Victoria's
Conservationists for an actual dating if known.
In the European world, silks were also being locally produced. By the
14th century, silks from Lucca dominated the market for aristocratic silks.
Lucca, Venice, Genoa and Bologna were also known to produce silks of exceptional
quality which were much desired by nobility. It is interesting to note
that silks were almost always sold by the ounce rather than by the length.
Records from 1324 indicate that Paris was producing silk and gold thread
brocades and that English Royal household accounts show purchases of Parisan
silk from the years 1324 to 1333.
Velvets
Silk velvets were extremely expensive and were a luxury fabric only for
the richest of the rich. They were often brocaded with large patterns,
often floral. The
illumination shown at right is from the 15th century, also from France-
Boccaccio's "de Claris Mulieribus". It shows women in
the production of cloth, spinning, carding, dyeing and weaving.
Velvet is produced with either simple
or compound weaves being elaborated by introducing a supplementary warp
over a series of very small rods. The rods are removed leaving small loops,
which can be shorn or left as loops which form the velvet pile. Both simple
and compound velvet weaves can be enriched by sets of yarns on the surface
of the cloth which produces a brocade.
Mustyrdderyllers is known to be a 15th century cloth from Muster-de-Villiers.
It is suggested that the name may also be derived from "mestier de
velours" meaning half-velvet- similar to velveteen.
Fustian appears to be constructed in the same way as velvets, being described
as a coarse twilled cotton cloth sometimes made with a linen warp and
cotton weft, woven in the same way as velvet and with a sheared surface.
The word fustian can be found in records
as early as the 11th and 12th centuries and is associated with heavily
wefted materials, especially those with weft floats that could be cut
to produce pile. It was made in Italy, Spain, Germany and Holland,
and was first mentioned in England in 1114.
Archaeological evidence exists of a garment dated at 1108 in which King
Philip 1 of France was buried, was constructed of woolen velvet. A further
reference to woolen velvet comes from research where velvet production
in the early middle ages was researched and date from Tournai in 1380.
It is more usual that the velvets generally produced were those of silk.
According to research by Lydie LaBarthe
"fragments of twill and cotton velvet have been found dating back to 9th century in France. The textile known as pile on pile or double velvet is also one of the oldest known velvet weaving techniques. Three dimensional textiles with looped or cut pile are supplementary weft compound weaves. As early as 2000BC the Egyptians made linen fabrics with extra linen weft pulled out into loops for both effect and warmth."
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© 2005-2008 Rosalie Gilbert
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