15th century headwear with golden sprang

After making the Lengberg headwear and realizing it was to little I wanted to make a new one. A new one that was more inspired by Lengberg instead of trying to make a copy of it. I wanted to have sprang on it though, because it is something I enjoy making. 

The 15th century is not my time so I started to look at paintings on Pinterest, to get some more inspiration besides the Lengberg one. And I did find some that I liked.

This one is from the painting The birth of Mary from 1495-1505 Master of Mariapfarr; Mariapfarr, Austria, and the midwife is wearing headwear that look like the Lengberg cap. Instead of the white sprang of Lengberg it has a golden sprang piece in the middle. 

This one, The birth of the virgin, by Master of the Crucifixion Triptych, from the early 1490´s. She has a slightly larger sprang piece. Also in gold. 

And this one, that I didnt find the name of. The scene is also of the birth of Mary. And the clothing suggest 15th century. Here the sprang piece is a bit smaller but still in a darker colour. 

My knowledge in the 15th century is very limited but after looking at a coupIe of different paintings it seemse like this cap were used by midwifes. Was it only used by midwifes? Or has the painters used it because it was something the midwifes ofter wore and that would help identifying them in the paintings? It doesn't matter, is that the case I made a midwife cap!

The pattern for the Lengberg cap from the article Enigmatic beauty by Beatrix Nutz, Rachel Case and Carol James was a bit small so this time I made it bigger. But its the same patternbase. I thought it would be fun with another colour of the sprang and after seeing these painting I decided to make it in a goldish colour. The store called it actually pumpkin. The sprang is still made in linen though. I made an easy pattern, just plain interlinking, inspired by the first painting, The birth of Mary.

And this is the result.

 

At the front edge there is a fingerloop braid in white linen, as on the Lengberg cap. I find it practical to use a fingerloop brad for attaching the sprang in the front. The straps might be a little bit to long and next time I make one I think I will shorten them. But otherwise Im happy with it. 

The sprang piece is 35,5 cm long. I made this longer than the Lengberg too because it felted like the last version was sliding up in the back, this one will stay in place under the straps. The sprang is secured with a thread in the same colour and whip stitched at the edge. But I would not put this one in a washing machine...

 

The sprang weaving took four hours including warping, and sprang results in two pieces if you dont connect them in the middle, so two hours for this piece. And the rest of the cap and the fingerloop braid took 5 hours and 45 minutes. So, 7,45 hours in total. I dont do 15th century so this pieces will end up in my etsy-shop and hopefully I will get to see it on someone else at an event soon. 

https://www.etsy.com/se-en/listing/920208544/15th-century-headwear-with-golden-sprang?ref=shop_home_active_1

Marlein on Etsy

I have been quite silent during December. But I have been working a lot on new garments. Corona made my company close its office and I have been working from home. That meant that I could sew a lot more! I placed a large box on my couch and garment after garment went down in the box. If you follow me on Instagram, were I am named skogs_linnea, you have already seen all my newly made stuff. The plan was to start a shop on Etsy. 

And to do that I needed stuff to sell. And today I am proud to present;

Marlein made it

My new Etsy-shop!

You find it here.

In my shop right now there is a lot of linen. I have made three linen 16th century German smocked aprons. 

 

 

 

 

My aprons are made by unbleached linen from Medeltidsmode.The long seams are made by machine but I made the honeycomb smock by hand with waxed linen thread The smocks are between 40 and 55 cm and the width of the aprons between 119 and 150 cm.  

In my Etsy-shop there is also two sprang lace pieces. They are made to be used between the cups of a Lengberg bra-dress. But if anyone wants to use them in another way that fine too of course. 

 

 

The slightly larger one is 11 cm long and 9 cm wide. The smaller one is 8 cm long and 9 cm wide. I closed them with a string and while attaching them to a garment you just open the string. But be careful, it might untwist when the string is removed. I made the pattern but its a very common one that is seen as part of pattern from a very long period of time, from the 4th- to the 19-century. 

 

I also made an undergollar in linen. 

It is suitable for all classes of German 16th century society, for everyday use. Its 78 around the waist with the strings tightened but can be wore by Medium/Large with the strings looser. Its 27 long without the collar. The collar is three cm high. Its closed with strings at the side, collar by hook and eye and a needle at the front. 

 

My plan is to sell 16th century garments, sprang hairnets, sprang lace, shirts, aprons, wulsthauben and ceramics. All that I cant think of would be fun to make. I have not showed any of my ceramics here because it is mostly modern. But if will show up on Etsy. As a start I wont do commissions, just sell all ready made items, but who know. I like to sew, and that means I have to much stuff just to keep for myself. So..Etsy!

That was December...what about January!

Lengberg find number three

During a restoration of the Lengberg castle (East Tyrol, Austria) in 2008 a filled vault was detected below the floorboards. More than 2,700 textile fragment were found in there. This part of the Lengberg castle was probably finished by 1485 so the finds is most likely predating this. Among the finds there were a couple of sprang woven fragments, in different conditions. 

After making the other of the Lengberg finds I just had one left, so I made that too. The original is a narrow sprang strip with a non-stretched width of 2,2 cm and a preserved length of 11 cm. Its made of a slightly finer thread of 0,5 mm and a 48 thread warp, 24 loops. I made my pattern drawn from the Enigmatic Beauty article, that contains the rest of the pattern too. I used the same thread as for the other samples, a white linen thread of 1 mm, so it was a bit to thick, compared to the original. 

The original piece can be found here, in Enigmatic Beauty, an article about the finds written by Beatrix Nutz, Carol James and Rachel Case. This piece in on page 12. Carol James made the pattern.

As for the other sprangpatterns I worked with the blue is a right-edge stitch, the orange is a double stitch and the green is a left-edge stitch. The numbers in the middle of the stitches is how many threads that should be worked before there is another stitch. I dont really think that stitch is a good word for it but it has to work for now, I dont know what to call them, twists? But they are all twists... ordinary stitch, basic stitch, ordinary twists, basic twist? A basic twist is two threads, one from the back going up and one from the front going down. Sometimes it can be difficult to see which thread that is in line, but I noticed that if you look further down the threads always seems to hang in order. So, Im trying not to work to close to the upper part. 

Again its a hole pattern that creates flowers and...what to call it, darts? 

My sprang pieces are 27 and 28 cm long. It differs with 1 cm because I have pressed them together differently. The one on the bottom is shorter and pressed together harder than the one on the top. They are 4 cm width. The original was 2,2 width and the difference is because of the thread, mine is thicker.

The ends are sewn together with the same linen thread to prevent it from unraveling. I might have pulled it a bit to tight though, it depends on what I want to use it for.

This sprang, as for the last one I made, was not attached to a headwear or any other fabric when found. So its difficult to say what it was used for. But it could be a headwear, maybe for a child, or together with more narrow sprang pieces for a decorative effect. 

Now there are no more sprang patterns made from extant pieces that I know of. So I guess I have to make up my own...

Featured in a journal!

My Golden egg project, the embroidered 16th century hauben, has got such a lovely response. And that makes me really happy. Im proud of it and cant wait untill covid is over and I can show it to people for reall. To me its not new anymore even though I never had a chance to wear it in public. But after yesterday it is shown in a way I never thought would be possible. Its featured in a journal!

The journal Hemslöjd is for handicrafts from all over the world, but its writen in Swedish. Their slogan is A world of fantasy and knowledge. Here is their webpage.

And Im on it!

This is a big deal to me and I am so proud that they wanted to write about something that I made. Who would have thought so when I started with the project over a year ago!? Not me any way. 

Here is the article I wrote about the haube.

A shirt for a 16th century peasant soldier

Sankt Örjens gille is a group recreating the life in 16th century Sweden, and in particularly Dalarna/Dalecarlia, the area were Im from.  But there is not that much information so everything we can find about 16th century Sweden really....

Im making clothes for me, actually a bit untrue, I have not even started yet, I still only have my German clothes. But they are quite the same so it works for now. But I also make clothes for some other people in the group. A couple of month ago I finished a pair of trousers for a friend and now I have an order for another pair and also a shirt. Here you can read about the trousers. 

In these times, with covid, there is difficult to take measurements for the trousers so I started with the shirt. And while making one, I thought I could make another at the same time. So now I have two! Anyone in need of a shirt?

We say that we are doing the first half of the century but most of us, I belive, think early 16th century, and the fighting and life around the future king Gustav Vasa. He was seeking support in Dalecarlia to get rid of the Danes that occupied the country. The people from Dalecarlia were quite old fashion and later during his regime they complained about him using the new German fashion. The only drawings we have of Swedish 16th century soldiers made during that time is Paul Dolsteins drawings. And on these we dont see any shirts. So, with this in mind, and us doing early 16th century I actually decided to make them with squared pieces and gussets, a bit more 15th century. Not as much fabric in them as in the ones I usually do. This style is seen throughout the medieval period in illuminated manuscripts and where later worn by the lower classes of society for a couple of hundred years. We can still see them being used during the 19th century in the countryside.

They are made in white linen. And to get the price down I actually made some of the long seams by sewing-machine. A bit uncommon for me... The seam allowance and the linings are made by hand using white waxed linen thread.  My machine actually died while making the second one so that one is almost entirely made by hand. 

 

I made small differences between the two. I dont want everything to look exactly the same. Small differences makes it look more realistic I think. One has broader arms than the other, and that one also is a bit bigger in the bodice. The arm gusset on this one is also 12 cm and the other is 10. Next one I make might be made in a natural colour. That might actually be more historically accurate. They were soldiers, not all wealthy  and out in the field. A pure white linen shirt would not stay white for long, if they would have afford it from the beginning.

The first one.

The bodice on the first one is 92 cm long and 72 cm wide. Arms are 28 cm wide and 61 cm long.

And the second.

 

 

The bodice on the second one is 89 cm long and 70 cm wide. Arms are 24 cm wide and 62 cm long. The neckline is also a bit different. 

All the seam allowance is folded down and whip stitched by hand. To do this is almost relaxing to me. It makes a garment look so good, so complete.

 

And now some ironing and then C is going to choose which one he likes and the other is going to be sold. Both are probably around Large to extra Large in size.  

Small sprang strip from Lengberg

During a restoration of the Lengberg castle (East Tyrol, Austria) in 2008 a filled vault was detected below the floorboards. More than 2,700 textile fragment were found in there. This part of the Lengberg castle was probably finished by 1485 so the finds is most likely predating this. Among the finds there were a couple of sprang woven fragments, in different conditions. 

One of these pieces was a narrow sprang piece. Its worked with 32 threads and 16 loops. The average thread diameter is 0,6 mm and its a linen s-plied 2-ply thread. The lenght of the preserved piece is 15 cm. 

Pictures of this piece are not as common as pictures of the sprang on the Lengberg headwear. Its also seems that there are not as many people who have made this sprang and put pictures of it online. Maybe people have made this piece but not posted pictures of it...

Pictures of the original sprang can be found in the article Enigmatic Beauty The decorative headwear of Lengberg castle, by Beatrix Nutz, Rachel Case and Carol James. Page 11. 

When making my copy of the sprang I used a linen thread, a 1 mm 4-ply thread. Its 0,4 mm bigger than the original and the finished piece is 2,5 cm wide and 23 cm long. A bit bigger than the extant piece.

The left one in the picture was on top in the frame and therefore there are more thread in the upper part, its where the threads are fastneded after warping. I have a thread through the loops on top/bottom but its not really needed. The sprang does not unravel if this thread is taken out, its just easier to handle like this. 

The pattern is made by Carol James and can also be found in the article. I dont have a printer so I painted mine from the computer screen. 

The pattern consist of the right-edge stitch, the left-edge stitch and a double stitch. One box in the pattern if one thread in the warp. The pattern is a bit different than what I have worked with before just beacuse parts of it are made in plait rows. Its the double holes in the middle of the pattern, seen in this pattern as green/blue/green/blue. The numbers are the amount of threads that are going to be twisted before there is a new stitch. The right-edge stitch and left-edge stitch consists of tree threads each and the double stitch is two threads up/two theads down. 

Its a quite small piece of sprang. It can be used as a decoration attached on top of a fabric or on a headwear, like a Birgitta-cap, or something similar. Its a bit to short so I actually started a new warp right away. Maybe I make a childrens cap out of this too. 

Source: Enigmatic Beauty The decorative headwear of Lengberg castle, by Beatrix Nutz, Rachel Case and Carol James.

The Lengberg headwear

So I made it, the Lengberg headwear. When having the sprang piece the step to the whole headwear was to short not to make it. When though Im not doing 15th century fashion. And I think it turned out good, its really cute. But its to small for me. I can wear it but it feels like its going to slide of at any second. 

The Lengberg headwear consists of four pieces of linen, one on each side of the sprang and two smaller longer pieces to be able to wrap it around the head and knot it. The sprang piece is on top of the head, from the forehead to the neck, a very decorative element. There is also a fingerloop braid along the front edge. The original is 58 cm and mine is 55 cm. The braid is attache to the front edge with needle lace.

I used waxed linen thread and backstitch. The edges is folded and whipstitched. The needle lace is made with the same thread but double. The sprang is whipstitched to the linen. 

The cap is very cute I think. But I kind of lost interest for it when notised the size of it. Rachel Case that was involved in the research of the original garments told me that the origianl cap was also quite small. So I guess I got that right! Now when I know the size I will probably make another one that fits me. I think that this cap might be useful for lower clases 16th century fashion too. 

The fingerloop braid is made out of five strands. And its flat. I have only made squared braids before so that was fun. 

Im sorry for the bad mobilphone-pictures. When I have made another one I will put a greater effort in taking good pictures. I just wanted to show you what I put together after finished the sprang. 

See, a bit to small but quite nice anyway.

A sprang from Lengberg

During a restoration of the Lengberg castle (East Tyrol, Austria) in 2008 a filled vault was detected below the floorboards. More than 2,700 textile fragment were found in there. Its not unusual to find textile fragments, shoes, and rubble under floorboards in old houses. In my regular job, as building conservation officer, I see it and hear about it all the time. This part of the Lengberg castle was probably finished by 1485 so the finds is most likely predating this. Among the finds there were a couple of sprang woven fragments, in different conditions. They are all made of undyed linen z-spun s-plied two-ply thread. 

The largest one is still attached to the garment, a headwear, first thought to be a bra. It consist of four pieces of natural linen. In the middle, from the forehead to the back of the head, is a beautiful piece of sprang. It has a decorative patterns made up by holes. The sprang is 27 cm long.

The sprang in the right down corner. The pictures of the original comes from here.

I normally don´t do 15th century fashion. But I do sprang. And this was to beautiful and intriguing not to try. It would be the most difficult pattern I tried so far. And I can tell you, I almost didn't breathe during the entire time... But I did it!

My sprang frame is a copy of a weavingloom/sprang frame found on the Oseberg ship. Its from the viking age but the frames did´nt change that much. There are paintings with sprang frames from the 16th century looking almost the same. And the look of the frame does not change the look on the sprang possible to make on them. Last time I posted something about sprang I said that the loom/frame was only for weaving. But after that I red the Collingwood book about sprang and he says that the Oseberg ship weaving frame were probably made to do sprang also. And it work just fine for sprang too. 

When reading the articles by Beatrix Nutz on the matter I get a bit confused though. They did a copy of the headwear but seems to have used another pattern for the sprang, the tree of life. I dont understand why. By looking at the picture of the garment it is obvious that the design is another. What am I missing? I found the pattern for that design online though, its not in the articles of the remnants.  

The chart for the sprang is created by Kristen Hughes at The Sojouring Spinner. But I found it here. Its made up by letters though, and I don´t like to use letters while working, its to small and difficult to see. I want different colours for different twists. So I made up my own from it. 

Here is my pattern.

The warp count of the original piece is 120 threads, 60 loops.The pattern is for 108 threads and 54 loops. So not the same exactly. But when looking at the original piece you see that the pattern is wider, a half a repetition is on each side. I don´t know if this is the missing 12 threads. They might be too few to give that much sprang in both ends. I might try that out another time. Its made with a basic interlinking stitch and a white linen thread. I used this thread. It might be a bit thinner than the original one. 

The different stitches needed for this piece is not difficult. It is made up by three different kinds, the right-edge stitch, the left-edge stitch and the double stitch. The edge stitches in my pattern is not included, I just makes them without thinking. The plait row is not in the pattern either. Making this sprang you work with two rows, the plait and overplait row. The holes in the pattern are made during a overplait row and between all the overplait rows there are plaits rows. In this case the words can be replaced with even-numbered rows and odd-numbered rows. An overplait row starts with a right-edge stitch, wich is two thread up and one down. And ends with a left-end stitch that is one thread up and two down. In my pattern the right-edge stitch is blue and the left-edge stitch is green. So when a green box turn up in the pattern I know that I should do a left- edge stitch, one down, two up. So, the stitches in not difficult, very basic. The difficulties lay in knowing where I am in the pattern. But I guess that comes from experience.

I created a 70 cm long warp. My aim was for 27 cm, as the original piece. Or is this the length of the tree of light, that they used instead of the original? I dont know, I aimed for 27 cm anyhow.

Sprang is created in the end of the warp, which results in a mirror image in the end of it. So, if you don´t want to connect your piece in the middle you make two in one!  

When I have been doing sprang before I have had a lot of supporting sticks. If you make a mistake they help you untwisting rows without the whole thing unravels. But as you can see in the picture above I only using one stick. I tried with a couple from the beginning but I needed to restart because with a lot of sticks I could not get the tension right. The holes became to big. So, I started all over and removed all but one. That was a scary part of this for me. I knew that if I made mistakes and didnt see it before I went on to the next row I needed to unravel the whole thing or live with a mistake in the middle of it. I remade some rows a couple of times, just based on the feeling that something in it was wrong... 

And its done! Still in the frame though. And you never know what happens to the tension when taking out of the frame. When taken out of the frame I soaked them in water and left them to dry over night. This is to shape them. If I wanted to make them wider I could have put needles in the corners and it would stay like that when dried.

And this pictures is taken this morning, Dried up and all beautiful. They are 29 cm long and 7,2 wide. If the user wants them in a wider garment that is alright too. They are very flexible. 

This sprang can be used as the original, in a headwear. It can also be used between the cups in a bra-dress. The sprang between the cups of the Lengberg bra-dress is gone. For the reconstruction of it another sprang fragment from Lengberg was used, this one from the headwear. According to Beatrix Nuts the sprang between the cups had two purposes; it helped the cups to lay flat and covered the decolletage. When the sprang was done it was shaped to fit the space between the cups by untwisting parts of it. I would suggest that if used in between cups to attache it on the top by stitches so that it is steady, and then very carefully untwist a little bit at the time. Its very easy to untwist to much and no way to undo it. 

Do I need to make the headwear now, just to be able to show this of? And whats next, the whole 15th century outfit, to go with the headwear?!

Sources

Betrix Nutz - The Lengberg Finds. Remnants of a lost 15th century tailoring revolution

Rachel Case, Beatrix Nutz, Carol James - Enigmatic Beauty  The decorative headwear of Lengberg castle 

Pictures of original headwear - http://www.medievalsilkwork.com/2012/08/15th-century-sprang.html

http://www.exhaliastudios.com/squirrel/