German workingclass outfit

This week has been spent in Finland, at a lovely event called Cudjel wars. I brought to much clothing as usual and ended up only using my new dress for one day. But I will be using it a lot. I have come to really like the working clothes of southern Germany, the farmer outfit. I could go out in the fields like this any day! Most of this outfit is old garments, you have seen me in this before, only the kirtle is new and you could hardly tell. I made a new kirtle for the farmer-clothing because the one I have is a bit to warm. Now I have a summer version of it. 

 

I thought we should look at what Im wearing.

Here you see the whole outfit together. As I was saying in the last post, these dresses should be short. Especially the kirtle, but the gown could be too. All the garments are handmade by me, I dont use a sewing-machine, even for the long seams. And I use undyed linen thread and bees wax. The colour, shape, length, the amoutn of layers and details of dress would tell the social status of the wearer. Here is a worker of the land, a farmers wife, wearing undyed garments, produced in the area of which she lived, according to the sumptuary law, so "that it will allow for recognition of differentiation anytime". The text from the sumptuary law comes from the book Town and Country by Marion McNealy and Max Geisberg. The whole law from 1530 is written in that book.

 

The jacket is made of brown wool in two layers, the top one and the lining. That would have made this garment a bit more expensive, that even the lining where in a nice wool. 

The belt might be the only thing in this outfit that does not belong. I need to get a brown belt for this. In my belt hangs a grey cloth, good for covering the neck in the sun or wipe the hands.

I finally figured out how to get this headwear to work. It always fell of my head and I could not get it to stay. But now I put a loose braid on my head, the one I use together with my hairnets and pin it with as many hairpins as possible. And then I can wrap the cloth around the braid and it stays on. Maybe I should try to get even more hair visible. The unmarried girls where allowed a silk headband according to the law and Im guessing that its the headband you see in many of the woodcuts of dancing farmers. When they married they keept the headband but covered the rest of their hair.

 

The apron, my wrap around the waist apron. Very good cover for the skirt as it cover the entire thing. It almost look like the skirt is made by linen. And in this picture is possible to see the bow on the gollar, under my arm. A bow in each side and a pin in the front. 

Most people thinking about shoes in 16th century Germany think about the oxmule-shoe, that the landsknechts are wearing. But most people dont wear that type of shoe, they wear a more closed up version like the ones Im wearing in this picture. A everyday type of shoe made in leather. The hose are also made of undyed wool, and has a pair of garters tied under the knee. Its acutally the only garment Im wearing here that are in colour, they are red.

 

And the new kirtle with the apron of. Its an undyed woolen dress, with a waistline, a tight bodies and a short pleated skirt. The typical 16th century shape. It closes by eyelet-holes and a string I made out of linen fabric. The gollar is in white linen and is pinned on. The hemd has quite a high neckline so I dont really need it but I think it looks good together with the white apron.

 

Here is a closeup of the closing of the dress and the waistline. I have most of the pleats placed in the back and the front straight. Its much easier to work in a dress like that, less fabric in the front. The waistline is still a bit stiff but will softener by using it.

 And here is the kirtle with nothing on top. It has almost the same grey colour as the hemd, and its difficult to see that the dress does not have any sleeves. Its a sleeveless kirtle.  As I called it in the previous post, the porridge-outfit. Grey upon grey upon grey...and some white. My goal with my recreations are always to be as accurate as I can, but its only fun if there are room for improvement. Im working on the gown, the bodice are done, the hooks and eyes are there and the skirt is attached. But It went a bit to short, even for a farmers outfit, so Im attaching a border on the skirt. And after that the only thing left are the sleeves.

A dream now would be more people doing this type of outfits and to get together and take photos.