Smocked linen gollar - Sebald Beham 1547

In portraits gollars can be found during the first third of the 16th century. Most people think about the round type of gollars that you wear on top of you clothing when they hear the term. But there are another type that is common too, the undergollar, made of linen, I have been writing about it before. Often you might dont even understand that its what you are seeing in a portrait, it might look like her shirt. But to few pleats might be a sign, or in this case, to many...or something like that... 

In a woodcut made by Sebald Beham in 1547 we see farmers dancing. They dressed up and went to a dance. She is wearing a hemd (shirt), maybe an unterrock (kirtle), a rock (gown) with borders in a different colour at the bodies and a lacing partly visible, an apron with smock, a headcloth and a linen gollar with smock. If she would have wore it underneath her dress we would not have know it was gollar, we would have thought it was a shirt, a smocked shirt. If I would have seen this garment I would have said that it were used underneath the dress, and it might have been wore that way too, but she is wearing it on top, showing it of.

Was this a fancy garment? For everyone today wearing smocked shirts it might seem like a everyday thing back then, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was what this women wore when she was going to be pretty, when she was going to look nice, when she was going to the dance. Maybe we have to rethink the meaning of the smocked shirt. Maybe it was not for everybody. Most farmers or workingpeople in woodcuts and painting dont seem to wear them. And when it look like they do, what says its not just a gollar? I dont know, Im just thinking out loud here.

Anyhow...

 

I made the smocked gollar!

Its perfect to make things like this if you have small pieces of fabric left. You cant really see if you dont know it but its made of pieces in different kinds of white even. I took what I had and didnt want to cut into larger pieces. I have not had a chance to take proper pictures of me wearing it yet. But it will come, later. 

I thought when I looked at the woodcut that it had a slight curve over the shoulder and that it covered her from the neck to below the bust. So that is what I did too, when it comes to sizing. I didnt see any closing, so I chose to use strings underneath the arm to close it with. I also thought it was closed at the front, no opening or seam there, so you put it over your head to get it on. 

The smock is made before I sewed everything else together. I smocked all the pieces, one frontpiece, one backpiece and two shoulderpieces, separate. All the pieces are squared pieces, the shoulderpieces are only slightly smaller.

 

 

And I added a strip of linen to the backside of the smock to get the right size for my neck. If you dont have this backpiece the smock will loose its shape over time.

 

I thought I could see bindings around the arms and waist in the woodcut and while working on it that became clear, its a must. Otherwise the piece of fabric on the shoulders wont lay flat, its to many pleats from the collar. The seams are backstitched and the seam allowance folded and whip stitched. In this picture one of the shoulderseams are visible. 

 

 

 

 

 

I love smock, especially on linen, its so crisp and beautiful.

In the woodcut I could not see how she closed it in the front, just that the smock has no gap. So I made worked bars and will close it with a string, that I have not made yet. Hopefully I will remember that before my next event...

 

Next time I see a farmer or working woman with a smock I will look twice, maybe she is wearing a gollar, and not a complete shirt? To see and understand what we are looking at is crucial to be able to recreate fashion in a proper way. And we all learn and develop all the time, and by this garment I certainly did. And that is the most fun thing with this hobby according to me.