Hand Sewn 15th /16th Century Arming Doublet€¦ · An Italian illustration on display in the Budapest Museum of Fine Art, c. 1435-1445, showing a similarly styled garment (left)

Hand Sewn15 th /16th CenturyArming Doublet

Urrāka al-Tha'labiyya

For this project, I used a pattern derived by Tasha Dandelion Kelly (and available in book form from Lulu.com) from the Pourpoint of Charles de Blois, an extant garment from the 14th century that has been preserved in the Musée des Tissu in Lyon, France:

Photo found at http://www.culture.gouv.fr/ in the online gallery of French Museum collections.

While the pattern itself is based on a 14th century garment, I adapted it slightly to be more of a 15th century garment; my research showed that this style of gusseted, or grand-assiette, sleeve was still common even into the 16th century, and of course quilted arming doublets and gambesons remained common into later years as well.

An Italian illustration on display in the Budapest Museum of Fine Art, c. 1435-1445, showing asimilarly styled garment (left) and an extant example of a quilted arming doublet from the

Philadelphia Museum of Art's arms and armor collection, c. 1550-1650 (right).

The instructions in the book gave examples of period-appropriate fabrics and materials to use. In the end, I settled on a light wool exterior, cotton batting, and a linen interior: I wanted the garmentto be as light as possible, while still passing the punch test that would make it fencing legal. I used pure silk thread, as recommended, cotton chord for the lacing and arming points, and hand-made brass aiglets (purchased from Gerald Livings, www.livingstonjewelers.com). No machine was used in the making of this garment.

Firstly, I of course traced out the pattern and made a mock-up of the garment on muslin. Having adjusted and fitted the garment pieces (mostly to accommodate a female figure, but also to add some length to the skirting due to my height), I finally began to cut my good fabric and batting.

Once I had everything cut from each fabric, giving me three of each piece, I began to quilt them together, using silk thread, starting with the torso. I trimmed the batting down to just a little smaller than the linen and wool so that the finished piece would not have batting bulking up the seam allowance areas, pinned the three layers together sandwiching the batting the middle, and using a ruler and scotch tape marked out the quilting lines.

The quilting was done by hand, using a traditional running stitch. Having quilted a few of the larger body pieces, it was time to begin assembly. To assemble this garment I used the Elizabethan seam, instructions found on the website of a fellow SCAdian called Extreme Costuming (http://www.extremecostuming.com/articles/theelizabethanseam.html) with another page (http://graziamorgano.com/2014/06/24/the-elizabethan-seam-and-outer-garments/) citing evidence of the seam being visibly apparent in images found in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 3 (relevant pages cited on website). This seam calls for the edges of the pattern pieces to be hemmed with a simple running stitch, then connected using a tiny whip stitch. For this quilted garment I found this especially useful for maintaining the accuracy of the pattern despite the way that quilting inevitably warps pattern pieces; I could overlay the original pattern for each quilt-sandwich, then hem the edges to the correct size before sewing the pieces together rather than trying to make adjustments while sewing one piece to another.

This resulted in very neat, flat, strong seams between all the pieces. Quilting and hemming each piece as I went, I first fully assembled the torso, then each sleeve, and finally attached the sleeves to the body of the garment.

With the main structure of the garment fully quilted and assembled, I began thinking about details. I did add a collar (not in the original pattern). The options were to add buttons or lace closure to the front; I eventually decided on the lace front, which would have been more appropriate for a practical military garment while the buttons would have been better suited to a court garment, made with a brocade silk or similar fabric. In order to achieve the lace front, I decided to add a separate panel for the eyelets. While not necessarily a documented period practice in the specific way, it seemed a practical way to ensure that if the eyelets ever did wear out (as they are one of the major stress points on the garment), the panel could be easily replaced. This seemed much in the way of period garments having contrasting hems or cuffs due to the necessity of replacing such easily worn parts of various garments, and therefore a feasible jump in possible period practice despite lack of documentation.

The eyelets were all measured and marked on the pre-hemmed panel, gouged using a basic awl, and hand sewn using a technique shown in Tasha Kelly's book. Each panel was then attached to the main garment using the same whip stitch seam as the rest of the garment assembly. I also made the eyelets for the arming points on the shoulder, marking them out while wearing the garment to see where the points would fall.

With my eyelets ready, I moved to preparing the laces. I cut the natural cotton cord into appropriatelysized pieces, then attached the aiglets by prying them slightly open and using a bit of adhesive on the tip of the lace (Gerald Livingston, who made the aiglets, notes on his website that traces of adhesive, possibly cheese glue, are in fact in evidence in some extant laces of this type).

With the laces cut and tipped, I laced up the garment for this first time; having checked that all fit well, I then added the eyelets and laces for the shoulder points.

The resulting garment is clearly the same pattern as the Charles de Blois to anyone who is familiar with the garment, but with the adjustments of the collar addition (done for practical purposes; as I intend to use the garment for fencing, a collar will provide added comfort when wearing a gorget), longer length, and shoulder points (which will come in handy should I wear the garment for cut and thrust) it has evolved into a piece that looks rather later period than the original. Arming doublets, gambesons, and other quilted under layers remained in common use for centuries due to their practicality, comfort, and the necessary support and protection they provided to warriors armed in plate or maille. While not an exact replica of any period piece, I tried to create a garment that could feasibly be found in the wardrobe of a well-funded warrior (funding specified due to the fine, but not extravagant nature of the fabric used) in the 15th or 16th century.

Fun facts and stats: In the course of this project, I used over 200 meters of thread, over five yards of fabric (that's measuring the linen and wool combined), almost three yards of batting, almost 10 yards of cotton lacing, and put in over 200 hours of work. It was first started April 6th, 2015, and was completed May 28th, 2015.

Sources Used

Kelly, Tasha. The Pourpoint of Charles De Blois, 2011. Published via Lulu.com

Joconde, Portail des collections de musées de France (http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_98=TECH&VALUE_98=baudruche%20&DOM=All&REL_SPECIFIC=3)

Philadelphia Museum of Art website, collection gallery (http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/71390.html?mulR=378)

myArmoury.com Discussion Forum, topic regarding 15th century doublets read for inspiration and information (http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=21451)

Livingston Jewelers, aiglet attachment instructions and information (http://livingstonjewelers.com/aiglets.html)

Feedback and advice also received from posting project ideas and progress photos to the SCA Garb Facebook page, thanks to all who helped or followed my progress! (https://www.facebook.com/groups/scagarb/)