[Used] Gold Wool

Cloth Type: 100% Wool
Yardage: 4 yards at 60 inches wide
Source: Class Act Fabrics
Description: A medium weight twill wool in a dark golden mustard color.

Intended Use: ***Update 9-22-12: Please check out this post to see what I ultimately decided to do.*** 

My intention is to use this wool to make a 14th century surcote with slightly belled, 3/4 length sleeves.  I have concerns, however, about how a dress of this type might look on me, so it will require some testing.

My original idea comes from the The Medieval Tailor's Assistant.  The dress is called a "woman's fashionable surcote" and the pattern is shown on page 20. To get an idea of what a gown of this type might look like, check out the long-sleeved, fitted version Elina from Neulakko created.  She used one of the Herjolfsnes gowns for patterning, but noted that her original inspiration was an English brass dated to 1370.

I feel that a dress of this type is entirely appropriate to my persona and would be a great addition.  I can justify it as a hand-me-down from one of my English relatives, and as it appears to be relatively in vogue up to the 1380's (when the kirtle style took over, followed by the houppelande), it makes sense that a gown like with would have been passed along, even if no longer really fashionable for me to wear in public as a middle class woman of the 1420's.

After ordering the fabric, which has a very visible twill pattern which will certainly limit my pattern options, I thought about doing a cote hardie, with a long row of buttons up the front center, very much like the drawing I'd done for my Late Gothic Fashion class.

I believe I can get away with a fairly high neckline if there's a row of neatly spaced buttons distracting from the relative wideness of my chest. BTW, the sleeves on this drawing are more flappy than I will do.  I was able to locate a brass that shows more closely the sleeve style I have in mind, but mine will probably be about 2 inches shorter:

Margaret De Camoys, 1315. Source

As far as the pattern goes, I'm questioning what's best.  I believe that Elina used the Herjolfsnes pattern primarily out of a desire to try it out, but she clarifies that in order to achieve the finished look, she did do fitting that the original did not have.  I've avoided using the Greenland patterns for my Franco-Anglo-Flemish wardrobe, though.  Not that I feel anyone using these patterns for non-Greenland garments is wrong, I just don't feel, based on the evidence, that using them is correct for my persona.  The author of The Medieval Tailor's Assistant doesn't give an exact source for her pattern, but I suspect, given it's near identical nature to the dress Elina created, she based it on the Greenland gowns.

This type of construction, in which the side gores form the base of the armhole, is known as Nockert Type 2 (I assume from the classifications created in the writings of Margareta Nockert), and Marc Carlson states that, aside from 5 Herjolfsnes tunics, there are only 2 others, both dated well before the 14th century.  However, author Margaret Scott has suggested in a few of her books that clothing changed very little from the 12th century to the 14th century in terms of basic patterns.  The "Ronberg" tunic (below) is a likely candidate for a more appropriate reference, as it originates from Denmark- considerably closer to England than Greenland!

I suppose the real trick here will be to create a gown that is somewhat transitional in nature between the Nockert Type 2, popular before 1380, and the fitted kirtle style popular after that.  Perhaps my relative was young enough at the time to appreciate the aesthetics of the new style, but old enough (probably matronly enough) to prefer the looser, earlier style.  So the pattern may be a something I'll just need to formulate based on my educated assumptions (which is the point of experimental garb research, right?)

I think I'll start with a Nockert Type 2, and same as Elina, modify the fit to be slightly more fitted.  I'll use a center front seam and, for the time being plan for a row of buttons.  I'll be wearing it over a supportive 15th century kirtle, so the tailoring to fit it closer will take advantage of that- which is in keeping with what my persona would have likely done when she received the gown.  I will use a straight-seam sleeve (probably without a gusset), since that's the most likely choice for an older 14th century style gown.

Interestingly, while searching through effigies and brasses, I came across an image that offered some hope.  The statue (a weeper at the Robert de Burghersh tomb, 1306) is very clearly carved to suggest an ample bosom.  This is a highly unusual find in effigies!

Source