Little Welsh Viking

Goodness me! Sorry about the hiatus there, everyone. I've got lots of news! As some will know, I've moved house to Scotland recently. That's pretty much taken life over for the last month or so, as it's a big move for me, and a stressful thing to do at the best of times. It's been made especially difficult because winter always gets a bit dark and cold and sad for me. The black dog is an infrequent, but vicious little visitor to my happy head, and takes up too much of it. Anyway, this blog is meant to be about old clothes, so let's talk sources, shall we? The Old English Hexateuch (AKA MS Cotton Claudius B) is an amazing resource, available for free on the British Library website. It has beautiful, full colour pictures of 11th century Saxon clothing for both the ladies and the gents. You want to see contemporary pictures of what C11th Saxons were wearing? Look here. Fabulous. Truly fabulous. Typical Saxon appearance: tunics, hose, dress and mantle, b...

Right, time for some later stuff than last time. This post is about my late 14th century cotehardie. Basically it's a big wool coat to go over your tunic. Speculum Humanae Salvationis. Cotehardies all over! The design is going to be based on mostly manuscript depictions, such as "The Romance of Alexander", and "Speculum Humanae Salvationis". It will also be based on some memorials, and on the experience of other re-enactors. As far as I can tell, these things were pretty simple. I'm not bothering with the grand assiette sleeves ,as they're not necessary for the period, so this will essentially be a tunic, slightly shaped to hug the body, with narrow, button closure sleeves. Ho hum. Let's liven this bad boy up a bit...PARTI-COLOUR! Speculum Humanae Salvationis. Cotes! Yes! A half-and-half! This will be a silly coat! Sorry: "cote". I love parti-colour. It's a silly idea, it's extra work, and it's amazing! The...