A Sukenie/Surcot for the winter
Because we are holding a little private weekend for the IG14 Austria at the Bachritterburg Kanzach in Southern Germany in March, I needed a little upgrade on my outdoor-wear.
What I needed for a long time already was a simple Surcot which can be used as a layer over the kyrtle. Long armed, comfortable and as cheap as possible since I already know that I am not going to wear it very often.
I found a pretty striped woolen fabric at the fabric-discounter in a natural gray with one colour in the Weft and different colours in the warp.
Thick stripes like that can be seen in many sources, first of all of course the Codex Manesse, but also in the Sachsenspiegel, in the Speculum humanae salvationis or in the Historia Troiana or in different french manuscripts as the Alexanderroman for example or from Italy. To make it short, everyone has it, so I need it!
Findings of striped fabric have been made in London, Altenberg or with this fine example here.
Concerning pattern I used the dresses from Herjolfsnes and got rid of the fron gores to save time and fabric. It has relatively tight sleeves but is quite loose in it’s general silhouette, as you can see here (Speculum humanae salvationis, um 1340-50, ÖNB) or here or here or here (Speculum humanae salvationis, Badische Landesbibliothek Mid 14th century). I made it using natural white wool threads and tried to keep the pattern in mind, but did not push it too much since from many findings with patterned fabric I know that people often did not care for the pattern looking smooth in the end result.
I thought about adding pocket slits as can be seen on original pictures and in the Herjolfsnes-findings but decided against it since the fabric is quite loosely woven and I was afraid the seams would rip.
All in all a quite conservative, almost first half of the 14th century-ish look, but that is ok, since my kyrtle is quite conservative as well.
