Genevieve's Journeys

I'm unlikely to ever do first hand research on theories of medieval history, so I rely on professional historians to explain it to me.

I find it fascinating to hear historians argue about theories. This is a nice summary of ten books, several of which I knew of, particularly Norman Cantor's one at the top - it had come out just as I joined the Society.

I hadn't realised 'the stirrup theory' had been discredited: I thought the stirrup was an important advancement in horseriding, and thus mattered a lot. But perhaps it's the 8th c 'introduction' that's in question, b/c I thought I'd seen a Roman stirrup at the MoL. jpgsawyer, do you know?

As promised - photos of refurbishing a gown.

This pink linen gown was always a fitted undergown, but was originally made to go under my fine purple wool gown, c. 14th c. I knocked it together quickly to wear at the first coronet tourney 2 years ago.

Unfortunately, I chose 2 lightweight linens, rather than one heavy and one light, or two sturdy ones - and even the two together do not provide enough support for me to wear comfortably. It looks...ok - but I saw a pic of myself wearing it last year, and decided it was no longer 'fit for purpose' on its own.


Inspection...


...judged acceptable.


Lined w/out sleeves.

But how to fix it? (implied requirements: easily, cheaply, quickly, etc - the old saw being you get 2/3 of these, but never all three).


The final decision was to do much as I did on my first refurbished gown:
- cut out the front lacing
- add a lining

Cutting out the lacing is always gutting, because it's a lot of handwork to replace. But that's the part that is holding together the two layers. Without it, you can manipulate the fabric as you please.

Gown with lacing cut away - see strips of lacing, waving goodbye to the gown.
New lining is of a cotton twill, very thin, very hard. If I could find linen canvas at a price I liked, I'd buy it, but this twill has served me very well in another gown.

I'm using my trusty old fitted gown pattern, that is effectively just the bodice part: I usually add skirt length to it when cutting a gown, and then do a muslin for the sleeve. This length provides support to about hip level.

I added this layer between the two linen layers, because I still wanted a fairly finished-looking interior of the gown.

At this point, I discover just how much the linen has stretched since I made the gown - the gown necklines, all cut the same shape originally, now have three different shapes, and I'm not able to predict exactly how each one will stretch to fit. So I settle for basting in a vague front neckline, and leaving the back open, til I can try the gown on and see how the fabrics sit together.

At that point, I got Robert to pin the three layers together around the back neckline; I'll probably trim to whatever shape all three layers can agree on. This step still TBA.

I can, however, match the front edges, and redo the lacing holes - once more under supervision:


While lacing holes are a PITA, I do use them a lot...so am now quite quick, and can do about 8-10/hr - so the lacing was finished in one sitting.
Next step: finishing neckline, trimming, edge finishing and test lacing.

Terrific article in The Psychologist about the Dancing plagues and mass hysteria, and how they can now be accounted for not by ergotism (which I'd heard of before) but as response to severe stress that affect the whole community.

Poor nuns seem particularly prone to it, as their lives are even more constrained than everyone else's!

London is once more rich with treasures to see in the galleries and museums. 
Hope this inspires some visits and beer & museum trips.