15th Century German Under Dress

I made this dress for Mercy Neumark, who is a Master Potter! She does a lot of 15th-16th c. German pottery, so this was so perfect for her! The original image is late 15th c. German, and it depicts a female potter at a wheel. This would also be medieval underwear, to go underneath gowns. We chose wool lined in muslin so she could easily wear it alone (gotta look like the awesome picture!), while it can also be a warm undergarment. I also made the lacing cords for the sides by finger loop braiding, and the eyelets are all hand stitched. All machine stitching on the garment is hidden inside the lining and hand finished.

A note: This is one variation of the elusive under dress that has started to surface rapidly since the unveiling of the Lengberg bra. I personally believe that this type of fitted upper bodice and attached skirt could be one possibility regarding the origin of a Lengberg bra type garment. This one is obviously a bit different, but I think it's the same type of idea.

Teal Kampfrau Dress

I don't believe I shared this dress on my blog yet. This is a 16th century German style, also seen amongst the Swiss. These ladies are now known as kampfrau or trossfrau, and they followed the Landsknecht soldiers.

This dress began as an underskirt for my other kampfrau dress, my first year in the SCA. I later made the bodice and turned it into a new dress. I mean, when you have such fun colors, it's hard to just hide them!
The hat, known as a wulsthaube, was a pretty recent project. It's made from a sort of padded roll structure sewn to a thick headband piece, and the veil is tied on top.

More photos here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/teal-german-kampfrau/

Landsknecht Gown

I made this gown and smock for a customer. She wanted a yellow, black, and white 16th century German gown, and I was quite happy to make it for her! The women who wore this style are often referred to as kampfrau or trossfrau, the women who followed the Landsknecht soldiers in Germany and Switzerland.

The dress is made of linen with wool guards, and the bodice laces in the front. There is a little bit of visible machine stitching, as normally happens when you're working out a reasonable budget, but I have a lot of tricks to make it very minimal.

I took photos of the dress pre- and post- slashing. Both ways are acceptable style options, but in this case, we were going for the more detailed slashed version.

I'm really happy with it! I was actually thinking about how I'd like to make a new slashed German gown so I could implement my new research into it, and then this one just came to me!

New German Dress

I started this dress about 5 years ago and then never got around to finishing it until just now. It's first half of 16th century, German - or Swiss. It can be categorized with kampfrau or tossfrau garb. The dress is made entirely of linen, and the hat is actually a wool structure underneath (just because I had a scrap of wool handy!) with a linen veil tied around it.

More pictures coming soon!