Elizabethan Garb: A Swedish Man's Jerkin

David, stout fellow, said that he was game for pretty much anything, Faire-garb-wise, and so I decided to combine two of my interests, genealogy and historical clothing, and kit him out like a 16th-century Swede.  My inspiration ended up being mostly this --

which happens to be Nils Dacke (ca.1510-1543), leader of a 16th-century peasant revolt in southern Sweden.  The jerkin is almost exactly, bar the red piping, like the one in The Tudor Tailor, and the location and period are spot on.

I used Sew-Classics Linen-Look again for this jerkin, this time in "Calla Green", about 4 yds altogether, I think. The amount of fabric given in the book was not enough by about a 1/2 yard, but possibly this is because David is noticeably bigger, upon reflection, than the Tudor Tailor model -- that Swedish ancestry again!

I had more problems with this jerkin pattern than the girls' kirtles, not sure why.  Maybe it is because David's shape and size is more different, as it were, from the Tudor Tailor model than the girls' are.  I ended up drafting a completely different sleeve pattern, using a tutorial from The Curious Frau, which gave me less trouble than the Tudor Tailor one, but David and I both decided that we like the shaped sleeve a little better, and so I slashed and curved the workable straight sleeve pattern to make a shaped one.

The lining is unbleached muslin -- I liked the way that the sandy-beige of the muslin contrasted with the calla green.

I added a collar at the last minute when David said, "Is there a collar? I like collars" -- so this one is a very simple folded strip of fabric attached to the rounded neckline of the jerkin.

The skirt is about 1.75 times the width of the waist, roughly the proportion of the pattern in the book, but it looks to my eye a little too much, a little girly perhaps. I suppose one needs a good bit of room in the skirts to move one's legs, though, so the proof will be in the wearing.

I sewed all sixteen buttonholes by hand. This was not entirely my original plan, but for some reason, the machine or me, I can't do good buttonholes with the machine. The zigzag stitches tend to overlap in the middle, despite being well within the parameters given in the manual, and pop right out the moment the slit is cut. I made all of the buttonholes on the machine, then decided to hand-sew over them, one at a time, and cut only what I was going to do immediately, so that if I didn't have time or it was a howling failure, I could simply leave them uncut, as I expect David will wear the jerkin mostly unbuttoned anyway. This was in fact a very good plan, as I didn't feel compelled or daunted by the thought of sixteen hand-sewn buttonholes in front of me. The first one, after a few experiments on a piece of scrap with the same number of layers, took about an hour, and is pretty wonky, but I got noticeably better and quicker on the second one. I do recommend strong light and strong tea to hand, though. I also had the unpopped stitches as a guideline to help both in stabilizing the edge of the hole and to measure my stitches, as well as a dab of Fray-Check to keep the random threads at bay. Next time I will make the stitches smaller.

They won't win any prizes, but I didn't think I could do it at all, and so I'm fairly proud of the results since in that light they're really not too bad.

The buttons are 5/8-inch forms from Dritz -- I got sixteen buttons out of three packages of five each, because one package had an extra back and another had an extra button! -- and so I decided to go with the paired-buttons arrangement instead of laying them out evenly spaced, although this is not quite the usual for jerkins, apparently.  I just like it.

There is great debate in historical-costuming circles as to whether trousers are acceptable, but the gist of it seems to be that for the most part only peasants and soldiers wore them, as if a man could afford hose, that is what he wore.  Nils Dacke was, of course, both peasant and soldier, in a way, and according to the author of a Swedish historical costuming blog I've recently discovered, Swedish peasants used to wear buckled garters on the outside of their trousers, just below the knee -- just like those in the drawing of Nils Dacke.  So, considering that Mikael's focus in traditional Swedish costume being in the Mora/Orsa area of Dalarna, where David's Swedish ancestors were also from, I made some very quick garters from pieces of sky-blue grosgrain.  I regret that I haven't had time to make some proper trousers, so David is wearing a worn-out pair of chinos instead, but the jerkin covers the most non-period part, the zipper and waist!  Those attention-getting garters may distract anyone from noticing, anyway.

I also made him a carry-sack to the instructions posted by Albrechts Bössor, a Swedish re-enactment group, which mediaeval carry-sack is based on this charming detail of the 14th-century carving of the "Flight into Egypt" at the church in Martebo, in Gotland --

For this carry-sack, I used a piece of 100% linen from Fabrics-Store.com -- I think it's the IL019 mid-weight in "Blue Bonnet", a beautiful deep blue that I had originally intended for an apron.  I used some leftover white linen for the facing, which I'm sure will be quite impractical in a carry-sack, but I didn't want to mix linen with something else that might not wash in quite the same way.

I've really enjoyed this project of clothing my family for the Renaissance Faire, both the research and the decision-making, and the sewing.  I've learned a lot about myself,

as well as about sewing and clothing construction.

A good pattern and a good fabric will get much better results than indifferent ones.

Rushing is almost always a bad idea. 

In fact, I think that this is the best lesson I've carried away from this project -- that although I could literally feel myself wanting if not instant gratification, then at least in-less-than-an-hour, taking my time and doing this carefully is much more satisfying, and saves an enormous amount of bother and disappointment.  I have much more confidence in my abilities than I did when I started -- though there is still a long way to go, certainly!

I regret that I didn't get a photograph of all four of us together -- but there is always next year!

Comments

[stashdragon]

All your RenFair posts are so inspiring, they've nearly pushed me to take up sewing again. Then the thought of the steep learning curve, the wasted materials, and the inevitable cursing holds me back. Who knows which way the balance will tip?

[Mary Lou]

Huzzah, indeed. A very impressive undertaking. I hope the girls don't outgrow these too soon!