In het weekend van  28 en 29 juli zijn vijf leden van Deventer Burgerscap afgereisd naar Kanzach in Zuid-West Duitsland. Daar was een klein en intiem evenement in de aldaar gereconstrueerde 13-14e eeuwse Bachritterburg, georganiseerd door onze vrienden van Agersheimer Krämere. Samen met een aantal andere laat 14e eeuwse Duitsers en Italianen beleefden we een uitermate gezellig en 'low-key' gebeuren waarbij wat handwerk gedaan werd, goed gegeten, gedronken en gekletst. We sliepen bovenin de hoofdtoren. Overdag hadden we ons met onze naaiprojecten in de met een luxueuze tegelkachel voorziene 'ridderzaal' op de 1e verdieping geïnstalleerd.

Op onze terugweg op zondag hebben we nog een paar kerken bezocht, met name de Münsters van Ulm en Schwäbisch Gmünd. Na afloop hadden we last van onze nek, van het omhoog kijken naar de portalen die rijkelijk voorzien waren van midden-laat 14e eeuwse beelden. Onder andere een vrouwtje met een mouwloos hemd aan...

Five members of Deventer Burgerscap travelled all the way to Kanzach in South-West Germany in the weekend of 28-29 July. Our friends of Agersheimer Krämere had organised a small and athmospheric event in the reconstructed 13th-14th century Bachritterburg. Together with some other late 14th century Germans and Italians we had a very good and 'low-key' time there, doing some handicrafts, eating good food, drinking and chatting. We slept on the uppermost floor of the main tower. During the day we executed our sewing projects in the main dining hall on the 1st floor which, very luxuriously, was fitted out with a tile-stove.

On our way back on Sunday we visited a few churches, especially the Münsters of Ulm and Schwäbisch Gmünd come to mind. After this we all felt our necks ache from looking up all the time at those beautiful portals, which were lavishly decorated with late 14th century statues. One among them was a female wearing a sleeveless fitted shirt...

This week I've been doing a lot of sewing. First I started making my bra-shirt. Bertus helped with getting the pattern right. It consists of four pieces, two for the front and two for the back. I put lining in fine linen inside, to add some extra sturdiness. The outer fabric is medium linen that has a very tight weave. At the bottom of the bra, right under the breasts, I sewed in a strip of very strong linnen twill tape for extra support.

I left one side (the right side) open and made five eyelets on each side (front and back). In total this stage took me about two days.

Of course, in the original I based my bra-shirt on, there is also a skirt attached to the upper part. I thought I still had some linen lying about that was fine enough for the purpose, but I was mistaken! It was all used up in frilled headwear :-)

I ordered some new linen (see pic above) but it hasn't arrived yet. So the skirt will have to come later. There are some other details I want to add too. I will sew a fingerloop braid or some tablet weaving to reinforce the neckline. I want to add some simple embroidery to the reinforced strip at the bottom of the bra, and I hope to attach the skirt to the top using interlacing stitch, but I will have to practice a lot first!

Until then I'll at least be able to wear it in it's current state. It also finally allows me to refit my woollen dress properly. I started on that too but still have to sew on 12 or so buttons before it's done. It has to be ready by Saturday morning for an event in Eindhoven.

Although it has been some time ago (2008) that medieval underwear has been discovered underneath the floor of the Castle of Lengberg in Austria, it is only now that the internet is completely going mad over them. One newspaper article is even worse than the other, but lucky for us, BBC History published an article, written by Beatrix Nutz herself, the archaeologist doing the analysis of the textiles and on the information available on the website of the university of Innsbrück.  For more extensive background information on these finds, please click the links above.

The first time I read about these amazing textile finds, my mind instantly thought of something I had seen before...