sister_raphael | Neckband woes (Reply)

It started so well. On paper, it looked like everything would work, and I was using the collar from a commercial pattern instead of trying to make my own. Then disaster struck. After I traced it out onto paper and lay it on the fabric, it just didn't sit right or join as it was supposed to. Maybe I'd cut it too large? It didn't look to large on the pattern.

So I tried it on.

It actually didn't look tooooo bad on the hanger once I pinched the front in a bit, remembering that there are seam allowances and the final collar won't be quite as wide. On many of the surcotes, the collar goes all the way across the shoulders, so it looked okay.

The photos are terrible because it's dark, at night, by lamp light and selfies. I just wanted an idea of how it was looking size-wise. It looks a bit big. I think. A size or two maybe, even allowing for seam allowances? I need to remember that other images show the collar going almost the entire width of the shoulder straps, not just as a small decorative neck hole decoration.

At this point, I think I'm going to re-make another collar on paper but down 2 sizes. Hopefully, I can draft that myself. I still need to get my head through the opening without a zip or closure, so that my determine the size. Perhaps if I just trim the bottom part a bit?

Of course, does it just feel weird and a bit like an Egyptian collar because... drum roll please... it's a style of clothing I'm not used to wearing and I feel in my head it's stupid and ugly, when I really need to be thinking about medieval fashion.

I'm looking at making the collar from gold silk, but I wonder if it was made from anything more exciting like couched gold thread? I have nothing to support that, so I'll just use the gold silk.

I will make the collar removable, so if I learn something new in future years, I can take it off and remade the new thing. I'm unsure how these were constructed. I feel like possibly gathered onto the collar, as in other images, there might be some gathering evident. In others, nada. The pictures are small-ish though, I have no written text and there are no surviving garments.

This is the challenge with clothing from this period.

Seen at right is a page Die Winsbekin from the Manesse Codex, dated between 1300 and 1325 from Germany. The surcotes certainly seem to have a bit of a gathering to them, unlike my source image from the Biblia Porta (above.)