Silky Scarves (AKA Sashes)

The sash, or scarf as it was more commonly knows in the wars of the 1640s was a badge of rank, an identifier when uniforms weren’t generally worn and presumably, looking at some contemporary portraits, a fashion accessory, this portrait of William Fairfax, brother of the more famous general shows an ridiculously large example.

As far as it’s possible to tell, the scarves of this period were all made of silk, which in the 1640s was a quality fabric prized for its drape and lustre. More than any other cloth available it dyed to lasting bright colours and as such was perfect for scarves that marked rank and regimental allegiance. Until the late seventeenth century there was no large scale production of silk in England so most of the raw material would generally be imported from France, the Low countries or even in some cases China via the old silk road and the middle east. The majority of scarves were probably silk twill, a basic woven silk that has changed little in its basic appearance since medieval times, though some, like William Faifax's were made of silk satin, a much more expensive and luxurious weave.

This example, in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London gives an idea of the dimensions of scarves worn in the Civil War. By tradition this was worn by King Charles at the battle of Edgehill and is 2.66m long and 68cm wide. It is heavily embroidered with floral motifs and edged down one side and at the ends with metal lace. 


This seems to have been fairly typical in size and fringing, though embroidery doesn’t feature heavily in the scarves seen in portraits. The metal threads make it look rich rather than bright and sparkly. Certainly silver metal wound around embroidery thread would tarnish quickly and become darker in tone. Images courtesy of the V&A Images Collection.

Henry Rich, Earl of Warwick painted in the school of Mytens wears a similar scarf around his waist in this portrait. It seems also to be heavily embroidered, though the ends are concealed in the pose chosen by the artist

Other methods of finishing the ends could be bobbin lace or fringing made of the same material as the body of the scarf. Scarves could be big enough to serve as a winding sheet in a pinch should the wearer have been unlucky enough to need a battlefield burial.

Portraits indicate that the scarf could be worn either over the shoulder or around the waist, though the second option seems to have been the less common method, as the fashionable waistline still dipped in the centre and would be hidden by the scarf. More often than not, a horizontal sash is worn over a back and breastplate or leather buffcoat in which the waist is cut as a straight line and an over the shoulder if the wearer is in doublet only. John, 1st Baron Byron wears his over back & breast in this famous portrait by Dobson, shortly after his facial wound was received from a parliamentarian's halberd at Burford in 1643. Note the long fringes and the extravagant knot his servant has presumably tied for him behind his back.

Captain Abraham Stanyan of the Red Regiment, London Trayned Bands (parliamentarian regiment) in this portrait by an unknown artist in 1644 wears his crimson scarf over the shoulder with a nice knot, fastened at the shoulder, a rather splendid feathered hat and some unconventional weaponry to complete the "ensemble".

The wearing of a scarf is usually taken to mean that the individual in question is an officer, the denomination of which could reach as far down as a sergeant in the Civil War. Sergeants would qualify as regimental officers, though the less well off would presumably have a poorer quality item on show. Here’s Sergeant Nehemiah Warton on campaign, writing home in 1642 with a report:

"I received your letter with my mistress' scarf and Mr. Molloyne's hatband, both which came very seasonably, for I had gathered a little money together, and had this day made me a soldier's suit for winter, edged with gold and silver lace. These gifts I am unworthy of. I have nothing to tender you for them but humble and hearty thanks. I will wear them for your sakes, and I hope I shall never stain them but in the blood of a cavalier."

As for the colour of the scarf worn, popular opinion has it that red was worn by Royalists whilst orange was the choice of Parliament soldiers. However, looking at portraits it is obvious that other colours were also chosen and could have had more relevance to the family colours of your commander. Some royalists wore blue scarves. Oliver Cromwell in this portrait by Robert Walker, is wearing the silver grey scarf he adopted when he became Lord Generall. Some Yorkshire officers wore yellow, and Colonel Eden was shot at Pontefract castle wearing a black scarf, whether that was a family colour or he was in mourning we just don't know. 
 Other scarf colours can be guessed at, there are references in various works on the civil war, but we can be pretty sure of the following:
King Charles- Red
Earl of Essex - orange/"old gold"
Early New Model Army  (ie Fairfax) - Blue
London regiments - possibly white
Eastern Association (Manchester)- possibly Green
Later New Model Army - Preston/Dunbar/Worcester- probably red- (ie Cromwell)

Here is an account of the siege of Basing written by Colonel Gage and quoted in Clarendon’s The Great Rebellion:

"After some hours of refreshment in the morning, and sending his express to Winchester, the troops marched through by-lanes to Aldermarston, a village out of any great road; where they intended to take more rest that night. They had marched, from the time they left Oxford, with orange-tawny scarf's and ribbons; that they might be taken for the parliament soldiers; and hoped, by that artifice, to have passed undiscovered even to the approach upon the besiegers. But the party of horse which was sent before Aldermarston, found there some of the parliament horse, and, forgetting their orange-tawny scarf's, fell upon them; and killed some, and took six or seven prisoners; whereby the secret was discovered, and notice quickly sent to Basing of the approaching danger; which accident made their stay shorter at that village than was intended, and than the weariness of the soldiers required. About eleven of the clock, they began their march again; which they continued all that night; the horseman often alighting, that the foot might ride; and others taking many of them behind them; however they could not but be extremely weary and surbated."


Portrait above, Colonel Richard Neville 1644 by Dobson.

Captain Smart here wears a rather fine orange/yellow sash again tied at the shoulder in this 1639 portrait, courtesy of the V&A Collections Search

Here’s John Vernon writing in The Young Horseman or the Honest Plain Dealing Cavalier, published in 1644. Note that he prescribed scarves not only for visibility in battle, but also to keep unruly soldiers in check as it marks them out for easy identification!

He must be careful to keep his horse well and his arms fixd upon, which many times dependeth the safety of his life, every horseman must wear a scarfe of his Generalls Colours and not leave it off neither in his quarters nor out of his quarters, it being an ornament unto him: besides it will cause him to forbeare many unfitting actions, as being thereby distinguished from the vulgar or common souldiour, it is likewise a good and visible mark in time of battle to know one another

Photo by courtesy of John Beardsworth

A Boy's Doublet in Abingdon

I've been meaning to write about this doublet for sometime, but it's taken me a while to gather any useful information. The pictures were helpfully supplied by Eluned Hallas of the Oxford Preservation Trust and the bulk of the text is cribbed from a book excitingly entitled 'Everyday Objects: Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture and its Meanings', edited by T Hamling and C Richardson.

This is a rare survival of a common person's doublet from just before our period that provides a wealth of useful evidence about the cloth and construction of a doublet from the early 17th century.

The Abingdon doublet was found in 1994 under the attic floorboards of 26a East St Helen's St Abingdon. It's crumpled and in pieces but there is still enough remaining that we can use as evidence of how common people's clothes were made, including the internal construction and the fabrics used. The size of the garment indicates that it was worn by a boy of about four or five years of age, and the quality of the fabric leads us to think that he came from a reasonably well to do family. 

What remains is the collar, most of the left side, all of the left armhole and the top section of the left sleeve, including the wing and part of the back.  There are also 4 remaining thread wrapped buttons and two metal loops attached to the lower edge of the back of the doublet, presumably for attaching to breeches. The two side seams are placed towards the back, the back is cut in one and the collar is cut separately. The cut is simple with deep armholes allowing ease of movement. There are no tabs below the waist. There's not enough sleeve left for a proper analysis, so there is no way to work out the length, but they do seem to have been cut in one piece rather than the more fashionable two.

As the doublet is in a fragmentary condition, it's possible to see the construction. Each piece of top fabric was mounted onto the interlining and tacked in place before the fabric was stitched together. Extra stiffening was used at the centre front as were small pieces of linen at the top of the sleeve head. The doublet was also fully lined. The collar is stiffened with thick paper or card, which indicates that they didn't generally wash doublets. The left side has 18 buttonholes worked closely together.

The doublet is made from brown wool on top, a 2.2 twill with 10 warps and wefts per 10mm and a napped surface, a plain weave linen interlining with 10 warps and 12 wefts per 10mm and an irregular twill union cloth lining, the kind of fabric known as fustian, with 14 linen warps and 10 wool wefts per 10mm. Although the wool is now brown in colour, analysis has suggested that is was originally dyed blue. I'm not sure how thick or thin this makes it, but the article writer seems to think it was made from broadcloth, possibly woven in the Abingdon area.

Detail on the left of the buttons and buttonholes. All pictures thanks to the Oxford Preservation Trust.

Janet Arnold dated the doublet to 1625-30 which places it before our period, but not so far back that we can't at least use it as a basis for our clothes.

It is available to view by appointment in the house where it was found, 26a East St Helen Street, just around the corner from Abingdon museum. The house is well worth a visit, being an interesting example of a medieval hall house with some exceptional wall paintings on the first floor.

Belt Up Properly

A belt in the 1640s was not worn to keep your breeches up. Generally if you had a pair that fitted, you didn’t need a belt, but as has been shown previously the standard fixing if you needed it was hooks and eyes, the hooks on your breeches attaching to the eyes on your coat or doublet. Braces are not known in our period either, the earliest surviving set are in Stockholm and date to 1650. The pedlar on the left in the woodcut has a belt around his waist and another to keep his pack on his shoulders.

Belts were worn over the coat, around the waist and were used to carry keys or purses for example, but could also carry a hanger for a sword. They  were also worn with the better kind of doublet, often covered with the same fabric and fitted to the waistline. This fashion was dying out in the 1640s as the pointed waistline softened but would have been in evidence in the country and on less fashionable suits. Hooks or loops were sewn on top of the doublet with metal fittings to take a sword hanger.

The particular characteristic of 17^th century belts is that they are narrow, usually no more that ¾” wide and the buckle is generally of the double loop or spectacle type with a keeper. There are no wide belts of the kind favoured in pirate films in evidence either in museums or images. Two particularly fine examples below are made by Karl Robinson.

Belt bags were worn by many and could be large or small. Woodcuts show rustic countrymen and pedlars with what we’d call a man bag in the 21^st century. The image below is another Karl Robinson production and has several compartments to keep your necessities in.

How to Make Your Own Shirt (or one for someone else!)

  

   Cut it out. The pattern (fig. 1) shows how to cut the basic pieces from 10 feet of authentic width fabric. Most modern linen cloth is twice as wide so you’ll need to work it out a bit, though exact measurements aren’t strictly needed. Match the pieces to you, sleeves to your arm length etc. Solid lines are cuts, dotted ones represent folds

·     Sew in shoulder gussets (fig. 2). Open out the side neck openings and attach a triangular gusset on each side. This will provide strength to the shoulder seams.

·     Roll over the raw neck edges and hem to finish them off. Either sew on a small square patch on the inside at the bottom or add a thread bar strengthened with buttonhole stitch an inch or so up to prevent the neck ripping open.

·     Sew the sleeve gusset (AB) (fig. 3), and then join the sleeve edges together to make the sleeve, leaving the last 3 inches or so open (fig. 4). To do this, match point D to point J, H to B, and E to F, leaving the last few inches unstitched for a cuff opening. If you made the gusset a proper square it will work. Hem and neaten these raw edges as you did on the neck. Do another sleeve.

·     Fix the sleeves to the body: match the top of the sleeve to the top of shoulder, and then sew in using a run and fell seam from the bottom point of the gusset (C) up and around the shoulder, down past the other side of the gusset and continue the side seam to 12 inches or so above the bottom of the shirt. Hopefully when you get back to C, the two halves of the shirt body will join up evenly. Same again for the second sleeve/side.

·     Hem and finish off the remaining parts of the side seams and around the bottom.

·     Measure up the collar length to match your neck measurement, and about four inches or so wide. Fold in half lengthways and sew the ends leaving the bottom part unfinished. This leaves you with a long pocket to contain the remaining raw edges of the shirt.  Gather these raw edges to fit the collar, either simply or if there's lots of linen to gather, use a running stitch with heavy thread to help you gather neatly. Then sew on the collar, stitches going through both sides of the collar and through the shirt body. It will now look like a shirt that will fit a normal person rather than a weird tent.

·     Make 2 cuffs in the same way as the collar and attach one to each sleeve, gathering the fullness of the sleeve into the cuffs.

·     Make eyelet holes on either side of the collar and both cuffs for inserting ties to secure. Or just sew on some nice linen tapes.

·     The shirt is finished. Either give yourself a pat on the back or send me a mail because it hasn’t worked!

·     Linen unravels quickly from the edge if it isn't finished so I would recommend using french or flat felled seams to make the shirt. Google it!

Top Traders

I’ve been asked for a list of suppliers, so here are my recommendations. They are all UK based and most do mail order, though there’s no substitute for handling the goods (as it were) and asking advice. All the traders know their stuff, have done the research and are more than happy to advise. Most listed below have contributed to this blog.

The maxim is “if in doubt, ask”

Fabric

Stuart Peachey

Selection of sadd (natural) coloured authentic fabrics. No broadcloth for soldiers but everything else you’d want. On the expensive side, but if you want to get it absolutely right, Stuart is your man.

http://www.stuart-hmaltd.com/

Bernie the Bolt

Supplies wool and linen at very reasonable prices. Massive selection of stock too. I’ve been to his house. You’ll find him at most musters and fairs, but he also does a fine mail order service.

Tel 01480 453390

Email         berniethebolt3(at)aol(dot)com

Cloth Hall
Lindy Pickard has a good range of authentic wools in 17th century colours.
clothhall(at)talktalk(dot)net
 Tel 01484 512968


Herts Fabrics

Ali has a large variety of authentic fabric and will give advice. Recommended.

http://www.classhistory.co.uk/Herts%20Fabrics/

Time Warp Textiles
Aidan Campbell provides small amounts of authentic textiles. He will also source whole rolls of cloth if you want to equip a whole company, but he also has end of roll remnants for sale. His expertise is mainly pre Norman conquest, but worth a look as he occasionally has other fabrics more suited to 1640s.

http://www.aidan-campbell.co.uk/textiles.htm

Wolfinn Textiles

 Unbleached Belgian linen - extremely good European-grown linen. Not cheap, but also very wide and nice stuff.

http://www.wolfintextiles.co.uk/

Whaley's of Bradford

Great for fine wool and linen and fabrics to be dyed. They are expensive but worth it.

http://www.whaleys-bradford.ltd.uk/

Haberdashery

Christophus

Chris Thomas is highly recommended for all the little bits you need for finishing off, buttons, tapes, thread, beeswax etc. His range of pewter buttons is unrivalled.

christophus(at)aol(dot)com

01752789629


Nick Jones
Nick also sells authentic pewter buttons from his website. The buttons are researched and field tested.
http://www.pewterbuttons.co.uk/default.html

Gina B

Gina hand makes all kinds of ties and passamentarie (thread woven) buttons. Her stuff is very nicely made and her service is excellent.

http://et-tu.com/gina-b/catalog/index.php

Made Up Clothes

Peggys Necessities

Sundrie apparel for soldiers and goodwives of the middling sort. (their description). The clothes are also very good and well researched.

http://www.peggysnecessities.co.uk/

White Rabbit Lynens
Alice makes and researchs clothes from all periods, but her 17th century shirts and smocks are superbly made.
http://www.white-rabbit-lynens.co.uk/

Sally Pointer

Sally supplies a large variety of knitted hats and patterns for making your own.

http://www.sallypointer.com/shop/

Historical Caps

Very decent and affordable knitted and felted headgear: labourers' caps, Monmouths, statute caps etc.  Gloria hand dyes and knits everything herself.

http://www.historicalcaps.net/

Kirstie Buckland.

Also makes top quality knitted hats of many periods.

http://www.qualitycaps.co.uk/pages/contact-us.asp

Dyers

Mulberry dyer does a period dying service. If you source the fabric they can dye it to any period colour you like using authentic methods. Also supplies linen thread and embroidery silks and wools.

http://www.mulberrydyer.co.uk/

Shoes

Sarah Juniper is the best historical shoe and bootmaker around. Her shoes are well made and well researched. Not cheap but they will last for years!

http://www.sarahjuniper.co.uk/

Christophus

Chris Thomas also makes top quality shoes, boots and startuppes.

christophus(at)aol(dot)com

01752789629

Foxblade Trading

Tod Booth is also a good contact for serviceable latchet shoes and boots.

http://www.foxblade.co.uk/

Leather Stuff and Miscellaneous

Karl Robinson is recommended for leather bags, belts and accessories. His work is of the highest quality

http://www.karlrobinson.co.uk/

Christophus (see above) also makes leather items to order: Authentic buffcoats, baldrics, belts, footwear, pouches, hats etc.

christophus(at)aol(dot)com

Foxblade Trading

Tod Booth is knowledgable and supplies most of your 17th century leather needs.

http://www.foxblade.co.uk/

Tod's Stuff

Not to be confused with Foxblade trading, Tod’s Stuff supplies all the bits and bobs you might need, cases, belts as well as knives and other Living History accoutrements.

http://www.todsstuff.co.uk/index.htm

Six of One

Belle and Richard at produce some of the most astonishingly beautiful bits and pieces you've ever seen.

http://www.6of1.biz/

Tom Aldwinckle
Leather bottles handmade to order.
tomwinkle2(at)aol(dot)com

17th Century Women's Dress Patterns

I've got to recommend this book, it's becoming my bible. It's a kind of follow on to the Janet Arnold series of books, but has built on those publications and has become something much better.

The book sets out to show several actual extant garments in the V&A Museum in much closer detail than you could ever see should you go and look at them in the cases. Each garment is described and shown in detail with photographs. In many cases there is an attached portrait from the period showing the garment or something very similar being worn. Following on you get a detailed pattern, cutting out guide and step by step illustrated guide to the making of the item in question. If it was decorated, you get close ups of the embroidery or lace and more details of the stitches used or a pattern of the lace edging or insert. A few examples also have been x-rayed to show internal construction detail, such as boning on the silk bodice on the front cover.

The clothes are all from the approximate date range 1600-1630, so the styles are early for our period, but you can take a lot from this book, especially from the introduction which shows the typical tools used and all the stitches needed for making the garments. They range from waistcoats and bodices through to jackets, a mantle, shift, caps and accessories. There are even patterns for embroidered gloves.

If you are interested in how clothes were made in the 17th century, you really need to see this book. The best part is that this is book 1.  Men's patterns coming soon? I hope so.

Coifs and Cross Cloths

Unless you were rich and had someone to dress your hair fashionably, as a woman in the 1640s it was normal to cover your head, possibly with a hat but almost always with linen, even if you wore a hat on top. There were probably thousands of ways to achieve this, from a simple knotted piece of cloth to a lace edged cap, in fact images show a variety of weird and wonderful concoctions, although surviving examples are few and far between, especially from this period. Several earlier decorated coifs survive in museums but as we get close to the 1640s there aren’t as many, possibly because embroidery became less fashionable and a plain cap could be recycled more easily. Even if it was lace edged you could remove that and you were left with a useful rag. This picture, Visiting Grandmother by the le Nain brothers has a row of four female heads of varying ages wearing different coverings and illustrates perfectly how different fashions would have been worn simultaneously. The girl left, has a shaped coif, possibly over a flappy-eared coif, Grandmother has an old-fashioned fitted coif showing its pointed flaps by her ears but seems to be wearing a cap over her coif, the baby is wearing a close-fitting coif, tied on and the mother, right, is wearing a cap of the kind which is typically 1640s 

However, comparing contemporary images with what survives in museums we can produce at least a few reasonably accurate reproductions. This one for example is in the costume collection at the Museum of Manchester. Most of the actual examples like this one are made from a flat piece of linen cut to a recognisable shape, hemmed and fitted with a drawstring along one edge. The side edges would be whipped together and hey presto you have a coif to cover your head. The new book on Women’s Dress Patterns from the V&A has a particularly nice example from just before our period. However this now presents a few problems, there are flappy bits around your ears that seem a bit odd, the coif can tend to slip around and not be particularly comfortable and what do you do with the strings?

Perhaps part of the answer comes when you notice that many coifs are exhibited with triangular forehead cloths that are obviously embroidered to match. Also several coifs come up in wills and inventories in connection with cloths or “crosse cloths”. It’s obvious that these cloths were worn somehow in conjunction with the coif and that in just wearing the coif without the crossecloth you are missing something. Extreme Costuming has an interesting article about fitting a coif and forehead cloth that is very interesting, if a bit too early for 1640s but to summarise it seems that the triangular cloth can be secured using the tapes around a bun (if you have enough hair). That’s what the strings are for and that the coif will then sit comfortably on top without slipping. It still doesn’t solve the flappy ears, but if you look at pictures from the period, they all had that problem! It doesn’t help if you don’t have enough hair to make a bun at the back of your head either!

Various images seem to show that the cloth could be worn under or over the coif and also with the point facing forwards and backwards. Maybe there was some significance to the different orientations, perhaps different fashions. Sadly we just don’t know. In fact the fashion suggestion is not too far fetched. A theory has been advanced that he coif was such a small easily made item that it could have been remade several times, maybe to copy some rich lady that may have passed through from London. Maybe this explains why there are so many different shapes and patterns in the surviving pictures.

So, we have one actual coif, even if it’s a bit early that can be worn for 1640s, it would be perfect for the older, less fashionable woman. There are more contemporary styles, as I’ve mentioned before. It does seem that a more shaped cap was beginning to come in by the 1640s. There is a nice example in the V&A of such a cap and a portrait of Hester Tradescant wearing one from 1645. I took the photo on the right during a visit to the museum. The cap is dated  1600-25 but does look later.

Other easily made versions include this Dutch example from 1650s, which could be constructed from a rectangular piece of linen hemmed with a drawstring at the back. Pull the drawstring tight and you have a covering that will sit nicely on your head with a turn back front to frame your face, possibly pinned to your hair.

I did say that there were some weird examples. We still don't know what this woman is wearing on her head, or why. It's not the only one in the woodcuts either!