Twelfth Night
Kingdom of Atlantia - January 2023
Background
After the success of the Coronation clothing, Their Majesties contacted me in November with a request to make Their clothing for Atlantian Twelfth Night. The theme of the event was “Light in the Darkness,” and Their Majesties envisioned deep blue garments with metallic gold stamped decorations that would evoke stars or suns or another celestial body.
Source Images: Anya’s Clothing
Sources L to R:
Altarpiece of the Resurrection. Brothers Serra, 1361-1362, Museum of Zaragoza (detail)
Coffered ceiling of the Cathedral of Teruel, 1335. (detail)
Mural of the Chapel of San Miguel. Jaime Ferrer Bass. 1343-45. Pedralbes Monastery, Barcelona (detail)
Altarpiece from the Castle of Santa Coloma de Queralt. School of Lattagona. c. 1365. Museu d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona (detail)
Anya’s gown was essentially identical to the undergown from Coronation. Anya requested a gown of blue linen stamped with gold parti-colored with a gold damask cotton/linen blend in a simple cut.
Source Images: Abran’s Clothing
Sources L to R:
1356-1360. Altarpiece of the Saints Johns. Master Santa Coloma de Queralt. National Art Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona
El Retablo de la Madre de Dios y San Jorge. Last half of the 14th century.
(lost citation - check back later)
(lost citation - check back later)
Sources L to R:
Hood detail. Altarpiece of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Corpus Christi Convent of Santa Maria de Vallbona de les Mones c. 1340-1350. (Urguell) Museum of Catalan Art, Barcelona
Hood detail, Altarpiece of the Annunciation. Ferrer y Arnau Bassa. 1347-1360. Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona.
Collar detail, Salome Dancing before Herod (mid-15th century)
Collar detail, 1409-1415. Pontifical Tresor de la catedral Arxiu de la Catedral de Girona.
This time around, Abran was interested in the more youthful fashions that were popular in Catalonia during the 14th century. His starting image was the blue cote with a gold fleur-de-lis pattern from the Altarpiece of the Saints Johns above. He asked for the cote to be shorter and the fit more snug than His Coronation garments, and wanted the garment to be stamped all over with gold.
Construction
Since I had made the patterns for Their Majesties’ Coronation clothing, I started with those base patterns and adjusted them for appearance. Much of the construction process is the same as the Coronation project, so the following sections will contain a brief overview and some interesting details rather than a complete duplication.
Gown
Her Majesty’s gown was cut from navy blue linen, and the pieces were stamped with a gold floral motif in gold metallic acrylic house paint. By this time, we had plenty of practice with the stamping, and soon discovered that a thicker layer of paint left a better image. We also discovered that the grooves in the plastic material of the stamp (which was a custom 3D printed stamp) would, over time, fill with paint and dry between stamping sessions. Eventually, the surface of the stamp became too smooth, causing the paint to squeeze out around the design. This was remedied by scrubbing the stamp with a stiff brush and allowing it to fully dry before continuing the stamping process. Likewise, the carving around the motif tended to fill in quickly and lead to smearing or bare patches, all of which was touched up by hand with miniature paint brushes.
Cote
Abran’s cote pattern was shortened significantly and narrowed from armscye to hem to create the body-skimming fit of the Catalan fashion. I redrafted his sleeves based on fresh measurements taken during the second fitting phase of the Coronation clothing, and shaped them to narrow drastically to the wrist. The neckline was raised from a moderate crew neck to a higher opening with an integral standing collar such as those seen in the later 14th and early 15th century cotes and hopalandas.
Once the pieces were cut, the garment was stamped all over with a gold floral motif based on 14th century European manuscript decorations. The garment was then assembled and hand finished, and sleeve and collar closures of gold metallic sunbursts were added as decorations. Although His Majesty originally wanted the cote to button fully down the front, the 5 week time frame for construction of two full garments plus painting meant that the buttons were traded for less time-intensive details.
However, the lack of buttons was balanced by a serendipitous discovery: because the cotton damask for Anya’s dress was 62 inches wide instead of the 54 I calculated, there was more than enough of the yellow to make a hood to accompany Abran’s cote. The pattern was based on source images listed above, and was drafted using the basic 14th century hood pattern in Medieval Tailor’s Assistant. It was lined with leftover navy linen scrap, and designed to fit closely over the shoulders.
Overall, the pair of outfits took approximately 80 hours to create, time to adjust patterns. However, much of the time investment was mitigated by having relatively fresh and tested patterns that didn’t require multiple fittings. The stamping was the most labor intensive task; it took three full days of two people working (me laying down the stamp design, Adele Lochlane following up to touch up and fill in, and then fully repainting approximately half of the designs due to poor paint transfer) to stamp the pieces of both garments.
Bonus: Clothing Wee David
Both the Coronation and the Twelfth Night garment projects generated some amount of waste material that was not quite enough for a full adult garment, but was too much to throw out in good conscience. Mariana and I had the brainstorm to make a couple of matching tunics for Their Majesties’ young son, David, to wear as a surprise for this lovely family.
We sneakily borrowed one of David’s existing tunics from Abran and patterned two slightly larger tunics (with room to grow). These were both the standard SCA 101 folded T tunic, with a V neckline and wide sleeves to accommodate a busy toddler. One was constructed from the brick red Coronation linen while the other was made from the blue Twelfth Night linen. Marian handsewed the tunics and added a gold woven trim at the sleeves and hem (where it wouldn’t scratch tender skin). The blue tunic can be seen in the finished garment photos below.
