I've been meaning to make myself a Houppelande forever. The problem was that, since early 15th c. houppelande were totally circular, I evaluated that it would take at least 9 metres of fabric plus the lining. So I've decided to go with a cheaper construction and experiment a different technique in hopes that it will provide a similar result.
As for the lining, some of you will get totaly traumatised by this but, I've been collecting fur coats for years hoping that some day I'd finaly have enough of the same breed & color to line a gown but this would mean at least 4 to 6 identical mink coats to make a houppelande of a decent width. Now I have 3 coats made of racoons, One of silver wolf, One of wild-cat and left overs of a mink coat. I've been spending like crazy in hopes that someday I'd have enough of one kind but I can't find any that has big usable pannels so, I gave-up the search. Since I find that fabric lining looks awfuly cheap for a houppelande, I decided to go with fur imitation. But not just any imitation, top quality, darn expensive imitation. You know, the type that you can look at and tell which animal it's suposed to be ! I know that I always said that I'd never *DO* fake fur but that was before I saw samples of these. So they had mink, rabbit and all kind off stuff but I found that they were a bit too shiny. The wolf & fox were incredibly convincing (I would have bet my right hand that these were real skins) but I found that the hair were too long for lining purpuses. They didn't have anything such as squirel so, I went with the deer skin. Deer hunting was a major thing in medieval times so I figured that it was still a better choice than real Canadian racoon !!! I'm incredibly happy with it and for cause, the darn thing was 40$/yard (on sale). It looks so real that even *I* am having a hard time believing that this is fake, you can't see the weft even if you spread all the hair apart and dig your way at the bottom, you just can't reach it the hairs are too close together. Did you know that those crazy people even make faux-fur with actual suede lining now-a-days ? Sheesh, this is insane ! So I'm putting-up a swatch even though this picture doesn't do it justice, just so that you can see the color... The hair looks long but they're in fact fairly short.
By looking closely to the pleats on some models, I think that it's almost impossible that they aren't boned with cord or the actual fur lining because they are so perfectly round. For that reason, I believe that this type of houppelandes weren't quite circular but somewhere closer to the cut of the "V" neck gown (But wider of course). So that's what I'll be experimenting. I already assembled most of the fur patches that creates the lining (yes, I'm insane I've actually cut the fur yardage in tinny squares and I'll be sewing them back together again in order to get the true "petit-gris" or "hermine" bellies feeling). I've made it quite fitted so, I'll be gathering the outer layer's pleats and sew them-on to it, along with the corded boning. Here's the look that I'll be attempting to achieve... Well, maybe not as many pleats, but still !
