short-houppelande

This project was improvised at the last minute. I have a 3 days event comming-up very fast and i just realised that none of my son's last year costumes fit him anymore since he grew more than a feet taller. I had about a yard (and a few scraps) left over from my 15th century béguine gown. My son wanted a short houppelande like these ones but woth a fur collar like on the second image, so i decided to use the left over grey wool to make him one... I decided make the pleats go toward the center instead of towards the outside since there's plenty evidence of both techniques being done and used at that time (as you can see on the third image). However, my son didn't want bag-sleeves or a laced-sleeve pourpoint under, just a regular chemise so I made it very plain.

I've pleated the textile first, made a basic pattern to his body measurements and than, once the pleats were to my liking, I've pinned the pattern over it all and cut right through.

All the pleats are handsewn from under so that they won't move or look bad while my child is at play.

I didn't really know how to manage the closing from underneat in a way to be fully period since I don't believe there's any known images that shows how it was really done. I still wanted something practical and comfortable since my son wouldn't have the patience to be pined-in and sewn-in daily !!! So I went for lacing bands. I wanted it to be durable and "Heavy duty" since it's for a child so I decided to use suede-bands. Of course, that means that I couldn't handsew eyelets without being in awfull pain so, I used metal grommets... YES I KNOW what you're thinking, I feel this way too !!! But since it's on the inside, it doesn't look too bad :D

I've made him a wool pill-box hat as well, but I'll be making him a more apropriate hat in a near futur. Since school isn't over, I couldn't shave his head in the Charles V style for those pictures yet, but I'll do it properly for the event. The small loop that you see is used to pin the hat to his hair.