14th century - dresses or skirts?

Question

Hi all,
I want to make a 14th century skirt, but I'm not sure they even had separate skirts back then... I cant make the kirdle dress as i dont have enough material. I cant find any information anywhere, can anyone help me? Thanx in advance!

Answer 1

I have worked in a park where we re-enacted the different time periods till 1450, and there they told us that the people would never have separate skirts.

The basic shape is one length of fabric, a hole for the head. The sleeves are cut from the same fabric and added much like T-shirt sleeves.
When cutting the sleeves triangles of fabric will be left and they are added in the side seems.

For men the tunic would reach somewhere on the upper leg, rich men just below the knee, for women near the ground.
Often two layers would be worn, a simple unbleached linen one for unders, and a richer one, linen or wool for the upper layer.
Working people would have a simple apron on top of that.

I'll look for pictures or patterns and when I find or draw one I will add a link to this answer.

A site that has some information, specially the fabrics info is good: http://members.shaw.ca/evethejust/beginner.html#MISTAKES

Added:
I have drawn a pattern, without sizes!:
http://www.home.zonnet.nl/willeke_igkt/tunic/basic-pattern-tunic.gif
And made a sketch how it will look put together:
http://www.home.zonnet.nl/willeke_igkt/tunic/basic-pattern-tunic-2.gif

The fabric in the drawing is a single layer, should be just wide enough that when you sew the sides, it will fit round your widest point. (Hips, belly, breast?)
The length is what you want it to be, for poor men it would just cover him till the upper thight, the richer the men the longer it would be, till mid calf for real rich people.
For women it would be from just above the ankle for poor women and girls, to just not touching the ground for rich women.

The width of the sleeve is also determind by the amount of fabric the people could afford.
The narrow part would just fit round the hand, the wide part as wide as the fabric allowed.

The left over triangles would be sewn into the side seems, so that they would allow some extra space to take steps. The size of these triangles is determind by the size of the sleeves.

In the fold, on the shoulders, you cut the neck, in my sketch it is a T shape, you can also make a bigger round neck, or just a much wider straight line across the shoulders.

If you use one shape for the under garment, use an other for the dress, to make covering up your modern underwear easier.

Over this can go a hood with shoulder cape, both men and women, a sleeveless dress for the women, a cape both men and women, a belt, apron and maybe even more.

Under this would always be leggings, cut from woven linnen in the 14th century, for men all the way up the legs, tied to a belt over the under tunic. For women they could be just till the knees, tied with a strip of fabric round the fabric.
And only the real poor would ever go without shoes or clogs. (But things like that differ per job and per country too.)

I will now hunt pictures with the clothes as worn then. But on the site I gave a link to you can find some pictures, (under the first costume she was happy with and the costume made for her boyfriend.)

Some photos I took when working in the parc:
http://picasaweb.google.nl/willeke.igkt/Tunic

PS:
After reading the responses after I made mine.
The clothing did not differ much from the first to the 15th century, and some of the styles used in the 15th century where still used in the 17th century, the basic tunic is still used in some places in Europe, if in a short version, as smock.
http://thesmockshop.barkingfrog.co.uk/asmockmenu.htm
There is only a collar added.
A smock like this, in striped fabric, is used in Northern Germany, areas in France also still have like garments.

The clothing of the rich people changed the fastest and the most.
But even they did use basicly the same kind of clothes in most of Europe in the 14th century.
The changes came from the south in that time, Italy is the best known one.

Answer 2

It wasn't hoop skirts. The first hoop skirt was the farthingale which appeared in the late 15th century and was fashionable in the 16th century. The Corset also appeared about the same time as the farthingale. Men and women alike wore a kirtle, or cotte, which was a loose fitting gown that reached to the ankle or the floor. For formal occasions women's kirtles had trains to them. Over this went either a sleeveles overgown called a tabard or an overgown called a cotehardie. All images of 14th century womens clothing shows the gowns going straight down, not flaring out as happenes with hoop skirts.

Answer 3

"14th Century" is a rather broad timespan for clothing. Figure out which decade (or even which half) of the century you want the clothing to represent. Pick a date from that decade or half-century and head for Google Images. (Go to Google and click on the word "Images.") Type in something like 'England 1370 peasant dress' when the new search box comes up. Refine your search to get what you're hunting. Wiileke's answer is very good; you may need a different one if you're from (or the character you're playing is from) a different part of the world.

Answer 4

Check figures in the volume "Cut My Cote" and use them for inspiration. With a careful cut, it can be surprising how small a quantity can produce a full garment. One of my favorites was made from 3.75 yard of 45"-wide material. There was next to no waste and it earned ribbons in SCA contests way back when.

I can't even find belted kilts as early as the 14th-century, let alone women's skirts in Europe.

Africa, maybe.

Answer 5

There weren't any seperate skirts. Are you sure you don't have enough fabric? You may be able to draw out a pattern and somehow arrange them so you do have enough? A Kirtle can be made with no sleeves if you are wearing a chemise underneath. I'm about 165cm (I think!) and I use about 3m of fabric to make a tunic.

Answer 6

no seperate skirts according to all the artwork i can find sorry