I have fulfilled a dream by continuing research after my master's degree at Uni Bamberg. And, of course, I chose medieval garments as my topic. It took me a while, but I am very happy with the outcome (and eternally grateful to my parents, who were incredibly helpful when any obstacles turned up).

I have since successfully finished and defended my phd thesis "Konstruktion und Nähtechnik mittelalterlicher weltlicher Kleidung" (Construction and sewing techniques of secular medieval garments) in Summer 2008. The thesis is a comprehensive survey of extant medieval garments with analysis of cutting, construction development and sewing techniques.

It is written in German with an English summary; you can get more information (in German too) about the volume and the topics covered on my website. I have already found a wonderful publisher for the book, and publication is being prepared. However, two obstacles are left to overcome: Get funding for the costs of the print run, and determining the right number of copies to print.

Since it will take at least eight months until the book can be released - a long wait for you and me - and it is very hard to evaluate how many people will be interested - a problem for the publishing house and me - I am offering subscription to a newsletter that will hopefully help us all (and me even twice):
I will be sending a short newsflash whenever a step in the publishing process is finished, keeping you up to date.
You will know at once when the book can be pre-ordered, which means no delay for you in getting the book delivered.

In return, having a number of seriously interested people on the newsletter list will help me negotiating with the publishing house and my editor and me in determining the number of copies to print. We are aiming for the price range 60-80 Euro for the book (hardcover with b/w illustration and coloured plates).

If you are interested in getting this book, please subscribe to my newsletter by sending an e-mail with the subject "subscribe" to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

And if you are not interested in the book, but know somebody who might be, you can do me a huge favor by telling them!

Thank you, Dr. Richard Scott Nokes from Unlocked Wordhoard.
If you don't know that blog, go have a look - it is one of my regular reads. And if you like to read medieval-themed or medievalist blogs, the Wordhoard features a huge list of blogs that might entice you to spend hours and hours reading...

Things always come up in bunches - like when you are going to a flea market, and there are lots of stalls selling, say, pots? (Probably when you are not looking for a pot, that is.) And the next time, about everybody sells plates? Somehow, there seems to be something in the air that will instigate the same thing happening at several places.

With research, it seems to be the same thing. There are several things on the Skjoldehamn garments that have cropped up over the last years, and I have just realised that I'm way behind on this topic. Those garments are still extraordinary (there are only two proper trousers from the whole European middle ages that I know of, and one comes from Skjoldehamn), and I'm sure they will stay special forever. And I am very glad that they are getting re-evaluated and reconsidered, because they are absolutely worth it.

And now, connecting textile people seems to be in the air as well. I have received a very nice e-mail from Beth Matney with information about a duo of lists, started to help us all keeping up with the goings-on in the historical textile world:

As you know, it is a bit difficult to keep up with the literature, conferences, symposia, etc. in the field of textiles and clothing from the post-Roman through the early modern periods (500-1600CE). It is a field spanning many disciplines in many languages with the indexing of the journals quite scattered (if indexed at all) and many titles not well publicized or easily available. Well, in an informal discussion after a DISTAFF session at the last International Medieval Congress (Kalamazoo 2008) several of us (Dr. Carole Collier Frick, Dr. Gale Owen-Crocker, Robin Netherton and Beth Matney) bemoaned this and it was decided that an elist might be useful. So I have created two Medieval Textiles and Clothing groups:

A discussion list (restricted membership), MEDTC-DISCUSS: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MEDTC-DISCUSS/

and a newsletter list for announcements of titles, etc. : MEDTC-RESOURCES: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MEDTC-RESOURCES/

Though MEDTC-RESOURCES will include the titles and announcements from MEDTC-DISCUSS, it will not include any of the discussion of them and only in MEDTC-DISCUSS will you be able to post directly.These lists are academic in focus and scholarly in tone. Please see the full descriptions at the links above.
(Text Beth Matney)

So for all of you interested in historical textile stuff, maybe one of these lists would be a good idea!