I'm not a huge fan of sized-down models for  testing garment patterns, but sometimes, well, sometimes it is not the worst idea. So it happened today - and the result is, I'd say, not that bad:

I have managed to invert sides (or would need to turn it inside out now), but overall, there's been a few insights, especially regarding the braguette. So... once all the other questions are solved, I might have a better idea of how to attach it!

(Still to crack: The "how to place it on fabric and so on" riddle.) 

As you will probably know, finding and identifying textile tools in the archaeological record can be tricky - especially things that are not as blatant as spindle whorls or maybe a rigid heddle. 

So it's rather a sensational find that remains of a Bronze Age loom could be identified - including some carbonised wood. Wood, people! Of a loom, and clearly belonging to the loom as it was found right next to an assembly of loom weights.

I will say no more, but send you on to the open access article itself, so you can get it straight from the horse's mouth: 

Evidence of a warp-weighted loom in the Bronze Age settlement of Cabezo Redondo (south-east Spain), published online by Cambridge University Press. 

Well, well, well. There has been some more stitching, and as soon as I have typed this blog entry and pulled my arm out from underneath Madame the Cat, I will stitch on some more... but here's a bit of interesting stuff for you.

There's the One Big Linen Garment find from archaeology - the Viborg shirt. That piece has been analysed and reconstructed very nicely, with a result of finding a lot of different whipstitch seam variations, all cunningly and neatly adapted to a) what was available in terms of how many pieces of fabric to join, b) whether these were cut edges or selvedges, and c) how the seam was supposed to look (hint: most times, the answer to that was "flat").

Imagine my delight when I found out that the braies I'm looking at currently seem to employ similarly creative and very smart uses of whipstitch seams. Also my puzzlement when I realised that the seams I'd taken for the normal, common, household variety of a felled seam was something else.

I'm not a hundred percent sure yet whether my attempt has cracked it, but at least you can enjoy these images of crazy seams in comparison. First of all, the "normal" felled seam variety:

You can see that there's a clearly visible stitch line from the first seam, then the whip stitches from the felled seam allowances. Now here's the variation: 

I hope you can also see (and appreciate) how crazy tiny these are. It's about 3 mm seam width on the original, and I tried hard to match this, with more or less success, depending. At some point I'll need to see the back of these seams to find out whether my solution matches the original, but whether it does or not, it's a fun variation that makes use of the selvedge - it's not a normal seam through the two layers, with the edges staggered apart by one final seamwidth, but a fold of the fabric with the cut edge (two seamwidth wide) whipped to the selvedge of the other fabric, and then the allowance folded and whipped down. It's much nicer to work than the fiddly very narrow normal version, and makes smart use of the selvedge, in a way that (at least to my way of thinking) fits in very well with the general tendency to make use of the very useful selvedge when making clothes.

So. What do you think? Or have you even seen something like that before?

I'm still working on this underpants reconstruction project, and it's alternatingly breathtakingly delightful and slightly frustrating. There was maths involved of which I thought it would be simple, but it's not quite as simple as my first idea.

Some pieces of it really fit well together in my brain and are genius, and then I try to do the same stuff with my large, freshly-washed cloud of fine linen fabric (because this type of underwear is, well, reeeeaaaaally large), and of course it's still making sense but not quite as easy to do as one would hope for.

Actually, that has been the case so, so many times when I was doing reconstruction work: Stuff you look at and then get quite apprehensive because you are convinced it will be really difficult and a huge problem and you have no idea beforehand on how to do it just... happens, everything falls into place, and it's a total breeze. On the other hand, things that you glance at and your brain goes "ah, okeydokey, that's clear as crystal and will be no problem whatsoever, it's obviously easy-peasy to do" will stump you, frustrate you, and be obnoxiously difficult in at least five unexpected ways.

Really. This happened so often that now a part of my brain goes "uh-oh" when the other part goes "ah, okey-dokey, easy-peasy", and I sort of brace myself for "issues, multiple, unexpected" in any and all cases. It's still somehow weird to see it happen.

So... please excuse me while I go handle a little bit of shop stuff, and then return to my cloud of delightful fine linen fabric that tries to thwart my attempts at turning it into a near-perfect recreation of these medieval underpants...

After pointing you to French articles last week, here's another wonderful piece of news regarding publications: 

The York Archaeology Trust is very happy to announce that the fascicules AY17/5 Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16-22 Coppergate, and AY17/11 Textile Production at 16-22 Coppergate are now available on their Collections website by kind permission of the Estate of Penelope Walton Rogers! 

These are wonderful resources - so if you don't happen to have them already in printed version, go head over there and enjoy. And thank you, York Archaeology Trust! 

Sometimes I feel a little like the ball in a pinball machine - something happens, so I roll to a specific something, and then three pings and one bing later, there I am, having discovered something entirely different and very nice.

Today, I pinballed to this French journal special issue: Se vêtir au premier Moyen ÂgeActes des 41^es Journées internationales de l'AFAM. Chartres (Eure-et-Loir) – 29 septembre au 2 octobre 2021. Vol. 1. It's a supplementary volume, it's all in French, and it is available to read for free online (if you want to download, you will have to pay). I've not gotten around to reading it yet, but the articles definitely sound interesting, so it's on my list now...

Just in case you have not heard of it yet, the Galloway Hoard is a treasure hoard discovered a while ago, containing (of course) a good amount of precious metal in various incarnations.

Even nicer, though (at least from a textile archaeology's point of view), quite a few of the textiles involved in depositing the hoard have also been preserved - so we know that individual items were wrapped in fabric. There's also some leather and even some braids, which means that this find is a treasure trove regarding textiles as well.

There's a nice presentation of the hoard by Susanna Harris online -  I hope you enjoy it!