another pillow cover

I remade this pillow case because I found enough pictures to know I made a mistake last tame. So I removed a portion of fabric and left only classic criss-cross pattern.


Parzival, Hagenau, 1443 - 1446, Cod. Pal. germ. 339 fol.147r
(Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg)

Tod Mariens, 1495, Reichenbach, Deutschland

Hl. Urlich, 1480 90, Kaufbeuren, Schwabien
(IMAREAL'S Image Server)

Wurzach Altar-death of Mary, Hans Multscher, 1437, Berlin Staatlische Museum
(Web Gallery of Art)

Linen pillow covers

Pillow covers are made from hand woven, vintage linen fabric.

This is the earliest example of this kind od striped pattern I found. The illustration is from Toggenburg Bibel dated about 1411 (source: Bildindex).

My baroque earrings

I spend a lot of time looking for iconography of baroque earrings. When I ordered my earrings (it was 6 months ago) I had only one historical example of design which I want to have. I spend loooong hours discussing with my friend Kaya about types of pearls, gems, sets, fittings used in early 17th century. Thanks God we have beautiful set of jewellery found in Cheapside Hoard, London dated 1590-1620. There is an example of earrings and we also found another example from private collection (now in National Historic Museum in Moscov) and we started to design a new version of my jewelly.

A pair of earring from The National Historic Museum in Moscow


A sourse for my earrings fittings (www.bildindex.de)

Kaya made for me a pair of hanging earrings with a pearl and amethyst. They are similar in shape with the earrings of Margheritha Gonzaga, Princess of Mantua from a portrait painted by Pourbus (you can see it here).

Of course I'm not a princess so I can only dream about a teardrop pearls.

Sunday in Landhaus

The Landhaus in Graz is a beautiful example of North Italian Renaissance architecture in heart of Austria. Inside the building you can find arcaded courtyard which was designed in 1557 by italian architect Domenico dell' Allio. It's really amazing!

I also tested how my supportasse works with completed early 17th century flemish outfit.

Supportasse is ready

the topside of the supporter


the underside

Finished pickadil is 40 cm wide and 26 cm height. It consists of two layers-top is stiffened by reeds and two layers of paper covered with blue linen. Rows of tiny stitches holds all together. Bottom layer of pickadil is stiffened by 3 layers of paper stitched to linen, with iron wire caught into the seam around the outer edge. Both layers of the supporter are stitched together. At the center back there are a pair of eyelet holes to tie it to the collar of my dress.

Supportasse project

My new early 17th century dress desperatly needs supportasse/rebato/pickadil (collar supporter) for a proper look. It will be a second pickadil-I've one as a collar of my dress but it's not enough for me. I start with an example from V and A Museum which was made of linen, paper, iron wire and whalebones (T.62-1910), good described in "Pattern of Fashion 4" by Janet Arnold.

A pair of bodies

I finished another part of my new 17th century outfit-a corset or pair of bodies based on a survived example worn by Pfaltzgrafin Dorothea Sabine von Neuberg.
I used ivory satin for cover, strong linen for two layers of interlining and fine white linen for lining. All stitching are in linen (originally the rows of stitching formed the casting were in silk). The stiffening is made from a bunches of bents (9-11 reeds per casting).

The raw edges on the waist, armholes and neckline are bound with a strip of bias-cut satin instead of heavy silk ribbon. The lacing is at the center back (so unfortunatelly I need a helping hands to wear it) and the eyelet holes are worked over brass rings for reinforcement.

First time I used bunches of reeds for stifftening (usually I worked with plastic boning or cords) so I worried about durability and flexibility of construction but finnished corset works great.

My new "pair of bodies" with drawers.