Men's 14th Century Cotehardie and Hose

I've been wanting to learn to sew for men for a while, as I want to be a more versatile seamstress. Thankfully, I found a willing costuming victim. This is a mid 14th century men's cotehardie with separate hose. They're based on a variety of paintings from that era.

The body linen layer consists of a shirt and braes, both made of white linen, using the rectangular construction method. The shirt consists of two large rectangles for the front and back of the body, two narrower rectangles for the sleeves, triangular arm gussets, and triangular gussets in the sides. A finger loop braided cord ties the center front slit together. The braes are made with two rectangular pieces, one for each leg, joined with a square gusset in the center. The braes are "belted" with a drawstring waist.

The hose are made out of medium weight, navy-blue linen. They are cut on the bias, to give them a little bit of extra stretch. They are separate, and point to the drawstring at the waist though an eyelet sewn to the top of the hose. As near as I can tell, period hose were either footed or stirrup-ed (much like 1990s women's stirrup pants), but Andrew requested neither of these, as he generally wears his non quite period, but still awesome, tall Native Earth boots with them.

Over the hose goes the cotehardie. This is made of a medium weight burgundy linen. The pattern was draped on the wearer. It is finished with a number of hand made self-stuffed buttons, which close the center front, and the sleeves from elbow to wrist.

Here's a close-up of the buttons:

And here's the whole thing, with the belt included:

Here are some lessons learned from this sewing adventure:

1. Men are shaped differently from women. It's okay for the body to be slightly loose. I've made too many fitted women's bodices, and my mind had a hard time shifting gears.

2. Measure both arms. Andrew's sword arm is a little bit bigger than his shield arm. On the original mock-up, I measured only the left arm. And the left arm fit well, but the right arm was too small.

3. Bias cut linen is very stretchy. After sitting in the hose in the car for a couple of hours, then walking around at an event, the hose stretched so much that they almost sagged a bit. Pointing them up a little more tighly seemed to mostly fix this. The next day, the linen had relaxed back to its original size.

4. Mark the hem after the cote is belted. I marked the hemline, then trimmed off the excess and hemmed it. Then, Andrew tried it on with the belt, and it was a little bit short. Not too short, but shorter than I had intended it to be. But he assures me that it's fine.

Thanks to Andrew for being my costuming victim and patiently putting up with my learning curve. I hope I didn't stick you with too many pins.

Let's get this show on the road...

My big, exciting plans were temporarily postponed due to money reasons, but I finally put my foot down. Though I've near depleted my account, I have some fun new toys to play with.




I drove myself down the hill this morning and purchased a shiny, brand new, mid-range Brother sewing machine. It has about 40 different stitches, and does one-step buttonholes. I hope it will be a good little workhorse machine. And the best part: it's much faster than sewing by hand with a needle and thread. It's a bit pink, but that's my only complaint thus far. So now, I have no excuses to keep me from sewing.

My first project will hopefully begin tomorrow. My fabric is pre-washing in the washing machine right now. I've wanted to make Victorian clothing for quite some time, so I'm starting out with a set of Victorian foundation garments.

Though I'm not good with patterns, I decided that getting the correct shape for a historically correct Victorian corset was beyond me, so I purchased a pattern. The most highly-reviewed pattern I found online was the #100 Ladies Victorian Underwear pattern from Laughing Moon Mercantile. It comes with patterns for the Chemise and Drawers, as well two separate corset patterns, and the one pattern includes sizes 6-26 and bust sizes A-4D. And it cost only $14. If it turns out well, it should be a very good buy. A full review will come later, after I've had a chance to try it out. From the same company, I've also purchased a pattern which includes six different types of hoops and supports, roughly covering years 1856-1889, which in my opinion, certainly covers all the fun stuff.




While away, I also purchased about 15 yards of white cotton muslin and broadcloth for the chemise, drawers, and petticoats, along with all the requisite trim, notions, boning, lacing, grommets, and tapes. This is going to be a very expensive project. Pictures to follow, as soon as I get started. Happy sewing!