13th Century The St. Elizabeth Of
Thuringia Gown Reconstruction
Description
Green tweed woollen ladies tunic with tight buttoned sleeves.All visible seams are sewn by hand.
Inspiration
Image from the Maciejowski bible, dated to c.1250.
Patterns used
No commercial pattern usedMore information
Construction of The Gown of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia.
Source: Some Clothing of the Middle ages by Marc Carlson.
The description of the original dress as it was found on Marc Carlson's site: This garment is dated to before about
1230, and is made from course wool, and lined with brown linen. The neck hole is very small, and there may be a small
opening on the left shoulder, bound with linen.
Like in the original I have keept the neck hole as small as possible, and lined it with linen. I choose not to make
the small opening on the left shoulder, as I have only found that type of neck opening in the male tunics of that time.
Underarm gusset.
close-up of sleeve with buttons
The sleeves will be buttoned from the wrist to half way the underarm, like in the detail from the Maciejowski Bible. As you can see from the pattern drawing of the original only the upper part of the sleeve remained, so it is unsure if this gown had butonned sleeves or not. The construction of the sleeves makes butonning possible as the sleeves seam end up on exactly the right place,the ulna. The sleeves are tight on the underarm but wider and slightly "bat"like in appearance on the upperarm, this is a typical feature of type of 13th century tunic.The buttons are made of the same green tweed wool as the dress and in the manner described in Textiles and Clothing (Museum of London), page 171, fig 147.
Costume made in 2006.