ABSTRACT This garment is a “split tunic” with slits in the front and back panels. These garments are ubiquitous in 13th century English and French illustrations. This example is constructed of a hand-dyed woolen fashion layer and lined with blue linen. It was assembled by hand using linen thread and a construction technique adapted from one used in the Viborg shirt.

BACKGROUND In my perusals of 13th century illustrations, I noticed a variation on the standard “tunic”. This garment appears to have the same basic structure as a tunic, but with a split in the front. From the iconography, it's not clear whether or not there is a split in the back of the tunic as well; I have constructed this example with splits in both the front and the back. These garments are illustrated in Illustrations 1-3. The appear to have been worn exclusively by men.

13th Century Split TunicAlianor de Ravenglas

Illustration 2: Split Tunics(Murthly Hours)

Illustration 3: Split Tunic

(Life of Edward the Confessor)

Illustration 1:Split Tunics

(Maciejowski Bible)

MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION This garment is made of a hand-dyed woolen fashion layer1 and lined with a medium-weight linen. I lined the garment for two reasons. First, and most importantly, the pictorial evidence suggests that these garments were lined (see Illustrations 2 & 3). Second, the fashion fabric is fairly lightweight and needs the lining to add weight and body to the garment. The thread is a 20/2 half-bleached linen.

Before I cut out the garment, I machine-basted the fashion and lining layers together to keep them from shifting during cutting and assembly. I do not know how a medieval tailor would have managed a multi-layered garment, but basting seems a likely solution to the problem of shifting layers.

The structure of this garment is an adaptation of Nockert Type 5, which consists of front and back body panels with gores in the sides and gussets at the join of the sleeve and the side seam. (See Illustration 4). In order to create the split in the body panels, I constructed the front and back body panels from two pieces each rather than one. This simplifies the construction, allowing me to create the splits by simply leaving the center seams open. While I have not found evidence, either extant or iconographic, of garments with center seams in the body panels, I think this is a plausible construction method for this garment; it allows the tailor to be more fabric-conservative in the cutting of the garment. Second, I opted for a garment with a short side seam rather than one where the skirt gores and arm/body gussets join together. I have made tunics in both ways and find the join of gusset and gore shown in Illustration 4 to be very fussy to get right. A finished side seam, gusset, and gore top is shown in Illustration 5.

In assembling the garment, I used a technique based on one found on the Viborg shirt. In the Viborg example (see Illustration 6), a double-layer of one fabric is joined to a single layer (with an edge turned under) using a stitch that appears to be a hybrid between a running stitch and an overcast stitch. In my version, I pinned the lining and fashion layers together and then assembled the garment using an overcast stitch. (See Illustration 7 for this technique in use on another garment). This technique requires working with very small stitches in order to keep the stitching from showing on the outside of the garment.

Illustration 4:Tunic, Nockert Type 5

(Carlson)

Gusset

Gores

Side Seam

Illustration 5:Detail of Gusset, Side Seam, and Gore Tops

13th Century Split TunicAlianor de Ravenglas 2

1 The dying was done by Catlin Woodmane, for whom I made this garment.

I finished the neckline of this tunic in a slight keyhole faced with a bias strip. A straight-grain facing would be more appropriate based on extant 13th century garments, but I find these hard to work with around the curve of a neckline. I then finished the neckline with a row of running stitch along the edge of the facing. The iconography of this period commonly shows a white line at the various edges of these garments; this appears in Illustrations 1 and 2. This stitching is decorative as well as serving to stabilize and strengthen the neckline.

The hem of the garment is also finished with a facing; this one is cut on the grain rather than on the bias. I chose to use a facing on the hem because I thought that turning a hem with both the lining and fashion layers would create too much bulk. Another option would have been to trim the lining pieces shorter than the fashion layer before assembling the garment and then turned a hem that consisted of just the fashion layer.

REFLECTIONS A number of the choices that I made in the construction of this tunic were based on lessons I learned from my previous experience making a split tunic. I used double gores in the sides to add extra fullness, and I machine-basted the fashion and lining layers together even before I cut out the garment.

I am not entirely satisfied with the way that this construction technique interacts with the tops of gores; the process of turning all the edges in is extremely finicky and it’s very difficult to get all of the raw edges completely enclosed. I would like to spend some time studying the construction

techniques used on extant garments, particularly as they relate to gore points, to figure out how this problem was dealt with in period.

Illustration 6:Viborg Shirt Seam Treatment

(Forest)

Illustration 7: Lining and Assembly Technique

Illustration 8: Neck and Cuff Finishing

Illustration 9:Hem Facing and Seam

13th Century Split TunicAlianor de Ravenglas 3

I also need to refine my technique for cutting out lined garments of this type. Even though I basted the fashion and lining layers together before cutting, the cut pieces were never quite identical and there were a couple of places where wrinkled in the lining fabric caused significant “gashes” in the edges, as shown in Illustration 8. In both cases, the problem was easy to patch and is invisible on the outside of the garment. I tried two different patching methods. The first (on the left in Illustration 9) was just a conventional patch. I lined up the raw edge of the patch, turned the others under, and stitched it down. The resulting patch is very functional, if a bit big. The second (on the right in Illustration 9) was an attempt to be more subtle about the repair. It consists of a very narrow strip, applied the

“wrong way” with a running stitch and then folded over and tacked down. It ends up barely showing at all, even on the inside of the garment.

Illustration 10: Lining Cutting Error

Illustration 11:Repair of Cutting Errors

Illustration 12: The Finished Garment

13th Century Split TunicAlianor de Ravenglas 4

REFERENCES

(~1280). “The Murthly Hours”. © National Museum of Scotland. Available from http://www.nls.uk/murthlyhours/index.html.

Carlson, I. Marc (1997). “Tunic: Type 5”. Some Clothing of the Middle Ages. Available from http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/type5.html; accessed 3 June 2007.

Cockerell, S.C. . Old Testament Miniatures (also called “The Maciejowski Bible.”) London: Phaidon Press Ltd. (Some images online at http://www.keesn.nl/mac/mac_en.htm)

Forest, Maggie. “Seam Treatments on the Viborg Shirt”. Available from http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Viborg/SEAMS.HTM; accessed 3 June 2007.

Paris, Matthew. (~1250) The Life of Edward the Confessor. Cambridge University MS Ee 3.59. Available from http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MSS/Ee.3.59/.

13th Century Split TunicAlianor de Ravenglas 5