The Divergent Mermaid: Personal Heraldic Surcote by THL Isolda Fairamay Completed May 2020 Part 3 of 4

*Please note sources are listed at the bottom of Part 4 of this project*

And Now Let’s Pause for a Public Service Announcement:

Before I go on to explain materials used, sewing and construction techniques, I need to point out that I have chronic neck and shoulder issues that prevent me from doing very much hand work. When I started in the SCA I loved hand sewing and embroidery but to do this now results in horrible headaches. I will endeavour to explain what “should” be done but my goal was to find the best way to complete this project with a sewing machine and minimal hand work. In doing this I hope to be an advocate for those of us who have physical challenges which prevent us from creating “authentic” pieces whether it be in the sewing world or otherwise. In essence, I firmly believe we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of pretty things just because we can’t do it the “right” way and similarly we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of entering Arts and Sciences competitions simply because our pieces may not be 100% authentic. With that said, I welcomed the challenge to create a piece that would look as authentic as possible using modern methods.

My Personal Pattern Design:

My inspiration image shows Isabella wearing a surcote with voluminous fabric with wide and deep openings at the sides and what appears to be fur trim. This will be the basis of my pattern.

Looking at the inspiration image itself, there are several points to consider in its design. 1: Is the fur trim sewn onto a full surcote gown? 2: Is the fur trim a separate piece with the heraldic skirt pieces sewn to the bottom of it? 3: Is the surcote a completely separate full gown piece with the fur portion a completely separate piece laid on top to give the appearance of trim? What it comes down to for me is personal preference and function. I chose my third option for these reasons: I felt it would be easier to make the gown a good fit as a separate piece, it would be easier to treat the fur as a separate piece for fit and sewing, it would be easier to clean the pieces separately than if they were one unit, and having them as separate pieces would mean having the choice to wear the surcote gown alone or “decked out” with the fur overpiece.

Base Surcote Materials:

As mentioned earlier in this paper, using the information about the fabric used for the extant heraldic garments including the pellote of Fernando de la Cerda and the battle jupon of The Black Prince plus the accounts of the Paris Embroiderers Guild, it could be extrapolated that if I were to make my surcote using these documented instructions, I would likely construct the main body from silk and then embroider the arms with silk thread straight onto the gown, embroider them separately and then affix them onto the gown with gilt thread or weave the arms straight into the fabric.

I am neither a weaver nor do I have access or funds for silk fabric. As well, considering my neck issues, embroidering would cause me a lot of pain. For my purposes I turn to wool.

Wool was the predominant fabric used in the middle ages with the higher the quality reserved for the higher ranks. (Piponnier et al, 1997) The progression of dyes in the later Middle Ages allowed for the use of many vivid colours, including red, blue, green, violet and black (Piponnier et al, 1997). Characterized by the finishing process of fulling and particularly due to the use of the highest quality dyes available, scarlet was a fabric of indulgence; scarlet being the name of the fabric, not the colour, though its name is a result of the vivid colour that was most expensive. (Piponnier, et al, 1997) Yellow wool was also being worn by higher ranking nobles. (Piponnier et al, 1997) With all colours needed for heraldry available in cloth, it became increasingly important for the aristocracy to display arms to display lineage and rank. (Piponnier et al, 1997) With all this said, my gown will be made predominantly with the highest quality wool I can afford and find, using the colours in our devices. I will use this same fabric for the arms to be applied. When it comes to the thread being used, of course silk would be the desired material, but again, my ability to afford it is limited and it is not a thread readily used on a sewing machine. I will use the best quality cotton thread I can find.

What Actually Happened: Base Surcote:

For the base surcote I was able to find wool fabric (I bought it a long time ago so I don’t remember if it is 100% wool but it would have a high percentage of wool in it). For thread I chose 100% cotton.

Fig. 33

Fig. 34

Fig. 35 Drawing the neckline on the paper pattern to look more like the inspiration image

For my surcote pattern I would use 4 pieces of fabric in 2 colours in order to create the parti-colour effect of the heraldry. I experimented with a mock-up piece for fit and then modified the neckline to more closely resemble the neckline in the illumination.

Sewing Stitches Used:

In the majority of cases, in extant finds found in the 14th century, London, a fine running stitch of lengths from 2-4mm, with 2-3mm being the norm, was usual for holding two edges together but in areas where the seams would come under more pressure, such as armholes, a back stitch would be used. (Crowfoot, 1992) These would be my stitches of choice. Since I am using my sewing machine for construction, the basic straight stitch most resembles the back stitch so that is my main stitch of seam construction.

Fig. 36 Hand Stitching the Backstitch Diagram Based on 14^th Century

Fig. 37 Diagram of the Backstitch Side View

I began the project by sewing the two side pieces together on each side (blue front to blue back, red front to red back).

For finishing raw edges of seams, oversewing or overcast stitching has been found from finds in the late 10th century Hedeby age in Haithabu. (Baker, 2009)

Fig. 38 Overcast stitch, late 10th c, Hedeby (Haithabu)

This seam treatment involves the seam stitched in a running stitch with the raw edges folded in and overcast. Zig zag stitches on sewing machines resemble hand sewn overcast stitches so this would be the stitch to use. With that said, in order to make any possible future alterations as easy as possible, I chose to zig zag stitch each raw edge separately. This way if I need to alter the seams in the future I do not have to undo the overcasting.

As for hemming, because the cut edges of woven fabrics fray rather quickly, various hemming techniques have been used to strengthen the edge. (Crowfoot, 1992) Pictured below are hem stitches found in 14th century extant deposits in London, England:

Fig. 39 14^th Century Hemming Techniques

For my surcote, because these hems would be more difficult to keep flat with no puckers if I attempted to use the sewing machine to finish them, I have hand stitched the hem of the skirt with a double folk technique using the hem-stitch and have stitched the armholes and neckhole using a double fold technique with a running stitch.

Fig. 40A: Machine Running Stitch

Fig 40B: Machine Overcast Zigzag

Fig. 40C: Hand Stitched Armhole Hem

Fig. 40D: Hand Stitched Skirt Hem

Fur Overpiece Materials:

Fur’s main purpose was for lining woolen garments, however, as the middle ages progressed, its use as trim became a sign of prosperity and supremacy. (Piponnier et al, 1997) The most prized furs such as ermine, vair and sable were only available to the bourgeoisie due to restriction in price as well as sumptuary laws. (Piponnier et al, 1997) Considering that the arms for Isabella, Duchess of Brittany include ermine, I believe that the trim on her surcote is ermine fur. It is also important to understand what we are seeing on the ermine fur trim on the surcote. Ermines change the colour of their coats seasonally. In the summer, their backs are brown, with undersides white, and their tails have a black tip. In the winter, they are completely white except for their black tipped tail. (Canadian Wildlife Federation, 2018)

Fig. 41: The difference between a winter and summer ermine

Fig 42: Ermine Pelt

It is the winter coat that is used as trim in the clothing of royalty. (Fur Insider, 2013) Without understanding how ermine fur is used to trim clothing, it may appear that the fur is simply white with black spots, but in fact, the trim is made by sewing together many coats of the white ermine fur and attaching the black tipped tails to create the patterns we see. (Fur Insider, 2013)

Figure 43 Modern photo of tailors working on George V’s coronation robe. You can see that the black “spots” are not completely covering the fur.

Figure 44 Coronation mantle of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna (1896) This photo demonstrates well how the black tipped tails would appear on the garment.

Unfortunately for me, my personal access to ermine coats as well as the funds available for purchasing said furs is limited. My intent would be to use the best reproductions possible.

What Actually Happened: Fur Overpiece:

As mentioned earlier, my personal design would treat the fur trim as a separate piece.

I found a coat at a thrift store that was made using imitation white fur that is, in my opinion, a pretty convincing reproduction of some kind of white animal fur. For the “ermine”, I was able to acquire, via a fellow Scadian, a fur wrap that was made from real fur in a black colour. It is not known what kind of fur it is but I am happy to have found something that would serve my purpose for ermine tails using real fur. My plan was to line the overpiece, so I bought some polyester lining fabric for that purpose since it would be slippery and therefore be able to be worn without the surcote material and overpiece material sticking to each other.

To make the pattern for the overpiece I used the base surcote to estimate. I then used some felt to mock-up the shape and sew it together to see how it would lay over the base surcote. After a few alterations, I used the mock-up to create a paper pattern.

I used the paper pattern to cut out pieces from the white fur material. I had a limited amount to work with since it came from a coat, so I had to have two pieces for the front and two for the back. I was able to cut the two front pieces from one whole piece of fur each. For the back pieces I had to lay the pattern over a seam, but the back would be seen less and it turned out that the seam wasn’t too noticeable anyway. I also made sure to cut the four pieces so the nap of the fur was in the most natural direction possible.

The next step was to decide how to make the “ermine” tails. I experimented with some of the black fur cut into different shapes and sewn onto a piece of the white fur to see how it would lay. I didn’t want it to completely mesh with the white fur since it was meant to be a separate tail piece. I finally settled on a tear-drop shape that would be hand sewn to the white fur piece in the desired pattern. It took a few days to sew all the tail pieces to the whole thing because I could only hand sew a few at a time due to my neck issues, but there would be no way to do this by machine. I was able to sew the white fur pieces together on machine as well as to attach the lining. I hand sewed the closings of the lining once it was turned right side out.