My green dress

my green cotehardie
I realized that I have not really shown you my green dress, except for in a few pictures.
It is made out of a thinner tabby weave green wool from medeltidsmode.se and is completely hand sewn with linen thread.

my green cotehardie
I have based my model on Herjolfsnes no.38 from Greenland. I am not a fan of the GFD dresses but still wanted a dress that follows my body so this model with lots of panels in the side seemed perfect for the shaping over the bust. I Know that the original herjolfsnes dress was not made as a tight garment but I choose to make it tight anyway.
The reason for not liking the GFD is that I do not like how really tight they are, in my world clothing needs ease. A garment that have no ease tend to look like it is to small for the wearer. I have seen a lot of really nice GFD but with my bust size it tends to look like a over stuffed sausage. And also I prefer to have the front edge straight on the grain, that way I know that it will not warp under pressure and most GFD use the fitted front. My green dress is tight but not so tight as the GFD. I wear a modern bra under my dresses because I need that support but do not want to wear a dress that is that tight.

my green cotehardie
my green cotehardie
I have also chosen to make more of a grande assiette type of sleeve as the Moy bog dress, just because I wanted to try it out. I have also made e two part sleeve with the so called “elbow hinge” from the pourpoint of Charles de Blois that cottesimple.com describes.
my green cotehardie
In the making my armholes turned out to big. But sewing some gartering threads and then using steam on it solved this problem a bit, I love wool.

my green cotehardie
I have also chosen to make it with buttons as the Moy bog dress, because buttons are pretty and I like sewing buttonholes.

my green cotehardie
Lots and lots of buttons!

my green cotehardie
my green cotehardie
my green cotehardie
This was my first medieval dress ever and I wanted to try out everything I had read about ;)

Under it I wear a simple linen under dress, It might look a tad bit short, but with this length you don’t get the problem with a wet linen hem against your skin when walking in wet grass or on rainy days. Wet linen is not that nice.
my green cotehardie

There are some things that I am not 100% satisfied with on this dress. The fit in the armhole is one, but after a few times wear it moulded to my body and looks better then from the beginning. So I really like this dress, it is my first try but the shape of it works well on my body and the many panels in the sides makes it easy to fit.
I love the amount of width in the bottom that is due to the panels. One might think that it is wasteful to make but when cutting it out there was a minimal amount of waste. When laid out on the fabric correctly the only scraps you get is in the neck hole, armhole and thin strips in between the pattern pieces.


16 thoughts on “My green dress

  1. This is a truly amazing dress. I am so impressed that you have made it fit so beautifully and that you have created all those beautiful buttons and buttonholes by hand. Total dedication. :-)

  2. I love it! I am about to start a new dress and want to try this style – although I will use linen because I live in Texas, USA and it is VERY hot. (ugh.) I’m so impressed you sewed it all by hand; I wish to, but fear the skirt… I’m curious, how far down does the lining go? Or is it only along the buttons?

  3. Thank you.
    Yes the lining is just along the buttons of the sleeve and in front of the dress. Since it is made for summer wear (Swedish summer is good for us wool wearers) I did not want to line it.
    Good luck with your dress!

  4. Most impressive. I’ve made chinese knot buttons before and they’re a bit of work, so I can imagine the labor that went into all those handmade buttons. Your work is beautiful!

  5. Hey, we met at Kapitelhusgården?!! I took pictures of your veil … Greetings from Finland ( my name is Mervi and you can find be from hibernaatio.blogspot.com )

  6. My SCA persona is an Arab, partly because it interests me more, but also partly because I’ve never really cared for the look of most European garb. Suddenly, I NEED a European alternate persona just so that I can wear a dress like this. And I need to learn to sew, because ditto. You’re very inspiring, with your commitment to the details of historical clothing, but also with your ability to make creative changes. I think in period there must have been creativity involved, because not every pattern works for every person, so there HAD to be some things done differently, and some transitional forms/combinations, something like this. Please, what is GFD and where/when would this dress have been worn?

  7. D’vorah bint Da’ud: I am glad to have inspired you. :) GFD is short for “Gothic fitted dress” and is the style that many cotehardies are made in. It is a really tight dress that supports the breasts by itself.
    Both the Gothic fitted dress and the Greenland gown are styles that would have been worn in Europe during the 14th century. the Greenland style is a style that some people say would only have been worn in Greenland, but as Greenland did a lot of trading with England at the time I have no doubts that the style was worn in other places of Europe to.

  8. Greetings! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I truly enjoy reading your articles.
    Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same subjects?
    Thanks a ton!

  9. Hej!

    Har du möjligtvis några tips på hur man får till ett bra mönster för ärmarna och ärm-kilarna på den här sortens klänning? Jag ska sy mig något liknande en moy-bog och hittar massor med bilder på ärm-lösningar men har verkligen jätte svårt att översätta det till ett mönster i verklig storlek, några tips?
    tack!

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