Recreating a 14th-century Pourpoint

THL Sarai Tindall

sarai.tindall@gmail.com
http://clothingthepast.wordpress.com

Research
The Pourpoint is a quilted and padded garment adapted from the military silhouette of the
mid-14th-century into a civilian garment and can be found in imagery and extant garments in the
later 14th-century throughout much of Western Europe. The silhouette is very common on
effigies of English and French knights from the 1340’s-1370’s identified by a rounded chest and
narrow waist, such as in this effigy of Thomas Beauchamp.

Thomas Beauchamp, 1369, St. Mary, Warwick, England. Retrieved from the Medieval
Combat Society website, http://www.themcs.org/armour/14th%20century%20armour.htm

This silhouette can also be seen in the Pourpoint of Charles de Blois (pictured below) and
the Pourpoint of Charles VI (not pictured) as well as many manuscript images. The first set of
images below from the Wailsche Gast manuscript show the rounded chest, but not the deep set
armscye, also known as the Grande Assiette Sleeve, of the Charles de Blois Pourpoint.

Wailsche Gast, Morgan Library, MS G.54, Trier, Germany, c. 1380. folios 1v, 6r, and 22v
 When examining the Charles de Bloise Pourpoint other than the rounded chest shape the
deep set Grande Assiette armscye is the other identifying feature. This armscye shape can be
seen in some images from England, France, and Italy as well, such as the two images below.
Additionally, the extensive quilting on the Charles de Bloise Pourpoint aids in creating the
structure and silhouette of the garment, the quilting is sometimes shown in imagery, such as the
images above and the center image below, but some garments are shown with the shaping, but
without visible quilting lines, such as the right hand image below.

Both the center and right hand images below are from the same fresco and show a wide
separation of social classes. The man in the center image below is sitting on a horse and wearing
armour indicating that he is most likely of a higher social class, whereas the men in the right
hand image appear to be of the working class. Considering the number of hours required to
correctly quilt one garment with all of its layers of padding it would not be surprising if those
with less means wanting to wear the stylish silhouettes found other ways to achieve those
silhouettes, such as the men in the right hand image who appear to be wearing an unquilted
version of the garmet.

Charles de Blois Pourpoint, c. 1360, Crucifixion, Oratorio de Santo Stefano, Lombardy, Italy,
Musee des Tissus et des Arts decoratifs c. late 14th-century fresco.
de Lyon, inv. no 30307.

Creating the pattern

To create the pattern I typically start with a tightly fitted body block made of muslin and
then mark the armscye shape onto the fabric while the body block is being worn. The left image
shows the front, back, and the upper sleeve. With the body block tightly pinned on the body
mark the halfway point on the top of the shoulder, the center of the pectoral muscle (just to the
outside of the nipple), and about halfway between the old armscye and the spine on the shoulder
blade, finally mark about 2-3” down under the arm on the side seam. Now connect the dots with
smooth curves and baste on the sleeve upper to double check the size of your gussets and sleeve.
Alternately you can make the sleeve fit first and then mark the armscye shape on the body block
based on the fit of the sleeve. Either way be prepared to make a couple of mock-up garments
before cutting into your fashion fabric to ensure that the pattern is correct.

Considering the wearer

When first planning this garment the focus of our clothing was English mid-14th-century,
but as the planning progressed we also shifted towards Venetian personas of the late-14th-century
and I wanted to be sure that the shape of the body and armscye would still be appropriate for the
new chosen era and area. The two images above are from Lombardy, Italy, a neighboring
province to Venice, both show the deep set armscye and rounded chest shape similar to the
Charles de Blois Pourpoint, making the wearing of a garment in the same style as the Charles de
Bloise Pourpoint by an upper class Venetian merchant a reasonable extrapolation.

Also considered as part of the planning of this garment was the related sumptuary laws
from the late 14th-century. In selecting these materials for this garment I chose fabrics that were
either common for the social class that we portray in the SCA or were used in the original
garment. In doing so I realized that I was unconsciously selecting fabrics that also fit within the
requirements for the lower nobility as dictated by the 1363 English sumptuary law.1 In the case
of a Gentleman of the lower nobility or his wife, available fabrics for clothing would include
quality worsted wools and linens similar to or slightly better in quality than the fabric selected
for this project, additionally some silk fabrics were allowed for those who fell into the higher
income bracket. These Gentlemen were also allowed silver adornments for their clothing
including buttons and embroidery.
1
For a transcription of the 1363 English sumptuary law, please see the appendix.
 Silk thread was used to sew the garment because purchases of silk thread can be found
with purchases of worsted wools in household books, additionally the use of thicker wool or
linen thread would have make the quilting uneven. Thread usage is noticeably not mentioned in
the sumptuary law, but at least for these social classes the use of silk is only partially prohibited
and then only for silk fabrics that also include a precious metal thread, such as cloth of silver and
cloth of gold. The lack of information available relating to the social and economic side of the
medieval English sumptuary laws is what began my original questioning behind these sumptuary
laws, and is a sub-section of a much longer paper.2 The continued processed of looking for new
information and clues as to the context of these laws and how they would have been used in daily
life relates to much of my continued research with the findings increasingly applied to new
projects.

Interestingly the Italian sumptuary laws of the same period are less likely to dictate the types or
amounts of cloth that could be used in a garment and are more likely to limit the total cost of the
garment. Venice in the mid to late-14th-century appears to be more concerned with the usage of
precious metals than the specific fabrics being used.

Selecting Materials
While the Charles de Blois Pourpoint has a silk exterior I knew that I would not be able
to afford the silk for creating this garment and so investigated other fabric options for the
garment exterior. Thin fine wools were common throughout Western Europe in the 14th and 15th-
centuries and would be appropriate for everyday wear for a merchant. I was able to get some
suitable wool in almost the right color and then dyed it to the color that it is now.

The batting is 100% wool quilt batting with no adhesives or other binders, which is not
the easiest thing to find. It did sew very nicely and evenly through the entire process and while it
will beard, which is the process of the fibers pushing through the fabric, it is barely noticeable
except in those areas which take a lot of abrasion such as under the arms, where it pills slightly.
Since the exterior is also wool it may be that the fibers are able to hook together as they rub
against each other and this prevents it from bearding as much as if it was wool batting inside of
linen or cotton fabric.

The lining material is linen, every extant garment that I am aware of that has an intact
lining is lined with linen. The linen used is a 3.5oz fine linen, so while the weave is fairly dense
the overall weight of the linen ended up be lighter than I was expecting. I will be putting a
second lining into the garment that can be removed for washing. The one time I washed the
garment it took two days to dry and the dye bled badly into the linen, hopefully being able to
remove the lining for washing will help ensure the garment is kept clean.

2
Sarah Kelly Silverman, The 1363 English Sumptuary Law: A comparison with Fabric Prices of the Late
Fourteenth-century (master’s thesis, The Ohio State University, 2011), http://etd.ohiolink.edu.proxy.lib.ohio-
state.edu/view.cgi?acc_num=osu1322596483
Creating the Garment
Unfortunately there are not have a lot of pictures of the quilting process and assembly.
The initial sewing was a bit frantic while trying to have most of the garment ready for a deadline
and in the process I forgot to take pictures.

I started out by cutting out all of the pattern pieces, basting them together with the batting
and lining, and then quilting them. While this made it possible to work on the garment while
traveling to and from events and at friends’ houses, if I were to do this again I would mark the
pattern onto the fabric, baste the fashion fabric to the batting and lining and then set it up on a
quilting frame. I believe that setting it up on a frame would make the entire process go more
quickly and make the final stitching more even.

The quilting process was tediously slow, and I probably have at least 50 hours of work
just in quilting. I chose to make the lines an inch and a half apart since this gave the best balance
between what the images appear to show and the spacing on the Charles de Blois Pourpoint. The
quilt lines on the gussets had to be carefully marked so that they would align with those on the
main part of the upper sleeve when everything was sewn together. All of the quilting lines were
done using a running stitch.

The quilting lines on the body of the Charles de Blois Pourpoint are horizontal, but on
the image from Lombardy they follow the shape of the armscye. Taking into consideration body
shape I chose to follow the quilt lines on the image from Lombardy for the body quilting and the
Charles de Blois Pourpoint for the sleeves. This seems to provide the best silhouette for my
husband’s body type.

To assemble the pieces I started with the body and sewed the two back portions together
first before sewing them to the front panels. The sleeves were assembled by first inserting the
front and underarm gussets and then attaching the lower sleeve to the upper sleeve before
attaching the back gusset to the upper sleeve and closing the upper sleeve. Once the sleeves had
been fully assembled they were set into the armscyes. Much of the assembly of the sleeves was
done using a backstitch since I was going through at least four layers of fabric and batting and to
get the stitches short enough a backstitch was required. I found that it was more difficult to trim
all of the batting out of the seam allowances on the sleeve gussets. The sleeves were also set
using a backstitch for the fore mentioned reasons. Because of the thickness of the fabric when
the seams were finished most are tacked down with a simple whip stitch instead of being felled,
and since the garment will have a second lining I am not worried about threads fraying.

Many of the edges of the garment are finished by turning both seam allowances to the
inside and then whip stitching the edge. While this takes a little bit longer to accomplish than
simply rolling the hem, it is the same seam finish that was used on the Charles VI Pourpoint and
gives a very clean finish to the edges. I found that it worked best for the center front and the
edges of the sleeve. The bottom hem and neckline are both rolled.
 Sewing a 14th-Century Buttonhole

The finishing of this garment includes both eyelets and button holes. All are done with
silk thread in as close a color match as I could find. I tried several different threads on a scrap
piece of cloth before deciding to use a single strand of the Trebizond thread for the eyelets and
the full thickness of the Trebizond thread for the buttonholes. While the full thickness of the
thread is a little bit thicker than what I would have preferred I could not find another color match
as good as the Trebizond.

When looking for silk thread to sew the eyelets and buttonholes I knew that I wanted
filament threads instead of spun thread, filaments have a much better sheen that looks much nicer
when finishing a buttonhole and I have not found much evidence for the use of spun silk threads
in the Middle Ages. To that end I located a number of different brands of thread online and
ordered them so that I could try them out on a fabric scrap before deciding which threads to use.
I really like the buttonhole threads and the Guedebrod, and I would definitely try all of them
again on another project where I could get a better color match.

I chose eyelets instead of buttonholes for the front of the pourpoint since I will be making
a silk cioppa, the Italian version of the houppelande, to go over top and the Italian style fits much
closer to the body than the French and English style garments. I didn’t want the buttons to show
through on the front so the decision was made to close the front with eyelets and a lacing cord
instead. The lacing cord is a longish finger loop braid made from the Guedebrod thread and
finished with a metal aglet. The buttons for this project are made from the same wool as the
garment and are simple cloth buttons with a finished diameter of about half an inch.

Summary
I have been asked several times if I intend to make another of these. While I would like to
make another and try out some of the other ideas I had as I was making this pourpoimt, the time
investment in making one of these garments must be carefully considered before starting another
project like this. I definitely did not have a clear idea of the time commitment going into this that
I had towards the end of the project.

Breakdown of the time commitment in creating this garment:

Step 1: The quilting lines – All of the quilting lines are sewn using a running stitch. (The first 70-
80 hours.)

Step 2: Assembling the pieces – Most of the pieces are sewn using a running stitch, but the
sleeve gussets and the setting of the sleeves are done with a back stitch to prevent the seams from
coming apart. (Another 20-30 hours.)

Step 3: Main body finishing – Center front and the edges of the lower sleeves are finished using
a whip stitch, and the neckline and hem are finished using a rolled hem. (Another 12-15 hours,
again, whip stitch is slow, but it looks very pretty when finished.)

Step 4: Eyelets and button holes

Part A: Deciding on thread – I located a number of different brands of twisted filament thread
online and ordered them so that I could try them out on a fabric scrap before deciding which
threads to use. (I probably spent 4-6 hours on the sampler.)

Part B: Sewing the eyelets – A single strand of the Trebizond thread was used for the 30ish
eyelets down center front. (Another 6-8 hours).

Part C: Sewing the buttonholes – The buttonholes use a full thickness of the Trebizond thread
and there are 24 buttonholes on each sleeve. (Another 12-15 hours of work)

Step 5: Cloth Buttons – Each button is made from a 2 inch square of fabric sewn around in a
circle until it pulls in neatly on itself to make a round button. (These are pretty mindless so I have
a less accurate gauge of the time spent on them. I can usually do 8-10 in an hour, so about 4-6
hours of work.)

Thankfully, after all of the many hours I have put into this garment it fits my husband
wonderfully!
Glossary
fulling - A process by which woolen fabric is beaten in water to felt the fabric and create a
densely woven fabric.

woolen - Any fabric that has been woven with short staple wool fibers and then fulled, teased,
and sheared to create a very densely woven and smooth fabric.

worsted - Any fabric that has been woven with long staple wool fiber, often lighter in weight
than woolens.

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