Society Child, part II

The Well-Dressed Society Child, part II: Toddlers and Preschoolers

by Lady Arianne de Chateaumichel

Throughout history, children have needed clothing. For most of history, their clothing has been modelled off that of their elders, but seldom has their clothing gotten more than passing interest from the adults around them, including artists.

The children for whom these clothes were made are now ages four and two. Their clothing needs have changed since they were babies. Now the girl wants to dress like her mother, at least when she doesn't want to play in the dirt, and the boy is walking around, usually trailing his big sister. Their clothing can be much more adult in style than it could be a year ago. In the following pages, the reader will find descriptions of some of their garb, along with explanations for why certain methods of construction were chosen over others.

The Difficulties Faced in Making Garb for Young Children

Children's bodies are not shaped like adult bodies, and the younger the child is, the more apparent this becomes. Compared to the size of their shoulders and bodies, young children have very large heads. Adults can wear clothing with simple round neckholes without finding it slipping down over their shoulders, but babies cannot. Only once they are two or three years old do children's shoulders grow broad enough in comparison to the size of their heads for clothing with this sort of a neckline to remain where it belongs. For children who have not yet reached this stage, it is necessary that their clothing be made with a keyhole neckline or something similar. There must be some sort of closure at the top of the keyhole, or the child will lose his or her garb. Additionally, one must take the growing dimensions of the child's head into account when determining the length of the keyhole or the child could easily grow out of a tunic far too quickly. If the keyhole slit is not long enough, the child will be unable to wear that tunic, even if there is plenty of room everywhere else.

Also unlike adults, children grow very quickly. This is especially noticeable when their height is involved. It is not surprising for a two or three year old to grow as many inches in a year, and younger children grow even more dramatically. Whenever possible, it is a good idea to make the child's garb with a deep hem or a succession of deep pleats near the hem. This practice has been documented to the American Colonial era and is likely to have been in use during the Middle Ages as well.

The fullness of the garment is also an issue that must not be ignored. While adults have usually finished growing horizontally, children have not. Even if they had, young children are not comfortable in tight clothing the way adults can be. Four or five inches of ease is a good minimum for children's garb, although more can be added in the form of vertical pleats at the shoulders.

The child's comfort is also a factor. If the child is not comfortable in a garment, the parents will soon know, and in no uncertain terms. While it may seem obvious that woolens and other itchy fibers are not to be placed next to the skin, there are other comfort-related issues to consider as well. The child's clothing must breathe well, which means it should be made of a natural fiber cloth. It should be made to layer easily, so the child can wear exactly the right number of layers to be neither too hot nor too cold. It should wear well and wash well, as the child will get dirty eventually, and probably sooner rather than later.

The last problem involved in garbing young children involves the scarcity of period artwork showing children. In the Manesse Codex, for example, five (folios 36, 97, 104, 130, and 136) of the one hundred and thirty-seven folios show children, and this number seems unusually high when compared with other images available from the same era. These few examples are sufficient in this case for one to see that the children are indeed dressed as the adults around them. For most other periods, one must take the word of clothing historians like Mary Houston, who writes: "Children... are clothed as their elders, but more simply (p. 47)."

Some Examples

Girl's Purple Bliaut with Rose Chainse:
This bliaut is made full, to resemble the full, finely pleated gowns worn by adult ladies during the twelfth century (Aries, p. 508). Unlike them, it is not made to fit tightly around the abdomen but is instead simply held close by means of a belt. A horizontal pleat just above the hem of the gown holds excess fabric, providing room for growth. One just above it has been recently removed. A white ribbon edges the cuffs of the gown. A simple matching trim is used to decorate the neckline and upper sleeves of the gown, as these are places where trim was often used to decorate period bliauts.

The chainse, or undergown, is made from a linen-cotton blend. It is not decorated and is cut somewhat short due to the length of the scrap it was cut from.

Girl's Rose Cyclas with Tan Cote:
This outfit is made to resemble those worn during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The cyclas still resembles the fighting tabards that this style of garment seems to be based on, although it is now appropriate as women's clothing, rather than being solely worn by men (Manesse folio 12).

The cyclas is made from a scrap of fabric that was too narrow for the resulting garment to be able to be sewn closed. It was also too short for growth pleats to be added just above the hemline, a practice that would have extended the usability of this garment.

The cote is made to fit somewhat loosely, especially in the upper arm region, to resemble the loose gowns of the period (Manesse folio 24). Since the cuffs seemed to be a favourite place for trims, the cuffs of this gown were trimmed with a narrow burgundy and gold floral trim that looked appropriate.

Girl's Red Cotehardie with Purple Cote:
The cotehardie was made nearly a year ago and was this child's first real cotehardie, cut to resemble the adult version of the mid to late fourteenth century (Houston, p. 112, fig. 205). It was made tighter than any of her previous garb, but still had about three inches of ease. The young lady did not consider this to be enough room for her to be able to get dressed, so a row of button-and-loop closures was added down the center back, placed to minimize alteration of the dress. Artwork of the period usually shows a lacing strip being used in place of buttons (Crowfoot, p. 165), if it shows any sort of closure, but lacing strips are not appropriate to children and babies because they are rather inconvenient and the long laces pose a health hazard for children this young.

The neckline of the gown could not be as wide or as deep in relation to the child's body as the neckline on an adult's gown could be, as she is rougher on her clothes than an adult would be and has nothing besides her shoulders to keep the gown up A gentle curve approximately three quarters of the width of her shoulders works well, giving the gown the appropriate look without sacrificing the child's needs.

The skirt is very full, to resemble the representations of adult-size cotehardies (Boucher, p. 204, pl. 378). Since this is a child's gown, it is not appropriate to make the skirt long enough to puddle around the girl. The scrap the gown was made from was also not long enough for it to be possible to make growth pleats in this instance.

The purple cote, made to be worn with the cotehardie, has the same neckline and full skirt, but has wrist-length sleeves. While many of the representations of ladies in period cotehardies showed them wearing cotes underneath that had goblet cuffs and were buttoned tight (Houston, p. 112, fig. 205), this seemed inappropriate for a child of three.

Boy's Blue Dalmatic with Navy Tunic:
This particular type of over-tunic, called a "dalmatic," was popular in the thirteenth century and even earlier, reaching back to the third century CE (Houston, p. 7). The effigy of King John I of England wears one that is very full through the body. The sleeves are loose through their whole length and appear to be almost full-length. The hem and cuffs are decorated with a band of wide trim, and the neckline appears to be hidden by the strap of his cloak (Houston, p. 13, fig. 17). Elsewhere during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the dalmatic is usually shown with trim only at the cuffs and neckline (Manesse folios 17, 51, and 59). Two of these examples are split up the skirt, as for riding.

This particular dalmatic is less full through the body than that of King John and is trimmed at neckline and cuffs with trim that appear appropriate to the period. A keyhole neckline is necessary due to the size of the young man's head, but similar necklines were used on garments from this era (Klapisch-Zuber, p. 401). The keyhole neckline is held closed by means of a button and loop arrangement that is quite useful as a substitute for the brooches favoured by nobles of the time (Kohler, p. 145).

The navy tunic worn under the dalmatic is cut in much the same manner, but with full-length sleeves and a longer skirt. It is decorated only with a narrow band of trim around the cuffs, as is seen in Manesse folios 12, 24, and 27. Like the dalmatic, it is made with a keyhole neckline held shut by means of two buttons and a loop of thread.

Boy's Navy Cyclas with Red Tunic:
This cyclas is designed with sides that flare from the shoulders, so that it has the fullness associated with cyclases of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries (Manesse, fol. 55). Since the fabric was not wide enough for the skirt to be reasonably full, it seems reasonable to make this cyclas open-sided, as seen in Manesse folios 19 and 29. Two of these folios show cyclases decorated with a band of gold trim around the neckline and one has a line of buttons down the center front that likely hold an opening closed, but this cyclas is meant to be worn by a small child. Its sole decoration is the pair of faux pearl buttons of the button-loop closure, yet it still looks incredibly rich and festive. It is cut long in order to make better use of the fabric and the convenient selvage edge.

The tunic is cut extra full through the body, making the sleeves appear to be too short for the child's arms. They were originally made longer, but had to be shortened because the cuffs kept sliding down over the young man's hands. The sole decoration on this tunic is the band of gold trim on each cuff (Manesse fols. 12 and 52).

Wool Cloak:
Since it sometimes gets cold, even here in Trimaris, it is necessary that the children have warm cloaks. Considering how children play, with no thought to their clothes or the weather, the cloaks must not have large openings that may fall open. The oval style of cloak, considered a "chasuble" when worn by the clergy, is ideal and "characteristic of the early years of the thirteenth century (Houston, p. 5)." While the Manesse Codex only shows men wearing the cloak (plates 49, 120, and 135), Houston writes that it was "worn both by men and women," at least in Anglo-Saxon times (p. 5).

A cloak like this, long in front and back but shorter on the sides, can keep the children warm no matter what they are doing or how cold it gets. If necessary, the long panels can even be belted in at the waist, keeping them out of the child's way while holding them closer to the child's body.

Child's Cale:
Cales, commonly termed "coifs" were widely worn, at least by men, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (Boucher, p. 184). In the Manesse Codex, eleven different men in ten folios are shown wearing cales, although few construction details can be determined from the art. One can only tell that the front of the cale sits far enough back from the hairline for a solid bank of hair to show through and that the base of the cale seems to reach the top of each man's neck. The strap is narrow and white, matching the rest of the cale.

This pattern (to be added shortly) is truly simple. Each cale is cut in one piece, with a seam up the back and a curved section cut out of the upper back. The back may slant in a bit as it reaches the neck, and the neckline slopes down from the back seam to the points where the ties are attached. For my children, the pattern piece is cut from an 8 1/2" square, with a fold line marked along the edge that represents the top of the cale. Since clothing construction of this era still tended to be based on simple geometrics (Crowfoot, p. 177), the cale design used here cannot be far off.

Materials

During the fourteenth century, French court costumes like the cotehardie were "sumptuously rich (Boucher, p.192)," with silk velvets and damasks popular at courts throughout Europe (Crowfoot, pps. 124 & 127). While the clothing of twelfth and thirteenth century nobility had not yet reached the levels of sumptuousness that they acquired later, chroniclers were already commenting on the richness of courtly attire, as people "decked themselves in brightly coloured materials embroidered with gold (Boucher, p. 179)". Due to the expense involved, it seems likely that less expensive silks and wools woven as simple twills or tabbies would be chosen instead for children's clothes. In modern re-creations, fabrics chosen need only look the part, although fabrics made from natural fibres are preferable due to their improved breathability and the fact that they drape more appropriately. Proper weight and colour are also important.

Ribbons of various widths can be used for trim or cuffs, as they are usually less expensive and more durable than the alternative. Off-the-rack heraldic, "pearl", or "mother of pearl" buttons are excellent choices when the buttons will show, and basic white ones are a perfect choice for hidden closures.

When making children's cloaks (or anyone's, for that matter, unless the cloak is PURELY decorative), it is best not to skimp on the materials or methods. Wool cloaks are an excellent choice, especially if fulled to comforting thickness. In order to be sure that the wool does not irritate the children's sensitive skin, cotton flannel or a similar fabric should be used to line the area around the neckline. While cotton flannel is not a period cloth, it would seem to resemble the fulled, teasled, and shorn woolens popular during the thirteenth century (Crowfoot, p. 35). It is also wonderfully soft and fluffy, just the sort of thing a person might want close about his or her neck. The cord of the neckline closure is made as a chain of interlocking loops and uses six strands of embroidery floss for strength.

Boucher writes that cales were made of fine linen cloth (p. 184), but any soft white cloth of an appropriate weight should work perfectly well. Cales are an excellent use for scrap fabric. It is not clear what material cale straps were generally made of. It is quite possible that the straps were made from long strips of the same cloth used for the cales themselves, but another option is fingerloop braids, which were "extremely common in the medieval period," and "could have been used for fastening clothing (Crowfoot, p. 138)." Braids of this sort have been conclusively dated to at least the second half of the twelfth century (Crowfoot, p. 138). A variety of different designs are documented in Lois Swales' recent "Compleat Anachronist" on the subject.

Process

While I strongly suggest using hand stitching in places where the seams will show, it is only reasonable to speed things up by using a machine on all places where they do not show. French seam and flat-felding, among other methods of finishing a seam, extend the life of a garment considerably and are highly appropriate to children's garb, while they look more medieval than serged seams. Whenever it seems probable that the children might find standing seams annoying, care should be taken to be sure that the seam allowances are sewn flat to the body of the fabric.

On the adult-size versions of many of these garments, godets and piecing would be necessary. However, due to their small size, children's garments can generally be made by today's costumer without either becoming necessary. This makes construction much simpler and quicker. In some places, however, it is desirable to make the garment appear to have been pieced in the adult manner, such as the trim on the upper sleeves of the bliaut. It is generally believed that trim placed in this location in period was used to hide where the sleeves were pieced on to the rest of the garment (Boucher, p. 169).

The hems on many of these garments were originally higher than they are now, raised by means of either a deep extra fold in the hem or my preferred method, horizontal growth pleats just above the hem. These can be put in using a sewing machine, but are less visible if stitched in by hand, using the hemstitch.

The necklines of some of these garments were originally made too big, so the excess is sewn into a pleat at the center back. This has not yet been documented to period practice, but it is the best solution when this sort of accident happens. If the pleat is sewn in after the neckline is hemmed, it can be easily let out if that becomes necessary.

Due to the thickness of the wool used for the cloak, the edges are only turned up once in hemming, rather than the more usual two times. This was a more common practice during the era than double folding. It was considered to be sufficient for the hems of many garments, due to the widespread use of fulled cloth (Crowfoot, p. 156).

Accessories

The garments mentioned previously were not worn alone. Under everything was worn a chemise, like the garment shown (Boucher, pps. 171 & 184). This chemise is cut like the children's undergowns and tunics. Since there will always be at least one layer over the chemise, it may not be necessary to put a closure at the top of the slit at the neckline.

A garishly modern pair of shoes can ruin the look of any medieval-style outfit, and children's clothes are no exception. Anyone with a free afternoon, a pen, a pair of scissors, and a little leather can make a pair of "bog shoes". While not appropriate to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, they are much less obvious that a pair of neon Reeboks. With a little more time and work, the amateur cordwainer can make a pair of simple poulaines, the common name for the type of long-toed shoes worn during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Hose were nearly ubiquitous (Boucher, p. 184) at the time, but few parents today have the time to make several new pairs every month or two as the young child outgrows the old pair. It is unknown at this time what medieval parents did, but this parent chooses to visit the local marketplaces and buy hose for her children. The hose may be mistakenly labelled as "girls' tights," "girls' leggings," or even "long johns", but they work wonderfully no matter what label they wear.

Another accessory the modernly medieval parent may wish to purchase at local markets is the belt. At resale shops these items usually sell for about a dollar, far less than what they would cost new. One must usually punch new holes and cut them down in length, but that is a small price to pay. On the other hand, a simple strip of leather can be turned into a belt if a hole or slit is cut, large enough for one end to go through, at the other end of the strip. This is neater if the end with the hole is wider than the other end, but my husband was able to make a belt like this for our son in a matter of moments.

Final Thoughts

Children look lovely in garb, and manage to make the medieval experience feel more "real" just by being there. It is by no means difficult to make proper medieval-style clothing for them, and they will love it as long as it is made with their tastes and comforts in mind. Children this age are even old enough to help plan and sew their own garb and can be thrilled by the prospect if it is presented properly.

Bibliography

Aries, Phillipe, and Duby, Georges. A History of Private Life: II: Revelations of the Medieval World. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1988 (Original French 1985).

Boucher, Francois. 20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment. Expanded Edition. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987 (Original French 1965).

Crowfoot, Pritchard, and Staniland. Textiles and Clothing c.1150 - c.1450. From the Museum of London's "Medieval Finds From Excavations in London" series. Norwich, UK: HMSO, 1992.

Houston, Mary. Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13th, 14th, and 15th Centuries. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1996 (orig. 1939).

Kohler, Carl. A History of Costume. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1963 (orig. 1928).

Manesse Codex. "Die Manesseschen Liederhandshrift." <http://www.tempora-nostra.de/manesse/>. This site contains images of all one hundred and thirty-seven illuminations of the Manesse Codex, which were painted between 1300 and 1315 CE.

Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane, editor. A History of Women: Silences of the Middle Ages. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1995 (Original 1990).

Swales, Lois and Williams, Zoe Kuhn. Fingerloop Braids. Issue #108 in the Society for Creative Anachronism's "The Compleat Anachronist" series. Milpitas, CA: The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., 2000.

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