1480s Tablet-Woven Girdle

Historical Influences: For a belt I decided to tablet weave a silk piece inspired by several extant girdle patterns from the Museum of London finds seen in Crowfoot (no 423, 404. pg137 -138) and Peter Collingwood's The Techniques of Tablet Weaving. I looked at various images of girdles in paintings, such as Claudia Quinta by Neroccio de' Landi (shown below courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) as well as Virgin and Child with an Angel by Luca Signorelli and Portrait of a Lady by an unknown Florentine painter (I do not have permission to post the images here unfortunately). We have extant tablet woven girdles from the period done in several styles, such as the tablet woven brocaded belt from Venice, c. 1450 found in the Victoria & Albert museum. While wool is also period for this style and form, the grand dresses seen in Ghirlandio's paintings are of the most expensive dresses of the day, and as such a woven girdle for the outfit I am creating would be made of silk, not wool. One such girdle is described in Frick as "crimson silk in a satin weave" (127).

With the numerous descriptions of girdles found in period accounts (double-faced, twills, plain weaves, brocades, tabby weaves, simulated samite, simulated satins, simulated velvets, and simulated damasks) it is generally assumed that there were substantially more styles being woven this period than we have extant pieces of (Crowfoot 130-138). Looking at various Italian paintings I was unable to find any that showed a girdle in sufficient detail to judge the weaving technique. The description in Frick as well as descriptions of extant pieces in Crowfoot led me to use a pattern based on an extant piece from an earlier period, Philip of Swabia's belt from his tomb (13th century) - called S and Z twinning (Collingwood, 116-119). While this is earlier than my period and not Italian, it seemed to fit well with what Crowfoot describes as 15th century fashion for tablet-woven girdles, "subdued monochrome colors which often resemble satin, velvet, or satin damask" (134).

There are several period ways of finishing the weaving for use as a belt. Many images show a buckle being used, but the only buckles I found that looked appropriate were out of my price range. Fortunately, as seen in the images and links above and to the left, there are many pictures of belts in the period worn by wealthy women which are simply finished plain and then tied together. As such, I decided to follow that method for finishing and tying the belt.

Threading Pattern: All 4 holes in a single color, SZSSSSSSZZZZZSSSSSSSZ, 5 forward, 5 back, shuttle in the same material, moderately hard beat (see Introduction to Card Weaving for an explanation of these terms). This pattern was created through a little bit of trial and error - the selvage edges (SZ,SZ) on the outside edges balance the weave to keep the belt from twisting on itself, and the 5 forward/5 back was determined by trying reversals until I created a block pattern that I liked. The end result is a lovely basket-weave pattern that is monochrome and very subtle, where the light catches on the silk beautifully.

Materials: While silk would be the appropriate material for something of this quality (or wool for lower class girdles), 100% silk thread is very expensive for the thickness appropriate for this project and I was already over budget. As such, I instead used a 75% silk 25% linen blend that I found on sale within my price range. It was not the color that I was looking for, but I figured I could dye it for far less than it would be to purchase real silk in the color I wanted. I ended up loving working with the silk/linen blend; it had the softness and sheen you get with silk but the linen gave it an excellent durability and weight. It wove up beautifully.

When the band was complete I trimmed the ends, stitched the weave shut, and hemmed the edge, creating a finished belt. I love the monochromatic pattern, it gives a very subtle and elegant effect, and the color ended up working perfectly.

Works Cited:

Collingwood, Peter. The Techniques of Tablet Weaving. McMinnville: Robin & Russ Handweavers, Inc., 1982.

Crowfoot, Elizabeth, Frances Pritchard, and Kay Staniland. Textiles and Clothing 1150-1450.

London: Boydell Press, 2001.

Frick, Carole Collier. Dressing Renaissance Florence. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.