Introduction

I am perpetually cold. I have horrible circulation, and seem to just not generate heat. As some of you might know, I also live in Carolingia, which is the Boston area. It can get cold here. We sometimes have outdoor events in the spring or fall where it snows, or its just freezing out. Honestly, anything below 60 is freezing to me. Yes, I grew up around here. I clearly didn't adapt well... or at all really. So, I needed warm garb. Layers. And I wanted it to be pretty damn it.

So, in come all the Burgundian gowns.

Inspiration

Pennsic a few years ago I found this lovely brushed green wool. It was surprisingly soft, and had what almost looked like a velvet nap to it. I had also acquired a black silk linen blend from Sewfisticated, and wasn't quite sure what to do with either. When I finally decided to make a Burgundian Houppelande, I thought those two fabrics would go together quite nicely as outer fabric and lining. Because of the nap on the wool, I did have to watch out with what direction I cut pieces in though. Looking through images, I found several examples of gowns that had narrower sleeves than usual. I liked this option, since it would make things like archery easier, and would hopefully get in the way less. I also found a few examples of gowns that seemed to open in the front below waist level... and thought it might be interesting to just split the dress all the way down the front. If the dress was open down the whole front, it would be fairly easy to take on and off and use as a layering piece, so it could essentially just become my fancy jacket. There is also enough fabric, that you probably couldn't tell if I was standing there that it was split.

Design

So... how to make it. Normally I would just run straight ahead... but this dress didn't lay how I would expect it to. If you look at the paintings, there are pleats that seem to go up the center of the dress up to the breast. While you might get something like that with a very full bust and tiny waist, that doesn't seem to be the case here. Since everything is belted, I can't tell if the pleats are actually set, or if they are just gathered by the belt. So I did some searching, and I found this site: https://sevenstarwheel.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/houppelande-for-12th-night-2009/ The pattern below comes from there. I originally made this houppelande a while ago... like years ago, and am only now bothering to turn my pinterest board into something more (Covid 19 Quarantine!).

When I made the garment, most of the links in the site still worked, and the full circle pattern referenced in there actually had a lot of useful information, which helped me understand the pattern posted here better. The short version of what I did is I combined that full circle pattern with this half circle pattern, so do something like a 2/3 circle. I know I cannot explain it nearly as well as the original description I read two years ago, but I will give it a try. For the full circle pattern you cut 2 large half circles and sort of draped them over a dress form, each side over a shoulder. You then had deep Vs in the front and back. For the back, you inserted a triangular godet to bring it up to the base of the neck, and left the front open (or sewed it up to the waist as it were). At the shoulders, you then completely slit the fabric from neckline down to wear the armpit would be. The shoulder seam was then sewn back up, and the sleeve was inserted. There is a reason for all this. By having that slit on the top of the shoulder where the *center* of that circle would be, the gathers all get directed to the shoulder, not the neck, which is usually where a cloak would send the gathers. To illustrate this, imagine holding a piece of fabric that is cut in a half circle. If you hold the center of the straight side (the diameter) of the circle, and let the rest hang, it wrinkles and folds to the point that is being held. In this dress, images show all those wrinkles and folds going up the bust and directed to the shoulder, so that is where the center of that circle needs to be. So, ultimately, I used that pattern as the basis for what I did, little triangular insert at the back and all.

Construction

Final Thoughts