Medieval Costume and How to Recreate It

by Dorothy Hartley

Clear-cut and accurate in its guidance, this volume depicts medieval clothes and accessories not as inanimate museum exhibits but as items of vital interest and well worth recreating. Unlike conventional costume histories, which tend to classify their contents by era, this volume portrays the clothing of the twelfth through 15th centuries according to the wearer's social class. Here are the garments of royalty, clerics, doctors, merchants, musicians,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486429857
• ISBN13: 9780486429854
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 142 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

a very good book to know and sew medieval costume

Even if I am french I can use this book to realize medieval costumes. The patterns are very good and the explanations quite easy.

Medieval Costume and How to Recreate it

This book is a "dreams-answered" book on medieval clothing design and sewing for me. Finally, some tricky things in medieval clothing design were explained or sketched. This along with some historical information makes it a superior book. I make a lot of medieval clothing, often without a pattern, though I do use commercial patterns to help with difficult sewing areas This book is very, very helpful. I have already recommended it to my friends who also sew medieval style clothing.

Let's Get Medieval

I purchased this book in paperback, and it is handy for the no- vice sewing person. Some of the directions are a tad cloudy, as are some of the examples. But keep this in mind: there are not that many actual garments to work from that are still extant!!! The garments are pretty much self-explanatory for the novice, and they make for some fairly simple gear to make and wear. As I have made several veils,wimples, and other assorted headgear from the examples in this book, it teaches one the patience and just WHY clothing was considered so expensive then. We are talk ing about handsewing EVERYTHING, so even though some of the pieces may be a tad "off," you do learn the basic techniques, as well as valuable practice sewing garments. Having adapted some pieces for streetwear, as they were more com fy than what's out there, and several aprons, as they were more practical in design, this is a very handy little book to get for the novice interested in handsewing your own gear.

It's a good start to begin from, but the flaws tend to make it a bit strange.

For years I've had a photocopy of this book that I've lugged around, so I was very happy to find this as a reprint edition. One of the great things about this is that the author has done her research, and tends to construct the clothing from simple shapes -- namely if you can sew a straight line, or hem, you can make these costumes. The bad part is that there are some very odd items in here -- one tunic has a flap that ties in place, and the woman's gown is constructed in a very odd way -- you 'can' do it, but the seams look very out of place. Still, the price is good for a begining reinactor, and will instill confidence to go on and make more complicated items.