Silly projects...

[gnomentum]

...it's all Sandy's fault. She sent me a link to www.landsknecht.org.

Now, I know I have a LOT of other things to make first, but the photos of people's landsknecht kit and the contemporary drawings have got me salivating.. I have my dress all planned out, mentally, based on some cloth I already have and some drawings made by Urs Graf between 1508

Comments

Since someone is bound to say it....

[elanya]

I think you should make the bodice from the second dress in the second set of pictures ;)

looks like a cool project though! I need more time :(

Re: Since someone is bound to say it....

[gnomentum]

Since having Rose I've spent quite enough time with my boobs out in public! I did actually predict that response but I was just finishing my edit as your mail came in.. noticing who it was from I KNEW you'd be commenting on that!

I'm thinking of making it in very lightweight yellow and black wool which I have (lighter weight than most linen) - and the shift out of obscenely light weight linen. From experience it should make for a very non-sweaty set of garments, even in the hot weather.

Time? Yep, I need that too. It would help if I didn't get all sidetracked researching outfits I have no time and rare use for!

Re: Since someone is bound to say it....

[elanya]

Bee dress :D

most excellent.

Re: Since someone is bound to say it....

[gnomentum]

Yes.. bee indeed! I'm not sure what the hatching would be in the bodice picture, but I'm envisioning some kind of piping in black over the yellow background. I think I like that better than stripes, though obviously it will involve a LOT more work!

Bee-ing as there's little chance of me getting to do this any time soon, though, I'm not too worried about that right now.

[filialucis]

That sounds, and looks, beautiful but intimidatingly complicated to make (speaking as someone who can just about run up a straight seam on the sewing machine if she REALLY has to).

But as for the bodice that people have been predictably going on about... did they really prance around in public with their boobs totally hanging out of the tops of their dresses? :O Austrian traditional dress has some dirndl styles with similar bodices, but those are always worn over a special dirndl blouse that very firmly covers up whatever the bodice would otherwise leave exposed.

[gnomentum]

Well - Urs Graf pretty much exclusively drew pictures representing life on the military camps of the Landsknechts - mercenary armies. The people portrayed are pretty much all soldiers or camp followers

[ihlanya]

That boobless bodice looks like something you'd get off the Ann Summers website :D

I second the question asked by filialucius.

Incidentally, you should friend elfea. She's really nice, she's Finnish and lives in Wales, and she's currently doing a thesis on mediaeval literature.

[gnomentum]

I answered above - the short version is, I *think* she's advertising her services. I've seen similar bodices illustrated with blouses covering the boobs; this is the only one where they are actually on display other than in a situation where the rest of the body is also unclothed.

I shall pootle over to visit elfea :)

[lunarennui]

actually, i like the sleeves in the first bodice picture.

[gnomentum]

They're cute, but not very practical for tending a fire... the others will be less likely to result in singed elbows :)

[lunarennui]

good point...