These two garments were made as part of the same project, so I’m going to treat them together. At Pennsic 35, Matatias saw the description of the Midrealm’s Authentic Accoutrements rapier tournament and decided that his goal for the next year was to enter & win it. Of course, he doesn’t make his own clothes, so the “kit” part of it fell largely to me.
The outer tunic is a sand-colored wool twill lined in medium-weight white linen. The structure is basically the same as Nockert Type 5, only the gores do not reach all the way up to the sleeve gussets. I constructed it using the sewing machine (as I do with all of our body armor) and the lining is simple flat-lining. Matatias wears this over a fencing undergarment that is constructed of two layers of medium-weight linen – the two garments together pass a drop test. (See my pages on 13th century rapier armor for more information about this.)
The hosen are also made of light blue wool twill. They are Nockert Type 1 hosen, tied to the braiesgirdle with points. Before I made them, I draped/drafted a pattern that I’ll be using for making Matatias’ hosen from now on. (I actually need to make some minor changes, but if anybody’s in the position of making multiple iterations of something like this, DON’T be dumb like I used to be – draft a pattern!)
Back to the hosen… they’re cut on the bias, made of two pieces – a leg and a foot. The top portion of the leg is lined in linen (per Broom’s research). This serves both to protect the leg from potential itching and as reinforcement for the eyelets in the top (though which the points pass to attach the hosen to the braiesgirdle). I actually doubly-reinforced the very top of the hosen so that the eyelets pass through the one layer of wool and two layers of linen. I also lined the feet of the hosen in linen; this isn’t something I can document, but rather simple pragmatism. Matatias wears out the feet of his hosen VERY quickly, so my hope is that the linen will bear the brunt of the wear and I’ll be able to replace just that while preserving the woolen foot.
These were the first woolen hosen I had ever made (I’d previously been working entirely in linen) and the wool works SO MUCH BETTER than linen. Matatias also didn’t find the wool too hot to fight in, even in the steam room that was Pennsic 36.
P.S.: At Pennsic 36, Matatias won both “best kit” and “most authentic fighting style” in the Midrealm’s Authentic Accoutrements tournament!
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