For my 14th-century wardrobe I would like to make a silk filet (or fillet, I’ve seen it spelled both ways) and a silk belt. I bought a navy blue wool one but wanted to have a more historically accurate one.
FILET
Based on information from Textiles and Clothing (Crowfoot 19), I chose to use silk floss. I wanted to come as close as I could to the type of silk described there, though the thread that we are modernly able to obtain is a bit lighter than what was used to weave the original. Like the extant filet, I asked the weaver to weave with 26 tablets, 4 turned together as border (2 per side) and 22 turned together in the center.
The extant 14th-century filet shows impressions from mounts that were attached. I chose laurel wreath spangles that I could sew to the filet, in keeping with the technique displayed in the extant piece. I hope to wear it with temple braids as seen in period art, perhaps even with false braids as mention in Crowfoot’s book.
I may end up attaching a pair of false braids like the one pictured below so I can easily wear the style at a moment’s notice 🙂
Baroness Cae of Seleone made my filet according to the directions in Textiles and clothing:1150-1450 using a dark red silk floss.
BELT
For the belt (a future project) I was inspired by an extant 14th-century belt made from a tablet woven band in the “Erfurt Treasure” (Erfurter Schatzfundes ca. 1349).
It was reproduced and woven with 6-hole-tablets by Nikolaus Hofbauer.
More to come on that project!
SOURCES
Crowfoot, E., Pritchard, F., & Staniland, K. Textiles and clothing:1150-1450. 1992. London: The Boydell Press.
de Huntington, Cristiana. “Silk Filet”. 2017. Web. https://dehuntington.wordpress.com/ruffled-veils/silk-filet/
Hofbauer, Nikolaus. “Erfurt Treasure 1349”. 2017. Web. http://aisling.biz/index.php/galerie/historisch/spaetmittelalter/254-borte-nach-dem-erfurter-schatzfund
Hofbauer, Nikolaus. “Erfurt Treasure 1349”. 2017. Web. http://neuesausdergotik.blogspot.co.at/2015/06/der-schein-der-gotik.html
Priest-Dorman. “Three Recipes for Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Tablet Weaving”. 1995. Web. https://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/3recipes.html
