The Jänker (pronounced yenker, vaguely) is a lovely women’s outer garment from 16th century Germany, and I’m surprised I don’t see more of them about. It’s sort of a coat-cape – a cloak fitted through the shoulders and with slits for the arms, covered by long and often decorated panels which act as a “fake sleeve” to protect the arms at least somewhat. It’s excellent for wearing over outfits with fancy sleeves which might have trouble fitting comfortably in ordinary coat sleeves, but is less clumsy than a cloak. Brigitte reports that it is extremely warm. I did actually buy the heavy black coat wool (from a Rev-War sutler), and the fur collar was removed from a worn-out coat.

I found the Jänker pattern in the book Drei Schnittbucher, which is full of period 16th century German and Austrian original patterns, made for the tailor’s guilds of the time. I’ve made a few pieces from that book so far, and it is fascinating to recreate them.

I did all the embroidery for the coat in wool canvaswork (needlepoint to most people). The front pieces are, again, from Hans Hofer; two different counted strip patterns which I combined into one piece of trim.

The bands on the sleeve panels are based on a Florentine illuminated manuscript of the 15th century – a little early for us, but copies of patterns for artists and embroiderers floated around for centuries. It’s from a copy of the Dialogues of Plato, made by Ficino for Lorenzo di Medici. I found it in the book Medieval Needlepoint by Debby Robinson. The original manuscript is done more in Easter pastels, but I shifted the colors to be bright earth tone versions of them, largely because I’d already made the front trim and I wanted them to match.

The bottom of the sleeve panels are decorated with wool yarn tassels in colors which match the trims.

This dress, though it’s black, is entirely made of very thin linen, so it is actually quite cool on a hot day. It was also my Lacis competency for the Athena’s Thimble needlework guild. As with most of Brigitte’s other dresses, the sleeves are removable.

I’d never done lacis before, so I got an old book and with trepidation attempted it. Finding netting I could afford was  tricky, but I found it at a needlework store which was going out of business online and everything was on sale. Reading about it, I realized that it’s just counted work on a net! So simple! The only difficult is making sure that you weave the loose ends in so that they can’t be seen.

The lacis designs were all counted work from Hans Hofer’s Formbuchlein. The bodice trim was a double scroll and the brustfleck was an interesting woven diamond design I liked.

I did a pomegranate design on the sleeve bands.

I also made her a black linen snood with lacis in a wave design. All 16th century patterns from Hans Hofer. Of course we have no idea if they were actually used for lace, but I can’t imagine that they weren’t. Certainly I would have, if I had lived then and had access to them.

This next winter outfit for Brigitte was my Couching Competency for the Athena’s Thimble Historical Needlework Guild. The fabric was an ivory damask bought and given to me by a woman who wanted me to make her a wedding gown, and then she broke up with the fiance and told me to keep the fabric.

Since this was meant to be worn in the winter, especially for outside events, I made a partlet of a scrap of ivory velveteen, and couched half loops on it.

The partlet was lined with a cut-up white rabbit-fur jacket I trashpicked. It had enough decent pieces of fur on it to trim the dress.

A view of the partlet from the back. It ties under the arms with ribbons, and kept her neck and shoulders very warm.

…And a cute shot from above, to show the fancy hat with the feathers as well.

I couched half loops and brick stitch on the bodice as well.

Here’s the dress without the partlet. All the gold brocade was from that Sally Ann table runner we got for $3, mentioned in the last post. We used some of the white fur coat bits to line the lower outer sleeves. The lower inner sleeves were made to be removable, but I ended up tacking them in place as they tended to come untied and come down.

Couching work on the upper sleeves.

A closeup on the couched loops and brick stitch. This is not “German brick stitch” which is a canvaswork technique, it’s couching brick stitch, which is easy and very neat-looking.

Here’s the brustfleck, where I couched a pattern from Hans Hofer’s Formbuchlein. I don’t know if any of the patterns in there with what looks like interwoven strands was ever meant to be couched or just embroidered, but they lend themselves wonderfully to couching.

In addition, I made her a snood to go with the outfit, and learned how to do herringbone stitch on it. This was my Athena’s Thimble competency in needle lace – it’s really not a technique I know at all, but I went to a class on herringbone lace insertion, and was able to follow enough to make some, and then practiced on this snood. It’s a bit wrinkled, but hopefully you can make out the stitching.

I put a gold thread down the middle of the herringbone lace, and put in some chain stitch to hold the edges in place.

And here is a picture of Brigitte from back when the dress was first made, on her way to Crown Tourney! She said that she felt very snug in her fur-lined partlet and sleeves, and felt sorry for all the women in Middle Eastern garb wandering around shivering.

Brigitte needed a dress for a Yule event, and after much fishing around in the scrap upholstery bins of discount fabric stores (ah, having a Renaissance person when you have no money!) we stumbled on the dark green fabric with little gold leaves, which she liked. We also scored a gold brocade table runner at the Salvation Army, and used about a quarter of it here. (The rest went into the next dress.) The bronze satin was donated as scrap by friends cleaning out their closets. Because it would be worn in cold weather, I made a partlet for it – the square collar with the high neck which tied on under the arms.

Here’s the dress without the collar on. I found some flat bronze clasps shaped like leaves, and experimented with using them for lacing anchors.

This dress has been expanded and contracted a couple of times, and I think it’s time for a bit of a contraction again!

The little brustfleck is couched with half loops. This is a technique I figured out a fast-and-easy way to do, and now I teach classes on it. I put this into much more serious effect on the next dress…

Brigitte needed an easy and reasonably period-looking dress to wear around the campsite, cook food in, etc. The yellow and orange cotton we picked up cheaply at an SCA event, and they combined well. the sleeves are removable, of course, and can come on and off depending on what work she is doing.

The neck and elbow trim was a quick cheat I was shown by a long-ago SCAdian friend. Take two colors of rickrack (the same size) and wind them together, keeping the whole thing flat as you go. It makes a surprisingly period-looking trim, and does something positive with what would otherwise be an entirely useless trim as far as I am concerned.