[Regia-NA] Hemming (was: help with hand stitching. (Chris Knight))

[Tracie Brown]

>From: "Chris Knight" <knight1066@hotmail.com>

>One more thing  ...a woman selling material informed my 
>friend who in turn informed me that during the early middle 
>ages people did not hem the the edges of their garments.... 
>Do any of you out there know if there is truth in this?

   It's a misinterpretation or overgeneralization, but not 
complete BS as it is based on real data.  Medieval wool 
fabric was often fulled -- shrunk and thickened by beating, 
whacking and otherwise abusing the wet fabric. (Felting is 
what you do to unconstructed fiber, fulling to constructed - 
woven, knitted, etc. fiber.)  
   Fulling reduces the wool's ability to fray. If the hem of 
a garment did not get a lot of stress, either by wearing or 
by washing, it might not *need* to be hemmed, but it could 
be. There are plenty of extant examples of hemmed edges 
throughout the Middle Ages. For example, some of the 14c 
Greenland hoods were hemmed at the bottom, but at least one 
was not.
   However -- remember all those dagged edges in the 14th and 
15th centuries?  They weren't always lined, faced, edged or 
otherwise finished off.  Sometimes they were just cut out and 
worn as is, because the fulled wool was resistent to fraying.
   While web site's focus is on the 14th century, it also has 
diagrams of some stitches (many hem stitches) taken from Inga 
Hagg's book on the 9-10c finds from Hedeby, which you may 
find useful:
http://www.damehelen.com/images/Stitchsamples.jpg
   Note: linen will fray if you just look at it, and you 
can't full it -- you have to hem it, and it's a good idea to 
enclose the construction seams, too.  The Hedeby stitch 
diagrams above include some techniques for this too.
   Sounds like you've got a good project going.  Were you 
planning to pre-wash and dry your wool?  If you wash it on 
the hottest setting, then machine dry it on the hottest 
setting, you will get some fulling action, and you'll be able 
to machine wash (cold or warm, gentle cycle) your garment in 
the future without worrying about shrinkage. (Hang it to dry, 
however, since dryer heat will shrink it more than wash water 
heat.) It will also have a less-modern looking finish to it, 
and it won't look brand spanking new. IMHO.
   Please send/post photos.
-- Tracie