The daily life of a renaissance / medieval seamstress

[Artemisia]

This question was posed by a visitor to my blog:

"I stumbled across your blog while looking for information on the lives of Seamstress in the Renaissance... Do you have any good site where I can find what kind of tools they had back then and how their daily lives were?"

You know, that's a damn good question. Other than recommending "Dressing Renaissance Florence" by Carole Collier Frick I couldn't come up with a good answer.

I've gleaned only this much from several books: In general, gowns were constructed by male tailors belonging to a guild. The woman seamstress was hired on the side to sew undergarments, embroider and maintain the tailor-made gowns. Some of these women were already servants of the house.

What do you know of this topic?

[operafantomet]

Sorry for eventual double posting...

I must admit I don't have too much knowledge on the field of the Renaissance seamstress. The stuff I know is what I have picked up from two specific books: "Private lives in Renaissance Venice" and "Moda a Firenze". They're obviously focusing on Italian conditions, but I assume what they write at least is valid for most of the European nobility. The Venice book focus on how embroidery and making of underclothes and linen items was a typical domestic thing. Embroidery and lace making was seen as a noble activity for upper and middle class women, and the making of these items displayed desirable virtues in the woman (although rich homes is likely to have had embroiderers and others in their service). The Firenze book insinuate the same - fine ladies were to embroider and make linen items.

Actual clothes (as in dresses, overcoats, cloaks, hats* etc) were made by professionals. These were often males, at least those titulated "tailor". I don't remember the specific details, but I think that most places in Europe had a law preventing women from being tailors, and this law was suspended first in the late 17.th or early 18.th century. Corsets was always made by males (though I would assume many had workshops were women of the family contributed); it's said to be because of the hard work it was to deal with whalebones and the multiple seams needed. This is stuff I don't know enough of, but if I remember correctly Eva Andersson ( http://web.comhem.se/~u31138198/main.html ) has written a thesis about the topic "similarity and differences in male and female clothes" in the European history, and that she deals with tailors and seamstresses as well

I also think much info can be found in the "Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'D" by Janet Arnold.

As for tools, I think the most important ones would have to be the forerunner of the scissors, plus of course needles. I uploaded some Medieval pics the other day, I meant to post them in my blog but never got around to... I know they're a bit early compared to the request, but I doubt the equippment changed radically from Medieval to Renaissance times. Not all of them are seamstresses, but it's... erm... fabric related anyhow. Here they are:



Some of these pics might contradict what I said, but many pics are from books or series meant to display female virtues or allegories in various ways, and it also shows women as goldsmiths, sculptors, teachers etc. This was not a standard - only very few women had these professions (not unheard of, but definitely rare). It's further emphasized by the outfits of some of the wearers, as they're dressed to the nines while doing hard physical work. Doesn't always make sense... doesn't apply to all the pics though.

I wish I had my books with me, but alas... I'm sure others will contribute with wise words here, though!

[gem]

Try here: Soper Lane

[sealion]

There are images of tailors, seamstresses, and sewing tools here:
http://www.larsdatter.com/sewingkits.htm

[Margaret]

The 'tools of the trade' really have not changed much even since the 1500's.  Shears, pins, patterns, chalk for marking, some sort of measuring tape, toils etc.  The little tools for making the cuttes and slashes, as well as the stamps have gone the way of the buffalo, but the rest have pretty much remained the same.

The Tudor Tailor has a photo in it of side by side comaprisons of sewing tools from the 1500's and modern ones.