German Child's Dress

[peteyfrogboy]

The girl has needed a new dress for quite a while, so I finally got around to making one. It still needs a few hooks in the front, but all the heavy lifting is done. I also need to make some sort of head covering, and maybe a petticoat and/or apron.

Comments

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

She looks really cute! I definitely think an apron is an excellent idea.

Little girls are usually depicted just wearing a little hairband, usually black , sometimes decorated with pearls.

Textiler Hausrat, has got some info, here's an excerpt

"
From Textiler Hausrat, Kleidung und Haustextilen aus Nürnburg, 1500 -
1650 by Jutta Zander-Seidel, pages 139-141. Translated by
Katherine Barich

6.1 Headband (Haarband) – Wreath (Kranz)

The headband (Haarband) is the most widely represented period head
decoration of children and young women. As with the coif for a
married woman, the headband is the successor to the medieval
chaplet (Schapel) for child-aged girls and unmarried young woman
(Ill. 131, 132). (383). Since the 15th century the written
sumptuary laws have allowed headbands for each class, from simple
black velvet bands for servants to the allowance for other classes
of pearled headbands (perlein Haarbänder), and eventually gold
work and pearls for the upper classes. A young shop girl was in
1544 "reprimanded for wearing a pearled headband" and further:
"meanwhile the young woman shop helper should not be differently
attired than a house maid." (see footnote 383 for more exact
wording KB) Both sumptuary ordinances of the 17th century allowed
pearl headbands of value of 4 to 6 gulden, while the upper limit
of cost for the Patrician class was 50 gulden. (384)
Headbands were the only accessories or clothing pieces for which
pearls were allowed as decoration into the 17th century, but were
not always considered a high value item. A store inventory of
1639 indicates "56 white pearled headbands" valued at 56 Kreuzer,
as well as, "168 black bone-pearled (Perleine Painen) headbands"
valued at 2 gulden, 48 Kreuzer, these being simple horn-pearl
decorated pieces. (385) A "water pearl (wasserperlein) headband"
in the 1537 will of Christina Leisentritt with a listed at 3/4
gulden was of a relatively low value.(386) A "good pearl headband
with the Eseles (? - donkey) pattern" in 1602 was worth 10 gulden,
while a "pearl headband with a rose pattern" was assessed at only
one and half gulden. (387)

The wills of young women, dying single, and children, as well as
the dowry records generated by marriages contain the most records
of headbands. Usually these listed a single pearled headband per
woman. More rarely listed are velvet headbands, and additional
headbands, up to three pieces. Compared to the headbands
omnipresent in art depictions, the listing of only a single band
could be surprising, but the pearl decorated pieces were, as a
rule, the only headband of enough value to be listed, as well as
its condition making it perhaps not noteworthy."

later
"Again, it is the upper class sources that give us the most
detailed information about the headband. On the 1522 dowry of
Anna Kress is listed: "a nice pearled headband made from a
previous belt, a poor pearled headband, a nice small pearled
wreath (krenzlein) with a pearled cord, all the pearls valued at
10 gulden." (390) Paulus Behaim recorded in his household account
book in 1564 the outlay of 2 1/2 Gulden "paid my wife the silk
embroideress to make 3 pearled headbands, …for the gold and silk
thereon 7 gulden, 15 pounds". Three years later he notes as an
expense for his daughter Maria: " for Maria – for a golden band
for a headband (harpant), 4 gulden, 6 pounds, for the 1/4 ounce of
gold thereon 1 gulden 22 pounds, to make the headband 4 gulden 24
pounds, for the silk to line it 12 pounds The pearls I already
had." (391) Richly adorned as class usage would allow and thereby
likely to be worn to a wedding was a "pearled wreath bound with a
golden cord", listed in the 1529 will of deceased Katharina Amman,
wife of the coppersmith, and also Helena Kiener left behind in
1602 "1 golden strap, for to bind into a headband".(392)
"

[peteyfrogboy.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks. Don't suppose you have any good pictures of the hairband handy?

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

This is the closest one at hand. I'll dig more up later.

STRIGEL, Bernhard
Portrait of Conrad Rehlinger and his Children
1517
Wood, 209 x 101 cm and 209 x 98 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
http://www.wga.hu/art/s/strigel/bernhard/rehlinge.jpg

[peteyfrogboy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the pic. That's very different from what I was imagining. I'll have to give that a shot.