[Jessica Finley]

Hello all -

It's rare that I get to have the joy of making garments entirely by hand, but this opportunity came up and I jumped at it.

The customer wanted a 16th century Irishman's Leine and Ionar. I have made quite a few of these over the years, and he decided that he was going to leave the details to me, beyond generally saying "Red Ionar" and "Green embroidery on the Leine". Otherwise, I had complete creative freedom with this outfit.

They are both cut as though the fabric was from a 23" loom, and were assembled using a combination of back stitches, running stitches, french seams, flat-felled seams, and seams that were tacked open, depending on the seam itself.

The Ionar is of a deep red wool twill, which I felted, and is lined in a green linen. The embroidery and construction seams are of cotton thread, as silk was prohibitively expensive for the amount of embroidery (the embroidery used up 500+ meters of thread). For the flowers in the front, I also used a metallic thread, forgoing the cost of true silver embroidery thread. The Leine is of a saffron-colored linen and is similarly constructed and embroidered with cotton thread.

This project is truly my favorite work to date, both in having creative freedom, and in working out some patterning issues that have plagued me regarding Leine construction for years.

Hope you enjoy it.
Jess

[Jessica Finley]

A view of the sleeve and back.

[Jessica Finley]

A detail of the sleeves next to each other.

[Jessica Finley]

A button and embroidery detail shot.

[Mike O'Hara]

Hi Jess

A stunning piece of work, you should be very proud indeed of what you have achieved. The fit over the leine looks like all of the pictures/diagrams I have seen and the embroidery is first class.

The galloglass ( I shan't spell it properly) is the persona I am re-creating and I am having someone local make the ionar out of a tabby wool I tracked down. Yay for Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit in NZ , suddenly we do have access to some of the right materials.

I'd be very interested if a brat was ever on your radar to make for someone

Please keep up the excellent work

mike

[Stephen Curtin]

Outstanding work Jessica, thanks for sharing with us.

[Scott Cross]

Holy Cow Jess! This is just over the top! This is one High Status Kerne with work like that on his Eonar!

Scott Cross
aka Fintan O'Breanan
Bog Kerne

[Nathan Robinson]

This is fantastic! You don't see nearly enough products or interest for this type of thing. Very, very nicely done.

[Travis Canaday]

Great work Jess. Absolutely beautiful. Letting the artist/crafts-person have more creative control will almost always end with a better product.

Happy new year and much love to you and your family. I miss you guys!

t.

[Jessica Finley]

Hello guys -

Stephen, the Brat is frequently triangular or perhaps semi-circular in nature. There isn't much to "make" unless I was to take up weaving on a larger scale than I currently can! Consider finding yourself a "Flokati Rug" if you can. It seems that the "Shaggy mantle' of the 16th century Irish was woven in a nearly identical manner. Of course, you could always go with a more plain woolen cloth. It's a matter of fashion!

Scott, not having access to any originals that have embroidery (if, indeed, any still exist) and without any paintings that depict the versions of the Ionar that were embroidered with a floral pattern, I simply chose embroidery techniques that were used in English 16th century floral decoration for clothing. While it is possible that the Irish were up to something else entirely, I have never been able to find documentation that this is so. We're told that they "assembled" their Leines with red or green silk thread, which could point to certain shirt-making techniques that would be MUCH fancier than I used on this Leine... but it is very unclear if that's what is happening. So, while I agree that not every Kern would have embroidery (many stick to the silk fringe), it is a plausible attempt.

Nathan, thanks! I agree, there simply isn't enough interest in this time/place. I love making these things.

Travis - Thanks! I miss you too!

Jess