In the winter of 2018, I made a wool trossfrau dress, based on woodcuts from 1520-1530s ( “Landsknecht Woodcuts: Kriegsvolker im Zeitalter der Landsknechte” and woodcut/drawing examples on my Pinterest board). In 2019, I reworked the slashed sections of the bodice, and I plan to add a slashed section eventually to the skirt. 

I used some wool from B.Black & Sons, it is maybe a little on the heavy side, but it sewed like a dream and washed nicely. I used a sewing machine to sew the seams. However, any topstitching or other outer facing stitches are all done by hand. I lined the bodice with heavyweight linen and some fusible interfacing to firm up the shape. I am a little on the large side and choose not to shape to contour over the chest. Instead, I used a straight closure line and added a little steel boning. I used an existing dress I had on hand to mock up the bodice. I attached the skirt to the linen and interfacing layer underneath the wool. I created a channel for some steel bone along the front seam and used hooks and eyes down the front for the closure. 

The black wool was slashed using a rotary tool, hand-stitched the slash edges, and lined with white linen. There is a tutorial on Whilja’s Corner showing the method I used for slashing. The trim was then hand-stitched to the bodice. I went with smaller strips of fabric, alternating black and white to attach the sleeve. On the half sleeve, I created the X slashes allowing the undershirt to peak through.

The overall dress came out to look pretty good; all be it a little hot. I did end up redoing the slash trim on the body for mitered corners. I also plan to eventually add a panel with X slashes in the skirt, like the Mini Trossfrau dress of the same color. There are several lessons learned that I will incorporate on the next trossfrau dress version. 

Accessories

The wulsthaube give the shape to a headdress popular in German region costume from the around 1490-1550. The wulsthaube has a round padded area at the back of the head under a wrapped veil (Steuchleins). Early versions appear to have been a separate padded roll (wulst) (Nutz, Nets – Knots – Lace: Early 16th century headdresses from East Tyrol, 2019). However, later clothing inventories describe it as a coif/cap (haube) with padding at the back of the head (Zander-Seidel, Textiler Hausrat: Kleidung und Haustextilien in Nurnberg von 1500-1650, 1990). There is an excellent tutorial by The Curious Frau – Making a Wulsthaube: The Wulst and Haube on YouTube.

This wulsthaube is my first draft, and I used modern techniques. I will be experimenting with the shape and researching this further. I folded and sewed a rectangular piece of linen along one end, creating a crescent-shaped graded channel to fill with stuffing. On the other side of the long side of the rectangle, I folded the doubled the edge over 2 inches creating a hem. I made long strips of double folded linen and stitched the edge to create the strings to secure the headdress; These were attached long either short end of the rectangle.

Additionally, I created tellerbarret style hat using black wool felt blank, with addition black wool for the top, and white linen lining. I slashed the hat’s crown using the above technique and attached the round top of the crown to the brim. I slit and overlapped the brim to add some shape. Then hand-stitched each feather to the articulation edge of the brim and top of the hat.