Schwalm Costume

Schwalm bodices are easily overlooked; this is not surprising since the bodice was worn under so many other costume pieces. Of the entire bodice, only the sleeves—with the their richly decorated cuffs—were really noticeable. The embroidery on the sleeve cuffs is very special and makes the bodice one of the most magnificent pieces of the festive Schwalm costume.
The bodices were worn over an undershirt and harness. They were slim fitting, short waisted, and did not have any closures. The sleeves were disproportionately long.
Often fine handwoven linen was used for making the bodices. A bodice was composed of the following parts: 2 sleeves, 2 gussets, 1 back, 2 fronts, 2 small side sections, and 1 neckline facing.
Most of the bodice components had straight edges, only the armscyes were slightly curved.
Felled seams were used for sewing together the body sections, shoulder seams, closing sleeves, and inserting sleeves.
The center front edges were hemmed, and the edges of the neckline were finished with a facing.
All body sections were cut to size so that a selvage was at the bottom edge making hemming unnecessary. In this way additional layers of fabric in the waist area was avoided (and we have seen already the quantity of fabric at the waist with the multiple skirts).
The fronts of the bodices were cut somewhat smaller than the back: so, the front edges did not reach the middle of the body.
On the right front of a bodice, the initials of the owner were embroidered using coloured thread and Cross stitches. Sometimes also narrow ornaments were embroidered between the single letters of the initials. (Such charted ornaments and letters can be found in the book Schwalm Crowns.)
A small strip of fabric was inserted at the sides (between the front and back sections);
the width of this strip was the same as the widest edge of the sleeve´s gusset.
The sleeves, from the shoulder, were tapered down to the cuff.
The excess width of the sleeves at the shoulders was gathered down to 4 cm.
The tiny pleats were secured and stitched in place for about 1–1.5 cm with some rows of Running stitches. Curved line patterns decorate both a section of the seam adjacent to the pleats and a section of the shoulder seam. (More curved line patterns can be found in my publication Schwalm Curved Lines, Narrow Borders, and Ornamental stitches. Often additional small motifs were embroidered in the corners of the decorated seams.
The sleeve cuffs were decorated with embroideries. These developed variously and, depending on the status or wealth of the wearer, were more or less brilliant. There was always a whitework border, a Peahole hem, and needlelace. Often there was also a needle weaving hem, and sometimes a needle weaving hem in addition to Peahole hems can be found.

The decorated sleeve cuffs are folded up to the top of the sleeves,
the remaining unembroidered part is folded
so that the bottom edge hangs around the elbow.
The decorations of the sleeve cuffs will be discussed in a separate article. You can read it in my next post.

Tritzers are roses made with silk ribbons. They are used for decorating the equipment of infants, children, and poor women. Because tritzers are small and cute, they are well suited for children’s adornment. And because they are quick and relatively inexpensive to produce, they are a good embellishment choice for low-income women.

Tritzer can be found on infants’ caps, baby christening caps, dresses for little girls, baby slings, garters, apron strings, and parade cushions.

Children’s tritzer are additionally decorated. This means, for girls 1-3 (sometimes 5) berries stuffed with peas are sewn in the center, and for boys 1 berry stuffed with a bean is sewn in the center.

Tritzers for adults are either sewn to the item without any additional decoration or they are embellished with bullion, sequins, and stamped metal flowers or stars.

Small tritzers are made with one silk ribbon, large tritzers are made with two or more silk ribbons.

At the bottom edges, the skirts of the Schwalm costumes were trimmed with narrow strips of fine cotton fabric and often decorated with additional borders. For the festive costumes there were many variations, and there was a clear scheme in the order of wearing the skirts with different borders. In Schwalm the borders were called “Schnur” (ribbons).

The first examples show solid colour cotton chintz fabrics which came from England or India. In Schwalm it was called “Tamis”, “Dames” or also “Damest”. (From about 1900 these were no longer available, so velvet was used.) These fabrics had a linen weave and were finished with an intense shine or glaze. The colours used for this purpose were red, green, blue (violet) and black, matching the respective costume set.

Using this “Damest” the bottom skirt was trimmed so that the finished border measured about 2 cm deep. Depending on the number of skirts women wore – young women had to disclose their abundance in wearing as many skirts as possible, older women wore fewer skirts – two or three more skirts were trimmed in this way.

On top of these, one or two skirts with extravagantly coloured ribbons were worn. The “Damest” on these were not as deep, but they were additionally decorated with a multi-coloured silk ribbon.

Both pictures above show – although the colours may vary a little bit – that, for example, a violetgreen ribbon could be used for both the green and the blue costume. The deciding factor is the colour of the “Damest” trimming.
The woven silk ribbons were found in a wide range of different patterns. Here I can show only a few examples; so, I will report about this special subject in the future.

On top of the skirts with the colourful woven ribbons, one or two skirts with curved bands were worn. A silk ribbon was laid in a zig-zag line and sewn onto a strip of “Damest” or onto a ribbon of silk.

On top of these, a skirt trimmed with an extra fancy ribbon was worn. The extra fancy ribbon was woven with metallic gold or silver threads.
On top of this, one or two skirts with double curved bands were worn. Two silk ribbons in different colours were laid in a zig-zag lines and sewn staggered on a strip of “Damest” or onto a silk ribbon.
Upper class women had an additional skirt decorated with three different silk ribbons creating a triple zig-zag line on a silk ribbon.
On top of this skirt, another with a double zig-zag line was worn.

The last skirt before the top skirt was the most magnificent one. It had both a ribbon with a double or a triple zig-zag line and a multi-coloured silk ribbon. Or sometimes two ribbons, one with a triple and one with a double zig-zag line.

The final skirt displayed only a small amount of colour. Inside the skirt the coloured “Damest” was about 10 cm deep.
All these colours and all this splendour inspired many artists to feature the costumes in their paintings. Shown here is a painting by Carl Bantzer (1857-1941); it is called “Schwälmer Tanz” (Schwalm dance) and is dated 1898.
It is on display, also virtual, in the Philipps University in Marburg,Germany (Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Marburg, Biegenstraße 11, D-35032 Marburg)

For the festive costumes Schwalm women wore many skirts one upon the other. It was common that 10-12 skirts (sometimes more) belonged to one set.

More than any other element, the numerous skirts gave the Schwalm costume its special appearance. For it to be possible to wear, one upon the other, so many skirts, they had to be very full. And for it to be possible to carry the weight of so many skirts, they had to be short.
In the year 1941, the pastor and profound appreciator of Schwalm habits and costumes, Heinrich Metz (1897–1973) made a survey of an average Schwalm bride’s trousseau. [Source: Schwälmer Jahrbuch 2000]

Regarding the skirts he found:

Upper class women had more, and poorer women had substantially fewer skirts in their respective trousseaus. Women of modest means often owned so-called double skirts. These were skirts with an additional piece of fabric (a strip about 15 cm high and trimmed with a border at the bottom) attached at the bottom edge to simulate a second skirt.

Most of the skirts of one set were made from “Beiderwand”. This is a linen weave fabric made of linen threads in the warp and hand-spun lambs wool in the woof. It was dyed to blue with indigo.
These fabrics were not colourfast.

Only the skirt worn on top was made of finer and more expensive fabric. I found different details.
One source tells about fine, shiny black linen for the green costumes, another source tells about fine, shiny “Beiderwand” dyed to black for the green and blue costumes and dyed to blue for the red costume. A third source mentions “Tuch” (a fabric made of wool yarn).

The matte “Tuch” skirts were worn in mourning and to the Lord´s Supper. The shiny skirts were worn for celebrations such as “Kirmes” (village fairs) or weddings. The shiny skirts, susceptible to water spots, were not worn during rainy weather. Also it is reported that the black and shiny top skirts were worn only on kermis Saturdays and during wedding parties only up to the afternoon refreshments.

“Beiderwand” and linen fabric were brought to a shine by dipping them into a special mixture made of a glue from skin leftovers from the tanners and potash. By dipping into this mixture, the fabric got both a shine and a stiffness. The shine was increased by rubbing with a special stone, the “Glänzstein”. Therefore the fabric was laid on a corrugated table and rubbed with very strong pressure. The “Glänzstein” was made of a wooden handle with an oval shaped fine-grained agate stone attached to the bottom.

In winter women wore the “Kalmuck” skirt closest to the body. “Kalmuck” was a twill fabric that had been vigorously rubbed on both sides. This treatment produced a soft and warm fabric.

For one skirt 4 meters of fabric was needed; this length of fabric was closely gathered so that the result looks like tiny pleats. (About the year 1900, five cuts of fabric 80 cm each were used, later 4 ½ cuts of fabric were considered enough.)
The waistband was fastened in the middle of the front (this area was covered with an apron later).
To the left and to the right of the middle front, sections of the fabric remained plain, the rest was gathered. To achieve an even drape, the following was done: The waist was measured and a fabric strip for the waistband was divided into 6 parts. However the width of the skirt fabric was divided into 8 parts.

For example:
A skirt has a finished waist measurement of 66 cm.
66 cm : 6 parts = 11 cm/part
So, making the skirt, 11 cm of the fabric remain plain (1 part), 44 cm (4 parts) would have been gathered, and the last 11 cm (1 part) remains plain again.
The four parts for gathering were divided in half again, so that 8 parts of 5.5 cm each were established.

The width of the skirt fabric measured 382 cm. For the two plain parts 22 cm were needed. So 360 cm of fabric remained. This was divided into 8 parts of 45 cm each. The fabric had to be divided in this way so that in the end 45 cm of fabric was gathered down to 5.5 cm.

If this division had not been made, it would be near impossible to space the gathers evenly onto the waistband.

The tiny pleats were laid and pinned. If everything fit according to the previously made divisions, the pleats were secured with Stem stitches using a thick and strong thread, from the back and about 2-3 cm from the top edge.

Along the top edge, a fabric strip for the waistband was laid right sides together and sewn.
It was then turned and secured on the backside approximately in the middle of the pleats. In this way the pleats were stabilized once more, and a waistband is attached.
Because adding skirt upon skirt increased the waist measurement by 2-3 cm per skirt, each skirt´s waist had to be increased accordingly.
The skirt was sewn closed along the center front seam about half way up from the hem. And the waist was closed with hook and eye.
If, later on, there was need to increase the waists, there had to be a way to adjust the waistband.
The women solved this problem by adding small chains or bands to bridge the gaps.
The length of the skirts differed. It was not only determined by the height of the woman, but also on the range the skirt would have – that is, how far they would lie up and away from the body.

The bottom skirt would have been short enough so that the undershirt could be seen peeking from underneath about a hands width. Every additional skirt must be cut somewhat longer (although in the end it would look as though it is shorter).

Only in a few villages of the Schwalm, were the skirts’ lengths cut so that all – one upon the other – looked the same length. Usually the upper skirt fell a little above the hem of the previous skirt so that the whole magnificence of the bands could be seen.

To eliminate confusion when dressing, the skirts were numbered.

It would be difficult, to establish a nice drape by hemming such sturdy fabric. So at the bottom edges the skirts were trimmed with narrow strips of fine coton fabric and often decorated with additional borders.
The skirt bands are worth their own chapter, so I will report about this subject in the future.

The “Geschirr” (harness) was needed to prevent the numerous (one on top of the other) skirts Schwalm women wore for festive occasions from sliding down. It was worn over the knee-length undershirt. The image below shows a harness being worn. The photograph is from 2004, and is found in `Der Tracht treu geblieben´, Volume 3, by Brunhilde Miehe.

The harness was made of fine linen fabric, and consisted of a thick bolster attached to a flat band of fabric and straps.

The bolster was tightly filled

with material people had at their fingertips – hackled flax, sheep´s wool, horsehair or anything else soft and appropriate for stuffing.

The straps crisscross on the back to prevent them from sliding off the shoulders.

The bolster ends are secured to keep stuffing in place, and several inches of flat band extend beyond the bolster.

The harness was fastened, in the front, with a hook and eye closure.

Whereas the straps were placed in the back relatively close to the center, in the front they were attached off to the sides to accommodate the bosoms.

Little girls did not have to wear such a harness. For them the bolster was fastened to the bottom edge of the waistcoat.