For the mid-13th century-ish, what did clothes look like? Could the weave of the fabric be easily seen, or did the fulling process mat it together so that the threads weren't readily visible?

Thanks!

Since the folks here usually deal in quite specific detail, it would probably be best to specify region and specific decade. Saying "mid-13th c-ish" is really not enough to go on for a proper answer. Fashion varies from country to country and often quite significantly from decade to decade.

Sorry, I just meant the look of the fabric itself after it was processed and ready to be made into a garmant, not the actual fashion. I thought that fabric-making techniques would be pretty much the same across Europe, but maybe not? Any info about western Europe in the 1260's would be greatly appriciated.

As for clothing type, what would fabric be like for cold-weather and for warm-weather outer-cottes and hose? I would guess winter fabric would be very fulled, almost looking like felt, but what about summer?

Thank you!

There are several color plates with wool fragments and a discussion about the extent of fulling. There are also descriptions and diagrams discussing sewing techniques. All in all it is an extremely useful book, especially for 14th century english portrayals.

For the period 1250-1300 seven samples are listed. Three are 3 shed twills, 3 are 4 shed twills, and one is a tabby (plain weave). It is noted that the longer floats in a twill create air pockets and therefore less fulling is needed to achieve the same amount of warmth. Further if a fabric is heavily fulled the extra work put into making a twill weave is lost. There are many more samples from the 14th century, so more trends can be gleaned. In the second half of the 14th century tabby becomes more predominate (up 90% in some deposits)probably due to the development of the wool trade and regulations concerning the finishing.

In general it seems to be acceptable to go with a twill that is not highly fulled, or with a tabby that can be anywhere from moderately to highly fulled.

Someone else recommended that book too -- it looks excellent. I ordered it and I hope to have it soon!