Cotehardie pattern for medieval wedding dress

The cotehardie is a 14th century gown, and one of the classical styles that people think of when they hear 'medieval dress'. If you've seen Braveheart, the Princess wears a lot of cotehardies in that.

One of the reasons people love the cotehardie is that it's a really figure-hugging gown. It's fitted closely throughout the torso, flaring from the hips into very full skirts and a train. Classic medieval princess stuff, just perfect for a wedding dress. It closes down the front – in Europe, usually laced, in England, usually buttoned with dozens of tiny buttons just half an inch or so apart.

In England the sleeves were generally full length, whereas in Europe they were generally elbow length or higher, and worn over a kirtle with full length sleeves (or possibly the contrasting fabric on the forearm was a mini-sleeve laced or sewn into the main sleeve). To get the tight fit along the forearm, they would be laced or buttoned to match the bodice.

Cotehardies were often made parti-coloured, which is to say halved or quartered like heraldic colours on a shield – and often that's just what they were, with the wearer wearing their heraldic colours. And they used more decorative fabrics than in earlier periods – striped, checked, geometric, animal and plant patterns, embroidered with gold or silver thread or stamped with gold leaf; silk, velvet, damask.

We don't need to speculate about the cut of the cotehardie, because there's a very famous one that was found in Greenland. Below is the pattern for it, from the Museum of London's Textiles and Clothing book.

You'll see that it's cut a little differently from the modern princess pattern – the seam doesn't go over the bust point, instead, the front and back are almost simple rectangles, all the shaping is in the side pieces.

The reason for this is that the pattern evolved out of the basic kirtle pattern – those shaped side pieces are just variations on the kirtle's triangular side gores, the shape naturally evolves if you take in those gores to fit the body.

A handy side-effect is that this pattern uses less fabric than the modern princess pattern. That's because those shaped side pieces are just the old triangular gores, but with some bits cut out around the body.

You don't even need to try to draft this pattern before cutting. Cut the front and back piece as rectangles, as with the kirtle. Cut the gores as triangles, as with the kirtle. tack it all together – and then adjust it on the body. Just put it on and take in the gores' side seams till it fits around the waist. Much easier than doing lots of maths and trying to draft a princess-seamed body block.

The cotehardie has a high scooped neckline. For fastening, put buttons or lacing down the centre front or back, and all along the seam of the forearms.

Cut the skirts very long – in all the medieval artwork, they're so long that they 'kink' just above the floor.