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Hi all,
I've been looking at the the decorations on roman tunics, from the simple striped clavii topi what looks to be very impressive and intricate decorations on late roman tunics. I was wondering how this was made? were the patterns woven into the tunic, or were they made on separate pieces of fabric and then stiched on? Would anyone have patterns or a tutorial on how to make this for existing tunic or from scratch?
Regards
Damian
Damian Laurence Zamprogno
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It depends. Simple plain clavii were woven into the fabric, as well as simple designs. More elaborate (later) designs were woven onto the tunic directly or onto fabric placed onto the tunic. It also looks like the decorations were recycled. E.g. cut out of the first tunic and placed upon a newer one.
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Probably the simpler designs were tapestry woven, the more complex produced by embroidery. See; Greek and Roman Textiles and Dress: An Interdisciplinary Anthology edited by Mary Harlow, Marie-Louise Nosch, Oxbow Books, 2014.
Martin
Fac me cocleario vomere!
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Could read a bit in Greek and Roman Textiles and Dress on Google Books already. Looks like there is at least one piece where they think some facial features where embroidered versus the "normal way of executing facial features in Coptic fabrics [...] by means of a weft that moved in all directions ..." Interesting. So striek the almost certainly no for coptic tunics. There are very complex woven in decorations, though, no doubt about that.
Munich state library has ordered the book, but it can't be accessed yet...
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Martin: there is embroidery but only nonfigurative, mostly spiral decorations. Basically they have 'sewn them on' the plain background, not even special embroidery techniques, just plain.
Mark - Legio Leonum Valentiniani
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Thanks, Mark. I was thinking along these lines, but there is possibly more. We'll see once the book can be loaned from the library ...