It is one of the most documentable over garments for Rus’.   It is in so many illustrations and other forms of artwork that it is verging on ridiculous.  So, let’s do it!

It’s likely this garment came to medieval Russia by route of the Byzantine empire. Indeed, we know they wore the same kind of outer garment.  Here, you see a depiction of Constantine and Helene in which she is wearing a bell sleeved garment.

 

First, here is an engraving from Radzivillovskoj annals.

 

Then there is detail from Praying Novgorodian panel or Деисис и молящиеся новгородцы.

Here’s a poorly kept illumination of a rendering of a princely family.  You can see the person in the center is wearing a Letnik. To the right is a modern re-drawing of the original illumination so you can see the garb better.

There are also all these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first one is a 15th century depiction but as we know, Rus’ garments did not tend to change much. The second is an ikon from the 12th century and the figure in the bottom right corner is clearly wearing a bell sleeved garment. There’s more, but that’s enough for now.

Some reconstructions like the mock ups at the left have the letnik open end of the sleeves to the floor. In the majority of illustrations they are not this long and the only extant letnik I personally have seen were not that long (I’d love to post a picture but in Prague museums they don’t like photography… jerks…). Point is, there is no real set size for the opening to be ‘period’ so go with what makes you happy.  I like a smaller opening because I have to worry less about trailing it through something gross at an event as I’m both clumsy and accident prone. Someday, maybe I’ll make a court one that has super long luxurious sleeves.  Probably not though.

Using whichever pattern you prefer (here, I used my go-to rectangular construction) you simply modify the sleeves.  There a few different proposed reconstructions but personally, I prefer to cut the sleeve on a fold, half measurement 8 on my go to pattern,, measure out measurement 3 from 8 and then just  angle downward until I get as much of a bell as I want.  Sometimes Ill do a full measurement 9 for length but typically I take off 2-6” so you can see the sleeve underneath like in a lot of the art.  I haven’t been on the ones I’ve made for me, but the sleeves at least, really should be lined so the seam doesn’t show, unless you are doing a period treatment on the inner seam, but still, they look better lined.

Most artwork also shows them with some sort of decorative band at the edge, whether it is just contrasting fabric or silk encrusted with embroidery and gems.  I seem to embroider stuff for others and rarely myself and then also not take pictures, but… I’m getting better! Look at that “seam treatment”.