Tonight? Tonight is sewing, dagnabit.

[soldiergrrrl]

I am *this* close to being done with my new tunic.  Then, I can focus on John's fighting garb.  Liam found some gorgeous trim to go on it, and in exchange, he's getting some gold and red trim, in addition to his Centurion eagle trim, to spiff out the bottom of the cote. 

Speaking of that fighting cote...Liam has done a fantastic job with it. 

He agreed to listen to me and slow down with the machine as well as hand-baste most of the seams rather than pinning.  Pinning would have been a lot faster, but the seams look so good!  He also flat felled them all, so the coat is darn-near reversible.  Slowing down with the machine also allows him to correct seam allowance and whatnot before it disappears under the needle and that's been a good thing. 

I'm really proud of him.  The bottom isn't nearly as fwooshy as I'd make it, but that's my personal preference.  Now, he's just got to make sleeves, and he's all set. 

So, my goal this week...finish up my tunic (and it's 99% handwork at this point, so I can work on it on the drive to Houston for the Quilt Show) and get John's tunic and pants cut out.  I managed to score a yard and half of heavy heavy dark blue linen that I'm going to use to reinforce the elbows, the collar and the cuffs so that they don't wear so fast, but I'm still struggling to understand the directions in Levantia's books on the collar slit for Byzantine men's clothing, so John may have to suck up the center slit for now.  I'm going to scan the bloody pages in one of these days and see if anyone else can make heads or tails of them.

Honestly, I'm way behind where I wanted to be, garb-wise, but at least I'll have something for Baronial and if I can, I'd like to make another new tunic for BAM, or maybe...just maybe a cotehardie.  I have some pretty bubblegum pink twill that would make a lovely cote.  ;-)

Speaking of cotes...attack_laurel has a page on an interesting stitch technique on an Elizabethan garment, and I'm wondering if we have any evidence of this being used any earlier, like...oh...on a cote?  I'd love to try this for a cote, before I start working on my Elizabethan.  Excuse me while I giggle like a fiend.  Yeah, after I work on Turkish, German and Byzantine.  And a cote.  Then I'll work on Elizabethan.  (Ah hahahahaha hahahaha hahahahahah...*wheeze*...ahahahahahahahahahahah!) 

BTW, if you're doing research, and you're not so used to it, anyone have a good outline of how you go about it?  I can do research for news stuff, but costume research is totally out of my league.  I just don't know how to do it.

Okay...off to the salt mines with me!

Comments

[deafelis.livejournal.com]

Hehe - I also have some pink fabric just begging to be made into a dress (something semi-fitted and like a cotehardie, but not necessarily that). It's just $1/yd cotton that was meant for mock-ups, but I learned from my last mock-up that there's a good chance it will come out well enough to actually wear. I'm trying to figure out what I can make to wear over it so it's not so jarring.