Brick Red Norse Tunic

Remember the brick red tunic I was working on for Sven?  No?  Not surprised.  Refresh your memory here.

Well I finished that tunic nearly two years ago, and never got a "Project Complete" photograph.  He's worn it several times but luck was never on my side.

This weekend was Artemisia's fall crown tournament, and he wore it again, and I managed to snap a photo this time.  Although, the sun rising over the mountains led to some interesting coloring.  I swear, there is no filter on this photo.

Both fortunately, and unfortunately, Sven has lost quite a bit of weight since I made this tunic, so it rather drowns him.  This is awesome for his health, but not so awesome for the huge amount of hand sewing I did on this piece.  I don't think I'll be taking it in, though I may have to take the sleeves up a bit.

The frigid temperatures as we set up site reminded me rather briskly that I need to step it up to finish making warmer clothes for Sven.  Perhaps a wrap coat and some wool pants.  His linen pants were far too lightweight to wear this weekend.

Details:
100% brick red linen
100% black linen
Silver/Red Celtic knot trim

Frayed neckline - A fix!

After washing one of Sven's Norse under-tunics, I discovered that I had clipped my seams too close when turning and sewing in the neckline facing.  This caused some awful fraying.

Since this is a key area that takes stress, this would not do!  I took some fray Check and covered the offending area, carefully.  This will cause the fabric to stiffen up and will result in plasticy-scratchy fibers.  It may also create stains depending on your fabric, so apply with caution.  

After letting the Fray Check dry, I began running a blanket stitch around the entire neckline.  This added a subtle decorative edge, while also binding the offending frayed fibers back into place.  I eyeballed the stitching length and width, but for perfect accuracy, measure everything first!  I did this in white at Sven's request, but any color would work well and look good, to boot.

The Kirk - Final Entry

I finished the hem and Sven wore his "Kirk" tunic to its first event this weekend.  He seemed pleased with it.

In truth, he said it was very comfortable and served him well.  That's the lovely Tanzeda in the background.  Isn't that shade of blue gorgeous?

Final sewing notes:

• Made of 100% linen. (IL019 Autumn Gold from Fabrics-store.com), and some black linen from the same site.
• Metallic gold braid on the sleeves was from Jo-Anne's if I recall correctly. Trim hand-stitched on.
• I used a huge variety of sewing techniques on this thing.  I hand sewed part, hand flat-felled, machine sewed, machine flat-felled, and even serged part of it.  This is what happens when a project goes through phases of completion over the course of a year and you gain new tools and plans on how to deal with things.  Hems sleeves, and facings were all hand-sewn.
• Basically, it took way too long due to life situations (flood, flood, buying house, packing, moving, unpacking, etc).
• I really enjoyed making an historical garment that was inspired by something so unexpected.  I'm sure there will be more to come on that front.  Sven is already talking about a Spock Tunic...

This picture has nothing to do with the Kirk, but Their Excellencies Vilhelm and Bethany are family to me, and this picture turned out too gorgeous not to share.

The Kirk

Now I have to be honest... The Kirk is not 100% done.  I asked the husband to try it on so I could mark out the hem, the last remaining thing to be completed.  I'm pretty pleased with it, but he has lost a little weight since I started the project almost a year ago, so it's a little loose on him.  We're just going to roll with that though.  It gets belted in anyway, so I'm not altering it.  Especially since those side seams are all hand-sewn and hand flat-felled.

He decided that with his new buzzed head that he looks like Kerry King and therefore wanted an impromptu photo session.  What can I say?  He's got metal in his blood.

I'm finding that with each new piece I make, I learn new things.  This time, I've found that Sven's shoulders are pretty deeply sloped, making a true T-shaped tunic drape oddly on him. The armscye really does need to be cut in and fitted to him or it slides around and makes the neckline look very sloppy.  Duly noted.

The Kirk

A few months ago, Sven asked me to make him a Norse tunic inspired by Captain Kirk's gold uniform.  While not necessarily period, I'm making certain concessions because this is what my husband wants, it's fun and silly, and hopefully a few people will "get it," and it will make them smile.  In searching the wonderful web for images, I found two distinctly different uniforms.

The difference here is the gold bands around the wrists (congratulations, Captain Obvious).  Sven picked out a braided gold trim, and asked that we go with two bands instead of trying to do three as the top version has.  I'm glad for many reasons, not the least of which is that middle band appears to be broken/woven into the fabric or something.  Hooray for the easy way out!

The tunic is coming along nicely.  I am felling my seams by machine instead of by hand in order to finish this in time for him to wear to an event on July 28th (which I also have to finish a scroll by, on top of some other artistic endeavors with deadlines).  I am hand sewing and felling the underarm gussets, however.  This is because every time I try to do those by machine I bugger them up.

I also hand finished the neck facing.  Here's some poorly photographed evidence.  More photos will come after it's all finished.

Have you ever used modern things as inspiration for your historical dress?  If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Weekend Progress

For the ACC, I decided to try my hand at making my own lucet cords to lace my Sottana. I thought I was doing pretty well until I made a mistake and attempted to correct it - but failed at in my attempt. It looked good at first, until I put pressure on it as though trying to pull it tight for lacing - portions of it stretched out.

Ah well, more learning to do, I suppose. This is my first attempt at lucet weaving longer than three inches. I understand that there are also issues with the document-ability of lucet in this period, so I may not go with this after all - but it's a nice skill to have even if it's not 100% accurate for my period.


In other news, I worked on Sven's brick red tunic! He chose and purchased the trim. I had some black linen left over from other projects, so I decided to do the neck facing in black for added interest and contrast.

I measured and cut (in most cases ripped, actually - I love rectangular construction done in fabrics you can rip), and began assembling the tunic. I attached the underarm gussets and then flat-felled the seams by hand.

I usually try to do this using an invisible stitch, but I back-stitched the flat fell instead, using threads of linen drawn from scraps of leftover fabric. I need to work on keeping my stitches a more even length, but I'm pretty pleased with how straight they are looking, on the whole.

I attached the sleeves, side gores, and neck facing, and am now in the process of felling all seams by hand. I will sew the trim down by hand around the neck facing. Then I'll have to sew the sides up, and hem the sleeves and bottom. I might do a guard in black linen around the bottom hem... maybe.