Cloak and Hood

Now that I've got my sewing area a bit more functional, I've been working on a cloak and hood for my friend Rachel. This is another project off a to-do list that we made about 4 years ago, but hey, who's counting? Here is a picture of her modeling progress. I've gotten all the sewing done except the hem on the cloak! Hooray! Below is Rachel modeling her cloak with her best goofy face.

The cloak and hood are made out of gray and blue cotton flannel for extra warmth. This is the first cloak I've made where the drape is really good and the lining doesn't sag. Acheivement unlocked! This is my first hood and I like it. Now that the sewing is done, I've started with the decoration. We had a demo last night and Giant Sparkly banner was on display... so I had a handy excuse to start other handwork! Ha!

I may have gone a little nuts with the lucet a while back, since I like to answer questions like "What does a skein of yarn look like luceted?" The answer is shown above. I am stitching the lucet cord over the seams and it squares things up very nicely. The trim actually seems to be making the dagging more well-behaved, which is a pleasant surprise. I know in my brain that adding decorations always really changes a project, but the picture above really demonstrates how wonderful that change is! I am loving the lucet cord trim - Thanks to Elen for the great idea :)

Finished horse tunic

I finished the applique and other stitching on the horse tunic. My little guy was checking my progress regularly and is pleased with the result. This one is still a little big on him, so hopefully it should last more than one or two events before he out grows it!

Two horses

I've finished the applique and decorative stitching for both of the horses. After that I ironed them out to roundels. Next step is to applique them onto the tunic!

Horse applique number one

My little guy requested decorations for his new tunic. When I asked him what kind he decided that he wanted some horses on his tunic. I needed the tunic finished for the event, but then got to work on his decorations. He has been checking with me every day to see my progress. Last night I finished the first horse and he really likes it. Hooray! The horse is white linen appliqued to a black linen ground fabric, which matches the collar and sleeves on his tunic. I hand appliqued the horse using needle turn and a button hole stitch. After I finished I wanted to add a bit more to the outline, so I just did a quick outline of chain stitch.

Kid's Tunic and Pouch

My little guy continues to grow rapidly, so it was time for new SCA clothes. He picked the linen out of my stash and I made him a new tunic. I decided that I was done making small collars with the sewing machine, so I did this one by hand. Sewing it in by hand is definitely easier for the tiny collars. I'm still working on my hand applique skills, but I do like the result. Little guy liked the tunic too and now I'm working on the decorations that he requested. Also, we had an SCA birthday party for this weekend, so I put together a felt pouch for the little girl. I added a bit of stitching and then appliqued a tiny heart. Cuteness achieved :)

Tiny Surcoat

I'm going to try to make Queen's Champion this weekend since it's down the street from me. I just realized yesterday that my little guy has grown 2 inches in the last month - so I needed some new garb for him before the weekend! He really likes the fighters and their clothes, so I made him a tiny little surcoat with some decorative spiral lacing on it. It's cute, but every time I look at it I keep thinking the measurements must be wrong - it's square! On second thought, little dude is kind of square, so I think it will fit. Hooray for random linen scraps!

Finished Tunics

For those of you following the saga of Rachel's lily tunic - it is finally finished! Hooray! She came over and re-drew some of the detailing on the sleeve joins and the curly-q's at the end of the bottom panels better to her liking, and I finished it a couple of nights ago. I really like her improvements - I had her re-draw them because I didn't like my free hand work (its really not my strong suite). You can still see some of the extra markings since I haven't washed it yet.

Today I also have a Bonus Tunic! That's right - two tunics for the price of one post! My 2 1/2 year old son came with me to Kingdom Arts and Sciences and so I made him his own little tunic. Its about a size 4T, so its pretty small. My verdict on children's clothes is that they usually go faster and are a bit easier to sew, until you get to the neck and arms, which are tiny! I had to poke the eyelets in with an awl while I was in a hurry for the lacing to work, so I will try to stitch those up nicely before he wears it again. I meant to get a picture of him in it in action, but I totally forgot! Perhaps next time :)

Progress on Rachel's lily tunic

I've made some good progress on Rachel's lily tunic. I'm hoping to finish it by Yule so that she can wear it to the event. All I have left is the border stitching, so I think I'll make the deadline :)

BAM Tunic

I need another tunic, since I'll be camping at my next event (Bordermarch Autumn Melees), so I've started a brown and blue tunic. Its very much been worked on in 10 minute increments, but its finally hit a point where its starting to look like a tunic. Once I get things to a point where they are "lap" work, I usually make more progress, since I can pick them up and put them down easily depending on what's going on.

I've cut out the tunic parts and sewn on the borders and am now doing the decorative embroidery on the trim. Once I finish that, I'll piece it together. I joined SCA in part to learn more about embroidery - and its worked. I've really enjoyed the German brick stitch work and I took a gold work class a while back, but now I feel that I must try more things. So, this is my first attempt at some basic tunic embellishment with various embroidery stitches that I've been reading about online (and watching a few tutorial videos). I'm not going for anything fancy (just some buttonhole borders), since its a first attempt and I have a deadline. I'm happy with the progress and pleased with how much a little simple hand embroidery really jazzes things up.

The tunic is a soft linen/cotton blend and I'm embroidering with DMC linen thread. I folded things up so you could see the trim that I'm working on: