Monday 26 January 2009

Surcot Ouvert with fur lining

This is the sewing project I finished Friday, a sideless surcot. It had been on my list for ages.
I finally started sewing it this winter, with high hopes of keeping warmer next year during the colder parts of the season.

Cut and proportions are based on the garments from Burgos de las Huelgas, in Spain. Unfortunately, I am too poor to afford handwoven silk brocade in bright colours with arabian characters brocaded into a broad strip on the fabric, or something similar.
Thus it is made from blue wool twill, sewn with linen thread, and the upper part is lined with rabbit fur (there was rabbit fur lining found with one of the royal surcots, though, so this at least is similar material).
Should this prove not warm enough, I will add in more fur, but for the moment, I am quite content.


Since I dragged the unfinished piece around folded together, it still has some creases that will gradually hang out. And, of course, there's still lots of rabbit fur clinging to the fabric. But all that is left to do is shake out the garment and brush it down once, and then maybe hang it into the damp bathroom for a few hours to smoothe the creases... and so I can tackle the next thing on my craft projects list.

Which is? Let's call it "simple precision tablet weaving" for now.

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