MC: How's it look so far?

Well, I got the spangles in the mail on Friday and I stitched about one-third of them on that night. Not perfectly happy with the result, because the sequins flapped from their single stitch-hole. I bought a tiny hole punch so they can be anchored from two points and I think that will be much more pleasing.

The blue cloth draped there is the raw silk that my friend Sunny Jim helped me dye. I should have taken pictures of that party, but I was too busy stirring my fabric in the dye bath for an hour and a half. It turned out very well, and I think the color (which here looks a little yellowish, darn indoor light) is absolutely perfect. I'm excited to cut my tunic pieces and start stitching!

Armor, argh!

I'm just going to post a few notes about armor I've found so that I can find them all in one place again later.

The first is a picture: "Soldier wearing the lamellar klivanion cuirass and a straight spathion sword. Byzantine fresco of XIII century." 

This has some pretty good detailing; I can see the way the lamellae are laced together. Sort of. I mean, it's tiny, but I can squint... 

And there's some nice-looking stuff on this page. The "Lamellar Armor with Leather Strips" is particularly choice. 

This page has the easiest instructions for me to understand. 

And now I need to get some sleep. How much you wanna bet I dream of armor? Too much!

MC: All we need now is spots.

Finished hemming the cloak last night and put a fastener onto the collar. I'm very pleased with it and eagerly anticipate the arrival of the spangles. I've ordered them from a place in New York that is shipping them Priority, which I think means they should be here within three days. Hopefully they will be in my mailbox by Saturday afternoon, if not sooner. The tracking number on the package tells me where it is, but doesn't give an arrival estimate; very frustrating, haha.

The color is off because of the flash -- really orange-y. The red in the clasp picture is closer to what the actual fabric looks like.

The neck clasp is nothing special, just something I found in my stash. The inspiration picture isn't detailed enough for me to really see what our king has holding the cloth together there, so I used this piece and call it good until someone can offer up a better suggestion.

Tomorrow I'm meeting with a friend who will help me dye my six yards of cream-colored raw silk into a cerulean blue to make the tunic. I wanted to use woad, but couldn't find anyone that had experience to help me and I didn't want to risk spending big money and ruining my fabric. So we're using a fiber reactive procion dye from Dharma. I'm excited to see how it turns out!

A Free e-book!

Elina over at Neulakko has a link to a free download of a PDF e-book about Norse medieval garment reconstruction. This is a wonderful opportunity to add some knowledge to your library, filled with patterns and pictures of extant garments.  I've only glanced through it so far, but it looks amazing!

To get your free e-book download, just visit this page and click the "free book" heading.

Many thanks to Elina for sharing!

MC: Seeing spots!

The spots on the cloak needed a little consideration. Were they colored spots embroidered on? Appliqued circles of fabric? Metal spangles? I did a little sniffing around on Google and found a book called Needlework as Art, by Lady M. Alford. Project Gutenburg has it here. Figure 19 shows a variety of shapes in which laminae of gold were cut and used to adorn clothing. As gold has been used to adorn the clothing of the wealthy since before the time of Christ, I think it is entirely reasonable to interpret the yellow dots on this cape as gold spangles.

I compared the size of the dots to the size of the man's hands and determined that they were approximately an inch wide and set about a hand's-width apart. I drew up a 1" block graph on some typing paper to determine what the spacing on my cloak should look like. The dots are offset, rather than in straight rows, and having this graph would help me determine how many of the shinies I need to order. (It's always more than you think. I have a completely random guess that I'll need about 200. Let's see how close my estimate was, once I get the spacing transferred to the actual fabric. Will I be way off?)

None of the local shops have sequins this large (30mm) so I'm ordering them online as soon as I get an accurate count -- allowing a few extra, of course, for the ones that hide themselves in the couch cushions while I'm sewing and to have replacements on hand for the future. 

Next weekend I may be meeting with a friend to dye the raw silk for the tunic. I'm very excited about that, and it's hard not to talk about it, but I'm saving that for an entry all on its own. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: I need 325 sequins! And of course they come in packets of 300, so I had to order two packets and will have a LOT left over. If anyone needs some big gold sequins, just holler. 

Manuscript Challenge (MC): The cloak begins!

We have to start somewhere, and that gold-spangled cloak just would not wait. Based on the way it hangs, I believe it to be a half-circle cloak, so that is what I cut out of the red twill-weave wool from my stash. It will be unlined, except for a facing of red linen at the neckline -- a bit of artistic license to help the wool keep its shape and not become stretched out where it clasps at the throat.

The gold spangles are on order from Amazon and should be here soon. I'm using 30mm sequins and placing them approximately four inches apart. Stay tuned for that, but for now, a picture of the cloak hanging on Imogene, looking very similar in drape to the inspiration. I still need to hem the bottom. The front edges are cut on the selvage so they don't need to be turned and stitched.

I think it's a nice start.

It's a Lady's Prerogative to Change Her Mind.

I know it's foolish, and I know I'm setting myself up for a big headache, but doggone it, I cannot stop thinking about the Armenian king's outfit that I decided against in favor of the brown robe.  That brown robe and blue hood-- I've made oodles of things similar to that. There's no real challenge there, not really. But that Armenian king?  Look at him! 

That polka-dot robe! That chest armor! The blue tunic with gold trim! Seriously, the only thing that prevented me from choosing this for my challenge was the blue tunic, because I don't have any blue fabric. But today as I was trying to work up enthusiasm for the brown robe, I suddenly remembered the six yards of raw silk I have in a drawer. It's cream-colored, and it would be so very easy to dye it blue. The words "raw silk tunic" made me shiver with delight. So I've changed my challenge -- I'm going to go with the king, there, and we'll see how that goes! Good thing I have a year!