Costume Gallery

Niekse's Formal Outfit

A larp-version of the Sabé Decoy gown in chocolate hues.

The bottom layer. It's my favourite pants pattern! This is a Burda pattern from the Burda magazine. All I did to it was to lengthen the legs by ten centimeters. And subsequently cut five of them off again when hemming.
The outer seam holds machine embroidery, as do the pocket brims.
The pants are from a lovely chocolate stretch cotton that was quite thick. At some points I was sewing six layers of the stuff, and my sewing machine chomped happily through it! I love my Pfaff!

The top is from a jersey tricot we bought on the Easter clothmarket in the middle of the best snow ever! Too bad it melted. The pattern is an adaptation of a Knipmode summer wrapdress. I added the kimono-like belt, that wraps around and ties in front. NoKey loves this top, so I guess I'll have to make the original dress too. I still have some lovely maple-printed tricot lying around from last summer...

The middle layer. Brown linen, with splits in mid-back and the sides. At all splits and at the neckline I used a zig-zag stitch really tightly together in a pale camel colour, outlining that with a regular straigth stitch. It's hard to describe, but it was a lot of work. And it adds a bit to the layer.
On the sleeves is a 15cm band of the leaves fabric. I will talk about the hood later.

The outfit in full glory. It's quite bulky, but that's alright. The belt is 2 layers of herringbone cotton with brown linen on the outside. I stitched vertical channels to keep everything together. I'm not sure about the relief the inner layers create (front has another 2 layers of herringbone in it, and that's what's causing the bulging).
The silhouette reminds me of Polish costume.

I love this picture, I'm not sure why.
The coif is from the Reconstructing History 102 pattern. I love them! They fit perfectly, and are very comfortable. I have no fear of it falling off, if not for the veil.
The coif is lined with brown linen.

Coif with the veil. The veil is brown linen lined with the same polyester crap I used to line the leaves-coat with. It drapes better that way.
There is a small tunnel in the veil, where I insert a store-bought diadem to save me the trouble of using millinery wire or some such.

Perfectly plausible, if you ask me!

Many thanks go to:
Kass from Reconstructing History for making a kick-ass coif pattern!
Sarah Lorraine Goodman for her article on "The perfectly plausable French Hood"
Maggie from Padawan's Guide for hosting all inspiring images from Star Wars.
NoKey for being patient and tugging bits that didn't want to stay put for the pictures.

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March 2008; © Jane Starz.