Author: admin

Thanks to Mathilde Bourette for her wonderful site!  Costly Thy Habit guides the novice seamstress through the steps of drafting and creating a passably period dress.  Plus, she shares her keen insights on wool 😉

 I’ve been mulling making new outfits for Mark and I for 12th Night.  A too-small rabbit fur cloak* bargained down from the Boutique needed a home.  (Don’t ever let them tell you you can’t dicker down prices at Goodwill!) A fur-edged sideless surcoat and matching tunic for my Love seemed just the ticket.

The tunic will be straightforward, as will the surcoat.  I have some fabric in the stash that will make beautiful embellishments for the tunic sleeves, adding length as well as spiffness.  It will also become an underdress for the surcoat. Both will be bunny-cuffed.

Thus begin the Cotehardie Conundrums.   I’m seeking simple, speedy, period and pretty.

Here are some links I’m finding helpful:

http://cottesimple.com/

http://caitlinsclothing.com/cotehardie.html (this site also has some great quick-n-dirty basics clearly described)

…and a really nifty way to handle lacing using ribbon:  http://www.festiveattyre.com/research/workdiary/images/lacing.jpg

*I realize fur is contoversial-  you’d have to be a wookie straight off the Milenium Falcon to walk into this one blindly.  I am as much if not more an animal lover than anyone denouncing fur.  The bunnies were already dead before this project was even a twinkle in my eye–at least twice dead if you count the fact they’d been thrown into the Goodwill pile.  I like to consider this a celebration of the bunnies’ wonderfulness.  It’s a way to make sure they didn’t die in vain but will in fact continue on.  Immortality, feasts and faires…sounds like a good deal to me 😉

…..Mmmmm, and soooo soft….