The Prize Play Cotte: Part 1

[sasha_sews]

EDIT: This entry has been edited as of 2/22/08 @ 10:50 to clarify things where I was vague or incomprehensible before *G*
EDIT: This entry edited as of 3/8/08 @ 1:00pm to add pictures and details.


That will be the official name for the cotte I've been working on for a week. (It's been more than that, like two weeks, but I'm not counting the hair-pulling days prior to my receiving the proper tools for the job and coming to my senses on pattern development.)

Roger is going to the CSG Prize Play this weekend. It's a ... thing. For the scholars of the CSG (and RMSG) and there's a dinner? Presentation? thing he wanted the cotte for the actual prize play, cause it's a ... thing. A spiffy thing with historical undertones? And Roger wanted a 14th century cotte to wear. I happen to be housing some 25 yards of black wool and linen for denk_mal and promised her the labor to make whatever she wants out of some kick ass velvet she bought, in exchange for 5 yards of each fabric.

So. Um. I have never made a cotte, and originally, during those days of which we will not speak, I had taken a cotte that had been made by http://www.revivalclothing.com/ and used it to sketch out a pattern. That cotte was made of raw silk, and thus shrunk, so Roger couldn't wear it anymore. I was going to just scale it up. Which I know better than to attempt. And also, with all the love in the world to Nicole at Revival, I'm not fond of the shaping [which is a result of the clothes being made in standard sizes and intended for general purchase, as opposed to custom fit, which I understand.] And I don't think the poofy sleeves look good on Roger at all, and add to that, he is interestingly proportioned in general, with broad broad shoulders, and rather barrel-chested, and arms that are long in general flex and stretch and get bigger around. His range of movement makes for interesting musculature-movements, which tugs on fabric in interesting ways.

So attempting to modify a pattern that I wasn't pleased with in the first place, that I wasn't entirely sure of my patterning in addition, and trying to take into account the movement the garment would need to be able to pull off, proved to be a bad bad, shameful idea.

But! I have Google-fu and found some ideas on how to get started. In order to make the pattern I referenced THIS SITE. Specifically, I utilized THIS TUTORIAL on fitting a cotte for a woman, with a front-curved seam.

Now, obviously I don't need to worry about a tight, supportive fit for Roger's breasts, as he has none, heh. My main concern was clean lines and a nice fit. Loose enough he can move comfortably, and as I know my husband well, loose enough that he can spontaneously throw someone to the floor in a demonstration of the unarmed combat techniques he's become so well known for. I also realized after the number of FAIL FAIL, VERY FAIL attempts at initial fitting, that I cannot use one piece of fabric folded over like Ms. McGann did. For a woman's cotte the neckline is large and cut low, for a man's that will have a collar? Yeah, cutting the head hole was not a great option.

I took two pieces of cheapo Walmart Dollar a Yard ugly green fabric that had a similar feel to linen, and pinned them together at his shoulders. Then I pinned as close to his neck as I could, on the sides and front. (Later during the fitting, as I adjusted pins and drape and such, I wound up moving the front of the neckline and shifting the back up a bit, and waited until I was nearly certain it was a final line before veeeery carefully cutting away the excess fabric so the front and shoulders would hang correctly.)

Once I had the shoulders pinned, I proceeded much like the women's fitting tutorial. I pinned a comfortable armhole, located where his belt will sit and pinned the sides to fit, loosely, from arm to waist. With each step of pins I placed I had Roger shift and turn and move his arms, trying to get his full range of motion. There was a lot of "It's tight across the shoulders." and "Okay, the shoulders are great but now it's tight across the chest." (And once we realized that we were talking two different languages re: fitting, it got that much easier. "NO. By 'fitted' I don't mean TIGHT, I mean 'shaped to your body so it doesn't look like a potato sack." and "Oooooh. Well by "loose' I don't mean 'potato sack' I mean I want to be able to move in it." )

With a great deal of tweaking and pinning and re-pinning and slowly but slowly trimming excess fabric, I arrived at a fit I liked, that he felt mobile enough in, and that I was confident I could cut apart and pattern. (I will note here that on the back I wound up pinning the fabric tighter above the shoulder blades and for a good 5 inches above his tail bone, in order to give the body shape and leave give across the middle of his back where he bends and shifts and the muscles move with his arms.)

You can see on the left side of the picture where the seam curves to allow for the waist. Also, there are darts marked on the sides because I was doing a lot of estimating and decided to add the gores from the waist, instead of the bottom. (Which turned out to be a good thing)

The strip of fabric at the top is the collar pattern. It just wound up working well after I used it for a test so I just kept it. I use it to draw around and make curves and add seam allowance.

Also, on the right side of the picture you can see the curvature of the chest. I did this not because it's period, but simply because Rog is so broad chested I had no choice. It looks lovely when on him. (and maybe I'll get a picture of that here pretty soon.)

And yes, I left notes to myself all over the pattern so next time I go to use it I won't be tying to remember what I did the first time. That is the biggest benefit for me of making cloth patterns.

I wound up with two pieces, one front and one back, only long enough from neck to waist. This will enable me to make the skirting as long or short as I like. Roger wants this one just below his knees, and knowing my own propensity to, uh, screw things up? I cut the fabric quite a bit longer than that. (All told, from shoulder to hemline the initial fabric-cuts were 50" long to give me LOTS of room for error.)

So the next step I took was to cut out a mock-up that I would actually stitch up, at full length, and fit the sleeves to. I haven't sewn really in a couple years so I was being really careful, this was an extra step to verify my own patterning skills. It seems like for the years I was actually sewing I did a lot of last-minute work, from half-assed patterns and poor finishing skills. (As I told Benaiah last night, I was really good and "one-time-wear" garb. *snort*) And then I quit sewing for a loooong stretch of time. It just made sense to make a mock-up of something I was doing a lot of guess-work on and hadn't made before, rather than cutting into the nice fabric and screwing up from the get-go, right?

Fortunately the years have been kind to my patience and common sense and I had made myself a very nice pattern that translated to (nearly) finished garment rather well. I felt confident to proceed, now that I had a good fit on the body, and armholes that looked likely to work nicely with sleeves attached, I set out to conquer the sleeves.


The sleeves were threatening to be a relative nightmare, as I had no freaking clue how to even start them. I was worried about the arm holes (I have no idea how to correctly shape them) and by extension the sleeves, that had to fit into the arm holes, without the forgiveness of pleats, that I had no idea how to make anyway.

So I fell back on the heretofore successful "Wild Assed Guess" and wrapped a piece of fabric around Rog's arm, and then...guessed. I randomly drew an 'S' curve and hoped I got it close. Last-minute-luck was on my side as I guessed right the VERY FIRST TIME. It's a really lovely curve. *G* (Also I had Ms. McGann's example of what the curve should look like, so I had some vague idea how to shape it.)

The next step was to fit the sleeve to his arm. I once again referenced La Cotte Simple and used her information on THE ELBOW HINGE. I wound up with two intricately curved and pointed and looks-nothing-like-a-sleeve pieces that when sewn together make for a fabulous fitted sleeve that gives Roger full range of motion and, honestly, looks awesome. I am VERY VERY PLEASED. (I'll emote about them later in Part 2)

You can see how fascinating the shape of this sleeve had to be in order to fit his huge arms and still allow him to move. I am *still* very pleased with the way the sleeves turned out.

And now had all of the pieces I needed to make his new cotte.


Now I had a verified (mostly) pattern and a better idea what I was doing, so with a bit of panic and worry that I was going to cut it out ALL WRONG I set about laying out the fabric, figuring out the best way to keep everything on the same grain and maximize fabric usage. I cut very very very slowly, and measured everything three or four times, and always walked away for a few minutes before the cut. In then end, everything was the same, nice even cuts, and I still had a bit of fabric left over.

By which point I promptly couldn't think about the cotte anymore and had to take a break. I started playing around with a hood to wear over the cotte, and I'm hoping to have enough time to finish it before he leaves tomorrow.

And now I've taken my 15 minute break to give my back a break and I need to go finish some seams. Woot.

Continued in Part 2...