Trouser News!

And it is good trouser news...

So, I went to Toronto last month (hence the brief hiatus. Sorry), and managed to get some serious, serious fabric bargains. There are a few shops on and around Queen Street which offer incredible prices on genuinely lovely fabric. Wools, silks, linens, even some thread and notions, and they were CHEAP.

One of the bargains I got was some gorgeous superfine wool tabby, for the equivalent of £7.50 per metre. The lady at the shop even burn tested it without prompting, and was very helpful to me and Madame while we were having a poorly day. Shout out to Fabric By Designers for their helpfulness!


So nice. So soft. So wool.

This stuff is beautifully soft, drapes gorgeously, and I grabbed a yard and a half of it to make my Viking trousers, because it's ideal! I wish I'd bought more now...ah well!

I measured them based off my housemate's pair, as I mentioned in an earlier post, as they're ideal in terms of the look they provide.


Legs, seat/crotch piece, and two gussets. Top!

Cutting was a breeze, so I now have a pair of nice rectangles for legs measuring 40" by 31", with a 4" rise in the seat. The crotch/seat piece is 24", shortened from a frankly preposterous 34", with two 4" gussets.

The pants my housemate has are just two tubes, no crotch, but I think that the additional piecing and construction help, and give a better look to my efforts. From my research, as I said, I'm pretty sure a more complex construction would have been standard as well.



They're massive! MASSIVE!
                         
                         
THEY ARE THE BIGGEST TROUSERS IN THE WORLD!

Seriously, they're huge.

Big.



They gather just right at the waist, and at the knees they gather almost as I want them to. Within my self-imposed evidence based authenticity, I'm happy with them. The wool is as good as I could have found, the pieces and construction are based as closely on period garments as my hands and head could handle, and they are comfy as anything!

Sewing these bad boys up this week.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sources: The Old English Hexateuch

Image
Goodness me! Sorry about the hiatus there, everyone. I've got lots of news! As some will know, I've moved house to Scotland recently. That's pretty much taken life over for the last month or so, as it's a big move for me, and a stressful thing to do at the best of times. It's been made especially difficult because winter always gets a bit dark and cold and sad for me. The black dog is an infrequent, but vicious little visitor to my happy head, and takes up too much of it. Anyway, this blog is meant to be about old clothes, so let's talk sources, shall we? The Old English Hexateuch (AKA MS Cotton Claudius B) is an amazing resource, available for free on the British Library website. It has beautiful, full colour pictures of 11th century Saxon clothing for both the ladies and the gents. You want to see contemporary pictures of what C11th Saxons were wearing? Look here. Fabulous. Truly fabulous. Typical Saxon appearance: tunics, hose, dress and mantle, b...
Read more

The Insane Llangors Textile

Image
Sorry for the hiatus, readers! It's been a whirlwind time at Chez LittleWelshViking. I've started a PhD, travelled across the sea to Canada, put on a play wot I wrote, and all the while been working on re-enactment clothes. Let's talk about the latest project for now, and I'll do some more catch-up posts later in the month. I'm doing a crazy mad embroidery. Like, properly insane. It's called the Llangorse textile, and it's a well-preserved piece of very fine linen (c63tpi) from the 10th century. It was burned and buried on a crannog (island castle) site in Llangors, near Brecon. The linen is embroidered with fine, unspun 2-ply silk thread, in imitation of the fine brocaded silks of the Middle East in the period. All the pictures below are courtesy of Amgueddfa Cymru (the Welsh National Museum) unless otherwise stated. Now this thing is fascinating for three main reasons: 1. We have very little early medieval textile evidence ...
Read more

Cotehardie Fun!

Image
Right, time for some later stuff than last time. This post is about my late 14th century cotehardie. Basically it's a big wool coat to go over your tunic. Speculum Humanae Salvationis. Cotehardies all over! The design is going to be based on mostly manuscript depictions, such as "The Romance of Alexander", and "Speculum Humanae Salvationis". It will also be based on some memorials, and on the experience of other re-enactors. As far as I can tell, these things were pretty simple. I'm not bothering with the grand assiette sleeves ,as they're not necessary for the period, so this will essentially be a tunic, slightly shaped to hug the body, with narrow, button closure sleeves. Ho hum. Let's liven this bad boy up a bit...PARTI-COLOUR! Speculum Humanae Salvationis. Cotes! Yes! A half-and-half! This will be a silly coat! Sorry: "cote". I love parti-colour. It's a silly idea, it's extra work, and it's amazing! The...
Read more