Its Dagorhir Season!

Its time to start thinking about garb. Also, I seem to be in a bit of a quilting rut. I have lots of projects but I don't really feel like working on them. So we are switching it up.

For the uninitiated, Dagorhir is a nation-wide competitive medieval reenactment society, made up of like-minded folks who love wearing medieval garb and swinging swords at each other.

Well, just like every year, unexpected expenses are preventing me from spending oodles of money on garbing supplies. I must attempt to re-purpose what I have and create something I like out of garb that I don't like.

Project #1

I threw together this surcoat, a combination of a pattern for a corset and "winging it" from a surcoat I liked in a medieval shop,  a couple years ago and it never fit me properly. I think I wore it once. Here it is on my dress dummy:

Surcoat Back

You can see the sides are split, awkwardly. This would be because I naively made the tails straight when I have curves! Ugh. It totally looks like it was made for a guy. So the dress I wear underneath sticks out all funny. The waist is too low, and the shoulder straps are too long. And of course, it is COMPLETELY lined, making adjustments difficult.

So when I pin everything to where it is supposed to be I get the following:

That looks so much better doesn't it? Haha! I think I may be able to fix it by folding the top over the bottom like so.

A little stitching and a little trim or accent fabric and that should work out okay. It won't be as finished or polished since I'll have to cut into the lining but I think I can make it work. Then I will tackle the problems with the skirt.

More to come! My good friend Ravenna is also prepping for Ragnarok and here is her blog if you are interested in learning more: Ravenna Designs