Finished Zimarra

And it's finally finished! The last parts too a lot longer than I thought they would, once more confirming in my mind that the small, fiddly, almost invisible parts are always the ones to break your heart.

The embroidered buttons took, on estimate, about 12 hours to complete 21 of them, and that's just a simple buttonhole stitch, nothing fancier. The buttonhole loops, also hand embrodiered with 4 strands of cotton floss, felt like they took the same time. Or at least, they took up a day and a half of my time-off-work-to-get-costume-finished time. There's 8 metres of each width of ribbon sewn down, and I am so glad I took the time to pin it down first. It would have been a nightmare otherwise. 

And as I mentioned before, this Zimarra is an old curtain, purchased from an SCA trader. I've known almost since I boguht it what I wanted to do with it, and yet it languished, buried in my to-do pile for over a year. I'm so utterly delighted it's done now, and looking so beautiful. I'm very much looking forward to showing it off at the upcoming Crown tournament!

IRCC3 distractions

23 days left.

Even if I wasn't watching the calender, I'd know the dealine was approaching, because the usual gremlins are making their presence known. Three weeks to go and I should be putting every effort into the final details (and correcting the mistakes), but what am I thinking of instead?

- Quotes on trousers
- Project Hollyhock!
- Petticoats! All of the petticoats!
- Parasols...little mini hats too while I think of it
- Project Cinnabar - wasn't entirely sure about this name, but eh, it's stuck now.
- Corsets! I miss corsets...

But I'm being good! I didn't find out until after I'd cut the fur that I prefere the look of ribbon trim on my zimarra, and over 20m of hand sewn ribbon later, I still have a lot to do. Need about a dozen more buttons too. Onwards!

IRCC3 - layer four

No, you haven't missed a post, I have indeed skipped the update of layer three, but with good reason. I'll come back to it shortly.

For layer four of the competition, I've been making myself an Italian style coat, or Zimarra.

I've been making my zimarra from an old curtain. Just one curtain has given enough fabric for body and sleeve, both flared as the zimarra is not a fitted style. Almost all of the seams are french seams, and all hand sewn as part of the competition. 

Apart from attaching the sleeves, (the one on the picture is just pinned in place for the picture), I'll be trimming the front and open sleeves edges with some white fake fur. For the zimarra front and sleeve closures, I'll be using the embroidered buttones I mentioned in my last post. I have eight of those done so far, which should be enough for just one sleeve. Oh well, it's enjoyable work at least.