Have you ever dug through your stash and found yourself saying "Wow, I forgot I had something this nice"? This fabric is luscious and shouldn't be allowed to sit in the bottom of a storage container any longer. More than 10 years ago, I bought a bundle of remnants of coating wool off ebay, all black but not all the same fabric. 2 matching lengths went into a modern coat that I seldom wear but still like, another pair went into a medieval coat that gets much more use, and one lighter weight one has been used for several hats and other accessories. I had one 2yd cut left, a lovely heavyweight with a nice nap (not strongly directional, almost velvety) - not enough for a big project, but too nice to waste. And so, an immensely simple project, a half-circle cloak. I was able to get about a 45 inch neck to hem length by piecing the bottom corners in both front and back. There's a small seam on the left shoulder to help it lay nicely, and the right shoulder is overlapped and pinned, but could also be sewn. The seams were done in a small whipstitch that was then 'popped' out to be completely flat with the fabric edges abutted. No treatment of cut edges was necessary.
The Challenge: March - Stashbusting
Fabric: 2 yds coating wool
Pattern: none, based on Bocksten bog man's cloak
Year: 1st half of 14th century
Notions:Silk sewing thread.
How historically accurate is it:Very. Period materials and construction. Pattern is modified to take advantage of wider loom-width, rather than introducing piecing just to match the original. Right shoulder is pinned rather than sewn, but I might still change that.
Total cost: Stash fabric so old I can't guess what I paid for it.
07 March 2015
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