The Armour Archive

Tailoress

Sir Gabriel generally rocks.

He's the kind of fighter who makes it look ridiculously easy and always has a cheerful countenance on the field or in the lists. We're glad to have him in these parts.

Tailoress

Yes. In many places, competition scoring is set up with two major sources of points being mutually exclusive: Authenticity and Creativity. Snip That's a thing I've struggled with while judging, too: How to balance that dichotomy. Thoughts? Anybody? Bueller? Bob I don't think they can be balanced at...

Tailoress

How do you know the weight of the Linen? I buy fabric from a fabric store and there is no detail on the thickness of the Linen. If you really want to know and you really want to continue buying fabric in-person, go to fabrics-store.com's Free Sample page and order the first one, which ranges from 7...

Tailoress

You may want to put your email address in a button at the bottom of your posts, like your PM and Profile buttons. You can make the change very easily in your Profile. I just added my email address as a button for the same reason -- to encourage use of it instead of PM.

Tailoress

what happens when that same person, having done well under your judging at a local event, goes to Kings & Queens A&S and runs headlong into your adjusted scoring? That's even more potential butt-hurt, when the entrant wonders why you were so nice two weeks ago but now you're a big meanie-he...

Tailoress

Oisin and Randy:

I have enough green silk now for one surcotte. If one of you wants to get in the queue, please email me at tasha at cottesimple dot com.

Tailoress

I am firmly against arts competitions. The few I can accept are categorized - best knife of all knives, best story of stories, best shoe of all shoes. I have only ever judged competitions where the entries are judged against a rubric, not relative to the other entries. I think this is the only way ...

Tailoress

Oh that's so funny. Finnacan beat me to it re: sandwiching the criticism.

Tailoress

There is a fine art to criticizing gently and with encouragement. A lot of folks subscribe to the sandwich method -- sandwich the criticism between two compliments. This helps soften the blow. One thing you DON'T want to do is give middling-to-low scores without enough explanation. A lot of judges c...

Tailoress

Tasha, It does happen, I have had two helmets deeply dented where I did not feel anything but a slight movement of the helmet and hit a fighter in the side of the helmet at a tourney, crushed the side of his helmet (14ga. stainless) and he didn't even notice the shot, the next shot he took, that di...

Tailoress

I forgot, I also have a dark blue silk. Sort of navy blue, but lustrous. These are substantial twills.

Tailoress

Tristan vom Schwarzwald wrote:RED silk you say?

Hmmmm.

Tempting...

D'oh! I just committed the last of my red silk to another customer. Snoozers are loozers.

(I can say that to a pal, right?

)

But, there's more where that came from. So let me send you that email I said I would and we can talk more.

Tailoress

Yep. If you dented the armour, the fighter probably didn't even feel it. If the same power was applied to another part of the steel and the steel didn't dent, he would feel it much more. -Aaron Eh, I don't know about that. Helm dents are usually caused by freakin' powerful shots -- unless someone's...

Tailoress

I wish days were 50 hours long and I had ten hands, because then I could take all the commissions I'm asked about. Alas, I can't take a dress commission from a distance. Even if I were to make a pullover dress (i.e. something that wasn't going to support the bust), I'd still want to do all the measu...

Tailoress

@Angus -- Ya caught that, did ya? Yeah, that's my son's toy corner. I was a huge fan of HHH when I was a kid. @Bran -- The red one is solidly 1320s and into the 1330s. Probably a bit earlier too depending on hem length. The "mullet" one is starting to go a little later than that, probably ...

Tailoress

Oisin, I don't have green silk on hand at the moment, but I'm sure it could be tracked down in time, if you are truly interested. As for shoes,

, nice try, but I think I'll stick with the single pair already ordered for now.

Tailoress

Hi Galfrid, Well, I had the red linen and cream linen canvas, and the people who wanted to buy those two surcottes were amenable to those fabrics. They suit well for SCA combat. The purple linen was purchased and sent to me by the gentleman who will receive it. I lined it in black linen I had on han...

Tailoress

Thanks, Galvyn.

If it were silk, it would take it to a whole new level of draping goodness. Someone needs to order one in silk. I have some gorgeous red silk waiting to be wanted.

ETA: Oops. I spelled your name wrong. Fixed now.

Tailoress

I've created a directory on my site to store photos of the work I'm doing for these surcottes. Aside from the first one shown at the start of this thread, I've made another one of the same materials and design that's much fuller in the skirt and I've made a 'cyclas'-style one, which is short in the ...

Tailoress

A while back I posted that I was taking commissions to make earlier 14thc surcottes to be worn over armour. I have created a directory on my site to store photos of this work as it goes on. http://www.cottesimple.com/surcottes/ So far, since making one prototype, I have made one more like that one (...

Tailoress

Oisin, when you post, please post pictures too, so we can see the shoes from different angles. If it's not too much trouble.

Tailoress

"If working custom, don't take deposits." I make an exception to this rule for personalized items. Well yeah, that makes sense. I've been doing commissions again recently and folks keep wanting me to customize and complicate their orders, but I'm holding the line against it, mostly for th...

Tailoress

I'm not sure how I didn't know you existed, but I will definitely be by at Gulf Wars.

Tailoress

Ditto. Is anyone selling them at Gulf Wars?

Tailoress

If working custom, don't take deposits. Send pictures of finished product, get paid, then mail product. It's the only way I get any peace of mind when I do commissions. Granted, it's not armour, but clothes worn with armour, so close enough. Years ago I used to take deposits and it ate away at me be...

Tailoress

It personally drives me nuts that red belts are informally "taken" as squire regalia, because it's a fabulous period color for a belt, especially a tablet-woven one with fittings or plaques on it. If it were me, the answer would be no. I'd wear it and let folks know I'm not a squire. Lord ...

Tailoress

Some great info about sumptuary laws concerning fur can be found in Elspeth Veale's The English Fur Trade in the Later Middle Ages. There is also a book called Fur in Dress by Elizabeth Ewing with some decent references to fur regulations in the first chapter or so, IIRC.

Tailoress

Looks to me like the lacing doesn't go all the way down, though it does go down way further than it has to, given that it no longer is tight to the body in the place where it stops. Here's my recommendation on placing the lacing holes -- follow the 2nd diagram on this page: The Zen of Spiral Lacing ...

Tailoress

Being cursed/blessed with a strangely eidetic memory for things like illuminations (but not all the other common sense stuff in my life, like where did I hide the mortgage bill), I saw Galfrid's question and remembered I'd seen an image from a manuscript featured in Art from the Court of Burgundy: T...

Tailoress

I just think he's hilarious. That right there is good enough reason to like him.

Tailoress

Alcy, where's the image from (what book did this someone else get it from)? My gut reaction to it upon first sight was that it was a re-paint, not an original done in the style of grisaille popular at that time. As for Derian's post, man you guys are tough. One could make the point that while quite ...

Tailoress

My friend Muriel and I typically camp together at Pennsic in her round pavilion, and we try to split it in half with curtains. The back half is the sleeping space and where our modern and private stuff goes. The front half has rugs, x-chairs, table with a table cloth, pottery -- in other words, it's...

Tailoress

It's probably his resignation so he could be made a Master of Arms. Which happened last year... not sure if what you're reading is something new or not...

Tailoress

OK. I'm feeling highly retarded after looking at your spreadsheet. 1) What are our color choices? Am I missing a big obvious post about that somewhere? 2) Am I correct in assuming that the type called "Laced Ankle" is actually NOT an ankle boot, but a shoe with a latchet? 3) Am I correct i...

Tailoress

Char, it came out great! So lovely. You give good gift.

Earlier 14thc surcottes - ongoing output