Cloth Questions....(SCA)

[Ben]

Chello,
Just some Q's on how to do these things..
-If i have, say, a brown surcoat, How would I go about making it look aged? Other than beating the everlasting crap out of it with a sock full of rocks and a pinch of dirt, how would go along that road? i want to do this because I thought I nice little "realism" would go well into kit, dontcha think?
Or is this a bad idea overall?
-When building a 13th century long tunic, the kind that goes under everyhting, and some kind of over tunic...dunno the name...How would you slit it? through the middle, or up the sides?....Ive seen and dated both, but which do you find is more comfortable/accurate, to a sense of an Mid to high class englishman of the time?
-Would a deep light green be suitable for cloth of any acceptance?..I have such an abundance of it, Id like to see if its viable, if only to stretch the historical limits par se....
Attached photos of Surcoat and Questionable cloths....

Surcoat, for heavy or otherwise..
[img]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x243/Bjen_bucket/174620.jpg[/img]
Its a light Autumn green if I ever did see....

[Ceadda]

You didn't mention what the material is made of. Cotton, Linen, Acrylic? It'd be somewhat helpful.

As for Worn. Fabric softener. Run in the dryer with all your sneakers. Use sandpaper at the stress points. tear and mend a small area.

[Jess]

Hello!

First, ignore any plain old nasty responses to your questions. The AA has a tendency to be a little hard on new people.

If you are shooting for an upper class portrayal, I would skip trying to age or otherwise damage your clothes.

I'm a girl, so I can't answer your questions regarding comfort of a slit tunic. I'll leave that for someone else. You write "for heavy or otherwise". Do you mean you would like to know how best to slit such a tunic for heavy fighting?

Your pic regarding the cloth appears very poor on my monitor. I can't tell what the true color is or what the cloth is made of. I am by no means an expert on dye stuffs, but I would think almost any shade of green would be plausible.

This might be a good starting place with links about garb, getting started, constructions, etc. Look around:
http://www.sca-schadenfreude.com/links/clothing.html

13th Century, huh? Here's a good source for images of clothing, armour, gore, and other cool stuff:
http://www.medievaltymes.com/courtyard/ ... _bible.htm

Hope that helps to get you started.

Jess

[Ceadda]

was my response nasty? it certainly wasn't meant to be. I apoligize if it came off that way.

[AriAnson]

Didn't seem nasty to me, Crim.

Aging it won't make it a more accurate portrayal of a medieval tunic. Old and worn-out things tend to look more "medieval" to the modern eye because everything we see that is medieval is worn out and old and so we have a habit of artificially agin new things to make them seem to be antiques. People have always wanted new things that looked new. People still aspired to look good in the 13th century, so I would leave it bright and shiny and new.

If you want to age it artificially, leave it out in the sun a month, wash it a few dozen times, or put it in the dryer with a couple of softballs.

[Jess]

Oh, No. I meant for any future posts. I was composing before I even saw your post.

Jess

[Ben]

Thanks to all for your helpful tips...
Knew aging it wouldn't work, being in that now that i think about it, the class I'm trying to fit in would have had some kind of respect for equipment...
y heavy or otherwise I mean that the displayed surcoat will be used for SCA heavy Rattan fighting, and possibly if needed as garb outside of fighting.
Hmm. My camera is horrific. Either that or living in a basement is horrible for lighting. Or both. Joy is me.
Fairly certain an outer coat with mid split and inner coat with side splits seams to be very plausible.
to my knowledge, the'yre double woven linen.
Heh....Cheap makes me happy

[Konstantin the Red]

Hmm... there is knit linen? That's what "double woven" sounds like to me.

Split the fighter if it's knee length or longer -- which it could be, in certain centuries and certain decades.

Have you hit upon a 13th-c. decade and a location yet? Your poptop right now looks rather Crusades-y, specifically a bit like a Hospitaller's cappa clausa without its sleeves in yet.

I think the search term for what you want is "bliaut," also bliaud. Then try "overtunic."

[Thomas Powers]

The best way to age your garb is to *wear* *it*. Artificial wear and tear almost always looks fake as most folk don't have the background to know what parts would have worn the most---did your personna ride a horse or carry a satchel, work in the fields or at the forge and do you know the types of wear each of these would produce on it.

So Wear it around the house, mow the yard in it, tussle with the kids or pets wash it as needed, patch and repair as needed and soon look will look like serf!

Thomas