Research Dumping Grounds

Cooler that doubles as seating and looks peri-oid.

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Here's my instructions for assembling a tunic with flat-felled seams. As with most hands-on things, this works much better in person. Please feel free to email me if you have questions or if I'm unclear.

Sylvie (sylvie@fibergeek.com)

1. (optional)Attach the front to the back If your tunic is cut with a separate front and back, flat-fell them together at the shoulders. It doesn't matter which way the seam goes. Sew this flat-felled seam completly.

The nice thing about having a shoulder seam is that it's easier to fold the tunic.. and it's easier to tell the front from the back (front neck line dips down further). That said, shoulder seams are entirely optional.
2.Attach the arms to the body. Place the arm and the shoulder wrong sides together with the arm on top. Sew the first line of stitches for the flat-felled seam. Start and stop the stitches about 1-2 inches from the corner of the arm. See picture, below-left, for visual.
3. Attach the gussets to the arm and the body of the garment and 4. Finish the bottom of the arms If you do it right all of the seams will fold together beautifully. It just needs to be done in the right order.

a. Line up gusset with corner of arm and flat-fell completely.
b. Sew gusset to body, only sew half the flat-fell seam.
c. Line up gusset with other corner of arm. Sew first seam of gusset and then continue on and sew the first seam along the bottom of the arm. Finish flat-felling that seam (gusset and arm)
d. Sew last side of gusset to body. Only sew half the flat-fell seam.
e. Finish the flat-fell seam around the gusset and the shoulder.

5. Attach the gores to the bottom of the garment (I prefer to start at the top of the gore and work towards the hem). Attach the bias edge of the gore to the straight edge of the garment.
6. Flat fell the seam between the two gores. I prefer to work from the top of the gore towards the hem.

That's it. Just hem the bottom, the wrists and the neck line and you have it.

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Embroidery for Clothing - Anglo Saxon

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This is my pattern for tunics, chemise, dresses. Whatever. Medevial-oid and tons better than a T-tunic or some silly "trace around your t-shirt patterns". Sometimes called an R-tunic or "rectangular tunic."

This pattern uses gussets and gores. Love love love gussets and gores.

I started with a pattern from a period garment that placed a gore in the middle of the front panel. I hate placing a gore in a slit in the middle of a panel. I always end up with an ugly pucker at the point. So I experimented with leaving it out. Viola, Sylvie's QnD Peri-oid chemise. This has since evolved into Sylvie's Dress, Nate's Tunic, and Fearghus' Tunic. Patterns not drawn to scale.

All evolutions have been made by me.. they seem like logical steps and end up with a better fit for my Medieval family.

-I- sew these together with a machined flat-felled seam. A how-to is posted here: "Quick&Dirty Tunic Construction". I suppose you could use french seams.. or false-french seams.. but flat-felled seams are just so perfect. It just falls together in a way that really appeals to my inner type-A personality.

This is my chemise pattern. I'm 5'5". It comes out at about ankle height. It tighter around the middle and doesn't buntch up under my dress pattern. With the sleeves at 5.75" at the wrist I can't push it up above my fore-arm. This makes it a little awkward if I want to help wash dishes. I'm going to try updating this to 8" on my next chemise and see if it will help.
Sylvie's dress pattern. Basically the same as the chemise pattern. A little bit longer to cover all the way to the ground (in fact, it's long enough that I -have- to wear a belt with it to keep from tripping over the hem). A little bit wider because I'm lumpy and would prefer an overdress that doesn't cling like spandex. Again, same issue with these sleeves as with the chemise sleeves. At 5.75 inches I can slip the dress on over my head and don't have to have buttons on the sleeves.. BUT I can't roll them up and wash dishes.
Nate-sized tunic. Nate's my brother. Someday I expect he'll actually come up with a medieval name. Ah well. This is a tunic, a little longer than knee length on a 6' average large/extra large guy. I suppose, if your guy has "freakish monkey arms" you might need to lengthen the arms.
Fearghus-sized tunic. Fearghus is my honey. This tunic is about knee length for a 6' large 3X to 4X man. The seams sit nicely on his shoulders and it doesn't squeeze him in the middle.

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