Coat, 16th century

 As usual, I found myself scrambling to complete a garment for one of my very few events this year (the Goode's Company muster), but never did finish the last few steps. 

This time, it was a mid/late 16th century woman's coat or waistcoat, patterned from the advance chapter of The Typical Tudor which I received last autumn for having pre-ordered the book. I'm still eagerly awaiting the final product (not in the least so I can start on my next kirtle with more confidence), so it was nice to get a useful sneak-peak. The outer material is a pale blue (twilled) wool stuff from Burnley & Trowbridge, whence came also the fastening hooks; the lining is mid-weight linen from fabrics-store.com (left-over pieces in both white and natural). I did the major internal seams by machine due to the time crunch, but finished the sleeve gussets and all the edges by hand.

A coat.

I intentionally tried to draft this coat with extra wearing ease in the upper arms/shoulder and upper chest, which has been a problem with my earlier outerwear from this period (a waistcoat). The mock-up seemed to suit, but I'm not entirely happy with the fit of the final garment. The gussets in the sleeve elbow were annoying to insert, but less so than I feared. I'm also not entirely convinced of their utility in this instance, but the pictorial evidence shows awkward little elbow gussets, so I sewed them. The skirt's extra volume is contained in three box pleats set into the side and back seams at the waist: these looked weird in the instructions, but came together quite easily. They reminded me of the pleats on the 1790s robe I once made.

Tiny, tiny stitches!

One aspect of this project that I am pleased with is the hand-stitching. All along the hem and openings (wrists, neck, front), the wool and linen are joined with tiny whip or running stitches. I am rather pleased with how small and even the stitching ended up.