male 13th century tunic for the “12th century wedding clothing project” .2 – hand-sewing finished :D

Many tiny stitches were made since my last posting about the 13th century tunic. And now I am happily declaring an end concerning the hand-sewing part of this project. Wooohoooo! 😀

Though I already have finished much longer dress hemlines for my own hand-sewn 12th century dresses before, the bottom hemline seemed to be an endless undertaking. But finally I was able to conquer this rather long seam. And after finishing this bottom hemline the sleeve ends and the neckline were as delightful as a nice walk in the park on a lovely spring day… *giggle*

And now, being in a very good mood, I am thinking about the possible embellishments for this 13th century tunic. Yes, it’s just a simple under-tunic but being a part of my sweethearts 12th century wedding garment for our 12th century wedding ceremony at Gulf Wars, it definitely deserves some nice embellishments.

I already have some nice ideas concerning the embroidery but I haven’t made a decision yet. I think I should sleep another night over it before I finally start working at it. Shortly before falling asleep I normally have the best ideas for my project, especially when it is already at such an advanced point of completion. 🙂

However, I have a new sneak peek picture of my sweetheart wearing his new 13th century tunic for you – enjoy! 😀

I think he looks very handsome in his very first hand-sewn under-tunic, doesn’t he… 😉

Concerning the embellishments I am thinking about adding some embroidery at the bottom of the tunic and definitely also at the end of his sleeves. Maybe I will also add an embroidery around his neckline. At the moment I am thinking of mixing some 12th century inspired lines with some signs which show of the SCA awards he has gotten so far.

Concerning the embroidery techniques I am still undecided – surface couching, stem stitch and chain stitch are great techniques to add nice and really good looking embellishment to a otherwise simple garment. But they also highly depend on the used material and I haven’t taken a look through my thread stash yet. I need a lovely looking thread (or a thread combination) that works rather smoothly with the rather tightly woven and thick linen I used for this tunic and I need a sufficient amount of it…

However, I am really looking forward to go through my 12th century picture collection and my embroidery threads tomorrow. Planning the further embellishments of my sweethearts 13th century tunic is a lot of fun and though I already have a certain pattern on my mind, I don’t mind some additional inspiration… 😉

…and now off to bed… 😀