Theoretically, winter is coming. And so is War of the Rams, a five-day event in November in the woods of east Texas. "Winter" is always kind of a crapshoot here, because it could be bitterly cold in November or it could still be 90ยบ. I've seen Decembers in the 90s followed by snowy Januaries, so you never know. At the moment the event is about a week and an half away, and we're still in the low 80s here, so we'll see.
Anyway, I realized I was potentially going to need a new coat. I have a linen one which I love, and an older cotton one which doesn't fit me anymore (here and here). Luckily, I had a ton of thick, heavy, navy blue wool left over from last March that I bought for a project and ended up not using.
I made it the same way I made my linen coat, the way everybody in the SCA makes ladies' Viking coats - caftan-style, loosely based on Inga Hagg's female caftan idea from the 1980s. It's about ankle-length, open in the front, with a wide neckline that meets just under the bust where it's closed with a brooch, and with long, straight sleeves. I also tucked a hidden pocket into the front left side of the coat for my phone and charger, because pockets!
I sewed the body of the coat on the sewing machine to save time, and then I felled the seams inside by hand with a whipstitch - not over the entire garment, but just near the edges where I needed the open edge to be as flat as possible for putting the trim on.
I trimmed the open edges - the neckline, cuffs, and hem - with some mulberry-colored linen that I harvested from an old costume that I wasn't wearing anymore. Then I wove about a million yards of tablet-woven trim to put around the coat edges next to the linen:
The tablet woven trim is made of 8/4 cotton weaving thread, in a denim blue, a weird dark pink, and a cream color. The design is the Oseberg 12L1, from the Oseberg ship burial in Norway from the 9th century. It took about 8.5 yards to go all the way around the coat and the sleeves.
After the woven trim was applied, I went back with some more of the mulberry colored linen and made some loops for the front of the coat. I wanted to be able to pin it closed with a brooch and not (a) break the brooch on this heavy fabric or (b) put humongous holes in the linen edging.
So that's the whole coat. It's huge and heavy, and very warm. The only thing I'd change is the front opening - I think it's too low in the front, and it won't close high up enough to keep my chest warm. I'll need to layer it with a hood or a scarf, for sure. Hopefully, though, the coat will hold up well enough in the cold and rainy weather I'm hoping we'll have by WotR. We'll see!
