Trimming My Viking Coat

Back in October 2015 I made this coat out of some remnants I had - burnt orange and royal blue linen, and a pair of gray cotton curtain panels from Ikea:

It's a great coat, and I love to wear it.  The only problem is, I made the arms a little bit too short. I don't have any of these fabrics anymore, either, so I can't just pull off the blue cuffs and make new longer ones to match.

Instead I added a second cuff made of white faux fur, to extend the length of the sleeves overall.  The cuffs are interlined with some scrap linen and an iron-on interfacing to help them keep their shape. So that the cuffs wouldn't look like add-ons, I also ran a 3" band of faux fur all the way around the neck and front, and the lower hem of the coat.

(sorry for the terrible picture)

I have to admit, I tried to dye this fur brown at first, because I hated the white - it's just so bright and glowy!  It kept coming out purple, though, no matter what dye I used.  Can't walk around an SCA event with purple muppet fur trim!  So the white is growing on me, I guess.  I suppose I can pretend it's polar bear or something.  What white fur would have been available to eastern Scanindavia in the 10th century?  Fox? Rabbit? Weasel of some kind?  I don't know.  Certainly not purple muppet.

I'll be honest, I'm not happy with the way the sleeves look. The fur cuffs look overly bulky and unbalanced, and the width of the blue section on the sleeves now looks completely stupid alongside the equal width of the fur cuffs.  But overall, I like the way the trim on the whole coat came out - it's warmer, it covers me better, and it's a bit longer on the hem. It's quite a bit heavier, too - I'd forgotten how much weight faux fur adds to a garment.

I would say something cheeky like "I'm ready, bring it on, weather!" but I know better than to tempt Mother Nature like that.  It's shaping up to be pretty cold at the event, and it might be rainy, too.  I've got a coat I can actually wear, now, and a couple of good hoods to cover my head, and I've got lots of Secret Mundane Underthings (leggings, tall socks, long underwear) that I can wear under my clothes, so I should be okay in the cold.

Preparing for this event I always laugh at the crazy weather BAM gets.  This time the highs should be in the 40s-50s.  The last time I went, four years ago, it was 90º during the day.  The year before that it stormed the entire time and flooded out half the site.  You just never know with this event.

What's next? 

I have a pair of new blue dresses to show you, and a "new" apron dress pattern. More on that soon.