As We Don the Sleeves of Gold

Sir John's 11thC Norman

Bad Sting reference, no no!  Sorry.  I didn't get much sleep last night.  I spent several hours finishing the secret surprise A&S project that I can't tell you about, and did a bit of sewing - but mostly it's because after that I stayed up too late de-compressing with video games, lol.  I can never get to bed after working on something creative without some brainless downtime in between, otherwise my head spins and I can't sleep.  So staying up past two racing little radio-controlled cars on the Playstation is better, right?  Glad you're coming with me on that one.

Takuan's 14thC Samurai

ANYWAY.  I made a pair of pin-on sleeves last night:  yellow-gold trimmed with black.  Why?  If you guessed "kingdom colors" you're close, but no cigar.  I joined up with Caerleon (fighting company/household) earlier this year - just as event season was drawing to a close, so I never got to wear a company uniform.  Each member creates a unique uniform for him/herself based on their own persona guidelines, but in Caerleon colors and with the Caerleon insignia on it.  It looks pretty cool when we're all together. :)

standard cote + sleeves + veil

Being your standard, run-of-the-mill mid-15thC Englishwoman, my options are pretty wide open.  I have several ideas about my uniform, but I'm in the process of putting together a sort of "starter uniform" first.  While anyone in the company may display the company motto on their clothing (bottom hem of Sir John's picture, above), you actually have to earn your lions, by fighting with or supporting the company through three or more melee-based events.  Since I joined at the end of event season, I haven't had the chance yet, so, no lions for me.  Which gives me time to decide what I want to wear. :)

LBD = little black dress

For the time being, I made a pair of gold sleeves to wear with my "LBD" cotehardie.    I was thinking of making a matching gold cloth belt with the motto painted or stitched along the length of it, until I remembered that yellow belts are for Pelicans.  D'oh!  I think I might paint the motto around the black band at the top of the sleeves instead.

I've also ordered myself a pretty yellow-gold crocheted snood from Etsy, to wear with the outfit.  

All this babbling is to say that I'm SUPER excited about getting to wear my very own Caerleon colors for the first time in a couple of weeks.  Yay!

The beginning of my first Caerleon uniform.  <3 

Another One For A Friend

Speaking of stuff I've done recently but neglected to blog about:

Here's an English/Norman surcote I did for another friend of mine, back in the September 2011.

This is Sir John of Severn, leader of the fighting company I mentioned in that post about the Japanese jin-baori.  Every member of the unit has at least one outfit done in company and kingdom colors, but in the style of their persona, be it English, Japanese, German, etc.

The whole thing is heavy linen, and unlined.  It's also quarter-charged (divided quarterly, as opposed to having a gold half and a black half).  I sewed the surcote and the appliqés (stars and lions);  another friend of his painted the company's motto around the bottom (Ut simus invicti:  "together we are invincible").

There's more coming, too, on this front, in future posts.
Stay tuned. :)





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And Now For Something Completely Different

As I mentioned in the recent month-in-review post, in February I got the opportunity to create part of a Japanese outfit for a friend of mine, for Gulf Wars.   His persona is that of a 14th-century (Ashikaga period) Samurai warrior.  He's also a member of a fighting company/household whose colors had to be taken into account, and a Centurion (an Ansteorran grant-level fighting order), the insignia for which also needed to be worked into the garment.  Whew!

The piece I made is called a jin-baori, which later evolved into the kataginu. It's a sort of loose, sleeveless vest, tied in the front and split at either the back or the sides, which Japanese men wore over their kimonos, with thier hakama (the big "Samurai pants").

In this picture, instead of the kimono underneath, he's wearing a padded armor shirt that he made himself.  (He also created the black leather armor with red lacings that's visible through the front of the jin-baori, and the helmet in the second picture!)  The hakama were made by another friend of his.

The black panels down the front are a wide lapel which is turned back to reveal, in this case, the black lining in the garment, which is appliqué'd with six white lion heads, which are the symbol of his fighting company.

Black and gold are also part of the company's colors - and also the colors of our kingdom.  The 10-pointed star on the back of the jin-baori is also the kingdom badge.

The red displayed eagle on the lower right of the back, with another black 10-pointed star in the center of it, is the badge of the Centurions.  Their usual livery includes a red cloak with a gold eagle and black star; it would have been a bit much to wear the full Japanese kit with the Romanesque Centurion cloak, so we incorporated the Centurion badge into the jin-baori, and reversed the color scheme.


This was SO much fun to work on.  I believe there are going to be one or two more of these coming up this year, for this same person.  I can't wait to work on it again. :)



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