About a thousand or so years ago, my BFF Fritzi was apprenticed to the amazing and wonderful Baron Adhemar (de V...some fancy French medieval last name). That's not his real name, by the way...in case you hadn't figure that out. That was Steven Proctor's SCA persona's name. Both men (ha! it's the same man! going to singular pronouns now)...he was an amazing tailor, and made Fritzi some really beautiful 14th Century French garb. He also made some for Fritzi's wife, another Jen, and for years I kept meaning to pick his brain to get a pattern for myself, or at least learn the tailoring methodology from him. And then, he tragically passed away, far too young. I lost my chance to ask him questions, and instead, relied entirely on borrowing one of Fritzi's tunics, and making a copy-cat pattern to the best of my abilities.
I have since made this pattern at least 3 times (once as a "Thank you" gift to Fritzi for letting me borrow his tunic, and twice for my husband. The two of them are practically the same size, except for a few inches in height. It's very convenient...but anyway, I digress...). I have the pattern pieces, with my notes for both men's measurements, stored for future use any time I need them. I've also used the same basic pattern and methods to make myself several chemises for Pennsic.
In an attempt to document my notes so that I can read them better (my pencil notes are starting to fade), and put pictures in place so I can remember the finer details, I am writing out my methodology as I make 2 new tunics for my husband this year.
Here are the pattern pieces, laid out because I was confirming I actually had them all before I started cutting...
I have since made this pattern at least 3 times (once as a "Thank you" gift to Fritzi for letting me borrow his tunic, and twice for my husband. The two of them are practically the same size, except for a few inches in height. It's very convenient...but anyway, I digress...). I have the pattern pieces, with my notes for both men's measurements, stored for future use any time I need them. I've also used the same basic pattern and methods to make myself several chemises for Pennsic.
In an attempt to document my notes so that I can read them better (my pencil notes are starting to fade), and put pictures in place so I can remember the finer details, I am writing out my methodology as I make 2 new tunics for my husband this year.
Here are the pattern pieces, laid out because I was confirming I actually had them all before I started cutting...
14th Century Tunic custom pattern pieces
These consist of a main body, a facing for the neck-hole, a sleeve, an armpit gore, a side gore, and a front/back gore. Each piece is designed for a 1/2" French Seam, so they have 1" seam allowances (approximately...it's technically supposed to be 7/8", but my cutting ability is just not that precise).
Cut List:
1 neck facing - do NOT cut out the middle hole!
1 body piece - cut the neck hole to the pattern - lower in the front than in the back
2 sleeves
2 side gores
1 front gore
1 back gore
2 armpit gores
Steps to Assemble it all:
1. The first step is to put in the neck hole and facing, because it is easiest to do this *before* the garment is 3 times heavier and more bulky! :P
- mark the shoulders on the main body piece
- line up the neck facing on the body piece (right sides together) so that the elongated side is over the shoulder, and it is covering the entire neck opening evenly
- pin the facing in place, then follow the neck hole in the body to cut the exact same neck hole in the facing
- cut the slit in the shoulder (one side only)
- move the pins to be perpendicular to the neck hole
- sew the neck hole edge, 1/2" seam allowance
- clip the curves around the neck hole
- flip the facing around to the wrong side of the body
- press in place, turning under the raw edge and pinning down
- top-stitch through the facing and body piece to finish the edge
2. Set the body piece aside for a bit, and prepare the sleeves next:
- Sew each armpit square to the front edge corner of the sleeves, WRONG SIDES TOGETHER (approx 3/8" seam allowance)
- make a French seam along this edge only (1/2")
French Seam from the inside
3. Next, attach the sleeves to the body:
- Hopefully the shoulders of the body are still marked - if not, find that point again and mark it
- Find the midpoint of the sleeve - remember to account for the fact that one side has a seam sewn into it now, but the other doesn't
- Sew the wrong side of the sleeve to the wrong side of the body, 3/8" wide
- (Jen, triple-check yourself here!! Look for the wrong sides of both pieces to be together!) Seriously, this is where I screw up the most often...I have to think so hard about French seams, and even though I've done 100 of them, I *WILL* sew one on backwards every year...
- Do NOT French Seam this seam yet - that will come in a later step!
- NOTE TO SELF: on this navy-blue silk tunic, I have left a 1/2" seam un-sewn on each edge of the armpit square. I also have pushed the french seam from the armpit square to the sleeve edge in towards the sleeve. Come back later to see if you like how this worked when sewing the diagonals...
4. Now attach a side gore to the body, on the same side (front or back of the body piece) that the armpit gore is on. I will need to get pictures of this step at some point, but today I'm working in my office because the attic is too dang cold. My table here is too small to lay out the whole garment to show this step properly.
My hand-written notes are a bit vague here...they simply say "attach side gore to same side as armpit. Make French seam on side gore only."
Well, okay, here goes...
Well, okay, here goes...
- line up the side gore hem with the body hem, wrong sides together
- pin and sew from hem to 1/2" from the tip of the gore, 3/8" seam allowance
- sew a French seam from the hem to the tip of the gore, 1/2" seam
5. And then we come to my arch nemesis - the front and back gores. These are inserted into the middle of the body, and I have *never* been able to make these look good and NOT fall apart within a few times wearing the garment. Tonight, I'm trying this method: Alysaundre's Perfectly Pointed Gore Tutorial.
The results? Not bad, on the first try! Here's the right side:
And here's the wrong side:
Note that these are color-corrected so you can see the stitches better...the fabric is not grey! :)
Now we'll see if I can replicate the results on the second gore! (Note: I did!)
To finish the gores, trim the edge of the body seam, fold the gore seam over twice, and top-stitch it down. (This is called a flat-felled seam, for the record.)
This step takes an amazingly long time, but for a good quality garment, it's worth it! Final seam looks like this:
6. At this point, all the pieces of fabric are attached, in 2-dimensions. The final steps are merely to turn it into a 3D garment!
- With Wrong Sides Together, sew the sleeve from the wrist hem to the second corner (first un-attached point) of the armpit square. Hopefully this picture clearly shows what this means - you need to turn the armpit square 45 degrees and line up the side of the square with the sleeve. It all fits...honest!
- Make this into a French Seam
- Again with Wrong Sides Together, sew the last seam - the long lie from the armpit all the way to the body hem (Somehow, EVERY TIME I make this garment, I end up with one mismatched hem...why?????? the other side matches perfectly...this makes no sense at all. One day I'll figure it out...I swear!)
- French seam all the unfinished seams
- Hem the sleeves and body, and it is ready to wear!
Before sewing the hem, it's nice to get the wearer to put on the garment so you can make an even hem...but this isn't really necessary if he's the kind of dude who couldn't possibly care less about the evenness of his hem lines. ;)
I hope you find this article useful, so please, if ANY points are confusing, please comment below and I'll try to explain and adjust my instructions to the best of my ability.
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