amazing_cloaks

Greetings all from Cat:

This is the kick off of a cloak diary for the amazing cloaks that the shires of Glyn Dwfn and Southmarch have made, are making and will make for prizes and raffles for Hocktide Emprise. We hope you will check back and see how things develop on these community projects. I say community projects because that is what they are start to finish. Many hands working towards the goal in both major and minor ways.

Background
Two plus years ago, Sir William suggested a new concept for a new event. With the limitations on the calendar, it was decided to remake our traditional Hocktide event into an equestrian event. Kinda risky in that, up until that time we hadn't had a lot of equestrian activity in the principality as a whole let alone in the lonely south. Long story short. (sort of) The trial spin was wildly successful beyond expectation and a new event and a vision for the future was born.

Early in the planning for the next year our site was became a victim of foreclosure. Thanks again to Sir Williams efforts, a new site was found and planning began in earnest. The shire kicked into high gear with everyone working on several aspects of the event. The second year would see expansion of the event to include even more in the way of classes and activities for everyone and wonderful prizes.

The growth and success was again unprecedented and gave birth to even more possibilities and new drive in the shire. We have learned and adapted each time, and there were so very many wonderful things that happened I can't begin to list them all. What this blog is about is, that as part of the success of our second year, we ended up planting the seeds of a new tradition of amazing handcrafted prizes utilizing all the awesome talents of the artisans in the shire. Here we will document our journeys of discovery and experience in the textile arts.

Year two
Our second year out, along with several other great prizes, including a beautiful tourney chest made by HL Felicia of the Truelane, we made a prize cloak and a cloak to raffle. Both have been received with great enthusiasm.

Here is the view of the back of the Raffle cloak, which was actually made after the prize cloak. It was designed and rendered by Keterlin, based on Norse Mythology and historical motifs. She also directed the various stages of production and then attached the clasp that was purchased from Raymond's Quiet Press. The blue fabric was donated by HL's Aelfric and Monique. Monique did the stitching on the cloak and lining as well as work on the applique, making all the lucet cording for the line work and couching yards and yards of cording. HL Felicia did the lions share of cutting and applique stitching down all those legs and looping interlace.




Here is the front.


The cloak has an attached hood and is lined in a blue gray colored fleece. The applique is wool felt and felted into the synthetic blend of the blue fabric using modern felting needles. A lightweight fusible backing was then ironed on the inside for stability. The lining was left open at the bottom and hemmed separately at a shorter length as we all know that blasted fleece never stops stretching. The lining was tacked down at the shoulders and along the front applique for further stability.

The raffle of this cloak was another unexpected success for a local fundraiser.

The Brown or Celtic cloak was the first one tackled and a learning process in many regards. The Brown wool was donated by Keterlin and Raffe. Design and direction of production was by Mistress Keterlin, who also made half of the key pattern pieces for the front applique. The design is based on the Book of Kells. HL Monique did the stitching of the cloak and lining, cutting applique, lucet cording, and couching. HL Felicia was responsible for feats of magic overnight doing the applique and all the embroidered details in huge chunks. Monique and I would show up at Flea's house the next morning to get back to work and Flea would have spent the night stitching down everything we had cut out the day before, or embroidering the many details. She also made tassels and braids from the cording that Monique had made, for the forelock, mane and tail.

Many thanks to Majistra (sp?) Raven for sending me these fantastic pictures.
This is from the works in progress and until tonight was all I had.


Here are some of the finished cloak on display at 12th Night, showing the wonderful details that Monique and Flea get all the credit for. You can click on the picture for a better view.






This design was larger and we learned that it needed to be smaller in two ways.  First was that the large section of the horses rear end, started to sag a bit. (it happens to the best of us yes?) I started in thinking it would be great to quilt spirals into the felt, and quickly found it far to time consuming. I guess I forgot to mention that we started this project a little late and time was rather short. Flea hit on the idea of felting the felt into the wool to stabilize the applique and happened to have the felting needles to boot. We draped the shell over a quilting frame and started felting all the pieces that had been appliqued down. Because of the felting, all the applique had to be finished and felted before the couching and embroidery could be done.

Even though we had used wool and wool felt and felted the layers together. Note, all the applique was planned and cut so that no aspect has more than two layer of felt. A lightweight fusible backing was ironed on for stability. The cloak was lined in a berry fleece. The cloak and lining were hemmed separately with the lining shorter to allow for settling. An important lesson learned here (damn fleece). Everyone in An Tir wants warm and soft, and it was inexpensive, but the stuff never finishes hanging out. No more fleece lining. The finished cloak was breathtaking if I do say so myself.

The Big lesson
The final note in this story was a huge eye opening lesson in prize cloak making. The cloak was made for average size SCA specifications with a very long outer hem to allow for personalizing. The winner of the cloak turned out to be of rather short stature and it posed a dilemma in adjusting the cloak to fit. It was impossible to take enough up in the hem line because of the large size of the applique. It would have cut off the legs mid way. The only solution was to dismantle the cloak from the top and tailor it to size. The hood and lining had to be taken completely off, and the cloak and lining opened up from the top down and cut down. The cloak was not made in the round but with a slopped shoulder line and gores on the side seams. These were opened up as well for trimming. No one had time to do such a major overhaul until very late in the year.

Taking things apart was not the big deal, as my sewing teachers, (mom and sisters) had taught me that an important part of sewing was learning how to take things apart. I found when I had it all taken down to where I could cut out excess, I was paralyzed with fear. Like the the hesitance of laying down the first line of calligraphy on blank parchment, except more so. It also meant having to lift the upper most portion of the front applique and couched cording because they were in the area being cut down. I dreaded cutting the fabric. There was no going back from that point. After a couple more weeks I worked up my nerve to make the cuts.

The felting process of the applique on the front motif left some colored fuzz, but it couldn't be helped. The front motif was a simple key pattern in alternating squares. I felt it would have been jolting to cut them off in an asymmetrical fashion and or run them up into the seam of the hood. I cleaned up the fuzz as much as possible, re-couched the cording and cut it at the outer corner and tied it off as a tassel. I then re stitched the new and smaller shoulder slope down to the to the gores and eased in a new alignment to the points, and reattached the hood. I finished by tacking the lining at the hood point with a tassel, shoulders and down the outer edges of the front closure motifs. The clasp was a bronze finished, round Epona that is carried by several SCA merchants.

The recipient was delighted to take possession of the prize cloak at the recent 12th Night after it was displayed in the A&S room. She reports that the fit is perfect.