Fighter Tunic

Tunic mock up

At War of the Trilliums this year, Duchess Dagmar and I had a really, really excellent conversation about the unique challenges some non-traditionally sized fighters can have with equipment and armour.

I have to say, her mentoring has been such an invaluable part of my experience as a fighter.  Both in a sense of starting to fight, and my development.  I don’t know how to say it any other way, but she is an incredible lady and I’m so proud to fight with her!

After our chat, she kindly lent me one of her tunics as a pattern.  I worked it out before Pennsic and returned it to her there.

I have already used her very versatile pattern to develop some quick camp chemises/undertunics.  Now that I’m back from Pennsic, I can take one making a few good linen fighter tunics to wear.  It will be nice to combine my armour pants with a tunic instead of a turtle neck!  

This will be a priority in the fall to work on.

 

“Welcome Home”: Pennsic 2012

Land ho!

My hubby and I have just returned from our summer vacation at war.  For weeks leading up to our departure, my head was buried in my sewing machine trying to finish all my new camp garb.  I didn’t get it all done, but I made a good dent.

We did the eight hour trek to Pennsic in Pennsylvania to immerse ourselves in as close to a full-on medieval experience as you can get in North America.  After all the preparation I was so excited to get there and get into garb.  Nothing is quite as sweet as rolling into registration and having the first person there smile at me and say “Welcome home!”. 

And it really is like going home.  I had a wonderful time visiting with my Talfryn kin.  It was like being at a cottage with great friends.  The weather made for some rough patches, but with customary Canadian (Ealdormerian!) stoicism we laughed in the face of the storms.

The shopping at Pennsic this year was really my highlight.  I spent a small fortune on linen garb basics from Neverland Designs. Again.  I love it because I can trim and customize the pieces at home.  I also finally found some gauntlets I liked and ordered beautiful new hardened leather demi-gauntlets.  No helm though, once again.  It is my nemesis!  I also bought two new small baskets from The Basket Man.  I’m so pleased with my booty!

I’ve returned from Pennsic inspired to do so many camp-beautification projects, with a focus on silk and fabric painting.  We invested in some paints and supplies already so I am looking forward to getting those rolling.  We discovered first-hand how important good rain garb is too so we’ve bought some rip-stop coated fabric to work on over the winter too.

Sadly, I didn’t get to fight as much as I would have liked.  Partly due to my choice.  I didn’t want to overtax myself with so much fighting I couldn’t get out to the rest of Pennsic. So I skipped some battles and did the Bridge Battle.  Unfortunately I died often and quickly so I ended up watching most of it from the sidelines.  I also missed the Field Battle due to an early camp tear down.  I was a bit crestfallen about that.  I’m closer than ever to getting to the point where I can debut my lamellar though so maybe by our next Pennsic I will be a much more comfy fighter out there.  Oh, and the armour pants worked beautifully!  Woot!

With all the shopping and visiting I still didn’t get as many classes in as I wanted.  I just can’t get out of camp early enough.  But I did enjoy my Combat Archery Tactics and Knots classes.

All in all, it was more of a sedate Pennsic than I was hoping for, but for every low point there was an up point too.  And as I said packing out, Pennsic is weird because “it’s the only place you can travel to and say ‘I’m going home’ when you leave and ‘I’m going home’ when you leave.’”  }-)

This picture is one of my favourite war wagons this year.  The Lord Mayor’s Pub is a land-ship!  :-D

Fighter Pants – Construction (Part II)

Pants pocket

In the end I sat down and started working on sketches of what my mind’s eye was envisioning.  Based on those sketches, I got to work.  I didn’t really know if any of it would work but I was only going to find out when it was done.

I bought some Period Patterns that I thought could help.  But I find the instructions really hard to follow for my sewing skill level.  I ended up abandoning using them except just for a source of ideas.

I bought some denim/twill-weight cotton to use as the basic fabric.  I thought it would be sturdy, easy to work with, and up to taking a beating.  As a natural fabric, the cotton also breathes well.  Very important!

For a basic pant pattern I modified a commercial pattern that I used for my hubby’s rapier pants.  They were fairly simple to make and turned out ok.  But, he’s a standard size.  The pattern got pretty muddled up for me. 

The part that I focused my efforts on was the pocket design, as I thought it would be the most time consuming.  I’ve never had to sew a pocket before, let alone from scratch.  I relied heavily on a bag-pocket design outlined in one of my sewing encyclopaedias.  It took me several nights to get it right.  The second went a bit faster.  I used the assembly line approach of cutting all the pieces and then assembling each pocket.  As the pad pocket would sit behind my solid leg armour, they would need reinforcing against tears.  I double layered the front facing of each pocket with fabric.

Throughout all the sewing I also made a special effort to do really sturdy seams and sewing with reinforcement to reduce the likelihood that I would have to mend tears and splits later.  I also used several ways to finish the inner seams against fraying.  I taught myself how to French seam!  J 

It was right about this point where I had lots of cut fabric and a partially completed pocket that my personal life took my hobby time hostage.  I was away from my sewing room for over a year.  And the pants sat.

However, for Pennsic this year I was determined to get them done.  So around June or July I got back to the sewing table and picked up where I left off.  I ploughed through getting that second pocket sewn. Although, it did take me a few hours to reacquaint myself with my direction and where I had left off before the needle flew.

Next I had to design the jill pocket.  This really took some ingenuity since I had no technique to start from.  I had to think out the logical design and stitching.  It took me hours to work on it.  But I’m really happy with how it turned out and it seems to be working quite well.

It’s not period of course, but I used Velcro for my pocket fastenings because of the practicality.  I didn’t want anything like a button, etc. that could tear off or become a safety hazard.  Another first.  I’ve never sewn with Velcro before.

What I really, really had a hard time with was the crotch of the pants though.  For some reason, none of the seams cooperated with me.  I was a real botch-job, but somehow I cobbled it together and it’s holding.  But this would be the prime area for improvement for Pants 2.0.  The inner seams are a dog’s breakfast.  Ugh.

I had to add a wide gore in the waist to accommodate my stomach and making sure I had room to manoeuvre in the waist.   It was tricky figuring out how to get the jill pocket onto the front yet still leave enough fabric for my stomach and to gather when I pulled the drawstring.

It didn’t take me long to realize that I had to abandon the slat idea in my thighs.  It was going to make things WAY to complicated for my skill level.  I can see why separate cuisses became popular in period.  Easier to produce.

I was so proud to finish the pants, shoddy crotch seams and all.  I’d worked so hard on the design, without any real guidance and very little sewing skill.  I debuted them at my first practice to road test them.  Not having to pin my jill and tape my knees was GLORIOUS!!!!   The pants may be ugly and shit brown, but damn it, they’re custom made for me.  J  

At practice I discovered I had to realign the knee pockets.  One was slightly higher than the other.  But because I had reinforced the stitches it was a painstaking and almost surgical process to remove the knee and re-sew it, especially with the pants sewn up at that point.  I had to use my magnifying glass to rip each individual stitch.  Ouch.  Time consuming.  The correct knees are completely aligned, despite my best efforts.  But they’re improved.

One of the big challenges I had was figuring out what position to put the pockets in for my knees.  If I stand, they covered the knee high.  If I was kneeling, I needed the pockets to be lower.  It was trial and error and I’m still not sure if it’s right.  I opted for the kneeling position since that’s really where I would need the padding.  As one of the other fighters put it, the steel protects the knee but the padding makes it comfortable to do the job.  But it’s really hard to mark things like knee points and hem lines if you are wearing the pants.  I got some help for that part.

Successes:

• Pants got finished!  And they are working!
• Fabric worked well for sewing but created a lot lint in my basement.
• Pockets turned out really well (so far)
• I’m happy with the layers I added for tear-prone spots
• It is so nice to just be able to pop in the parts on site!
• They passed marshal inspection/examination
• French seams!
• Velcro!

Areas to work on:

• CROTCH SEAMS/JOINS
• Finishing the seams in general more neatly
• Better pant pattern for me/my shape
• Higher waist, especially in the back.  I did the waist hem too wide.
• Creating drawstring casings with more finesse
• Add the waist elastic as a back up if the cord goes
• Don’t make the ankles so slim they are tough to hem (in other words, be precise with the width of the seam allowances)
• Figure out a better way to align the knees beyond pinning prior to stitching

For next time:

• Think about doing up some cuisses and seeing how they work, with a light basic pant over top.
• How will I attach my new knee cops without the full leg armour in use?

And for my next trick… fighter’s tunics!

Fighter Pants – Background (Part I)

Oh God I love this pic!

**Warning. This post may have TMI for some.*

Epic two-plus-years of struggle.  That’s how I sum up my battle to design engineer some armour pants for myself.  But I finally got them done right in time for Pennsic.  Achievement unlocked!!!!

It’s sometimes really hard for a girl like me to answer the call of the list field.  Nothing ever fits right.  While most fighters can start with bits and pieces bought off the shelf (Under Armour clothing, hockey/lacrosse gear, padding, etc.) it’s just not an option for a girl of my shape/size. 

Take my jill for example.  When I first started fighting I had to shop for a jill (that’s a jock for ladies…) and it was damn difficult. Even in the biggest size I could find the waist wouldn’t fit me.  So for the last two years I have been improvising with a jill where the straps have been cut away and I pin it to a few layers of long underwear so it stays in place.  It’s warm to wear, and bulky.  It’s also a pain because it means it takes longer for me to get dressed for combat, and if I’m going to practice I have to drive there with it in place.

Knee and elbow pads were similarly difficult.  Even men’s XL didn’t fit me. Or at least, not the way they should.  I’m using men’s XL knee pads on my elbows.  For my knees, I use another set of volleyball pads in that size that I literally have to tape onto me before each session with shin tape.  What a mess.  And I have to have someone help me too, each time, so they are positioned correctly. Basically a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS.  I really see why squires were so important in the day.  Nothing in my armour I can do myself without difficulty.  It’s so frustrating, and hard when I have to rely on the charity of others to put my stuff on. 

My armour legs are like that too.  Most of the straps I can’t reach myself so someone has to do the lower ones for me.  GRUMBLE.

Well, not being the type of person to take all that without wanting to improve, I set out to design a better system for myself.  And there are so many questions to ask yourself.  Should the pads/armour show or should they go under outer pants?  How to suspend the pieces?  What fabric?  Colour?  What components will I need?  Argh!

I decided to wear only one layer of pants. I also decided the only solution was to create armour pants with built-in pockets to hold the jill and pads.  My original design intended to be hybrid pants-cuisses (armoured legs).  Inspired by a fellow lady fighter, I was going to build in slat pockets to hold strips of armour for my thighs.  The hardened strips could be removed so the pants could be washed.

The first step was doing research and talking to other fighters about the various systems they used.  I was trying to get ideas to build on my original slat-concept. I also spent time online scouring armour archives. But you know, it’s all a very frustrating process because although there are lots of posts out there on different approaches, none of them really worked for my body shape or my skill to make these things.  I hate it when I feel like I’m reinventing the wheel all the time.