Purple Files:  Some Eastern Coats for Festival
By La Signora Onorata Katerina da Brescia.

As usual, it seems, I needed something to use as a dressing gown for Festival (camping). At the same time I was wondering about this project, there was talk of an eastern feast.....

Originally I was thinking of doing a venetian style turkish coat. But several gentles had beaten me to that so I took a different direction. Below R is an egyptian coat with stripes found at Oriental Costumes Their Designs and Colors . I based my 'dressing gown' on this one, as I like the sleeve treatment.

 The extant silk gown (far right) shows similar pattern to the egyptian coat (below far R), with simple sleeves (from a square), a body from the narrow material width with side gussets. This is the basic pattern I used below.

Again, as usual, I had some striped cotton in my material stash. Cotton was documented as being used in the east, being Broadcloth was manufactured in Salonica from the 15th century onwards. (ref 3). Other common materials used were silk and wool. I could not afford silk for this project (and it was for camping) and cannot wear wool (to my annoyance). So cotton it was.

 Left:sketch of Dafydd's coat (with hood) & layout for cutting (mine was the same sans hood).

Top: the front with side and overlapping gussets.
Below: the sleeve being edged in black linen bias.

The coat body done. I just have to attatch the sleeves and then put lavender linen bias around the front, neck and hem, as in the picture to the right.

Above L: Harem, codex Vindobonensis 1590 Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek Vienna.
Above R: Silk kaftan 16th century. (thanks to Oonagh's Own).
Below. Egyptian coat from Oriental Costumes Their Designs and Colors
Left is (I know it is a stretch) striped extant material ( The Art Of Turkish Textiles)

Dafydd's Coat: is made on a simliar pattern, with a hood.

Left is a hooded coat, on which Dafydd's coat was loosely based.
From 8 m of cotton, I used patterns of rectangles (body and sleeves) and triangles (gussets) for both coats and was left with very little spare material (cabbage). seen here:


WOW!
I love the way the period patterns are so efficent with the use of material!!!

Feb 2005.
Finally the coats are mostly finished. Here is a pic of mine. I will post pics of Dafydd's coat, when I finish the tassles. Another project done for Festival!

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