1180-1210 Crown Tournament Commission - Part 6 - Daniel's Fighting Tunic

The Pattern

The pattern for the fighting tabard was given to me by Mistress Genevieve La Rousse, who's personal page may be found here. Mistress Genevieve has been very helpful in this project for me, allowing me to raid her library and pick her brain whenever I had questions. The fighting tabard is the same design as her husband, Syr Geoffrey wears.

Here are a few photographs of the original belonging to Syr Geoffrey. I took several pictures so that I could replicate the tabard myself.

Materials, Cut, Construction

The tabard for Daniel was made out of a slightly heavier weight linen, lined with the same garment linen the under gowns were made out of. We discussed putting Daniel's fish on the chest portion, so instead of applique I decided to paint it on with resists. This would prevent it from cracking, peeling, or fading, and would give a stiffer texture to the chest of the garment.

After

Before

 I didn't realize that my toes are peeking out in the bottom of both pictures ;-)

We opted to leave the scales off of this fish so that it would match the fish on the shield. I was unable to trace on this thicker linen, so this fish was hand-drawn.

The entire tunic after assembly, was quite similar to what I had hoped. I left a little bit of extra space in the waist section just to ensure a good fit as this was based on measurements without armor on.

The Finished piece!

I don't think there's quite as much flare in this piece as there was in the original, but I made it to the maximum width of the fabric to prevent me from having to cut extra pieces. It fits and flows quite nicely, now here's to hoping it doesn't interfere with Daniel's fighting style!

~E.