Ryan's New Ren Fest Duds

At the end of last summer, after wearing the same brown monk's robes for nearly 7 years, my dear husband finally decided he'd like a different Renaissance outfit.  Well, I certainly don't need to be asked twice to take on a new costume project!  Granted, the monk was and easy outfit to make and wear, but it will be nice to be able to refer to him as my significant other while volunteering in the Royal Court, instead of ignoring him. ;)

After much discussion on what he did and didn't want (no tights!  no puffy pants! no codpieces! nothing heavy or too hot!) we decided to do historically inspired Celtic renaissance wear.  I found a pattern that hit most of the points we were looking for, and it IS historically accurate.  And $35-$40 for the pattern alone.  Ouch. 

I did a little more research - this is a common man's outfit, so definitely not as pictured for the Royal Court costume!

Frankly, I was just relived to find some excuse for historical accuracy that Ryan was nearly okay with.  So, for his doublet we'll use this silhouette.  As for the pants ("trews") Ryan wants something a bit looser, so I won't worry about trying to recreate the creative seams on this pattern.

Burda patterns are a little more expensive than I like, but somehow I talked Ryan into letting me get this one and two others on a pre-Christmas shopping trip... I am looking at using the pants (sans codpiece) and sleeve pattern on the doublet.

This is my old faithful pattern I've used at least 3 times before. The doublet pattern shows promise though.

Just like me, Ryan is not up to the arbritary standards used for sizing patterns.  I may have an altered dress dummy to help me, but not one for Ryan.  Oh well.  At least I have the live model.  With luck I won't even stick him with pins!

Ryan already has brown boots he bought for use with costumes, and I want his outfit to coordinate with the ones Kate and I are making.  By this I mean, use some of our skirt material in his doublet.  This means I can't exactly finish his doublet until Kate finishes the Cranach/German-inspired gowns she's working on and I finish the green/black middle class German gowns I'm working on, but I can start on the shirt and pants. 

The shirt is out of muslin, and you can see a corner of it peeking out of the picture above on the right.  I am doing lace-up sleeves for extra air conditioning.  I've already had to increase the chest measurement twice and the length once.  Oh the joys of sewing for interesting body shapes!

I'm actually about half way done sewing the thing together; I'll get a picture when I'm done.  

Ryan doesn't know it yet, but he'll have two outfits to choose between: one to match the brown & orange Renaissance dresses Kate is doing and one to match the green and black design I'm working on. For the brown and orange he'll have brown pants, a dark green doublet, and accents with fabric from our dresses.  For the green and black I'm making black pants, but the doublet isn't quite designed yet.  I don't want to put him in too much black - that gets hot quickly in the Kansas sun.  

Maybe someday if I'm feeling particularly creative I'll get some sketches done of Ryan's outfit.  In the mean time here is a preview sketch of the brown & orange dresses that Kate completed. (No, the dress won't be parti-colored; Kate just put both dresses in one sketch.)  Kate says she's already made progress on the corsets, so HINT, HINT KATE: MAKE A BLOG POST! Love you! :D
~Rachel
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