Anglo-Saxon Female Peasant Outfit

After I made the green tunic from the previous post, I started to work on an outfit for me for the same event.  I actually had the pattern, La Fleur de Lyse MAR 1001, traced for about two months before I started, but between Christmas and working on other things I hadn't gone any further than tracing.  It is a different pattern from the green tunic but the construction is the same, except that this one does not have gussets.  Instead of gussets, the armcyes is much higher, and the sleeves attach at a 90 degree angle, more or less, giving excellent mobility without so much excess fabric. 

I went with the Peasant 1060 view but chose to sew the side seams on the outer tunic closed all the way instead of only to the hip.  I didn't add the contrasting bands either because I wanted to see whether I liked the outfit untrimmed, as it's supposed to be a peasant.  I like it but I'm not opposed to some embellishment.  I also decided against the wimple and veil, although I did make one of the short draping veils called for, and went with a rectangular veil like the one in the Peasant 1150 look.  This rectangular veil is period accurate so it didn't really matter.

When I first traced the pattern, I shortened the length of the long tunic a total of three inches, which included one inch above the waist.  When I made a muslin, which I"m glad I did, I realized that I STILL had to shorten at least two inches and raise the gores one inch so they would sit more on my waist and less on my hips.  For the outter tunic, which is made from the same body pieces, just with shorter gores and different sleeves, I shortened four inches and raised the gores yet another inch, for a total of two inches up from the original position and I liked it much better.

Because at this point I had made up three other tunics with the same construction, I put the pinkish tunic together in an afternoon.  I think it took me just as long to hand hem it than it did to sew the seams.  The blue tunic has a self-bias binding neck finish, the pink one has a folded in neck.  Depending on how the latter holds up, I may bias-finish it as well.

The Monkey wanted a piece of the picture action.

I wore this outfit for about fourteen hours straight at the event and I was very comfortable.  I did take off the veil because I was hot, and then because I was serving feast, but it was otherwise very wearable.  I will most definitely make more in other colors, perhaps with trimming or embroidery to make it less of a peasant outfit but still keep it comfortable.  I would also like to make other views of the pattern.  The pattern pieces went together very well and it was overall a pleasurable sewing experience.