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Maurie's Fair Outfit

04 October 4004

This is supposed to be an outfit that Maurikana (one of the characters in my book The Perpetually Unwritten Novel) wears.  She is a non-human who works for The Silver Corsair Merchant Company as caravan support, so her clothing tends towards easy to wear, easy to care for, and not ostentatious.  I decided to make this outfit for my 2004 trip to The Texas Renaissance Festival.  I had to basically start from scratch on this one.  I needed new everything--shirt, pants, coat, jewelry, underpinnings, etc.  I just recently decided that I needed boots, too.  (That was my bank account screaming in agony you just heard)  The design is based loosely on American Tribal style costuming, specifically Ghawazee coats and "harem" pants.  Here is the original concept sketch:

The shirt is just a plain tunic I based on the chemise pattern I made with Drea Leed's custom smock pattern generator.  I used the sleeves from a Butterick pattern (6831).  I was going to use the entire pattern, but ran into severe problems when I tried to grade it up to fit.  (Why is it pattern companies don't seem to "get" that larger sized women would actually like to make all of the patterns in the catalog, not just those the companies deign to put in the large size section?  Sorry, that's one of my rants and I shouldn't rant it here)  In the sketch you can see that the shirt neckline looks like it has an upward curve.  It does, but I got lazy and made it straight across.  :P  It's also supposed to have embroidery around the neckline and at the sleeve and bottom hems.  I don't have time to embroider before the trip, so I am trying to find an appropriate ribbon.  My first choice was a non-metallic gold ribbon I found at Hobby Lobby in the floral ribbons.  It has this wonderful woven check pattern on either side with a sheer strip down the middle.  I thought it would look great on the bright white of the shirt--until I realized that it would have to be mitered around the corners of the neckline.  And thanks to that lovely sheer part, my sloppy mitering skills would be exposed for all the world to see.  So I am back to looking for something else.  But other than that the shirt is finished.  I should really get a picture of it.  It is made of 100% cotton bright white oxford cloth.  Because it was in the stash, that's why.  I went a bit crazy and hand finished the seams.  I think it looks good--but it took a lot longer than I thought it would.

The pants are your basic "I Dream of Jeanie" poofy pants in a rusty red-orange silk noile.  Or whatever it's called.  The bolt end said "silk suiting".  Anyway.  I just discovered that I don't have enough to make the poofy part.  I have more than enough for regular non-poofy pants.  *sigh*  They have to go on the back burner until I can go back to Lubbock to get more.  But the pattern is basically my favorite jeans slapped down on a piece of paper and traced.  Not too mentally challenging.

So while I wait for my next paycheck, I am starting the coat.  I based my pattern on the directions given on Tala al-Hooriya's website.  It has a curved hem and is slit up the back to just below the waist.  (Maurie needs to be able to ride a horse without her coat bunching up behind her)  I inserted gores at the sides where a Ghawazee coat would normally have a slit.  I made the mockup out of a rather heavy purple twill skirt that I will never wear (because it is way, way too hot for Scarborough).  But the actual for reals coat will be made out of this fabulous striped fabric I found at Hancock Fabrics in the quilting section.  The largest stripes are about 1/2" wide.  The scan isn't grainy--the colors are woven with black.  Would that make it a shot cotton?  You can also see in the picture the rusty red-orange silk and the black suede cloth that will be used for trim and the bright blue linen/rayon that will be used for a sash/head wrap thingy.  The in-character story of the suede is that Maurie used leftover scraps from Ashni's cloak to trim her own coat.  (Ashni is the main character of The Perpetually Unwritten Novel)  The real world reason is that I have been coveting this suede cloth for, like, ever and decided I would use it.  The plan is to go back and couch on some non metallic gold pearl cotton (DMC size 3 color 783) along either side of the suede strips.  The sketch shows some funky little frog-type fasteners, but I think I will be using lacing rings.  I also have no plans to make the sleeves in time for TRF.  But hey, you never know.

The other thing I have been working on is Maurie's necklace.  It is a very important part of this character's costume.  Or rather, the fish symbol is.  It is a "tribal token" and her most prized possession.  That particular fish symbol I bought from Fire Mountain Gems.  The beads are horn with gold spacers.  This is all supposed to be suspended from a torque, but I haven't been able to find one that I like in gold, so I am using the neck wire I found at Wal-Mart for now.  Apart from the torque-less-ness, it looks pretty good.  Unfortunately, when I tried it on with the shirt, I discovered that the pendent hangs too low.  I think if I switch out the barrel horn beads with round horn beads and change the lanyard clasps to barrel clasps it should work.  I am on the look out for gold bracelets.  I want some with some weight to them--not the thin bangles we all wore in the '80's.  I have one that was my mom's, but I would like a few more.  The idea is that Maurie's dowry was in gold rather than silver, and she left her tribe before she had accumulated very much.  It makes sense if you know the story.  Which you don't because I haven't put it online yet.  :P

Incidentally, isn't that sparkly cloth in the picture neat?  It's a cotton quilting fabric that I'm going to use to line the sleeves of the doublet for the other costume I am planning for TRF.  Consider yourself teased.