Elven Tunic

Haltiatunika

Idea and sketches

I had an idea of making a dress from green linen. With a hood and strings. I was first googling for medieval dresses, but they were all too much "linnanneito", lady of a castle -type for my tastes. I made several sketches, changing things when I found something I liked better or thought something would work better done a bit differently. I started with a look that was close to the medieval type dresses.

Next I looked at some LARP elf outfits, which were closer to what I was thinking. I changed the design more towards what I liked in them, like making a shorter tunic of the green and a long white dress to be worn under it, while keeping the strings at the back and the hood.

Some sketches.

Fabric(s)

Eurokangas did not have linen in any pretty greens, what they had were too brown, or too light. I ended up ordering my linen online, from Raijan Aitta. From the pictures the green looked like the correct shade and if nothing else, way better than anything I had seen in Eurokangas. I bought 2m of green linen for the tunic, and 3m of white linen-cotton for the long dress that goes under the tunic. The green is perfect, almost exactly the color I imagined in my head. Sometimes one gets lucky with online orders. :)

Pattern and pieces (Green tunic)

I used the same pattern for the base as in the blue dress: fitted top pattern from Joka tyypin kaavakirja. The pattern has vertical folds at the front and at the back. I figured I can use these to make the cuts in my design, just moved them closer together at the back so that I can add the string between them nicely.

I first thought about using the linen to make the strings. But since it is kinda coarse, I thought it wouldn't run nicely when tightening the strings. So I got some satin ribbon in greenish yellow brown or something. :)

Sewing (Green tunic)

The first thing in sewing were the cuts at front and back. When trying on the pattern made from a one time use sheet, it looked like it would be better to make the cut at the front not go straight down, but curved and going to the side seam. Didn't look so good with the linen, so I ended up making another cut straight down. This actually makes the front hem look a bit like a leaf. Not too bad, though I should have only made the vertical cut I planned first...

Next was the back cuts and the hooks for the string. Like in the blue dress, I used bias binding to make the hooks, but this time I did "the other way around". I folded the bias binding lenghtwise and sewed one end higher than the other, about the width of the ribbon between them. This way the ribbon will stay straight and there will be no extra folds in it. Looks good imo! :) Hooks for back ribbon/string.

Side and shoulders seems were no big deal, but the length of the hem turned out to be a difficult thing to decide. So I ended up making the hood before deciding anything about the hem. Hood is almost a rectangle piece, the top being just a tiny bit longer than the bottom, so the back edge is a bit angled.

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