I attended a meeting where we worked on garb and discussed our next SCA event. With encouragement, I cut out two tunics, one in blue wool to be my cold weather garb, and a child-sized tunic, patterned after a extant tunic in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in NY and listed online with photographs.

The wool is blue. I washed it and shrunk it thoroughly. It has just enough yardage to make a left opening tunic. I got the idea from an article by Timothy Dawson that had drawings to accompany it.  I liked the design and thought it would make a good wool garment to use for those occasions when it is simply too cold for my usual layers of thin fabrics alone.

I have just enough left over for a rectangle to put around my shoulders when I don’t need but a little warmth. Next to get clasps and a cloak pin to close these things.

You shrink fabric before cutting so that later you can wash the resulting garment. I shrink in hot water, dry on high heat, repeat once, then I can use my machine’s cold water hand washing cycle if I need it.  This is going to be used like a coat, so will be unlikely to be worn very often so will rarely need washing.

If you ever want to do something worthy with disposable income, memberships to museums often will bring magazines, discounts for museum stores, and help to keep wonderful things available for everyone.