St. Francis Tunic versus Regular Tunics
I’ve got the St. Francis smock completely assembled, and all the seams finished. I was working on it at Textile Guild Tuesday night and there was some discussion of how it differs from a “conventional” tunic… so I decided to write up my answers to those question in a more formal way.
Like the conventional “accurate” SCA tunic (for which my usual source is Marc Carlson’s “Some Clothing of the Middle Ages”) the St. Francis tunic (article and carbon dating info are here), the St. Francis tunic is made up of geometric shapes – in this case, just rectangles and triangles. I’m no good at turning three dimensional garments into two-dimensional representations, but here’s what you’re looking at in the picture:
- Rectangular body panels
- Triangular skirt gussets that come almost to the shoulder seam
- Rectangular sleeves
- Triangular sleeve gussets
I assembled it by first sewing and finishing the shoulder seams, then doing the neckline. (I find it much easier to do necklines when the garment is still flat, even when I’m sewing by hand.) I put the sleeves together and finished those seams (but not the cuffs). Then I put the skirt gores on, leaving the seams unfinished, and attached the completed sleeves. Figuring out how to finish those seams was as much a jigsaw puzzle as it ever is and I didn’t do the two sides in the same way but they got done.
Between the two sets of gussets, there’s plenty of give in the chest and armpit. In fact, the general shape is just right for 13th century gowns.
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Pingback on Apr 6th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
[...] torn between doing another Nockert Type I garment in hopes of perfecting the pattern, and doing a St. Francis tunic as described by Alianor, which has the advantages of (she says) producing a perfect 13th c. [...]
January 31, 2011 at 2:01 am
awesome, thank you so much for posting this. i’m excited to see the finished product. perhaps i will make one for my next gown… or perhaps i will let you work out all the fiddly bits first. =D
January 31, 2011 at 8:40 am
It’s honestly not particularly fiddly – the fitting together of things is no more complex than a regular tunic. And it looks GREAT. I’m going to take pictures once it’s hung for a while and I’ve hemmed it.
February 28, 2011 at 8:48 pm
and i just realized: NO CENTER GORES. i hate center gores SO MUCH. so this wins.
April 6, 2011 at 1:01 pm
still want to see pictures! i’m particular i’m wondering how you feel about the fullness given the lack of center gores…