Rickard's 12th century silk tunic

Eight years ago I starte on a silk tunic for Rickard, inspired by the tunicella of the Holy Roman empire coronation costume. Then I really wanted to make it like the original, I even started making templates in fimo clay for the gold ornaments, so that I could make silicon moulds to cast bronze. (You can read about it here, here, here, here and here.)

This is probably the reason why it never got finished. I made a silk cord with fingerloop braiding and put it all away. Until a few days before Double Wars when I decided that I was goign to wear fancy 12th century garb so was he. So I took the remnants of the zari trim that I had used for his fancy cloak almost as long ago and sewed it on like cuffs. Tom hide some of the zari-ness I put brass bezants on it.

After I came home I continued decorating it, putting glass beads on the cuffs and neck trim, to try and tie them more together colour-wise. I also made silk lucet cords to cover the edges of the trim. And I sewed the ties at the neck, since I actually did find them - you see, a few months ago I moved the cord to a safe place and of course I couldn't find it when we were leaving for Double Wars, so he had to use a brooch to close it.

Yesterday I made him put it on and pose for the camera.



( Close-ups of trim )