This costume was created for a character in NERO® Florida, played by a friend of mine.  The character "Sir Blackmoon" is a noble whose court colors are black, white and gold; to represent a stark military look.  His personal symbol is two crescent moons with a sword, which was reproduced on the tabard.

Pants  

I sewed the pants in a black cotton/polyester blend, the trim at the side seam is a metallic gold piping. 

Notes on this pattern: I purchased this non renaissance pattern because I wanted to make a comfortable pair of pants that would allow plenty of room for mobility during combat, but not have as much extra fabric hanging down as these.  Although I felt I was cheating a little by just getting a sweatpants pattern, the woman sitting across the pattern table from me saw my choice and commented that she made this pattern all the time for her customers in the SCA.  So I guess I'm not alone on this one. ☺ One modification I would recommend and have done since this costume: add a drawstring to the elasticized waist for added security during combat.

Table of Contents

Shirt

I sewed the shirt in a white cotton/polyester blend.  Running down the sleeves are alternating rows of black rayon and gold metallic embroidery thread sewn in an heirloom stitch in the Viking Designer 1 with a wing needle.  Along the cuff ruffle is another heirloom stitch in the Viking Designer 1 in gold metallic embroidery thread stitched with a wing needle, parallel to a satin stitch sewn in black rayon embroidery thread.  I took a lesson from this blouse and sandwiched the tear away stabilizer inside the fold, so that it would not show on the underside of the cuff ruffle.

Deviations from the pattern: Rather than the buttoned cuffs the pattern calls for, I extended the sleeve pattern 8 inches when cutting out.  Then I folded over the bottom of the sleeve 4 inches from the end, inserting tear away stabilizer for the embellishments at the folded edge.  After tearing away the remaining stabilizer, I turned a small hem at the raw edge and formed a casing for the elastic there to make the ruffled cuff.

Lessons learned: I found the neck band far too skinny to fold over and then turn again to the back side, with too much bulk at the seam despite all the trimming of seam allowances.  In the future I would either double the width of the neck band or just use double fold wide bias binding to make the neck band. 

Table of Contents

Tabard

I sewed the tabard in white and black poplin  The sides and neck are bound with contrasting double fold bias binding sewn on with a gold metallic thread.  All appliqués were done in poplin as well, ironed on with two sided appliqué fusing.  The appliqué edges are satin stitched in matching rayon embroidery threads, the crescent moons also have a thin satin stitch embellishment in a gold metallic thread.

Table of Contents