Surcote for the Lady Valour

[sister_raphael]

 

 

 

I've been charged with sorting the Opening Ceremony for a medieval festival and in the mix are three allegorical Ladies- that is, three personifications of virtuous traits. Lady Valour needed some clothing and since it's not re-enactment garb, I was able to have a little fun with it and take a few short cuts to make a fancy dress outfit which would be easily seen against a dark grey castle wall, and be blingy.

I've used a cotton brocade with a pattern similar to some 15th century artworks, but it's not a reproduction. I've added some gold braided trim around the hem and applied "red coral" and "pearl" beading, both not actual gemstones in this case.

 

 

The cream "pearls" sort of disappeared into the trim, but the red popped quite nicely. Sadly, it needed to be hand beaded and that took quite a bit of time. The end result was well worth it, though, I feel.

Finally, I added some large, gold-coloured disc buttons which are sometimes seen on effigies.

 

 

Since the outfit was not for re-enactment purposes, I didn't worry too much about matching the actual button design from the effigy which for all the world looks like it has tiny, little cats in the centre section. The picture above shows a test placing trialing garnet beads for the centres. In the end, I went with matching "red coral."

Once the entire outfit was finished, I did a fitting with one of the women who will be wearing it and discovered that the proposed circlet didn't really work, so I guess I'll need to make a matching one as well!

Comments

[badly_knitted]

That looks just amazing!

[sister_raphael]

Thank you! I have just finished the matching circlet, so the entire outfit is finished at last!