Sture Suit: Thoughts on restarting.

Coming back from the Three-Barons Renaissance Faire this weekend, I got the...urge...to have a new suite of clothing for the second weekend.  The best bet, of course, is my shameful example of an UFO--an UnFinished Object
......My Svante Sture Suit.

Source: Patterns of Fashion, by Janet Arnold

I conceptualized this project back in 2011, sat on it for a year before I started patterning, and cut.  I have barely touched it in the last two years--now I know why.  The doublet does not fit.  Even though my math adds up for 3-4 inches of ease (and no, I did not forget seam allowances), it's too tight, both in body and sleeve; especially over my fencing shirt (four layers of linen, to pass the punch test).  The most likely suspect is I did not add any extra ease for the thickness of the heavy linen lining and canvas interlining, and my measurements were not over the fencing shirt--let that be a lesson to everyone.
Being as I would like to fight in it, I feel that being able to actually touch my elbows together is important.  As is raising my arm...  Sooo--back to the drawing board.

I believe the plan would mainly be to add width to the center back (on the mockup...the Sture suit has no back seam) and back side seams; re-adjust the neck width, since I got that right the first time around; and add to the side seams on the front (adjusting the front shoulder seam length to match the back).

If I do decide to try to do this--and I am extremely tempted to do so, simply for the challenge of making a doublet, pluderhosen (already cut out), netherstocks, and maybe a hat...in one week--it will be kept semi-secret.... That is to say, not posting updates on Facebook for the amusement of my comrades...if you follow here, you'll be the minority in the know.



After taking some measurements, and looking at my pattern, I realized the problem--I had given myself approximately 1 inch of ease at the waist, and 2 at the breast...not really enough; the original garment is supposed to have had 2 and 3.  I made the armscye too small, on the front side, as well.

© John Frey, 2014. The Author of this work retains full copyright for this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial private research or educational purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.  Photographs of my work may not be duplicated.