A Jacket for Cycling, A Project Journal for April

A couple of weeks ago, at around 10pm, I got a wild hair to start on a new project...I could feel cold and wet in the air (we got 4-5 inches of wet snow that night), so I had a rain jacket on the brain.  Again.  I do every time it rains, go look at commercial examples and discard them because they don't meet my standards of fit and durability--as well as invariably having hoods, which I detest wearing.

Taken this very morning, in fact, as I double checked the sleeve fit.

 So, I went out, found a few yards of medium brown bull denim, and off white wool in my stash--both of which were from the thrift store--and started drafting, first on paper.  Just a rough sketch of the design idea and proportions.

Bliaut from the Cîteaux Moralia in Job Manuscript: Figuring the Design

I've been thinking about making a new bliaut for a number of years now, and as I have finally reduced the number of active projects down to a more reasonable number (I can count them on one hand!) it is clearly time to add more.  And as I want something straightforwards to sew instead of the ridiculously complicated projects which have been my lot for the last year, as well as have yardage brown silk/wool blend I set aside for a bliaut some years ago...a bliaut--basically a tunic--sounds like a good plan.

Naturally, I can't simply do things anymore, and just begin construction.  I had to do some research and find a piece of inspiration first.  Document the colour brown being used for bliauts--at least in illuminations--, what colours it might be combined with in the hosen, and just refresh my memory on what it looks like since it has been a good 5 years since I last looked into the garment and I had some...interesting...thoughts on the patterning back then.
 

Moralia in Job; Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms 168:4v