I’ve had the pieces for this project cut out for months. It’s a Simplicity pattern for a Tudor-style doublet or pour point.  I finally got a chance to be at home today, and assemble the muslin pieces into a completed garment.  No lining, no trim, no fancy bits — just the basic outline of the garment.

I don’t like it.

I mean, increasingly I live for this stuff.  I enjoy taking a two-dimensional material like cloth and making it into a 3D garment.  I enjoy making costumes, and I enjoy choosing fabric and designing the garment in such a way that it’s interesting and fun to wear.  But I have to admit, I am not very good at making garments that

1. Fit me; and
2. Flatter me.

Some of this is a function of the pattern sizes available for men’s clothes: XS to XL patterns are easy to come by; XXL are somewhat more difficult.  More than this, patterns are usually designed to scale around a given norm, which is usually M (medium), which means that the extreme ends of the pattern scale are usually the most warped (ha, a weaving pun!)

But some of it is that I genuinely don’t know where I would wear this, or when.  And making a fancy, elaborate Tudor doublet without matching pants, without having a costume party to go to, means that the garment is relegated to one or two days in very late October…  In the case of this garment, it appears that it will be a lot of work for a garment that I don’t much like, and can’t imagine wearing most places.

Back to the drafting board.

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