Bodice for the 15th century Merchant

Yes, the tittle has changed.  In further research and talking with a few SCAdians, I have found that my outfit previously known as the 14th century Noble garb is closer to the cloths that a 15th century upper merchant class would wear.  So...

I started my bodice.  Due to a rather bad Fibro flare I can only spend about an hour at the machine, but I did get some work done on the bodice.  The fabric for this is from what I think was a very large purple brocade table cloth.  I bought it off a friend.  After cutting out the back and front pieces, I cut four small (6" x 4") pieces that I am going to round off and stiffen with some light weight interfacing for shoulder caps.

The first thing I did was to take a length of purple bias tape and ironed it out.  I then folded it in half and ironed it again.  I pinned it, then sewed it to the top of the back piece.  This makes for a cleaner back and also eliminates the scratchy feeling you can sometimes get with a rough edge in the back of the neck.

After the bias tape was sewn in place, I sewed on the two front pieces at the shoulder area.  I then flipped it over and folded over the back area where the bias tape was.  I sewed this down and voila, a nice neat top back.

Isn't that brocade just Yummy!  Next I sewed up the sides to about 9 1/2" from the shoulder seam for the arm holes.  Tomorrow, I want to take care of the arm holes and the neckline.  I really should have done the neckline before I sewed up the shoulders, but...ah well.

On a different note, my tomato seeds have all sprouted and my pepper seeds are starting to sprout.

Here are the pepper seeds starting to come up.

Looks like I'll have a nice crop of tomatoes this year.