The Pourpoint Commission: Beta Release

Action shot!

I misunderestimated how much time it would take to reach Minimum Viable Product, which meant a lot of late nights and sewing-over-lunch-hours; but the pourpoint was ready at the time the client wanted it, which was "after court, for the feast".  So, a success, as far as this goes.

Many people were kind enough to comment on how well they thought it looked, but I, of course, can only see the things I want to fix or do better.  Well, and there are some definite actual problems too--in spite of having cut the forearm pieces bigger, they are still an inch too narrow (WTF!?!).  Herewith, a list of items to amend before I hand it off to the client for good[1] at Pennsic:

• Buttons and buttonholes, duh.  Est. time: 20-25 hours maybe?  I am not super fast with buttonholes and I don't know how long it'll take me to cover/make the buttons.
• I still have to determine what I'm going to do about the round buttons.  Entirely fabric, like Red Charlie's?  Or solid-core, like the flat buttons definitely are?  AAAAAAA.
• Re-cut and re-quilt the lower sleeves larger.  6 hours or so.
• Add the cuff piece that I thought I didn't need 'cause the lower sleeve was long enough when I fit it but isn't now (though, aheheh, I think I can just cut off the bottom of the extant lower sleeves and use that?)  Possibly no time at all.
• I may have to do a little neckline fiddling once I've lined up the center front properly, which I couldn't do when stitching him in.  A couple hours.
• I really feel it ought to be a couple inches longer (though I only lost 1/2" from quilting shrinkage, so I guess that was a botch from the word go).  So I'm thinking of quilting strips to sew to the bottom of each body piece.  4 hours?
• This is a lead-in to a separate irk: the "skirt" of the pourpoint was flaring out in an incorrect fashion.  I am hoping that adding length will help that, but I don't know if that's enough to overcome the forcing-out by the thickness of the padding.  Theoretically, closing up the slits at the hips would fix this; but Gold Charlie has those slits, so...no.  
• Now, Gold Charlie also has a ton of additional tie points for hose, and if you tied your hose all around that would help drag the skirt down; but this also confuses me 'cause most men's hose designs I've seen only have a single attachment point in front, so I really am not clear WTF is going on here.  I'm going to try at least attaching the two hose points we have a little lower on the body, and see if that makes a diff.
• It's also too loose around the hips, at that.  Should be more form-fitting to match the imagery.  I don't know how to make that happen without closing the slits, though.
• And then after these tasks I gotta re-hem it all.  *drinks hemlock*

As a side note, I stuffed the upper chest portion as much as ever the fabric could hold, but it's not getting the pouter-pigeon effect.  I guess we just have to chalk that up as artistic license.  (Or a difference in body shape for dudes whose day job involves living in armor.)  

Oh, and I need to finish the linen test version too.  Probably another 10-12 hours of quilting and a bit more cotton bowing, and then maybe 5 hours of assembly + 12 hours of eyelets.

[1] with occasional borrow-backs for competitions & displays