Gambesons

Since today is payday, I'll be ordering linen for Robert's gambeson, which will serve as his body armor. There is a blue linen canvas at fabrics-store.com for the shell, as well as some white for the lining.

I'm using a gambeson which showed up at Straight and Narrow in Dragonsspine several weeks ago as my model. I believe it's from Revival Clothing. I will also be looking at some other examples of Gothic gambesons and jupons, since the jupon seems to have been initially a military garment. The plan is to secure pauldrons to the shoulders, and to fit ABS plastic into pockets in the kidney and chest areas for protection. Sir Sterling seems to have a supplier for ABS sheet.

I plan to pad it with cotton "wool" (batting) which is one of the uses for cotton in period. It's available from any fabric store. I figure that if I cut out the lining and the shell at the same time, but construct the lining first, I can sew in the pockets for the ABS to insure correct and comfortable placement. I can then assembe the lining, padding, and the shell, and quilt the gambeson inside the pockets. I might even get crazy and install some eyelets under the arms for ventilation. It depends how the eyelets for the pauldrons go.

Pictures will be available soon.