by Ilsa Starling » Thu Oct 06, 2011 9:30 pm
That's an excellent tutorial to start with, but Alric wrote it years ago, and it badly needs to be updated. As written, it produces ENORMOUS sleeves and an unflatteringly baggy silhouette.
So! I don't cut out 8" underarm gussets. 6" should be fine.
24" sleeveheads are redonk. I promise (having sewn dozens of Bocksten tunics for people of all different sizes) that unless you are a mammoth, you seriously don't need to cut them that large. Shoot, even if you are a mammoth, measure the circumference of the widest part of your bicep and add maybe 5-6". Use that measurement instead for the top of your sleeve.
You'll now have a trapezoid sloping from 'circumference of your bicep + 5" down to 14". The difference between the two measurements is less than the tutorial wants (it wants a 24" trapezoid sloping down to 14"). That means your waste triangles (labeled 'gores' on the diagram) will be much smaller than the tutorial intends. Your tunic's 'skirt' will be too narrow. To make the tunic wide enough, I piece together two triangles from the waste to make one gore or just throw out those scraps and cut out new gores.
Alric's tutorial figures your gores will be as tall as your sleeves, since he cuts them out of the sleeve waste. On most dudes who wear their tunics pouched up, this works okay, but if you intend to wear your tunic unbelted, or if you're a lady, I find longer, fuller gores to be much more helpful.
So! Alric's pattern is reasonably efficient in that it wastes very little fabric, but it also needs to be tweaked in a few spots. The dude who wrote that tutorial doesn't even cut his tunics that way anymore.
Aaaaand I'm sorry that this is incoherent and ranty. We were just talking today about how badly this tutorial needs to be redone, so it's been on my mind.