Sewing for the League in Empire Larp: Femme Patterns

The LARP Sewing Patterns List that No One Asked For! 1: Femme Stuff! 1

I sew clothes for my own general use, my kids, and often for wearing to Empire Larp. It's very fun!

I play a female character in The League (Based on C113-14th Italian and hanseatic city states, but fantasy) who wears a doublet and hose sometimes, and big frock for fancy occasions. 

The League's keywords are urban, urbane, and luxurious. The city my character is from, Sarvos, is the most southernly city and a beacon of art, culture, and fashion.

Empire's League Costume Brief
Empire's League Look and Feel

Femme League Kit
My favourite Femme doublet pattern is McCalls M7855. It's now discontinued so if you see one, grab it. Coscraft still has both size ranges available but the larger size is low stock there and in most places (booo hissss!).  

I won't be coy here: I did some fitting changes to make this fit me. I took a princess seam bodice that fits me well (Cashmerette Upton Dress, expansion pack, with princess seams) and overlaid those pattern pieces over this one, and re-drew some of the curves to fit me better. But overall, I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to make a League femme doublet: there are a lot of pieces but the instructions make sense, and if you take your time and follow each step, you'll have a doublet at the end!

To see why I'm so obsessed, look at the shape of it, better illustrated in this second photo, without the cloak: it's got separate laced-on sleeves, it's short, it's closely fitted to the body. That's SO on brief for the League, it's a gift. The skirt pieces are also easily extend-able for those of us who, ahem, are rather broad in the central area, to add some shape and cover to the abdomen in hose/leggings. 

Taking a good look at the line drawing, you can see that its easy to adapt too: change the collar and remove the arm-flap-thingies and it's a solid doublet shape for dawn; make it a little boxier by straightening out some of the princess seams, lengthen it and sew it in a sturdy wool - decent Marcher doublet! Damn, this is a good springboard into kitmaking.

Okay, I'm done talking about that doublet for now. Honest.

M7763 Line Drawings

FEMME FROCK TIME!

This is a pattern by Angela Clayton designed for McCalls Cosplay, M7763. It looks very on-brief for the League and I have read online that the instructions are nice and clear.

I have seen someone wearing this at Anvil and looking AMAZING. The player has intimated that it's not very friendly to the well endowed, and she had to make several adjustments to make it fit. I haven't sewn it yet but I think it'd be a good 'get a big femme frock' pattern. I plan to use the sleeve pieces to make myself some sleeves to add my own dress, already made.

Margot Anderson Italian Lady's Gamurra: this look is Super Historical, I love it! Be warned that the patterns are quite pricey. Overall, I'm impressed with the Margot Anderson patterns: things line up like they should and the instructions are very clear; but they are expensive, even as a PDF, and then the file was so large that I ended up sending it out to be printed (CLC Essex print an A0 page for £2, so that was another £6 to spend). I mention this because some of the 'mass produced' patterns I've mentioned already are under a tenner on sale sometimes, and so spending more than £25 is quite a lot, to me. However, these are really nicely made patterns that give a great result. I have used part of it for my dress:

My Franken-Femme Frock Pattern
I use the square-neck princess seam bodice from the Cashmerette Upton Dress, and added a truly enormous pleated skirt taken from the Margot Anderson Gamurra pattern which worked very well indeed. This worked for me because 

1. I already had the Upton and knew I liked the fit: close fitting even over my pronounced shape
2. The gamurra's skirt pattern took away my stress of 'how will I get the pleats to fit?

3. The gamurra's overall pattern taught me how to cut up the Upton pattern to make two side-lacing panels so I can adjust things more.

I will even add photos of this dress at some point (it is lying in the bath at the moment, having a nice clean after I dropped food on it* during a lovely player event).

*I do this every event. if it's Sunday at Anvil and I'm not wearing at least once ketchup stain, I've brought three outfits. What can I say!

Cloak!

I got this basic cloak pattern Butterick B4377 and shortened it to above-ankle length for the muddy/dusty field field. It's great. Nice big hood which fits over my cambion horns. 

The dress under it could also be fairly acceptably Dawnish, should one choose to play in that great nation. I don't, but it looks like a good dress (I mean, sure, princess seams aren't authentically medieval but let's be real, neither are all the orcs. Or nice thermal underwear, or flushing toilets, and I'm keeping all of those options, so I'll keep princess seams too!) I try to get the 'look' as right as possible but I am going to say: hey, princess seams can help you get a close fit which is very much what the look is all about (I think? I haven't studied the Dawnish brief much) and looking good is fun.

The reality is that there are so many cape and cloak patterns (including Masc! if needed. Though I think all cloaks are unisex) that a simple search up on ebay/fb local marketplace/whatever will find you one. There are more released every Halloween. You'll be able to find one, if you want one.

That's all I have energy for, I'm still in recovery from the player event (and the washing's not done!). 

When I have the oomf I'll write one of these for Masc kit. My spoiler is that my fave easily-adaptable-for-dudes doublet is this Burda Landskneckt 7467 pattern which, if you overlook the cheesy wig and slightly janky sleeves, is a really good basic doublet pattern, and it comes with a very good League hat pattern, too! 

Look at that swaaaaag!