Making 'Dastardly in Motley': Part Two

 Concept

I had the idea of a Knave of Hearts costume consisting of an outer tabard in hearts livery that was removed to reveal a high-waisted renaissance-style doublet and hose with a padded heart codpiece beneath. The name of the costume is a terrible pun, for which I am justly famed.

For elegance, I wanted to be able to undo one point of the tabard and have it slide down the opposite arm.

This would also be the first appliquéd costume I had attempted. I further resolved that I would use, as far as practical, cloth that was already in my stash.

I also found an illustration from Alice in Wonderland that showed a herald’s tabard with heart livery.

In practice, I only purchased the yellow stretch satin, the canvass and the trimmings for this project.

 Here are the trimmings and braids.

I spent some time drawing up ideas, using this playing card as a base for the design.

Here is the sketch I made for the project.  You will note that I was originally going to make a padded leaf to hold , but , in the end ,  decided that this would cause problems with the presentation.

Given the complexity of the final design, I decided that I would flat line the garments and bind the edges with bias.

In Part 3, I will deal with the making of the tabard.

Adieu