So far I've cut and began assembling a pair of braes. I've also cut the material for a shirt and plan on starting assembly tomorrow at sewing guild. Nothing fancy. Pattern was based on a layout found in The Medieval Tailor's Assistant. The material is 100% linen purchased from ... who knows. Found it in a bin in my basement. Probably there for 3~6 years. Had a tag I put on it with the yardage and material. All I know now is that it is 100% linen.
So far I have about 15 hours of sewing in on the braes. They are all self threaded. I used a strip of the selvage edge and have been pulled out to used as a construction thread. I have been using the warp threads as opposed to the weft threads as they are much stronger and hold up better to the stress of sewing. Still I find that I must keep my threads to about 6~8 inches of working length and wax the thread well. The self threaded style of sewing tends to fray the thread very easily. The thread is not nearly as strong as a spool of linen thread that one might buy. This is the first time I've tried using this construction method entirely on a complete item. I've done it in the past for small sections, but never for the construction of a complete garment.
