Started doing the decorative bands on the front of the shorts in the same manner that I used for the trim on the doublet and the sleeves. This is what it looks like from the back. Yup. I don't like the back. I'm going to add a strip of linen on the inside to smooth out the look of the inside and help reinforce the looped fringes.
Here is what it looks like from the outside with only direction of stitching done.
And... here is the finished edge. Looks just like the rest of the trim. Done with three layers of wool rolled in a tube and stitched down with heavy cotton thread.
Now to attach the requisite cod piece. My wife's least favorite part. I've chosen to permanently stitch the piece on at the bottom. Initially I was planning on pointing it on so that I could swap it out and make a bigger one later. Decided against that. I have so many projects in the queue that I'll never touch this one once it's done. I stitched the bottom point down and created reinforced holes where I'll point the piece closed at the top.
Here is the back of the cod piece. Some articles of clothing lend themselves to neat construction via construction of the piece inside out. Since this piece had a fancy rolled edge and due to the shape and size building it inside out was not an option. I added this last piece of linen to the back of the cod piece to clean up the look and hide all the rough stitching related to the trim which was showing.
Much prettier now. Ready for final assembly. At this point I placed it in position and then pierced the material to make the point holes. I used a metal awl to make the first pierce and then openend the hole with a bone awl. I did a few stitches and then opened it again. Going through so many layers of material was tough. The hole really wants to close itself up.
Attached, but not yet pointed in.
The almost finished shorts. Slashing completed and cod piece permanently attached. The only thing left at this point is to add the point holes around the waste band to point the shorts to the doublet. Those will be slow going since they will be through three layers of wool, a layer of silk and two layers of linen. Ugh!
