Landsknecht wool has been found

While I am still in the process of wrapping up a few more items to complete my Circa 1200 craftsman outfit, I couldn't help but scope out some material for the next project.  My next big thing is, at the moment, planned to be German.  I am looking to do a Landsknecht outfit.  The outfit should bring about a single response from the majority of viewers who see it.  The reaction I am hoping for is PEACOCK!

In my typical recycling junkie fashion, I have been scoping out the local thrift stores.  I was sad to find out that my favorite Salvation Army closed down a few months ago.  I was then recently happily surprised to find that it reopened in a bigger, cleaner and much nicer location.  I found the following women's coats which i plan to wash and then deconstruct.

I have taken this approach a number of times.  In fact, it is one of the things I pride myself of.  I recycle quite a bit of the material I use.  Some of these coats are in rather nice condition and it seems a bit of a shame to cut them up.  On the other hand when I can buy a coat like one of these for between $6 and $8 each, I find this to be the cheapest source of wool around.  Cut and fashion are of little concern when I am shopping.  In fact the uglier and older the coat, the cheaper I can usually get the item.  I strip out all the lining, padding and trip and then wash the entire coat in one piece.  The wool is a nice heavy wool and fairly well felted already.  After washed I tumble dry it twice with some tennis balls to beat it up a bit more.  Obviously it strinks a bit more, but that is OK.  For this project I intend to shred these coats up good and proper.

The three basic colors for the wool which I will be using are from the following three coats (Purple, aqua, black)

 
 

  

 This coat is very nice in fact.  It was once a very high end item and was very well constructed.  As it turns out, however, the coat appears to be over 50 years old and the stitching is not very well held up.  I plan on shredding this one and either using in it's natural color or perhaps dying it some other bright and loud color.  I couldn't pass up this wool, but I'm not certain what color it will end up.