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The Ren-Faire-Tacular Ghawazee Coat - September 2008

One of my favorite SCA events is hosted by the Barony of Windmaster's Hill each year - Celtic Cattle Raids. It's in September, which tends to be completely and utterly beautiful in North Carolina.

In 2008, however, they twisted things up a bit - instead of CATTLE Raids, they went for a Middle Eastern theme and went with CAMEL raids. Or, to be more specific, 'Midnight At the Oasis'. It was a truly lovely event, and one of the wonderful things about it was that so many people really went all out in creating wonderful historical Middle Eastern and Persian clothing.

Me? I was knee-deep in law school, and didn't have time to create a whole new outfit. So I brought out the 'Ghawazee Coat' that I had made for Renaissance faire wear. All in all, it was actually *very* comfortable, and I had a blast wearing it.

I used Atira's Fashions #22 - Al-Zahra's Ghawazee Coat as the base for this project. The pattern pieces go together very nicely, and the sizing was spot-on. I did some alterations, mainly for personal style preference. I wanted to make the sleeves detachable, to make the coat well suited for warmer or cooler weather, so I added the shoulder wings to the bodice. Gold cording inserted into the shoulder wings give it just a little touch of richness, and shiny is ALWAYS a good thing when it comes to fantasy middle eastern clothing. :)

The sleeves tie on with cords tipped with gold-toned aiglets. The sleeves are slit to the shoulder, and decorative brass buttons are sewn on at the elbow, creating a slashed effect. I used gold-toned clasps at the front.

The skirt of the coat is slit at the sides and back for lots of "swoosh", and to show off more of the pretty, pretty striped lining. :) The coat is fully lined in striped cotton.

Most of the photos show the coat being worn with a brown panne velvet 'choli' top, which was hideously hot and miserable. Later on in the day, a friend lent me a cool white cotton straight-sleeved top, which was SO MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE. I shall be making one of those to wear with this in the future. You would think that after 10+ years of costuming I would have remembered how evil polyester is, but... well, I suppose I needed a reminder. :)

Accessories are all bits and baubles that I've picked up at shops and flea markets over the years. It's all about the accessories. :)

Loads of fun to wear, although I tweaked myself out by wearing something so grossly un-historic to a SCA event. I felt like a goober-head. But a FUN goober-head, so I suppose that's all that matters. :)


Photo by Thalionar


Photo by Thalionar


Photo by Thalionar