Brother Dreary project

I haven't started this project yet, but I have been planning it. I got the doll this week. Here are photos of him in the original outfit.



I will dress the doll in traditional Southern Osthrobotnian clothes. I'll probably start with a better version of the Jussi sweater as I got the yarns for it.


The needle size is 2 mm and the grey yarn is for 2.5 and red for 2.5-3, but that shouldn't be a problem. The main thing is that the colors are just right.

The larger project is the men's folk costume for Southern Osthrobotnia (Härmä-Isokyrö). It consists of trousers, shirt, vest, jacket, hat, shoes, belt and knives. For copyright reasons, I cannot add a picture of the costume in this blog post, but you can find it here.

I've already got the belt as I bought a leather choker with metal parts similar to those used in the belt. It only needs a buckle, which I'll probably need to make myself once I find a good enough picture that shows what it should be like.


The most problematic part is the vest as it has proven impossible to find fabric with suitable pattern. I've decided to try card weaving as that is what I know best. The result should look good enough. The yarns I got for this are cotton and I'm not quite sure about the colors, but the book I found says that the shades used varied a good deal, so I guess these are fine. After all, I'm not going for historical accuracy, just the right kind of look.


The book also mentioned that in earlier times, the vest had similar front and back as it could be worn without a jacket, but later the jacket became so integral part of the outfit that the back of the vest could be made from different fabric. That should make things a lot easier as I only need card-woven bands for the front and can use fabric with one color for the back.

The doll will also need new shoes for the outfit. The original ones look like this.


Even if you ignore the fact that these are plastic, the design is too modern. I'm planning on making leather shoes with buckles. I already found a pair of buckles, but they are a bit too large. I'll try to find better suited ones, but if I cannot, these will do.


The book I found for reference in the library is this.


The book includes drawings of the trousers and shirt. Those are the parts of the outfit that are very hard to see in photos as the photos usually show the entire outfit with jacket and vest on.