Second Guessing Myself

During the last week of 2024 I made a new outfit for my Lawrence. His was the very first Medieval Fashion sized outfit I made back in 2019, and even though I'd made a new formal shirt to go under his leather surcoat - one without chainmail - there was still a strip of chainmail along the bottom.  I decided it was time to make a new surcoat without chainmail.  And since I realy liked Matias' formal outfit, I decided to make a black version of it for Lawrence.

​The shirt underneath would be the same gray brocades as Matias' but with different trims. And the surcoat would be of two different black brocades...

The beading was a challenge since I was using tiny 2mm round silver metal beads that are so shiny that it's almost impossible to see the holes....

When I was finished I took some photos of Lawrence wearing it...

It looked nice enough but I was having second thoughts about the embellishments. The silver metal filagree looked too much like flowers, and I wasn't happy with the double row of silver beads on the surcoat.  It just seemed too 'flamboyant' for his character. So after it bugging me for a few days, I decided pick it all off.

I redid the embellishments on the surcoat. This time I used a slightly smaller bronze bead cap along the front edges. I also stitched the tiny silver beads back on, but in different rows. And I added a row of gold studs at the top. Overall it now had a 'finer' quality more suited to his personality.

Of course, now that I look back at the original embellishment I wonder why I even bothered, since it was actually really nice.  But I can't go back, since the new version has new chain-stitch embroidery and studs neither of which can be removed.  But I do still have enough of the black brocade that was used for the yoke of the surcoat, so I can always make another one like the first attempt if I really want to.  And because I really love one of the photos I took of him in the first version, it will be the face of my Favourite Photos for 2025....