Pelican Peerage Coat

Roselyn's Pelican Coat

Roselyn of Aberdeen asked for a geometric cut coat to be made upon her elevation to the Order of the Pelican, August 2009. I used the information from "The Renaissance Tailor" website on rectangular constructed coats (http://www.renaissancetailor.com/demos_turkestani.htm) to make her coat.

Roselyn's coat is made of blue wool melton in a twill weave, lined in white linen. The coat is trimmed using white felt at the collar and cuffs and has a detachable "ermine" collar that I made using white synthetic fur for the background and a "black wolf" synthetic fur for the little ermine tails. Red blood drops made from felt were appliqued onto the white collar and cuffs.

The Pelican with her chicks applique is made of white felt. The gold outlines are made from gold embroidery floss couched down with fine gold thread. The nest is made from brown felt. I couched down a basket-weave pattern using black embroidery floss, then filled in the basket with variegated brown embroidery floss. (The nest really is round at the bottom, this picture was taken while I was modeling the coat for my husband.)

Roselyn got her Pelican for her many years of service with Calontir's children, so her cloak has an "inside" joke:

These Dr. Seuss characters are appliqued onto a blue wool band that is attached to the white linen lining at the inside hem of her coat.

I created the appliques myself by drawing the Dr. Seuss figures onto white felt and cutting them out, then couching black cotton embroidery floss to outline them. The red color accents were added by couching red cotton embroidery thread. The green color accents were added using a satin stitch and green cotton thread (what I had on hand). Note to self -- next time couch the black outline BEFORE cutting out the figure.