Button Evolution 2018 Part 1

Button Evolution 2018 Part 1

For many years I have had a Winter Cape in Green Cloth. I did not make this myself it was made by a friend Sascha Semmler. He asked what kind of Cape I wanted and I said one suitable for the British Winter.

Winter Cape 2011

Copyright Unknown Tourist 2011

This photograph was taken at Stonehenge Winter Solstice 2011. We had met a couple of reporters who I vaguely seem to remember were European possibly French. They were very interested in all our outfits. This is a cropped group photograph so you can see the Cape better.

This Cape was made in two parts - the main Cape Body and a separate Hood. This gave me the option of using the Cape without the Hood when it wasn’t quite so cold.

Evolution of Buttons

In the Solstice photograph you can see that it is fitted with medieval type buttons. After wearing it in cold weather I found although the buttons were beautiful I had real trouble trying to do them up and undo them whilst wearing gloves.

Green Winter Cape Hood

I needed to replace the buttons with something I could use easier. As I was at the time doing re-enactment shows I need something suitable both practical and historical. I hit upon the idea of using Wooden Toggles. This shows the Hood as present.

Although the Toggles were practical I was never entirely happy with them. I found some made of wood but they were far too Pale for my liking. Unfortunately I had to use what I could find due to time restraints.

Pale Toggles Removed

Now all these years later I have finally decided to change them once again. First of all I removed all the old Toggles from the Hood.

After taking the Toggles off I had quite a great deal of thread left on the material as you can see in the photograph above. I removed this very carefully as I did not want to damage the cloth. There were the tiniest of raised marks left afterwards. I used these as markers as where to place the new Dark Wooden Toggles

Green Winter Cape Hood Finished

This is how the Hood looks now I have completely replaced the Pale Toggles. Next I will tackle the Body of the Cape