How to - Make a surcote

How to make a surcote
Over your bliault, why not show your loyalty with a glorious surcote made in your House's or Lord's colours? This is a garment that is fundementally really simple - at its simplest, four pieces of cloth and four seams that looks fantastic and is (you guessed it!) historically correct. The fun comes in decorating it. This tutorial not only teaches you how to make the basic version, but talks you through a fabulous stripy alternative either as a walk-through to copy it in this or other colours, or as inspiration for making your own heraldic designs.

First, a note on heraldry. This is not a re-enactment. There are no rules.
Historically, there are a million rules governing what you can and can't do in heraldry. Ignore them. This is not a re-enactment. You can do pretty much whatever you like with colours and symbology, and if anyone tells you that it's wrong, feel free to ask them what the elves wore in the Hundred Years War. One thing that's worth saying, though, is that heraldry should be about recognisible designs and high contrast. For that reason, I'd recommend thinking about sticking with the colour rules that talk about metals and colours. Confused? Read on.

"Metals" in heraldry are actually white and yellow. This is because on your shield, you could leave them as metals, but on your surcote which was made to match, they'd have to be in the nearest two colours of cloth. Heraldic "colours" are all the other colours. The rules say that when you're putting a design in one colour onto another colour, "Metals" should go on "Colours" and vice versa, but a "Colour" shouldn't go on a "Colour", and a "Metal" shouldn't go on a "Metal". So a gold lion on a red shield is fine, but a white lion on a yellow shield is right out, and so is a green lion on a blue shield.

If you think about these examples, it kind of makes sense. If you're trying to see the Earl of Warwick at a hundred yards through a pitched battle, you want something that's high contrast and really stands out. White and yellow are the perfect contrast to all the other colours and make your unique heraldry much easier to see.

Anyway, it's something to think about. Mull it over, and if you still want that purple dragon on a black shield, you go right ahead. You will need -
* 1.5m of wool fabric in two different colours for the 2 colour version (I've used red and mustard yellow)
*1m of black wool as well if you're making the magnificently stripy version.
* Black thread
* A tape measure
*A pen
* An iron. I really mean it this time.