The pourpoint masterpost for all your cosplay buřtizace needs
Pourpoints are drippy AF. They do have 2 problems:
1. Their cut is... different than that of modern clothes, complicating things when drafting the pattern. The shoulder yokes that are meant to give you more mobility are a hindrance to the beginner to mid seamstress or tailor because they look scary.
2. They are padded, making them highly unsuitable for summer cosplay wear in the year of our lord 2025. I did some experiments by making a couple of bracers from different materials.
More below the cut because it's going to be a long and an exhausting read.
1. The pattern drafting
Use your favourite jacket from a non-stretch material if possible and copy it as best as you can onto paper. While you absolutely can use pattern drafting paper, I am using brown wrapping paper. If your choice of paper curls up on you, you can iron it (use no steam, high temperature settings). I used a jacket that doesn't fit me anymore but it still works. Leave space around the copying area for adjustments. You WILL make mistakes while transferring the cut of your jacket onto the paper. Ignore seam allowance for now. There are important locations to check while copying and before cutting out the first pattern draft out of the paper:
1. Shoulder seams: the shoulder seam of the front and back panel should be the same length. If it isn't, measure your jacket and adjust the seams.
2. Armpits: the place where the pattern meets the armholes should have the lines be perpendicular-ish. Just imagine the front and bottom piece fitting together at the armhole, they have to fit smoothly with no points. That goes for the top edge too.
3. Length of the piece: pourpoints are longer than modern jackets.
4. Width on boobs, waist, hips. Decide how form-hugging should the piece be. To keep the side seam symmetrical, the sum of the front pieces at the greatest width of breasts should be larger than the back. Take your underbust, subtract from overbust, and you get the extra cloth the front needs against the back. Divide it by two when drafting the front panel. If you're planning on wearing a binder, measure yourself with that binder. Darts are a modern invention and they would complicate padding: do your body shape adjustments by the manipulation of side seams only.
5. Where the front and back of the sleeve is. It's probably not symmetrical.
Next, you need to manipulate the pattern.
1. Cut the yokes out of the front and back piece. Stick them together - the result is a piece that looks like this shape: ☾.
2. Move the seam on the sleeves: it should be either at the back of the sleeve, at the bottom, or both. Both has the advantage of introducing a slight curve or ease at the elbow - the thinner piece, bending towards the front, will achieve both of these tasks. Simply cut the sleeve pattern at the desired part and stick it with tape somewhere else.
3. Check that the sleeve caps and armholes are the same length (you can walk your measuring tape along the distances on you pattern), as well as side seams.
4. MAKE A TEST GARMENT before using your linen. I usually don't make test garments and just wing it, but this bad boy deserves a test garment because it's weird. I know it uses material and material is expensive, but I beg you, make a test garment.
2. The padding
The historical option is multiple layers of linen or hemp stacked along and sewn through. The poufy effect of stitching through the fabric only appears after 5+ layers of >250 gsm material, excluding the top and bottom layer, and a truly satisfying pouf effect can be achieved only at 7 layers or more plus the top and bottom layer. 9/10. The cost is prohibitive.
A new thing that I discovered is folding the linen padding into harmonicas and stitching carefully right next to the fold, just through the top and bottom layer. This approach is a bit labor intensive and it can't be used in curved areas, but it saves fabric, and introduces thinner areas into the fabric in regular intervals, which is nice. Like this:
For curved areas, you can make 5 copies of the padding linen slice and carefully lay it in there instead of folding. In some areas, you can shove in small pieces haphazardly. It's a lot of work and you can't really cut it out of the bolt and then fold unless doing a shitload of maths. But the results look great. 8/10. The top side (meaning the one that is not lying on the table while folding) will run a bit shorter than the bottom. About 3.5 percent shorter, which amounts to two centimeters in a long sleeve.
The cheapest option is obviously polyester padding. Use medium thickness, with no special thermal properties for obvious reasons. This material tends to "squish" under wear more than other options, wrinkling sooner than even the wrinkliest of linens. 6/10
The option used in modern gambesons for combat sports is usually some sort of nonwoven recycled mess. I haven't tested that one because I'm overheating just from looking at it. It does look dope though. 8/10 if you don't die from heat.
We tried to cheat the thickness issue by using waffle-woven cotton, but that is too warm, and the waffle pattern is too visible. 3/10.
Be aware that some medical conditions, as well as some medication (namely SNRIs - often prescribed for depression) increases your risk of heat stroke. I strongly suggest cheating the pourpoint opening with lacing or a hidden zipper, making the buttons purely decorative. When you're too hot, you don't have the energy to undo 30 buttons!
I ran a couple of tests with the materials. Generally, the more synthetic or processed a fiber is, the less breathable it is. Breathability is especially useful in areas where you sweat significantly.
You can use a combination of filler material, like polyester at the yokes and linen at the chest pieces. I even patchworked different fillers to the point where one sleeve segment has linen, poly and linen next to each other. It might have altered the cost of the process a bit, and it's very useful in curved segments, where the linen folding technique fails.
If you're wearing black, the problem can be alleviated by strategically dousing yourself in water: just be aware that your clothes have to be really really black so the wet spots are not visible at a casual glance.
