Costly Thy Habit. Houppelande Project Expenses.

Or the definition of insanity? 

Not shown- The Furs, extra thread, Guard fabric. 

A simple record of the expenses and hours involved for this Houppelande project. 

Materials 

I need 8 yards of 45" fabric to pull this off. 

There are 5 layers, fashion, interlining, lining. Fur and fur interlining. For some items I have ordered extra in case of mistake or 10 yard shipping discount. 

Items with * have extra due to packaging amounts.

• Silk velvet from Amazon- 28$ per half yard. I ordered 12 yards* and was given a discount- total of $621
• Silk satin lining from Dharma trading- 12mm Charmeuse 10 yards* $144
• Linen interlining from Fabric-store. 2.8oz 8 yards. $218
• Silk Threads- $40
• Guard fabric- $20
• Goldwork Embroidery- Total- $350
• 1mm French purl gold wire- 60$
• Twisted gold threads*- Tied to History- 50$ (way overbought before embroidery scope changes, but will use with a gusto in the future.)
• Fine Silk thread-$7
• 3mm natural pearls- $30
• 6mm natural pearls- $30
• Various brass leaves and medallions*- $76
• Glass seed pearls* 2mm, 3mm- $16 (these ended up being unsuitable but couldn't return) 
• 12/0 pearl white seed beads- 9$
• Chalk- $5
• Embroidery loom and ties *- $55
• 17 ermine plates- Lyon Fur, retail for $225-250 each **
• Linen interlining 10 yards* from Dharma trading. 3.8oz $115
• Leather for binding- $25
• Silk Threads- $16
• Mockup muslin fabric* and thread- $25

For a grand total of approximately $5,430.

Now granted I've had parts of this project funded by others, reciprocity, and **discounts on the fur. A lot of the embroidery bits were gathered over time, where from my stash, and/or are going to be used elsewhere.

There are also a lot of hidden costs that I didn't include because they are already in my tool kit. 

• Measuring tapes and straight edges
• Tailor chalk and markers
• Needles, thimbles, pins, spray starch, awl, beeswax, pattern weights. 
• Heavy duty fabric scissors.
• Embroidery floss for background and button holes. 
• Bead needles, peal reamers. 
• Embroidery snips
• Sewing machine, bobbins.
• Labels and gallon baggies.
• Fur machine 
• Leather punch, awl, leather needles.
• Storage containers and workspace. 
• The practice piece of silk velvet. 
• A few other materials that were bought but were wrong but usable for other projects. 
• Books! Research books! 

Now, should we talk about time? 

Keeping in mind that this is building off the knowledge and skills I've been acquiring for the past 20 years. 

I started to actively plan this project about a month ago.  And I suspect that I've spent over 100 hours researching, hashing out the details, and sourcing the materials.  

The embroidery sampler for this project took about 20 hours for a section, but that included a lot of tearing out of things and getting a feel for the real gold material which is more delicate. Now that I have a handle on it I suspect that each section will take about 10 hours and I'll be attempting to complete 6 of them on one sleeve.  Approximately 60 hours.  

My mockup and patten adjustments will take at least 12 hours. 

Ironing, pinning, marking, and cutting out ironing 4 layers of fabric- 12 hours. 

It's takes an average of 90mins to hand sew and fell each vertical seam, and there are 36 seams. Then the satin lining. And hemming approximately 46ft of hem. So 100 hours. 

EDIT- The gores, extra panels and pad stitching added a lot more time. Plus mistakes had to be reworked.

Close to an additional 40 hours of sewing. 

I suspect that ripping apart and reassembling the fur plates even with the machine will be at least 20 hours. Cutting and sewing the leather edgeing, 8 hours. Powdering sleeves and collar, 16 hours. Sewing the backing and attaching it to the fur- 40 hours. So 96 hours. 

So if everything goes to plan this project will take close to 400 hours.

Edit- closer to 500 hours 

If you add material cost with time (professional wage on working hours of 25$/hr = $12,500)

We get close to grand total worth of...

$17,000 

($19,500 if we include research time)

And dispite that insane cost, a tailor, embroiderier or furrier would earn a wage 4£ a year in late 14th century. And a gown of equivalent status costed 66£ .... 16x the annual income of the people crafting such a garment.