This costume was born when I saw the Journeyman Leather booth at Gencon 2006. They have this lovely bodice that they call a lotus bodice. I really wanted one, but I couldn't justify buying it unless I was going to have an actual costume to wear it with.
About a week after the con the idea for the actual costume leaped violently into my head, nearly fully formed (okay, I added a tunic to it after that). I thought it would be highly amusing to be a Suloise sorceress, using a two color lotus bodice as the starting point for the costume. Since the description of typical Suloise clothing seemed to roughly match with traditional Turkish outfits, I thought I would start with that as my inspiration.
I knew there had to be a pattern for the traditional Turkish pants out there somewhere and I've already made four or five t-tunics that I could crib from, so I figured the wouldn't be too hard to make.
I had a little bit of trouble matching the colors for the fabrics, since all I had was a sample of the burgundy leather to go from. I eventually found some burgundy cotton that matched almost exactly. I searched and searched for a good gold fabric, but I couldn't find any cotton in the right warm gold color. I happened to have the gold duppioni silk that I used lying around (don't ask). I had meant to use it for a different project, but eventually I gave up and used it for the pants and shirt instead. I've got about 5 yards left anyway, so I'll have some for what I originally wanted to make (I'll just have to cut it with another color).
I eventually removed the gold false tunic neck, but I never did get around to making a second under-tunic.
