The King of Codpieces Challenge: Rapunzel

In the spring of 2024, the Tudor Tailor published a friendly competition for sewers to create codpieces for Henry VIII's birthday. It was just the motivation I needed to create a codpiece for my gender bent Rapunzel outfit. I had all the materials from that project on hand so I set to work, designing and crafting a fun codpiece. 

The Process:

I primarily followed the Tudor Tailor's instructions for creating a codpiece. I did include a center strip (not recommended by them) to make it easier to mount my embroidered centerpiece.

I cut three layers: the exterior fabric (linen), the interlining fabric (canvas), and the lining fabric (silk). I also cut graded (reduced in size each layer) wool felt and pad stitched that to the side pieces to give the codpiece additional structure. 

I treated the linen exterior and the canvas interlining as one piece (flatlining) and sewed the cospiece together. I assembled the lining next and then basted it in to place. Finally, I bound the edges of the codpiece in silk ribbon and the overall piece was constructed and ready for decoarting. 

I created my embroidery design in Procreate and printed it to scale on paper. The linen I was using was fine enough that I could use a light box to trace the design in pencil on to the fabric. I then used silk embroider thread in primarily stem stitch, straight stitch, and frnech knots to fill in the design. 

I pinned the embroidered strip carefully to the codpiece and began stitching it down. I had to steam it a lot to get it to lay somewhat nicely and I probably should have made that center strip on the codpiece bigger in hindsight. 

Final Product: 

I made 3 strand fingerloop braids from the embroidery thread to use as points. I think the overall effect is great. 

This was a super fun little project and I had a great time participating in the Tudor Tailor challenge. I did not win, but received an honorable mention. I am one set closer to my Renaissance  Rapunzel being fully complete.