Lunetius: FreeSewing's Lunetius Lacerna
Designer Notes
Lunetius, Tiberius and Walburga really come as a set. Not only were they born at the same time, they are designed to work together to form a full outfit. Not that this means that they can’t be made separately ;)
Lunetius the lacerna is the pattern that went through the most name-changes and iterations behind the scenes. Why? Because I found conflicting information in secondary literature about how this type of cloak was called and who wore it when.
To start at the beginning, I wanted a cloak that goes with the rest of my costume for my TTRPG character, a kind-of fantasy Roman. I knew it had to be red, but apart from that I wasn’t really sure what I wanted. So I started reading up on cloaks in the Roman military. While this may sound like an easy task, there was no real standardised “uniform” for Roman soldiers, contrary to common belief. It also really depends on the timeframe you’re looking at, “Roman” can mean anything from the days of kings to the late republic to the late empire, a timespan of a few hundred years. Things change. After narrowing the type of cloak I wanted down to a sagum or a lacerna, I went back and forth between them, because I could not find reliable information on them. First, the sagum seemed like the safer choice, because many historical reenactment sites referred to it, but digging a little deeper revealed that most of them linked to the same source (if they linked to a source at all), that appeared a bit questionable. That was when I abandoned the internet search and went to the university library, borrowing a stack of academic books on the subject. Those were very interesting reads! After finding more references for a lacerna in them then for a sagum, I went for the lacerna. Then I only had to agonise a bit over the exact shape of curve I wanted while looking at stone reliefs.
Coding the pattern was the easiest part of the whole process.
Oh, and why the name lunetius? Well, that actually is the name of the
character I made this whole outfit for. And yes, he has a special relationship
with the moon.
Rika
See also the Tiberius Designer Notes and the Walburga Designer Notes.
What You Need
To make Lunetius, you will need the following:
- Basic sewing supplies
- About 2 meters (2.2 yards) of a suitable fabric (see Fabric options)
- (a fibula (brooch, pin, clasp) to wear and close it)
Fabric Options
In the Roman era both linen and wool were widely available so both would be appropriate for this project. Silk was also available but it was very much a ‘fancy’ fabric used to show off wealth and status as it had to come from abroad.
A lot of the fabrics found in military contexts like excavated forts are tightly woven twills that would be good at keeping the weather out. If you want to have a historically appropriate fabric then a wool twill would be a great choice.
Otherwise, any wool or linen in both plain and other weaves would be a good choice. The fabric weight depends on your local climate and what you intend to use the cloak for. However if you want to hand sew the Lunetius it can help to choose a slightly lighter weight fabric to make sewing easier on your hands.
If you are not working with any historicalness in mind Lunetius can be made out of a variety of fabrics. A woven fabric would drape in a different way compared to a stretch or knitted fabric but you are only limited by your imagination.
More information on Roman cloak fabrics can be found in:
- Jorgensen, L. B. (2004) A Matter of Material: Changes in Textiles from Roman Sites in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, in An Tard 11, pp 87-99
Cutting Instructions
- Cut 1 lacerna part on the fold
- or Cut 2 lacerna parts
The way to cut Lunetius is going to depend on what fabric you have chosen to use. If you have enough fabric width you can cut it on the fold. If you don’t, you can cut two halves and later sew them together. To not have to later finish the centre back edge you can cut with the centre back edge on the selvage.
A lot of garments were woven to shape in the Roman era, so this is one aspect where you don’t need to worry about historical accuracy at all, unless you would like to weave your Lunetius to shape.
If you want to learn more about this you can read about it in:
- Granger-Taylor, H. (1982) Weaving Clothes To Shape in the Ancient World: The Tunic and Toga of the Arringatore in Textile History 13 (1), pp 3-25
On Historical Accuracy
The further we go back in time, the less extant garments we have to base research on. Often there may be scraps of fabric left behind by stroke of luck but most of our information starts to come from (in archaeology) secondary sources like written texts from contemporaries.
This is especially true for the Roman and Mediaeval eras, not to mention that a lot of the available research is behind a paywall.
We can’t be 100 percent historically accurate, because we’re living in a different time, and everything we use to sew is different now from before. Even fabric is woven in a different way.
How ‘accurate’ you want to be is up to you, there is no wrong way to do this and research is not required – though it can be fun!