“First Adventure” Girl’s Surcoat with Trim

Sleeveless linen dress tunic for kids

Prepare for fun with ArmStreet’s new collection for children: First Adventure! We know how difficult it can be to find stylish medieval clothing for young ones, so we decided it was about time we put our design skills to work and create something for kids. Specifically patterned and created to fit the active lifestyles of little ones, and have used high-quality tailoring techniques, great fabrics, and our same attention to detail that you’ll find in all of our adult clothing.

This whole collection aims to be medieval without being specific. We really wanted to make something that would fit easily into a few different time periods without depicting a strict culture or look. This surcoat is sleeveless and has an A-shape silhouette which allows for lots of room to move. Volume is added to the skirt with 4 gores of fabric, which makes it swish as you walk and drape nicely. The sides (sleeve holes) of the surcoat are open, finishing just above the waist, which gives much more room than a regular sleeve as well as being stylish. This means that there is lots of room for dancing, swinging swords, and fun without being encumbered. The overall look of this dress is similar to a women’s sideless surcoat, which makes it a wonderful overgarment. In order to help with taking the item on and off, sizes 98-128 of this dress also include eyelets and lacing at the left shoulder and sizes 134-152 include lacing at both shoulders. This is because if we created it with a big enough hole for the head, it would be too large for their shoulders and slip down - thus, lacing was an easy solution. This dress is intended to go down to the ankle (similar to the other children’s dresses in this collection), though it depends on the height of your child.

We have embellished it with beautiful trim, creating an accent color on the neck hole, sleeve holes, and the bottom hem. It also comes with a fabric belt that can be tied around the waist, though the dress looks lovely without the belt as well. This adds a nice bit of contrast and also makes it look a little bit fancier. We’ve constructed it from 100% flax linen, an all-natural textile that feels lovely against your skin once it has been washed and worn in. Linen is also great for all-weather, being both breathable and insulating, and having a fantastic, lush texture to it. We have worked hard to make sure this dress built to last, with very neat, well-finished seams, which we have hidden as well as possible.

Something to remember when dressing children in medieval clothing for the first time is that medieval garments and fabrics fit quite differently to modern clothing. This is because modern clothing uses stretchy knit fabrics as well as technologies such as zippers, which didn’t exist in medieval times. It’s not uncommon for a child to be initially uncomfortable, or feel that medieval clothing is fitting too tightly simply because the fabric doesn’t allow for as much stretch. To prepare them for this, we recommend a discussion about how the clothing will feel different so that they’re prepared for it. We also recommend putting in their arms first and then “diving” for the head hole, as it will be much easier to put the clothing on. Modern children will often put their head in first and then their arms, which won’t work if the clothing isn't stretchy.

To check how to measure yourself please click here.

Please contact us if you have any additional questions.

Pay attention to one important thing: most kids, especially when it comes to smaller ones, are used to wearing way softer clothing, which is usually made of extremely soft and stretch fabric. So there is a chance your kid won't be happy dealing with medieval clothes limitations and natural fabric early on. As we experimented on our own kids, statistically all of them get used to this after a while – normally when linen gets softer and shapes a tad on the owner's body. But please be very conscious about it in the beginning and make sure your kid is really comfortable with the medieval costume. We tried our best to make this clothing as comfortable and loose and flowing as possible, but natural fabric and ancient patterns have their disadvantages, so the final decision is on you: we can't guarantee that any kid will be comfortable wearing our medieval clothes.