Cotton velvet. 34 metres of it.

I know - they didn't use cotton velvet in most of the periods I make costumes from. But while it doesn't feel like period velvet - I have patted a 15th cnetury silk velvet cope, it was soft as a kitten's belly - it looks much like it and for me that is the most important thing.
   This velvet is short napped, as the period velvet I have had the fortune to examine, but not as densely woven as the one from the 15th century that I patted, but we shouldn't forget that napped fabric came in many different qualities also in period (and with different names), so I think this one will do nicely. I can't afford silk velvet, and besides: the ones I've seen tend to be limper and more slippery than period examples.

This, on the other hand was a bargain. I found it on Tradera, which is a Swedish auction site, like eBay. Since they didn't ship, but you had to pick it up the competition wasn't that great and I got it for 415 SEK /c. 45 euros or 50 dollars). Add a couple of hundred SEK for the car pool fee and the gas and it's still very cheap. And we got a nice road trip which included a walk by the sea in the sunshine.

It is technically vintage, since it's from before the unification of Germany (the label says "West Germany"), but given my age I don't like much thinking of the 1980s as vintage ;)

I don't know what to make from it yet, except that I plan to make a gown to wear with this short cloak, as a part of my long term project to make more clothinmg that could have been worn in Sweden in period.