Pagan Pride Nottingham August 3rd 2014 Homemade Lammas Costume Part 4

Pagan Pride Nottingham August 3rd 2014

Homemade Lammas Costume

Part 4

This is the final part of making the Lammas Costume. In this Blog I will be concentrating on adding sleeves to the top and lengthening the skirt.

Making the Sleeves

First thing to do when adding sleeves is to measure the armholes of the top so you know the minimum material that is needed.

Next choose your colours for the sleeves I used Yellow, Orange and Red. This is because I made the sleeves in 3 parts. However you can make as few or many parts to the sleeve as you want.

I started with Yellow material but the example in the images is of the second layer (Orange) because it showed up better. First I took a large piece of material. This was already hemmed along the width at one side. If your material isn't then allow extra material (about a thumbs width) for making a hem.

I laid it out flat and measured the length I wanted at the shortest point of the sleeves. This is because I was going to taper it into a point so DON'T cut it out now.

(A close up of the pinning)

Now you have it pinned and made sure you have enough material make a slight mark (I left the end pin in) it is now safe to unpin fold and re-pin.

Next if you have enough pins (if not leave in the first and last pin) mark a diagonal line from one side to the other. You will see that I haven’t gone across straight from the last pin but left an inch for hemming.

When you are happy with the length and angle it is now safe to cut out.

Now unfold the cut out material and put best side down so you can see the inside to hem.

When you have secured the point of the sleeve you can now shorten the width

If you are confident you can cut now and re hem. Alternatively and this is what I did was hem all the way around. I then folded the material back to back. I shortened the width by folding and sewing the material together then trimming the excess.

Now you have your first part of the sleeve.  Pin and Sew onto the OUTSIDE of the arm hole. The point should be at the top.

Repeat the process with the other pieces of material. However sew the other pieces of material on the INSIDE of the last sleeve part.

When you have finished one whole sleeve you can start on the other side.

Completed top design front and back.

Making the Skirt Additions.

Take your skirt and lay it flat this will show the complete width at the bottom.

As you can see my skirt is shaped in points. If your skirt is the same length all the way around then some parts of the Blog will not apply. Choose the coloured material that you want.  I used Red, Orange and Yellow to match the top.

I cut out some triangular shapes in the various colours. Since I needed a variety of sizes I cut out triangles with a mixture of widths and lengths. However this is not necessary with a skirt with a consistent length unless you want to.

After you have cut out your triangles you need to hem them.

Next you can start roughly placing the triangles along the skirt. I put the longest triangles on the shortest point of the skirt. Then I put the shortest triangles on the longest point of the skirt. This way the length was becoming more standard sized.

Once you have a rough idea what it will look like then you can adjust it to your liking. You can either sew straight on to the skirt or alternatively you can overlap the triangles. I did the latter which meant I had to cut out more triangles.

This is what the completed skirt front looks like with Bottom, Poppies and Wheat sheaf added.

This is what the completed back of the skirt looks like with Bottom, Poppies, Wicker-men, Suns, Bales and Sunflower added.

Finally pictures of yours truly in the outfit at Pagan Pride.

Photographs kindly taken by David Hames

Pagan Federation Regional Co-ordinator for Nottingham.