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.

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 1

 Autumn Cape 2016  A long Term Project Part 1

I have to do this blog in sections due to the nature of the project. It is a long term project and therefore it needs breaking down. In 2015 I made a cape especially for Pagan Pride. It may be worth referring back to my blog - Cape for Pagan Pride 2015 to put things into perspective.

I was so pleased with the cape I made that I wanted to make another one. Instead of being a summer cape in Bamboo Cotton I wanted to make a woollen cape. As the last cape were summer green colours this new project would be Autumn colours such as red, orange and gold.

Ok so far. Now I need to try and work out how to do this blog in some kind of order because as anybody trying to do something creative knows that ideas don’t always arrive in a logical sense.

Summer Cape

Copyright Shani Oates

The above picture showing hooded cape was what I was going to use as a template. So my first priority was to measure the cape.

Measuring Old Cape

 

However I wanted the new one to be more elaborate. Unfortunately I had one of my bright ideas! Why not make my Autumn Cape in the form of a tree? Enter a lot of hard work. First make a design.

Rough Tree Design Ideas

This was my first rough design. A tree with a hole in it with the sleeves as branches

Rough Tree Design 1

Now I had my preliminary design I needed some rough measurements.

New Cape Rough Measurements 

However I had a slight problem the last cape had a boxed pleat in it. If I was going to put a design on the back I couldn’t really have the pleat. Also I wasn’t entirely sure how many stitches to cast on due to the fact that the yarn was different to what I used previously. In addition to this I had never tried to do a coloured pattern before let alone a complicated one that I was trying to design myself. Time for more thinking, first add measurements to tree design.

New Cape Measurements

Next add colour to tree picture bit by bit

Adding Colour

 

 

 

I now had a design and some rough measurements. The next part was trying to turn the design into a pattern. I decided the best way to do this was to simplify the design and divide into stages. So forget about everything but the central panel or in other words the tree trunk. In order to get some idea of concept of gauge, cast on etc. I would make a test piece. This test piece I would document as I went along. I would be using different yarn and only doing the top half of the trunk.

Cast On

Looking at the design I divided the colours into groups. I was using various coloured acrylics on a 5mm needle. I cast on 175 stitches in total using 9 different balls of yarn.

9 Balls of Yarn

As you can see it is quite a tangled mess but you have to remember I really hadn’t got the faintest idea what was doing. At this point I began what was quite a long process of documentation.

First Written Chart 

The above chart shows across the top the number of stitches which colour used and its order. Since the pattern was symmetrical I did not bother changing the colour numbers on the reverse as I thought that would be way too complicated. Besides I had enough to cope with as it was.

Vertically down the chart it showed which numbered row it was and whether it was a Knit row or a Purl row. After I had knitted a couple of rows I got the hang of keeping the balls of yarn tidy.

Tidy Yarn

In the picture  above you can clearly see the order of coloured yarn and the way it is beginning to create the top part of the pattern. I continued knitting and slowly changing the amount of stitches.

Written Chart 2

 

When I finished row 18 which was a Purl row I recorded the first major change in the pattern.

Written Chart 3

 

I continued recording every change and the pattern eventually covered 5 pages of A 4.

Complete Written Pattern

As I stated previously this was a test piece and I was only doing part of the trunk. This extended to underneath the hole in the tree trunk but not down as far as the roots.

Tree 

You might be wondering about the colours I used. Well the yarn I was using was free and I knitted this not only as a draft but also with the idea in mind to make into a blanket for my mum. The photograph didn’t come out as well as I liked. However you can probably tell that it has turned out very wide. Since my back isn’t nearly as big as a single bed I guess some drastic reworking is required.

Cape for Pagan Pride 2015

Cape for Pagan Pride 2015

Pagan Pride Nottingham is a great event and gets better every year. I normally wear my dark green pure wool cloak which was custom made by my good friend Sascha Semmler. It has come in very useful in previous years when the heavens opened at the end of the day complete with hailstones.

However this year I decided I would like to make a summer cloak especially for the occasion. Although Lammas colours are traditionally Gold, Red, Orange and Yellow I decided that I would go for greens and browns mimicking the trees and grass of the Nottingham Arboretum.

To make the cloak nice and cool I decided I would use Bamboo Cotton. This was purchased locally at the Award Winning Knit Nottingham Yarn Shop owned and run by the talented Eleanor Burke.

The needles I used were 5mm however since I was making the pattern up as I went along and had to make a lot of adjustments I won't given the amount of cast on stitches.  I suggest that once you have selected the yarn you want to use that you cast on roughly 20 stitches to work out your gauge. Remember that for the flat sections to add an extra 2 stitches at the beginning and end of the row for the Selvedges.

For the flat sections I used Stocking Stitch (Knit a row Purl a row).  For the sleeves I used Garter Stitch (Knit rows) on a circular needle.

I cast on more stitches than I needed (not intentionally but during the process I lost weight so had to improvise) plus 4 stitches extra. Therefore decided whether or not you want to put a pleat in as this will affect how many stitches to cast on.

For example
With pleat cast on 200 stitches plus 4 extra
Without pleat cast on 160 stitches plus 4 extra.

The pattern including a double garter edge is as follows:

Slip a Stitch knitwise, Knit 1 stitch (Selvedge)
Knit to the last 2 stitches, Knit last 2 stitches (Selvedge)
Slip a Stitch knitwise, Knit 1 stitch (Selvedge)
Purl to the last 2 stitches, Knit last 2 stitches (Selvedge)
Carry on until you reach the length you require then cast off.

Back Panel

Next put the panel with its knit side facing. See diagram below to make the Box Peat. If you are not adding a pleat skip this step.

Back Panel Wrong Side

Armhole Panel

Use the same process as for the back panel until you reach the bottom of the armhole. See diagram below for instructions

Once you have the complete row of stitches carry on as normal until you reach the required length then cast off.

Next make the Front Panel using the same process.

Front Panel

Now you can sew these sections together.

Rectangles sewn together Purl view

Here you have a choice. You can sew the back to the front section and add the edging straight away or you can add a hood or sleeves. I added both. First adding a hood.

The hood is made out rectangles with selvedges. Therefore the process is the same expect the rectangles are shorter.

 Sew Brown Hood rectangle into place

Before you go any further sew the Side Panel to the Back as shown below

Side Panel Sewn to Back

Knit and add further rectangles to one side then the other.

Hood Added 

Fold and Sew Hood Together

Add the edging

The edging is up to you. As I was short of time I used a very simple border I found on Ravelry.

Edging

The next part is the sleeves. I decided on a tapering effect with three colours (not including the border). This was achieved by casting on a circular knitting needle and joining the first stitch with the last stitch. After a few rows of knit I began to slowly decrease for another few rows. Once I was happy with the effect I began to decrease sharply to match the circumference of my my arm.

When the first yarn (I started with brown) had reached past my elbow and a few inches onto my lower arm I changed colour to grey. A few more inches of this colour until finally changing to green yarn at the wrist. This was embellished by adding more edging again in the grey colour.

Sleeves

Next sew the sleeves on to the cloak. This finishes the cloak though you can add a belt like I did using alternative colours of edging as a pattern.

Finished Item.

 

All Photographs Copyright Shani Oates August 2015



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