Orange and Black Musicians (Sashes & Embroidery)

Our rapper musicians, being men, could not be expected to wear the same skirts as the dancers, so their kit went back to the rapper basics of sashes.

I ran into difficulties however in making the sashes. To make our musicians match the dancers the proper thing would be to make the sashes out of the knit fabric which would be fine but sashes need to lie flat at the hanging ends.
My first attempts ranged from sad to outright pathetic.

a few of the "successes"

Finally I had to give it up-this knit fabric was too stretchy that despite dunking it in starch, there was no way to stop it from rolling before bunching out awkwardly at the ends. New fabric had to be found.

Now, I'm not sure you've ever tried to find orange fabric in Yorkshire. The only real choices all tend to be either too red or too seem destined for health and safety high vis wear. In the end the high vis option won mainly because I found this delightful mystery fabric in the Hillsborough fabric shop's clearance section. It's a tough fabric that is actually almost self-interfaced so it holds basically any shape you sew it into.

£1.99 a metre? that's 80p a sash!

So despite it being its own light source (while it was laid out in my sewing room I kept thinking I had left the lights on overnight...instead it was just the fabric reflecting the overcast light), this was going to become our sashes. With no need for interfacing, buckram, weights, cardboard, etc, it was a simple process to sew 2 rectangles together, starch and lightly iron (it melts at higher temperatures) it flat, and whipstitch the ends closed. Easiest sewing project ever? Yep. Does the kitmistress need to keep ironing the tying wrinkles out? Sadly, yes.

Of course I didn't leave well enough alone and decided I'd embroider a monogram on them. A simple typographical design that would be able to be easily but stylishly rendered with stitches. Which lead to me running out of black embroidery thread and discovering that Sheffield shops do not stock black embroidery thread. o.O    So 2 of the sashes are embroidered edges and only the Tommy's sash is filled in. Anyway! Used backstitch to outline the SSR.

oh right, and those are the trophies we won.

Blog Lovin'

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The process of gaining control of your blog at blog lovin' requires this link. With the impending demise of google reader, it seems prudent to finally organize myself RSS-feed wise.

My posts will appear every Monday!

Orange & Black Dancers (Design & Skirts)

So I dance rapper dance-it's a Northern English traditional dance involving stepping, swords, and teamwork-see Sheffield Steel Rapper dance here. As we're a new team, we needed to think about our costume. I got elected kitmistress and set out to outfit 6 dancers, 2 musicians, and 1 musician/tommy.

That's right, those skirts you see moving there? I sewed them.

Traditionally rapper dance costumes are shorts, knee socks, and sashes but we wanted skirts because, well, we're an all-women's team so why not. With practicality in mind, I knew skirts would be of knit fabric so I sketched out a few croquis ideas. A simple circle skirt base (#1), a wildcard with asymmetry and attached sash (#2), and one with a panel mimicking a sash (#3)

And the first one won. It's a triple circle skirt in reality: full circle overskirt, orange half circle skirt layer with a 1/4 circle lining to prevent riding up and sticking to tights. Each layer is a different length to allow for peeks of color. The waistband allowed for the pop of color and the whole thing is one piece. It's super easy to pull this skirt on and off and the knit allows for weight changes without any worry. The all cotton jersey I sourced makes the whole thing machine washable and it doesn't crease even when shoved into a tiny bag. All in all, extremely portable and versatile. I hoped, as kitmistress, that once I sewed them up, I'd basically not have to worry about them ever again.

And indeed, that has borne out!  

looking good after lunch-we're standing basically still-only peeks of orange at the bottom

still looking good after a day of wear!-depending on movement more or less orange showing

So construction details?
The lining is cut out, the one seam sewed with a small tag with dancer's initials and hemmed via narrow hemming foot.The orange layer is cut out, one seam sewed shut and hemmed via narrow hemming foot. The black layer is cut out in one piece and hemmed via narrow hemming foot. These three layers are zig zagged together. Waistband elastic is sew into a circle. Orange fabric cut in two rectangles that are joined. The orange is wrapped around waistband elastic stitched as closely as possible via zipper foot. This is attached to the skirt itself via some more close stitching via the zipper foot. So the insides are nothing pretty but I left them intentionally raw so that modifications are nice and easy.

in action the orange is very striking!

I am proud that despite sewing 6 in a single week and the very centrifugal forces that act upon our skirts during our spin there is not a popped seam to be found!