Orange & Black Tommy (Top Hat & Bow-Tie)

Ah, first a description of what a Rapper Tommy is. Also called a character, they are a sharply dressed person who is meant to engage the crowd with the dancing. They sing a calling on song meant to grab the audience's attention and generally make jokes all throughout the dance. Our Tommy is also a musician so he got a sash but Tommys do need to look sharper than everyone else. We combed the charity shops of Sheffield and found a dinner jacket that fits him (well, sort of, it's just slightly too big in the shoulders but I seem to be the only one who notices). So with that main base, it was up to me to make the bright orange accessories. He got a pocket triangle (actually a failed sash end!), a bow tie, and a top hat.

I've sewn up a variety of fabric hats mainly of the Scrooge night cap variety. I have been meaning however to take my hat making repertoire up a notch and begin with a flat cap so I had buckram in my stash. Now I had expected it to become a Renaissancey flat cap for M's Balkan Bandit stage costumes and I figured that'd also be a step up in difficulty so I was looking forward to it. However, it came to be a few days before our competition and we still hadn't been able to buy a top hat for under £absurd. So...I made a top hat. Why not?

Well, 3 curved hand needles (one of them was a book binding needle!), a burn, and 3 shattered machine needles later I really questioned my sanity/ability-to-evaluate-my-own-skills. It was certainly a learning experience! I didn't have millinery gauge wire for the brim rim so I doubled up jewelery wire and shattered my machine needles. I didn't have any mull so I used dressmaker's felt creating a thick and stiff body that was so thick my needles bent rather than make it through though thankfully it stays very upright! Ironing the buckram together really didn't work despite the internet telling me it should have and when the steam made my buckram soft I panicked and burned myself off the buckram. And let me tell you I am thrilled I needed to trim it with bright orange ribbon because the glue stains from my failed top to brim technique are hideous. I hated the crown to side attachment so much I sewed a strip of bias binding to hide the top. Oh, and despite my trying to follow the standard ratio of top hat to face height it's like 3 inches taller than any other hat! This is a special hat.

Which looks spectacular from afar!

the trailing ribbon breaks up the expanse of black from the back

I have to keep reminding myself that this was my very first hat, that I drafted the pattern myself, pretty much guessed at the construction after a half hour on the internet, and that while I look at it and see construction/technique failures, everyone else is just like "What a tall top hat on that dashing fellow!" It really just demonstrates that we are our worst critics. Though I cringed every time M handed it to an admirer.

That bow tie is embarrassingly easy in non-fraying fabric. Ready? Sew a rectangle, turn it seams in, and whipstitch closed. Pinch it in the middle  more or less evenly and sew it ruched. Wrap a thin strip around the middle and sew tight on the back. Sew to an elastic that is slightly looser than the neck. Boom-bow tie. (yeah, this Kitmistress was not going to tie a bow tie before every round)

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.

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!