Making a tatter jacket

[watervole]

I'm currently making the first tatter jacket for anonymous morris.  (no I'm not going to make them for all the team, though I may lend a hand here and there).

It works like this :

You take a shirt in a suitable colour - I found a dark red one - and remove the sleeves.  My shirt had a good deep armhole, which I regard as a plus because that will allow more air circulation inside the jacket.  It's a thin shirt - so I don't get too hot, but not so thin that it will tear too easily.

I've cut loads of fabric strips - all roughly 5cm wide by 20cm long.  The colours we chose were red, black, red satin, black with a red skull and crossbones pattern (very close in colour to the plain black and red), white, and black with shiny stars.   The combination looks very good together.

Starting at the bottom of the shirt, line a row of tatters all round the shirt and stitch a line along the top of them (IF you've got a decent sewing machine, then this is very easy.  I have a very crap sewing machine that I can't even remember where it came from.  I've gone back to sewing by hand). 

When you've done the bottom row, move about 15 cm up the shirt and repeat the process.  Mix the colours of the tatters to avoid blocks of one colour.  Keep doing this until you get to the top.  The end result will look a bit like a shaggy bird. 

You'll need to do something intelligent with tatters around arm-holes, either leave gaps, or cut tatters to the correct shape.  Likewise, you'll need to something neat at the top.  I'm just getting to the top...

I don't think I'll quite manage to finish it for tonight's practice session, but I'll give it a shot.

Meanwhile, I shall go and write instructions for the dance we're going to learn tonight.  It's got a trickier chorus than anything we've done so far, but it does look really good.  It's called 'Not Not for Joe'.  (One of the traditional Border Morris tunes is called 'Not for Joe' and it's a catchy tune to dance to.  The original dance to the tune is a little dull, so this is a modern version developed by Hunter's Moon)

Comments

[ssirienna.livejournal.com]

Sounds complicated but also sounds as if you know what you're doing :-)
Good luck - hope all goes well

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

You are amazing! Sewing,playing the concertina, dancing, choreography, singing - and I am mentioning some things only around the Morris dancing, not the other numerous ones (including being a Guardian of My English:-))!!!!!!!!!

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

Hello! In a "small world" sort of way, a Google search on how to make a tatter jacket brought up this post. I think it's possible I met you at Sally's place in Chippenham once?

I've friended you because of the Morris thing - hope that's OK!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Which Sally? (I never remember where people live, so that's no help) I'm trying to remember the LJ name of the lady I think you probably mean, and I'm forgetting as she doesn't post very often now.

Which side do you dance with?

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

purple_peril, I mean.

I dance with Rackaback (http://www.rackaback.com), a newish Border side in Hull. Enjoying it enormously :)

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Apart from the yellow socks, our sides look amazingly alike. Take a look - http://anonymousmorris.co.uk/

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Ah, purple-peril.

I knew I'd remember.

Your face looks family, probably from conventions.

I'm doing a Border morris workshop at Eastercon if you want to come along (and another one at Discworld)

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Having now made several jackets, I'd amend the instructions above. The rows of tatters need to be closer together. 15 cm apart looks fine until it gets windy, then you can see far too much of the shirt.

Halve that distance apart, or even go down to 5cm. YOu can make the tatters a bit shorter if you go really close, but you do need enough length for them to move as you dance.

You also have the option of thinner tatters. I've stuck with 5cm width, but some sides have tatters as thin as 2cm.

The other important thing is to add an extra stitch at the edge of every tatter. Tatters come under a lot of strain and you will have some fall off. If you don't add that locking stitch, you'll lose several tatters at once as soon as one comes loose.