Making tatter jackets

[watervole]

 Fabric spread all over the table and floor.

I'm busy cutting up long strips of various shades of purple and sewing them onto old shirts. 

Interesting how times change.

When I started making morris tatter jackets over a decade ago, my only thought was to get them looking as good as possible and chose a carefully colour balanced set of fabrics, so that the whole team have matching jackets.

If I were starting again, I would now be thinking of how to make the best use of recycled fabrics and probably have used a different base colour for each team member to make that easier.

Things come full circle.

The original tatter jackets worn over a hundred years ago were made of old shirts with a few colourful rags sewn on to brighten them up.  They were the poor man's morris costume.

Modern tatter jackets have layer upon layer, rather like feathers overlapping on a bird's wing.

Environment again - as the summers get hotter, we're finding the multiple layers are very hot to wear. We've already changed our kit regulations to allow a t-shirt underneath, rather than a long-sleeved shirt.

Here's what our modern jackets look like: