Judith Proctor's Journal

 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: