Yet more kit.

It's all still works-in-progress, but it might entertain a reader of this blog to see another of the objects in their various states and conditions.

Seppa's belt.

The belt, it's still very pretty and clean and neat. It needs a bit of abuse and some stains and oils and waxes once I've finished tooling the leather. I might add the Varushkan spider on it somewhere. There will be some D-ring loops for it as well, so that I can hang some tat onto the D-rings.

Concerns

I do have them.

One that's been hanging over me is what I'm doing with my legs below the knees. I will wear my tactical boots, for the ankle support and that I can walk in them pretty much all day in relative comfort. Not as comfortable as trainers, but the trainers don't mesh with LARP and have no ankle support. I do have some metal-slats greaves, and I have padded canvas leg armour, but the tactical boots have a thick padded cuff that ends around the bottom of my calves, and that dead space between there and my knees, has me worried about how to adequately fill in that area so I don't harm my already wonky and fragile knees when the leg armour tilts on the boot top fulcrum and slams into my patellae. Leather straps around my ankles not withstanding, I'm too heavy for the greaves not to tilt into my knees.

I do have two pairs of winingas, or leg wraps, or puttees, all three names pretty much mean the same thing. They don't really work with the boots, and I'm again stuck with that dead space between top of the boot and the 15cm or so to my patellae.

Another option is a boot topper or gaiter, but there's that dead space again. I suppose I could have the gaiters made to knee height, and then stitch in a very thick padding to fill the dead space.

I'll have to ask the group to see how to get around it.

Side notes

I may have to make a few vertical pouches to hold the mana crystal cards and any herbs or resources that I have spare.

I think tomorrow, I will try to start drawing the lines-to-stitch on the coat so that I can add the Varushkan Virtue animals.

I'll be starting to plan out my 2020 bullet journal; my goals will be less ambitious, but perhaps more realistically achievable than the outright failure of this year. This is related to this blog and this character.

I will be listing my sewing patterns at some point, with which Empire nations they could best work with.

More kit in progress...

As promised, here's the related post to the previous.

First, those trousers that I mentioned; they're the Folkwear Saroulles and pantaloons pattern, I shortened the leg length. Truth is, I really ought to decrease the pelvic depth of the pattern to raise the crotch by several centimetres so it's not down near my knees. Perhaps with the next pair.

The four pieces of the crotch gusset.

The stripes really do help.

Pinning the crotch gusset to the legs before stitching.

Pinning before pressing the folds for the waistline's drawstring channel.

The crotch gusset and the bottom leg hem that I've turned up. It shows how much I shortened the leg on this pair of pantaloons.

This is where I paused in the sewing; again, before I can finish the waistline or hem the legs, I need to hand-sew buttonholes for the drawstrings. My machine is supposed to be able to do buttonholes automatically, but all it does is pucker the fabric before tearing it. Hand-sewn buttonholes it is.

======================

Tat

Some of the items that I wore for the Bakers' Ball in November are pictured below.

Tat, it makes the costume into something more.

As you can see, I have restrung some of the necklaces from the pictures taken of them months ago, to make them Seppa's and not Ieri's tat. Some bits I ended up not wearing or bringing to the event.

I did pierce Seppa's ears, to personalise the mask; I might add another earring or two. I will need to do more trimming around the inner eyes and the top lip, I found that both of those areas became problematic the longer I wore the mask. I managed almost four hours on my first wearing before I needed 'face-time' ie to get out of the mask and just be.

======================

Other items that're 'in progress' is a leather belt that's actually made for Seppa; it's longer to accommodate my fat gain and the bulk of the many garment layers to make me look stouter than I am. I don't yet have a photograph of the belt, but I will see about some progress pictures at some point. Galla's Emporium is cooperating with me to build the belt and the tat pictured next.

The inspiration for this particular bit of tat is a black leather strip that had the smooth buttons that I'm re-purposing onto a brown strip of leather. In the picture, is the same strip of leather, but with the buttons and conchos differently placed before deciding which one we'll go with. I'm in consultation with Galla to maybe craft two more strips to go with this one. It does remind me, and others who have seen it, to some Ancient Roman legion groin armour/decoration.

The "vintage" bronze ring is about twenty years, maybe thirty years, in age. I've had the black strap and its buttons for nearly thirty years too, it was a gift from Daedalus Anteros Fortune of Leatherhead Regalia. Anything that I can recycle or salvage from rotting in a box into something that I can wear as part of a character's ensemble, is good.

The straps will hang from the waist belt that I mentioned above. The ring represents the item-of-worth as an ancestral artefact, which is why I've attached it to the longer strap so that it's presented as important and doesn't get lost amongst the gewgaws hanging directly from my belt.

I will soon need to decide which one to make.

======================

Last item of Seppa's tat for the moment; I need to add the bit of felted wool for the needles to rest in, in order for this antler and leather needle case that Amber Wolf Workshop crafted to be functional. I asked them to make it, inspired by some of the antler and bone needle cases of similar design found on Pinterest. But using the soothing circles-and-dots patterning that AWW often implements on their creations.

Antler, leather, and wire, needle case.

Another item that isn't yet made, but AWW is playing with, and that I'm eager to acquire is a bone whistle-flute; again, inspired by Pinterest and European Ice Age artefacts. If I needed some animal bones for the shaman's costume and character, I might as well make them functional. Imperial Orcs' music tends to be heavy with drums, but I can easily see a bone whistle-flute making a bit extra to the pounding rhythm of percussion instruments.

An ongoing process...

I confess, I still don't have any actual grip on Seppa's personality. This character's costume is far more involved than Ieri's ever was, and I've been working on it for the past few months, which is why I haven't written anything here regarding Seppa's kit. If my dates or sequence is disjointed, it's my memory trying to recall.

Regardless, here's a post to give some more information about the costume and kit.

I'm going to start with the costume test I did the night before the player event in November (which was on Wolfenoot), up until that point, I hadn't actually tried it all on and sat around in it. Yeah, last minute 'aiiiia' indeed.

This ended up changing on the day, but it's the only set of pics that I have.

Some thoughts about it: I'll have to drastically shorten the blue skirt in the picture, but it could work for indoor events that aren't too warm. I ended up not wearing as much as shown in the collage because it was too hot indoors to wear it all. One of the garments sacrificed for the sake of keeping comfortable was for me to discard the blue skirt. However, it does look good with the ensemble, so I won't write it off entirely as it works, though not sure within the Skywise brief.

The warskirt is the remnants of scraps cut to make some of the layers that I'm wearing. I layered and stitched the scrap pieces onto a plain brown panel, created a drawstring channel, took a grater to the ends and edges, and then tossed the panel into the wash. It frayed nicely, but a) it's still too clean; b) it needs more of the grater. The group emblem panel: I painted with white house paint, let it cure for a few days, then stitched the drawstring channel before tossing it into the wash; doing so gave the house paint a kicking, but it helped with the ageing. (I have a secret lurking in the warskirt: there's a simple pocket for a pencil or a pair of claves.)

I also left off the scapular, the fingerless gloves, and the neck scarf in favour of the simple crochet neck gaiter. Again, too hot for all of those layers. It also meant that I was unable to wear the chainmail bracelet, because it is too large around my wrist. I might have to remove several links in order to make it wearable on the wrist. I'm not entirely sure I want to use many chains, as Imperial Orcs generally prefer the Imperial Horse for Loyalty, instead of the Chain, due to their grand/parents generations before emancipation. I have, since the player event, changed the boxers' wraps in that I've removed the Velcro fasteners and will find another way to pin or secure them.

Another note: black face paint layer first, followed by daubs of green, works far better than a brown or green base layer. I don't know why, seeing as the mask is a green-brown thing.

======================

The following weekend after the player event, I took the warskirt with me to my lace guild's final lace day of 2019, and added some more customisation to the panels.

The Wintermark rune of 'Lann' for Loyalty.

As you can see in this image, the washing machine wonderfully frayed and tattered the fabric scraps. This is another one of those little bits that unless you know it's there or happen to spot it, it's not obvious. The rune is about 5cm or so in size.

The other addition was on the coven's motif panel; I took some glow-in-the-dark machine embroidery thread and started a back-stitch outline around the white paint. My intention is that it will softly glow in the dark at night time; I'm a Day Ritualist, it seemed apropos to the character. 

In the daylight, the stitches aren't too obvious.

I hadn't finished back-stitching around the white paint when I took the following picture, and the thread hadn't much light to charge it. However, the faint green around the edges is the softly glowing thread.

I hope to capture a better image of the glow at some point.

I left this half-finished for quite a while, but then got on with completing the outlines a day or two ago.

This was taken when I picked it up again to finish the outline.

Another close up here of the wing after finishing the back-stitch outline.

The overview of the panel after finishing the back-stitch outlines; it's not noticeable from a distance.

The current panel with its finished outline.

The wing panel needs something more, but I'm waiting and thinking about it in the background. Some chainette fringe is one possibility, it would add some movement to the panel. Another possible option is that I take some of the silvery 'gilet' metal amulets from my belly dance costumes and spray paint the amulets with a bronze or brass colour.

But enough about the war skirt for the moment.

======================

In between the lace day and completing the outline on the wing panel, I also built this outer hooded coat in flax linen (not the unbreathing environmental hazard rayon/viscose crap, but proper flax linen) lined with dyed-in-my-washing-machine medium-lightweight cotton calico. I haven't finished the bottom hem as I want access to the body to start adding embroidery and decorations.

I can't start the ageing and distressing on the coat until I have the embroidery finished. My ideas for embroidery not only include running stitches at the arms and hood, but also some of the Varushkan Virtue animals, including the spider. However, I have been wearing the coat over my street clothes, to get a feel for its comfort and to start the wearing. I haven't taken a rasp or grater to it yet, those will wait until... yep, the embroidery is further along than it is.

I would like to say, that as confusing as it sometimes got, making the linen hooded coat brought me a sense of pleasure and pride. I made the extra effort to baste which meant things lined up and didn't shift around the way pinning usually does. The extra effort paid off.

Basting the lined hood to the body before machine stitching.

Basting the body lining to the body at the neckline.

Putting this together showed me new methods of lining a garment and basting helped me try out the concepts before locking things into place with machine stitches.

I believe this is one of the sleeves; I like the contrast between the two fabrics, both in colour and texture.

Here's the front, followed by the back, as displayed on my dressmaker's dummy.

Hooded coat front.

Some extra notes about this hooded coat, I purposely shortened the sleeves because I wanted under layers to show. I also made the size "large" to allow me to wear many layers beneath it without constricting my movements. Yet without those extra layers, this coat is almost too large for me. It is also 'Anvil-cut' in length so that it's not wrapping around my ankles and less likely to drag in the field's mud.

Hooded coat back.

The pattern (Simplicity Costumes 8944) is out of print, which is a pity, and I would definitely make it again, in other fabrics, whenever the time comes to start a different character. I can easily imagine this in sari fabrics or in a cotton twill or a medium weight wool. It certainly benefits from a slightly stiffer outer material.

I'll end this post here and start another, as this one's gotten long.

However, another linen garment that I began, but haven't yet finished, and is still awaiting some hand-sewn buttonholes, is a pair of pantaloons/trousers for Seppa. I began these probably in October or November, but I need to refresh my memory on the proper way to do buttonholes by hand. I'll cover that in another post, along with some of Seppa's tat that I'm either working on, or have finished adapting or 'it's adapted enough for now'. I do need to leave something to future upgrades/kit improvements.

Also, my next player event is the Violet Illumination's "Empire Day", which in the real world is happening on the 11th of January, 2020. I hope to have more of the kit ready for that date, and another post with which items I opted to wear for it. I will likely bring all of the garments and then adjust according to weather, hour of the day, and temperature of myself and my environment.

Seppa's tat

Tat

The accessories of character costume that help one stand out from one's peers. In daily life, because the majority of native English speakers' garments tend to be mass produced, we have a tendency to look all the same. It isn't as uniform as a company or military uniform, but there's still a certain uniformity to it. Many of us do not personalise our garments with extra stitching or any other customisation.

In LARP, one has an excellent opportunity to personalise one's look so that there's less uniformity. Though in Empire, there is a small amount of uniformity to one's nation so that one's easily identifiable as this or that nation, but one's top or bottom is customised to the character's tastes and whims. The other is by adding tat.

A new character will often lack tat to the extent of that character several games' old. As one plays one's character, and interacts with other characters, and gains story and played history, things change. Empire's rules are that one's kit is in constant improvement. Embellishments, via embroidery or patches or visible repairs (if Imperial Orc) adds to the character's kit development.

With Ieri, who had witnessed the Varushkan Feast of the Loom Zoria parade, gained a silky friendship bracelet from a Varushkan child. It went on Ieri's belt and added to eir tat. Friendship with Antimedes meant Ieri had a jingly beaded token ey wore on eir belt. When Antimedes died, Ieri added his token to eirs and increased tat.

Seppa's tat

The following images show some of what I want Seppa to wear; however, some of this was Ieri's tat, and will need adjusting or altering in order to truly become Seppa's tat. I apologise if any of the following images are repeats from previous blog posts. I don't want to photograph them again until I've altered the items to fit Seppa. (yes, that's on the ever-growing to-do list.)

The other difference between Ieri and Seppa is that whilst much of Ieri's tat had stories attached to them, they weren't ancestral items or items-of-worth; whereas Seppa's tat will need to be worthy, even if it was, 'my parent made this when they were emancipated to celebrate their freedom.' Not as worthy as an ancestral item, but still a worthy reminder for the character.

Speaking of parent's emancipation from slavery, I thought of using the Skarsind axe-head pendant to represent that, but then I realised that the axe-head pendant is to commemorate the Imperial Orcs gaining Skarsind as their region of the Empire, which only happened a few years ago. So this is Seppa's pendant, rather than an inheritance item. Perhaps the metal sausage-like tube in the upper right corner of the above picture could be the parent's emancipation object.

The ring with the bell on it is for one of Seppa's noisy ancestors and will be going onto the warskirt.

I want to pierce Seppa's ears in order to customise the mask. These were on clearance, and they're not quite to the Skywise brief, but I can alter these to better fit into the brief and if I mess them up, I'm not going to feel bad over it.

The steel Sikh kara bracelet isn't obvious that it is a kara, so I will use it as part of Seppa's tat. It had been part of Ieri's tat, but didn't make many appearances, and I doubt that anyone will recognise it from Ieri's kit. The only question is whether or not it'll fit over all the wraps and gloves.

The two brass clasps might get some dangles attached to them to give them some personalisation. I'm considering their use in a similar way to the Viking paired domed brooches, ie attaching a few strings of beads between them and the clasps helping to hold a robe or wrap in place during colder weather events.

These had been Ieri's jewellery. I explained the kara already. The glass "diamonds" bracelet is another that didn't see too much action with Ieri, and like the kara, will need to be tested to see how or if it will fit over all the wrist wraps.

The patinated brass cuffs made occasional appearances on Ieri, but they do barely fit over the wraps; as I have tested those. I also need more brass than silver-coloured stuff, as brass is to the brief.

The brass amulet strung with wooden beads and orange cord, was a Ieri staple, though the beads and orange cord were only a recent expansion on it. I'll need to put it onto some blue cord and change the beads in some way, probably by adding some smaller wooden beads along with the ones currently on the cord.

For the antler-bone-wood-glass-brass necklace, that was Ieri's Dubhtraig loot. I'll need to restring it and change out some of the red beads for blue.

Charity shop for the win!

Back at the start of 2019, some of us went to several charity shops to look for LARP bits. I found this interesting necklace for 50p. It had been strung on some thread and that looked far too fragile to survive the field. So I restrung it with wire in almost exactly the way it came off the thread. I put in crimp beads and joins where the thread had knots. I did add one item to it: the little brass bell in the lower right of the picture; it is otherwise entirely from the original necklace. 

Ieri wore it once or twice around eir neck, but I found it too much around my neck with all the many necklaces I already wore, so it failed for Ieri's tat. It will very likely end up on the warskirt.

Conclusion

Tat is more than jewellery, but this is currently all that I have ready to show that isn't textile tat, which will get its own blog post on another day.

A productive week

Monday

In class that day, I finally got over my fear of cutting this raw silk fabric that I've had in my stash for probably twenty years or more. I chose Simplicity 8707, which was probably the wrong pattern for the fabric, but I think it worked.

Someone else took a sample before I bought the fabric.

A little bit of explanation; when I first started thinking about costuming a character that I want to sew for, I raid my stash for potential fabrics. I had stumbled across this raw silk in my stash whilst looking for something else many months ago. I snapped a few pictures of it and shared it with Steph; she loved the fabric. Still afraid of the fabric, I spent weeks thinking about what pattern, whether there was enough for the robe I wanted to make with the fabric, etc.

Suffice to say, without Steph's enthusiasm, I would still be terrified of cutting the fabric, and it would have been a wasted investment.

Also, who forgot to launder the fabric before cutting? Yeah.

Wednesday

I took the plunge. Like some other fabrics, and yes, I knew what I ought to have done with this one, and still failed to remember in time. Oh well, I still like the results. The 'what I ought to have done' is this: after cutting the pieces, overlock all raw edges before sewing anything. I wouldn't have had to french seam everything. This raw silk is heavy and thick, my overlocker hated it; my sewing machine grumbled. It also frays just by looking at it.

There are another two yards or so remaining of this fabric, so something else might come of it some other time.

The (sorta) finished item before washing.

One of the items I disregarded was the 'uneven stripes' warning many of these patterns express on the envelope. I got lucky that the stripes almost aligned; though it might bother some people, it's for an Imperial Orc and the rustic look of the brief. Some dress in leather, I have (too much) fabric that's crying out for purpose. Once I add belts and all the tat, I think most people won't see the lines aren't perfectly aligned.

Bias binding to strengthen the neckline; as (mostly) instructed by the pattern.

I have a limited palette of extra strong sewing threads. I had the almost perfect bias binding, it's too wide, but its colour fit the palette. Back to the threads, I'll be adding some more of those extra strong sewing threads to the neckline/opening to reinforce the neckline, but to add the coven's colours, some blue, and the glow-in-the-dark thread. At some point, I'll whip-stitch the edge in blue to protect the silk.

This robe will go over the scapular, of which, there'll be another blog post regarding the further additions to it.

The sleeves are comparatively narrow to the tunic, so I'll need to narrow the tunic's sleeves towards the wrist. Will have to do another kit try-on to determine how much to adjust on the tunic.

The left side of the robe.

Thursday

I've just laundered the silk... colour bleed from the multicolour sari silk lines of weaving into the cream raw silk. Oops... but it's frayed the bottom hem wonderfully and bloomed the silk. I've run the robe a second time through the cycle without detergent, to make sure all the soap is out. I'm eager to see what it's going to look like once it's dry. Wet raw silk smell... reminds me of a beloved wet dog.

I'll have to get a picture of that to go in here, once the garment's dry.

The fabric was probably one of those 'dry clean only' fabrics, but the manufacturers probably never expected a buyer to (eventually) drag the fabric through muddy fields and all the rest of the wear this robe is going to endure in the future.

ETA:

So I still haven't gotten a picture of how the raw silk robe looks layered with the other items, but I have tried it on over the scapular and the tunic and a T-shirt, and it still barely fits.

I have added to the neckline, but haven't finished the other side, so here're some pictures that show how the silk bloomed and the incomplete addition to the neckline.

Turquoise blue cotton aran-weight yarn couched with blue extra strong polyester thread.

A closer view of the couched knotted cotton yarn. I put the knots in the yarn to add some texture to it and to give some stopgaps for the couching to hold onto.

Another subtle addition is the running stitch in blue 'silk' machine embroidery thread.

I'm very glad that I had the presence-of-thought to zigzag the hem before washing it, as the fabric frayed madly-yet-beautifully. Unfortunately, I failed to do that for the sleeves, and though I used the selvage as their hem, that's kinda disintegrated. I wonder if I can zigzag the sleeves to prevent them from going any worse. Another regret is that I ought to have put in a colour catcher sheet as the pinks in the sari silk waste bled and the whole thing now has a faintly pinkish cast to it in some areas. I suppose that gives the overall garment the needed worn and ragged appearance.

Kit think and rethink

Kit think and rethink

(or what're the origins and influences of one's kit)

Someone else asked about the soft kit portions of Imperial Orc costume, and one of the nation's leads, Matthew Dawes-Wood, answered with this (edited for clarity):

"When I speak to new players about how they're gonna develop their kit I always talk about the origins of the kit they're wearing, I always envisage imperial orc kit specifically to come from one of two places, either orc made or salvaged from another imperial nation.

"I see an imperial orc being able to get away with wearing almost any other nation's kit but with an orc "filter" over the top. Whether it's a Varushkhan caftan or a Dawnish tabard with a bit of ageing and repair work it becomes a salvaged bit of imperial orc kit.

"As for imperial orc made kit I always over-engineer things and make them to look like they're designed to last forever so it might become an item of worth, big chunky over-stitching, simple robust designs, leathers and canvas instead of silks and softer materials. I know the brief says we're just as handy as everyone else but it's about the visual and putting the "orcs are different to humans" message across.

"Something some players do to give a bit of ancestral heritage to their characters is to add a bit of a barbarian twist to their kits, a bit of shoulder fur for Jotun, some robe and magic stuff for Thule, the more Greek look for Grendel and super ragged-dirty look for the Druj, this could be a useful tool for giving away clues as to an NPC's professional focus."

The past week or so, I've been thinking about where Seppa's ancestors hailed from and where Seppa and eir parent(s) came from as well. One of the ancestors was a Highborn slave who was also horse-thief, horses within the Empire went extinct at least two centuries before. The other was a Varushkan slave. But recent heritage influences are Varushkan and barbarian Thule. By recent influences, I mean that Seppa's parent(s) were emancipated about a decade before Seppa's birth, so there will be some influences in Seppa's garments.

• For the Highborn nod, the scapular and probably the möbius scarf.
• For the Varushkan nod, embroidery and their Virtuous animals.
• For the Thule, I'm going to add some blue cloth panels to the fabric portion of the warskirt.

Still, there is the Skywise kit brief to keep in mind as the largest guiding principle for how I dress Seppa. The possible finer and softer fabrics that I was going to cut, now won't be needed for Seppa. I will need to go through my enormous fabric stash and filter for the coarser fabrics, such as the osnaburg and canvas and wool. Though I will likely still add some of the synthetic suede, just to use it up. As to weaving materials, I could look at using the coarser yarns and the mohair, since mohair is so itchy and unpleasant, it can be used for the rougher areas.

Much to think about, yes...

Seppa's embellishments inspiration

Pinterest, the great time-sink, yet a place to search for inspiration.

I have a Skywise board where I'm tossing ideas into. I now have some different ways to patch and mend those new garments to help give them the needed personalisation. Remember the colour palette is mainly beige and brown, with some cream and sky blues.

I also need to find my Zoom-Loom so I can do some patching squares.

Back to the board, there's one image of various coloured fabric scrap rings stitched down via running stitch I rather like the look of this, and it'd be a way to incorporate the sewing scraps.

Another was running leather thongs or fabric strips through cloth, then using a topstitch or strong thread to trap the thong and/or cloth strips to its base. It would act like interfacing, in that it would stiffen the area.

Then there's the Japanese boro and Indian kantha, both are for quilting layers of scrap fabrics; I would like to implement it somewhere into Seppa's kit.

I also have some batik stamps, I think those might need a strip of fabric of their own. One of them is a horse.

Another item that came to me is to make a diagonal shoulder-sash with words like 'Skywise' and 'Loyalty' and 'For the Empire' embroidered onto it, so the humans don't mistake me for the barbarians.

I'll have to throw them at the group and see what they think.

Then there's the glow-in-the-dark threads; as a Day ritual mage, having some stuff that shows up after sunset seems appropriate to me.

Also... I tried on some of the kit, getting a feel for how it might come together , its look and feel of it in motion. I made a tunic from the Simplicity Nativity. Next is a coat in canvas so I have an extra layer to embellish.

I do want to add some Varushkan Virtuous animals. Maybe some Wintermark runes, such as Ophis, but I'm kinda indifferent to most runes.

Looking forward to the arrival of the nalbinding needles, so I can add some of that to my crochet and knitted pieces. Also, antler and wooden objects are calling to me more than bits of bone, but I do have some bone tubes so using them (at last) might be good too. I'm less metals and leather, and more cloth and needlework for some reason.

Remember that you're a soldier.

Kit ought to be practical for the most part. However, I'm also a mage, so there might not be much in the way of armour wearing. But soldier... remember that I'm a soldier.

Off-topic, but...

I picked up some mapping nibs, stylus, ink, and inkwell. I want to make some Empire-related ATCs and for letter writing and sketching. I've started scribbling in a black leather book that has (mostly OOC) notes about Seppa and eir coven ey will be joining.

Seppa - Little Things

All those little touches to help bring a character to life.

Ring:

I find myself uncomfortable when I don't have a ring on a certain finger, but I also don't want to lose the special ring off my hand in a forest or field, so a substitute ring is needed.

Behold, Seppa's ring. I tried to be simple, yet just a little bit interesting, and tried to keep with the prescribed colour palette. Unlike Ieri's ring, which has an out-of-character history to it, I found this ring today in a Sainsbury's store.

Pearlescent 'gem' in a silver band.

The torso-warmer or waistcoat:

The camel-coloured boiled wool jersey fabric that will help me stay warm. I got it cut out last week. It needs a little bit of trimming at the sides, but otherwise, it's ready to sew. I picked up some potential clasps and buttons for it. I still haven't decided how I'm going to close it, but I want to try to avoid buttonholes, and go with ties or toggles.

It will need embellishment, I will probably end up using size 3 crochet thread or some sock-weight wool yarn. I'm not expecting it to be on display, it's a middle layer to help me stay warm at night or when the day is colder than usual.

You may have guessed, but yes, I did reuse the top portion of the Simplicity Nativity gilet pattern.

100% wool, boiled jersey fabric.

Neck gaiters:

Instead of wrapping scarves that could come loose and be a hassle; I'm making a few other items to hide the mask's edge.

Crochet neck gaiter

The first is in crochet and I had a pattern, and then went off-pattern to add some visual appeal and to make the stitch pattern obvious. The stitch pattern is a V made of (UK) tr. Where I went off-pattern: I did only thirteen rows of V-stitch, I didn't make it as wide. I added to the pattern at the top and bottom of the tube with single row of (UK) dc, which helped give the V-stitch definition.

I made it in aran-weight cotton yarn.

Crochet neck gaiter, front view

Crochet neck gaiter, back view

Knitted neck gaiter

This one's a freeform thing. I tried to limit the palette of colours and yarns; colours: white, cream, beige, brown, with some blue, there is no black; yarns: mostly cotton, but there is some flax linen, and bamboo-derived viscose in the piece. I mostly stuck to knit and purl stitches, but there are a few yarn overs and attempts to k2tog. It's still in progress. Most of it is knitted flat, but there are occasions where I knit-in-the-round. The 12mm needles are too large for any yarn on its own, so much of it has anywhere from two to four yarns held together. I was aiming for a rustic flavour to it. Maybe Sister Elspeth of Pickham Monastery of the Marchers taught Seppa to knit and this is the result; I'll have to ask the player if they're up for that. She has agreed, huzzah!

Doing this one has been fun; I don't have to panic over pattern, I am free to play, and mistakes are acceptable.

Sometimes flat, sometimes in the round. I haven't settled on the wooden toggles.

Hypothetically the front.

A close up of the various yarns. Cotton-linen bouclé, smooth cotton plaited, and fuzzy bamboo-derived viscose yarns.

Another section. And a hole where I fluffed the yarn over.

These two neck gaiters have been good stash-busting projects; I'll have to do more of them, and maybe a few calf and knee warmers to peek over the tops of the planned leather boot gaiters.