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.