Warskirt

How often I find myself thinking 'yeah, this could work' and then discovering that it doesn't.

meh

I do need to take measurements of the rivets that I want to use for securing the 0.6mm steel plates onto the leather backing... once I've decided what sort of leather I want to use as backing.

I did spend a little bit of time, in between rain showers, cutting metal plates for Seppa's warskirt.

Gathering the tools...

I tried to use the Dremel, and had rubbish luck with it, but admittedly, my Dremel is a jewellery/small hobby version, rather than the giant, heavy-powered versions of the Dremel.

0.6mm gauge steel, and 3-in-1 oil for lubricant.

I'm impatient, though I did try cutting the steel with my Dremel for nearly an hour, I gave up and dug out my tin snips, which I'd never before used. I'm grateful I still have some grip strength.

Might not be visible, but it aches.

However, I did give myself a blister. Yes, I wore gloves, I didn't want to add lacerations and real blood to my costume, thanks.

Thanks, Father-in-law, for leaving us your tools.

To explain the above image, for those who don't automatically understand what it represents, is some of the process I gave the plates.

Left: warped plate cut from the sheet with tin snips. I used a fat-tipped marker to make the length lines, then eyeballed the sizes to give it that random effect when I cut them with the tin snips. This is why the three plates are varying lengths, but the widths are similar.

Middle: I snipped off the corners to make the plates LARP-safer. I then used my father-in-law's hammer to bash flat the metal plate where it rested on paving stones; I used both the hammer's flat and ball-peen heads to texture the surface a little bit. I might experiment more with the hammer, with striking harder or on other surfaces than paving stones. 

Right: almost, if not complete, metal plate. I used the coarsest wheel on the Dremel to blunt the sides and corners to help make the plates safer for LARP. I also used the Dremel to drill the holes. The Dremel struggled to make the holes, so I might turn to my big IKEA drill, assuming I can use such fine drill bits with it, to power through the steel plates to make the holes. Again, I eyeballed the placement of the holes.

I managed to cut about twenty plates before the weather interrupted and my hand blistered, so I have several days' worth of work before the plates are completed and ready for mounting. Weather and health permitting...

I'm intending to use the self-isolation.

I unfortunately couldn't make it to the Symposium, as my throat went sore on Thursday, and so I had to cancel my place. I felt sorta ok Saturday, but I don't want to accidentally harm others. Isolation it is.

I'm not so hardcore as to think it would be good to wear a full latex mask with a streaming nose and eyes.

Emotions

My father-in-law's hammer and tools; using them felt good, and made me think of him. He'd have known what to do, and how to do it, and probably would have had the right tools to do the job. I miss you; thank you for leaving us some of your tools.

LARPCon 2020

What to say about LARPCon 2020?

Firstly, I arrived in a bit of a tizzy, but the old kit seemed to draw attention, and some of it sold, and on their way to new lives and purposes.

I found some leather skins that're ideal for the warskirt project, so whatever I made from selling off the old kit went to getting new bits.

I bought some of Steph's beautiful art and got to talk a bit with her and Alex, to smooth some of my anxieties.

Later, to quote Steph:

"...How cool is that to have something that you've gained actual worth on adventures."

I was writing about the brass chainmail rings that I acquired from Armchair Armoury and wanted to add said brass rings to an anchor wire chainmail collar an ex made for me about thirty years ago.

I thought at the time that she meant that I ought to wait on decorating Seppa and gain worthy things in play at Anvil.

Yet writing it now, I wonder if she meant that my thirty year old chainmail was an authentic relic of worth.

'Tis something to think about.

My haul

A black goatskin, some hairless sheepskins with felt very nice, even though they're greyish-brown/soil colour, and two brown remnants. They're destined for the warskirt, if I can figure it out.

Chainmail on old suede leather.

I found the photo I recently took of the chainmail collar. Perhaps once it's remounted onto something better, I can use it for the neck cover.

The brass rings, a Wintermark Rune, and a pin from Steph.

I have yet to try the brass rings with the galvanised anchor wire. I will need to remount the collar onto something a bit better, as the suede is a bit stiff and showing its age.

The Wintermark Rune is 'Sular' the rune of discovery and is affiliated with the Day realm.

Yes, that pin is inspired by Studio Ghibli and Princess Mononoke.

Other stuff

I'm continuing my sewing efforts with Seppa's panel coat. I'll discuss it in another post.

Warskirts

Warskirt

I've been unsuccessfully tossing ideas back and forth for months, with no leads, no brilliant ideas, nothing. Then, a few weeks ago, someone else asked about them and someone else posted a picture of a section of their warskirt.

*heavy breathing intensifies*

This thing, this right here...

Inspiration! Not my picture, not my warskirt.

I asked them about the metal and how they did it. Tin snips and sheet metal and a drill for the holes.

I feel like a fool, they make it sound so...obvious.

Fast forward to the past seven days or so, and I've picked up some sheet metal, got some new sheet metal cutting attachments for my Dremel, because my grip strength just isn't what it once was, and a workbench that's awaiting construction... yeah, side note on that, the manufacturer didn't tap the holes used for the tightening screws, so said holes are stripping the screws as I attempt to install them. *grump*

But I'm hoping that once we get the workbench sorted out, that I can clamp the metal onto it and play with the Dremel attachments, and hey, if I don't cut straight, it's ok, it'll add character to the plates. Bonus is that I learn how to do it for myself, and if some future moment, that I do need to cut straight, I'll be better equipped than just going at it cold.

Plans:

Bash the cut pieces to dent them, also grind off the rough and raw edges, gouge the plates a little, then stain with some corrosion agent and maybe a wash of nearly-black paint, then rivet or stitch to a piece of cow leather.

What's Your Game?

I attended this kit fair, and Armchair Armoury was there, I did get ten of those half-circle plates from them. Shortly after that, Galla showed me how I might layer them. So I might have two pieces of plates to wear; one for the belt, the other might end up on a shin or forearm.

Remember these?

We'll see what happens.

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.

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 to-do list before November 1st 2019

Mask training, or training myself to get used to the orc mask, will begin once I'm not suffering with lurgy. I'll also be doing housework, walking and running, and such in costume to make sure nothing is chafing or annoying. One doesn't want to discover the hard way that something critical to the character is itchy or going to easily break.

To help me along, I'll be attending player events set in PD's Empire world, getting used to longer and longer periods in the mask and making sure that I can still see, breathe, hear, etc in it.

Looking back to previous posts, I felt a condensed to-do list would be good for me.

• Warskirt:
• Paint the white left wing motif onto a brown fabric panel for the skirt.
• Make a new belt piece to attach the leather and fabric pieces onto.
• Layer, stitch, and abraid the fabric and leather pieces.
• Add decorations to the skirt via paint, embroidery, and appliqués.
• Figure out how and where to attach the metal plaques belt and the wooden bead tie-back so they don't tangle, or bruise my thighs.
• Find some animal bones to add to the skirt front.
• Wrap some found bird feathers onto fringe/dangles for the skirt.

This reminds me, I've selected an archetype: shaman; because I do unsolicited advice and might as well allow that lack of brain-to-mouth filter an outlet. They also seem to wear animal bones.

• Textiles:
• Make a coarse, thick canvas cotton or silk sleeved coat (Anvil-cut and elbow-length sleeves), different weights to allow for weather variations.
• Make a T-tunic shirt in lightweight fabric, above-knee-length and long-sleeves, for a base layer (or over the thermal layer).
• Make the boiled wool waistcoat as a middle layer.
• Use some of the aran-weight wool yarn in beige or cream to pin-loom weave 4" squares for a second waistcoat.
• Crochet and full some wool slippers for those indoor events that don't permit outdoor footwear.
• Möbius head-shawl from other scarves stitched together.
• Embellish and attach the circles remnant to the scapular.
• Abraid and stain the white trousers' knees, maybe patch with beige cloth.
• Shorten the satchel strap and embellish the strap and bag with blue and brown threads/floss. (began the embellishing)

• Leatherwork:
• Possibly a tunic in the deerskin.
• Possibly a leather capelet for the metal ring and the bones.
• Two belt pouches (a large and a small) of the beige, white and/or blue leathers.

• Jewellery:
• Primary metal dangles necklace - lengthen the shoelace so that it fits over the neck wraps. (done)
• Brass ring and its bell - figure out where to place it on the costume, perhaps near the neckline.
• Horses motif plaque - figure out where that can be.

Test going to the loo, running, sitting, squatting, to make sure I won't trip up or drag too much filth into the costume.

Seppa first attempt at putting it all together.

The other day, I put together the rough idea of the components that I did already have (currently lacking any quality embellishments) for the Seppa character and here are the pictures I took of the ensemble as placed on my dressmaker's form.

Regrettably, it presently reads feminine to me, and as I'm non-binary, this is generating some 'bleh' that I'll need to remedy before April 2020/E1. Gender pronoun badges notwithstanding.

On to the descriptions and explanations...

The Front view:

Some of the elements need editing, such as the metal dangles necklace, it's currently too short to wear over the scarf, so I'll need to lengthen that.

I didn't include the off-white cotton boxing arm wraps or the grey wool felt leg wraps, because there's nothing for them to cling to.

I also need to make the camel-brown boiled wool waistcoat that will go between the off-white-almost-ankle-length-scapular and the long-sleeved hippy granddad shirt. The shirt's chest pocket isn't visible, but I have now removed said pocket and the neck label tags, because when I wore it camping on a very hot (for England) day, the labels were scratchy and irritating.

The circles panel is a strip of curtain fabric remnant that I liked the printed pattern circles. I will probably fix it to the fabric portion of the warskirt, and add some embroidery/stitching to it to give the circles extra texture and visual interest. I don't know if this will become an item-of-worth, or it's just a decorative feature that helps busy hands when waiting, or when sitting in conclave. Another thought's just come to me, that I could stitch the panel onto the scapular after the remnant's embellished, and that would protect the back of the remnant from wear-damage.

Skywise Seppa - idea for the front

The Right-side view:

The metal plates belt and the peacock beaded brown shawl came from Quercus' Emporium. I haven't yet decided how I'll attach or place the metal plates belt, which is too short for me to wear around the waist, so it was just hung to the belt as a 'thing' (ie tat).

The wooden beads looped on the belt is a curtain tie-back. I've used detachable rings to allow me to move and adjust. I think when I've settled on placement that isn't a nuisance, I'll give it a permanent attachment to the future warkskirt.

Speaking of the warskirt, the red base the pigskins and deerskins are attached to is the wrong colour for the Skywise brief, and this warskirt will be dismantled. The red base will recycle for NPC/barbarian/slave kit.

Also, recognising that I'll probably sweat/freeze, there is a wooden cup on my belt to remind me to drink water. Relatedly, I need to test to see how difficult/easy it is to use the tiny loo cubicles with the kit on. From my observations, Imperial Orcs are never seen half-dressed.

Skywise Seppa - idea for the right side

The Back View:

Recycled from my Freeborn character, Ieri, is the large brown leather belt pouch. I have tried crushing it a bit and twisting it some to help soften the leather as it has been quite stiff. I use this pouch for my mobile phone, my character notebook, and rustic pencils.

One will see there's a second grey-sand mesh scarf. I bought this in H&M several years ago and it was another that I was going to discard due to disuse... but dammit, I like it, so I kept it. The scarf will get purpose amongst Seppa's kit.

Skywise Seppa - idea for the back

The Left-side view:

The smaller brown pouch and the stoppered wooden bottle on a thong are reused from Freeborn Ieri's kit. The smaller brown pouch has also had some crushing and twisting to help loosen the leather some; it also came with a flaw of the buckle-tongue was about 3mm too long and it was skin-lacerating sharp, so the Dremmel came out to cut off the too-long tongue and then grind the edges to remove the burrs and blunt sharpness. The purpose of the smaller pouch might be anything from pocket-watch to car keys to meal and drink tickets.

The wooden bottle is another of those 'I bought it years ago and I don't remember where' but it is lined to make it drink-safe and watertight, and the cork fits well. I use it to physrep potion bottles. It rides on a popper-strap to make it easy to take off and use for play.

Like the off-white scapular, the cotton satchel comes from Burgschneider, and the strap is far too long for my too-short torso, and during the Long Dark, I will be shortening the strap and probably adding some blue stitches to embellish the satchel and its strap. I have another satchel of the same company make and model, but in green that I've used for Ieri. Similarly, this satchel will probably get songbooks, an OOC-bag to contain touch-up makeup for hands and face.

Skywise Seppa - idea for the left side

Other notes:

The white martial arts trousers have taken some work to stain with the likes of grass and dyes that bled onto the fabric so it's not so discordantly white. I will look at taking some abrasion tools and rubbing the knees and then finding some different-stained canvas to patch the knees to give them some character. I'll have to see about finding something rusty and mud-staining to rub into the knee areas.

Orcs in general tend to have well-worn and rustically patched, mended, and embellished garments; everything shows signs of wear, but they value things that have a history of use.

I will add that I have several more beige, stone, sand, and the like coloured scarves. I might take one or two and turn them into a möbius head-shawl to give my head a respite from a hot sun or a cold wind.

To-do list:

• Warskirt onto blue/beige/brown belt panel
• White Raptor Wing motif painted into a brown fabric panel to attach to the warskirt in a prominent placement
• Metal plates belt and the wooden bead curtain tie-back turned into permanent warskirt features
• Add the horse motif for ancestor item-of-worth
• Add the antique brass ring and battered hawk bells for ancestor item-of-worth
• Find more tat in the bronze palette
• Decorate and personalise the orc mask
• Scarves turned into a möbius head-shawl
• Metal dangles necklace - lengthen strap
• Make the boiled wool waistcoat for a torso-warmer
• Embellish and attach the circles remnant to the scapular
• Abraid and stain the white trousers' knees
• Shorten the satchel strap and embellish the strap and bag with blue and brown threads/floss
• Test going to the loo with all the kit on