Pagan Pride Nottingham August 3rd 2014 Home-made Lammas Costume Part 3

Pagan Pride Nottingham August 3rd 2014

Home-made Lammas Costume Part 3

This is the third part of the Home-made Lammas Costume. Now you know how to make Poppies and Sunflowers I am moving on to Wheat based items. I will start with the simplest.

Making a Hay Bale

Base

Select Yellow material and have the reverse facing you. Take a roll of tape and draw around it making a Circle. Cut out and tack a hem. To make a more secure hem you can go around it with blanket stitch.

The Pattern

Now you have the base you can decorate it. I have gone all around the circle in Chain Stitch to cover up the hemming but this is optional. Find the point you want to start at along the hem. Begin your Chain Stitch and slowly make a continuous circular pattern turning the material as you do so.

As you turn move the Chain Stitch slightly towards the centre. This will give an ever decreasing circular line until you reach the centre. How wide apart you make the lines is up to you.

The next part is not strictly Wheat Based but because of the similarities to the above pattern I have decided to include it at this point.

Making a Sun

Select Yellow material and have the reverse facing you. Take a roll of tape and draw around it making a Circle. Cut out and tack a hem.

Before you fasten off the hem gently pull the cotton through the material at the unsecured end. This will begin to bunch up the material. Spread the material evenly along the shortened cotton. When you are happy with the effect secure the hem.

I have gone around the hem again in blanket stitch to secure the effect. Alternatively you can blanket stitch the hem then make a second tacking hem inside and pull that if you find it easier.

 How to make a Wheat-sheaf.

I have to admit I had a bit of luck when I came to make a Wheat-sheaf. One of the tops I bought to cut up was elasticated across the front. I therefore just cut straight across either side. This automatically pulled it in at the middle. If you cannot get an already elasticated piece of material do not worry. The middle can be pulled in using a tacking stitch as described above.

Select a Yellow piece of elasticated material and cut out the amount you need

You will notice that the bottom half is longer than the top half. This is deliberate as you will see later. Next find the centre of the elasticated part. It might help to mark this spot with a pin. Decide if you want to start at the top or the bottom half of the material section. I found the bottom half easier to begin with as it wasn't so fiddly.

If you want you can use pins to mark the centre of the lower half in a straight line down from your pin in the elasticated section. Choose to work on the bottom left half or bottom right half. I started on the bottom left.

Beginning the Folding

From the centre I began to fold the material in a slightly diagonal direction. This led to a diagonal strip of folded material. You should have more unfolded material at the bottom than the top. I recommend pinning the fold rather than sewing at this point. This allows you to adjust the fold to a different width or angle in you are not happy with it. I certainly had to adjust this several times before I got the effect I wanted.

Continue with this process until you reach the hem at the side. Repeat the folding and pinning process on the bottom right but with the diagonal fold in the opposite direction.

Now once you are happy with size and direction of the folds it is safe to sew. I used a simple tacking stitch which I stopped just short of the edge. You will notice that in the case of the Wheat-sheaf I have not hemmed the bottom edge. This was deliberate to make the folding easier and to give a more rustic effect.

Folding the Top

I repeated the process above for the two top sections. Please note that the top half is folded apparently differently from the bottom. This depends on whether or not you fold the material in place or turn it upside down to fold. The fold still begins in the centre outwards to the edge.

 If you fold in place the direction of the folds will look opposite to the ones below. The simplest way to think of it is a mirror image. Therefore the Top Left hand section will look like the Bottom Right hand. The Top Right will look like the Bottom Left. See below

As you can see in the above picture I have also sewn along the middle of the Wheat-sheaf vertically with a slight overlap to make a tighter and more pronounced sheaf. You can also see that the top half is significantly shorter in length than the bottom half.

Adding the Wheat heads to the Top of the Sheaf

Select some pieces of yellow material to add to the top of the Wheat-sheaf. They all need to be the same width as the folds. I used the rest of the hem from the cut up top.

The length of the material is up to you. It does not have to all be the same length indeed it gives a more realistic appearance if it isn't. Sew the Wheat heads on to the stalks from behind You do not have to put one on each stalk. Every other stalk is fine.

As you can see I have spaced out the Wheat-sheaf heads and accentuated the direction.

 I have also sewn the tips into a triangular shape. This is the basic design of the wheat-sheaf. 

If you feel like adding to it you can do so. I took a long piece of hem and made a bow. This I added to the centre on the Wheat-sheaf to give the impression that it was tied. Once the Wheat-sheaf was sewn in place onto my skirt I added to the Wheat heads. Using a Chain Stitch I added a few stitches either side of the Wheat heads and also on the top of the heads. This completed my Wheat-sheaf

If you take a long piece of hem or yellow material you can make single pieces of wheat. I did this in between the Poppies

Making a Wicker-man

Select a Yellow piece of elasticated material and cut out the amount you need. Again I was fortunate to have some small elasticated material. However due to the shape of the material I had left I did not have quite enough material. Therefore I had to improvise and do it in sections.

Cut out the shape of a man. As stated previously I was short of material so I have cut out of the man minus the arms.

Please note that the material on the right is upside-down. I did have a reason for this at the time but now I cannot remember for the life of me what it was.

Making the Legs

Cut the material up the centre from the bottom to just short of the elasticated part shown.

I have put a hem on both sides just to secure it.

Using the folding technique that was used for the wheat sheaf above begin to fold each leg until they are fully folded.

Making the Head

Trim the upper part until it is roughly head shaped.

Using the folding technique that was used for the wheat sheaf and legs above begin to fold the head from the centre outwards. Sew from the bottom to the top of the material. Leave a small gap at the top. This will allow for more trimming for a better result.

Making the Arms.

Cut out two pieces of material for the arms. Trim the pieces so both arms are slightly angled at the bottom.

Using the above technique fold both pieces of material until both of them are completely folded. Attach an arm to either side of the body. You now have a finished Wicker-man.

In my next Blog I will be showing how to put the sleeves on the top and edging on the skirt.