Yellow Rasta Poi Finished

This part was tough. The neck was quite narrow and the fabric stiff (especially the green and red). I tried to turn the poi over and got this. Poi without the last article. It took me more than half an hour to turn over the green stripe at each one. I used thin pliers and progressed milimeter by milimeter.

The symbol I chose - I hope the client won't mind. He said he wanted the poi in "rasta colours" and this is the only symbol that came to my mind in connection with this:-)
You can see how I cut the fabric at the corners - for them to fit in when turned over.

The poi are just gorgeous. At first I didn't like that I laid the stripes of the same width at the same distances. However, when I started to spin them to try what they were like I found out how nice they are in move. Particularly at good light:-)
Jacob, I think you chose the look of your poi well. Thank you for this design.

Poi and the pocket are finished and can leave for their home..

Yellow Flame Poi Finished

I was thinking about something orange I could machine embroider on the pocket for the poi. Guess what came to my mind.
I know, not very clever, but orange is usually orange..:-/

They look like on the concept drawing I gave my friend:)
By the way, I need a meter of cord for the poi and the pocket. I wanted it in a shop and the assistant probably stretched it when measuring so when I came home I had merely 90cm..
Forunatelly I wasn't sure about the colour so I took a meter of a cotton cord as well. So when I ran out of the syntetic string I used this one for the pocket (you can see I had to tie the ends:-D).

Gardecorps Photos

My boyfriend and his new cloak. He had to deserve it by lighting and blowing off many candles:)

The gardecorps can be worn with or without belt - with belt it looks more like casual clothes, without it it seems more like a cloak.

And did he like it? Just look at him.-D

Gardecorps without Hood

I basted everything - as first the two layers together (at a big distance from the edge) and then I folded all half a cm from the edge and basted (each layer separatly). The other pieces would be inserted between the light and dark brown and I wouldn't know where the inferior fabric is if I didn't baste it like this.

Pattern for the sleeve - I measured the length of the armhole and drew this. It's just the shape of the armhole as it will look like from the side, then you take the lower half of it and mark the place where the sleeve would (or wouldn't) be joined together. This will split the lower half in two parts which then will be mirrored vertically (outwards).
I pleated a reversible rectangle I'd made. The pleats go in one direction. I pinned them, then I transferred the shape of the pattern and adjusted the pins to lay both above and below the curve.

I sewed the pleats and cut the unnecessary fabric. Then I could pinn the sleeve to the armhole and find out how it fitted (of course I did it before sewing as well, but you can imagine how precise pinning a bunch of double velvet is).

What would you expect? Yes, it didn't fit. Somehow I got the curve a lot longer than the one of the armhole. After some time spent on trying and experimenting I cut the right part of the sleeve you saw above. I had to sew the right side which you can see below together (this is much easier when you can do it from the wrong side, reverse and finish from the right side).

When I had two pieces I could sew them inside. I expected the velvet to be more obedient when basted but it wasn't at all. The dark brown was going towards me so at the end of sewing there were nasty wrinkles. Fortunately, it wasn't so visible when I put the basting aside.

I wanted the gardecorps to have a hood, but my boyfriend's birthday party's tonight. I've been working most of yesterday and night only on the sleeves. That's why I just sewed the neckline together and unbasted it. The hood may be inserted someday but I'll hand it on without it now.
Tomorrow I'll give you photos of the gardecorps done. By the way, I couldn't have posted about this before for him not to see it. So if you want to, you can look at the previous cloak posts now, here and here.

Yellow Poi - Preparation

I have now two orders for yellow poi - one with red flames and the other with rasta-coloured stripes. I suggested orange between the flames and the yellow to my friend (future owner) and I think it was a good choice:-)
The poi are conical so it took me quite a lot of time to make a pattern for the flames not to seem strange at the seam.. Eventually I made one I liked. I transferred it to the canvas a fusible web had been ironed on. I didn't like I had to add the web to already a thick fabric, but I could be sure it wouldn't fry out.

As I said the tent canvas I use is quite sturdy and I was afraid there would be track of pins. I triend to do something strange - I sticked the fire on with sellotape:-)
It didn't hold together very well and very long, but as a hint it worked.

You can see I have a new foot - I must say I just love it! Can you remember my gryffins? You could spot a foot that was at my machine by default. I hated that I didn't see what I was sewing. I found a shop on the Internet and bought one extra foot. In fact they were three but I'm not as contented with the other two as with my applique beloved foot:-)

I said the canvas is heavy. I cut the yellow fabric at the bottom part and bit a piece from the flames. I'm not afraid it would fray out dangerously - the yellow is bounded by satin stitch which is a way of serging.

The other poi are to be smaller: the client wants to have looped handles at the end. Sewing the stripes on was like usually - I sewed them on and then cut out the whole shape of the poi.
I personally don't prefer striped fabric. I would make the upper stripes narrower than the others as at the red and orange set (in fact I like the orange ones the most of my products). Maybe next time I could suggest it :)