Kit
When dancing out, we wear black shirts and trousers. (We can get baggy sleeved pirate shirts at a discount from a friendly local shop)Over the shirts, we wear a purple and black tatter jacket. Each member of the side is expected to make their own tatter jacket. Fabric is available from the side, though you can add a few extra bits of your own if you have suitable colours. Help may be available with sewing if you’re really dreadful with a needle.
The costume is topped off with a top hat. Hats are likely to cost around £30, but the side may be able to help with the cost if you’re unemployed.
Bells (provided by the side) are worn around the leg, just below the knee, for that all-important sound effect when your feet hit the ground.
Shoes (or trainers) should be black.
How do you make a tatter jacket?
Get an old black shirt from a charity shop, preferably a size larger than you’d normally wear, so that there’s plenty of freedom of movement and air flow.Cut off the sleeves.
Starting at the bottom, sew on a row of tatters. Stitch them at the top, either by hand or with a sewing machine. (If you line up a row neatly, you can run a sewing machine right along the line.) Mix up the colours to give a random effect. Leave nearly a centimetre at the top, so as to reduce the chance of the tatter pulling free (or fold the top under a little and stitch through the doubled fabric).
It’s important to do an extra stitch or two at the edge of each tatter. That way, if a tatter does come off, the ones next to it won’t come off as well.
When you’ve finished a row, move up the jacket and sew on another row. (The reason for working from bottom to top is so that the tatters you’ve already sewn on don’t get in the way of the row you’re working on.)
Doing the top row is a bit of a black art. There’s a couple of ways of making the shoulders look neat, it’s probably best to look at someone else’s jacket and see how they’ve done it.