Making a mistcloak!

[Randomness]

Did you go to the offical release party Randomness, or did you go to another one?

Yes, I went to the release party at the BYU Bookstore. i got my book numbered too. 22/50. maybe i'll go put that as my profile pic

[firstRainbowRose]

Hm... odd.  I didn't see the person with it around their waste.  (I was at the front with the "Bastille Diez' group.  I got number three.  I'm cursed with that number too... both HoA and Wabreaker were three, and with WB I was second in line.  *le sigh*)

[Randomness]

Oh, she was like at the very start of the line. haha you prolly know her then if you were number 3...

[menandore]

Ok, most recent progress is up at http://crazy-projects.blogspot.com/search/label/mistcloak. Preliminary results: sadly disappointing. I'm going to try narrower strips and see what happens.

[Adrienne]

While I think Inkthinker's drawing is AMAZING that's not how I picture VIN at all.  Even on a rampage she seems smaller to me and more of a feminine (but small build).  Also her not carrying a dagger kinda ruins it for me.

[firstRainbowRose]

Randomness, are you sure you aren't thinking of me?  I don't know if there was anyone else there with a mistcloak, or anything close.  The thing that confuses me is mine isn't just around the waste, it was a full cloak.

As for the cloak, I think it looks awesome.  Keep in mind that while the "tendral" like look also happens in denser air (or however you want to discribe it.)  The mist might effect how they would react.

If you still don't like the silk, you might try a chaffon.  (you know, the stuff that is put over skirts and junk that's pretty much see through.  Very slippery to sew, and my aunt (who's a pro costumer) hates to use.)  It seems like it'd be light enough to "float".

[sortitus]

Chiffon and organza are very similar (as far as weave goes), but chiffon may be better for the floaty effect if it's not too rough. They are about the same as far as weight goes, but chiffon's extra surface area and reduced stiffness could help it out.

I found my cloak and got some pictures.

Knotted shoelaces as the tie work quite nicely. The roughness of the knots catch on each other, making it easy to tie lightly without it slipping off. Pulling the cloak off is also super easy if you don't do too complex a knot. I had leather here, but it stuck on itself too much if it was tight and slipped too much when it was loose.
Without the seams where they are, the holes I made (with a button hole punch) would have ripped to the edges.
Streamers with flash.
Closer shot of streamers with flash.
Close shot of streamers without flash. The actual appearance is somewhere between the flash and no flash pictures. If there's direct light on them, they kinda shine. Good or bad, depending on whether you think that a moist look is good permanently.
Hanging from a fan in front of a light. You can see all of the streamers in this shot, so it shows how transparent it really is. Wear dark colors underneath, especially if you'll be in well lit places.
A shot of some individual streamers with a wall behind them.
I like one piece hoods with pleats on the forehead, so that's what I used.
Just an overhand knot with an extra turn is plenty of security with the knotted laces. (Flash)
The leather danglies are lighter on purpose. They're there to preform the action of pulling the streamers closer. Vin mentions doing this at some points in the books, but without a solid piece of fabric available at that height, pulling a cloak around yourself is somewhat more difficult. One handed because the camera was in the other hand.
That's totally not me.

I was planning on the layers alternating color up to the top (front edge of the hood), but if I were to do it again I would just use the black. I'd still sew streamers all the way up, getting shorter near the top. One thing I think could help the bunching issues at the base is staggering the length of streamers on each layer, the bottom layer being anywhere between 20 and 36 inches.

I can send a pattern for the coif if anybody wants them. I'll probably finish the cloak with short streamers up top to cover the coif and start over with a lighter coif or go coifless.

EDIT: Link to rar of two videos of the cloak spinning on my fan. (~6MB)

EDIT2: Removed embedded photos and replaced them with links, as loading times on this page were kinda ridiculous. For all of the photos in a rar, click here. (~6MB)

[menandore]

Very, very nice! I may try taking out the heavy bottom layer and see if mine behaves anything like yours. Yours gets the tendril effect exactly right, IMO.

My lightest layer is only a hair heavier than chiffon... I was actually wondering if the extra stiffness of organza would help keep the streamers from stacking and sticking to each other in that direction. I think that's why mine didn't flow right - the outer layers just weren't getting any airflow.  I should set up a fan and see if it actually does any better in a cross-current of air to test that.  The organza really did seem to give yours a lot of body.

I ordered a yard of organza from dharma trading... (honestly, getting undyed silk from them isn't all that much more expensive than buying random fabric from a fabric store.)  We will see how this goes.  Possibly replacing the top layer (the 8mm flat crepe) with the organza will do the trick.

Progress reports will, as always, be forthcoming.

[Randomness]

Ok, most recent progress is up at http://crazy-projects.blogspot.com/search/label/mistcloak. Preliminary results: sadly disappointing. I'm going to try narrower strips and see what happens.

I think that looks very well done. i would have to agree with you on the narrower strips though. excellent work thogh 

[menandore]

More updates! With video.  Kind of terrible video, but at least it's there.

Conclusions:

*I really need to acquire some stabilizer
*Still stumped on edge finishing (although I'm wondering if cutting on the bias + edge stitching might not be terrible)
*Definitely need <2" strips
*After seeing Sortitus' cloak, I think I will put a layer (or at least a few strips) of organza on top, because that is the tendril look it should have when it's stationary.
*I still can't decide if I want to nix the heaviest inner layer.  I feel like the cloak ought to have some warmth and solidity, but I don't know if it interferes with the cool flutteriness too much.

Oh, and it looks like BS is doing a book signing in my neck of the woods in early November, so I have a deadline...

Anyway. AFK -> implementing this stupid Flex widget; once I get it done I can get back to playing with fabric...

[sortitus]

It looks like .75"-1" strips will be ideal for the material you're using. The .5" strips look good (they catch the wind excellently), but the durability would probably suffer massively. I've found that my thinner strips (mys strips run .25"-1.5") break, tangle, and generally cause problems.

Do you think that doing all of your cutting with a serger would finish the edges well enough? You'd have to do each edge of the fabric or wrap around the bottom of each strip, but it could work out. You're making the strips part-way up the fabric and leaving some for an anchor, right? If so, the blank area between each strip could be pleated to increase strip density. Of course, low strip density probably isn't an issue if you're doing 4+ layers. The biggest flaw of the serging idea in general is probably the massive amounts of fabric that can be lost if it's not done very precisely.

As far as cutting on the bias goes, stretching could make the cloak behave strangely (though I don't know how much that affects your fabric). I would be inclined to make sure that any stretch happens in the streamers' thinnest dimension. While strips that elongate while they're being pulled by the wind would look cool, they would probably wear quickly and become a problem length-wise.

BTW, some of these comments I'm throwing down are more of personal notes on what I may want to keep in mind when constructing v2.0.

[menandore]

I am considering serging it, but I'm still afraid that it'll weigh down the light layers too much - I'll have to experiment some more.  (And get my serger tuned up; right now it HATES ME).  I'd also have to figure out how to make it not look ugly - standard serger stitches don't really strike me as the sort of things that should show up on the outside of the garment.   I'm still planning on doing each strip separately in any case... serging up and down one piece of fabric makes sense, but pleating the "blank" areas is just going to make the neckline bulky, I think.

As for stretching on the bias - I don't think the individual strips will be heavy enough to distort their shape.  If I do bias-cut them, I'll let the cloak hang before doing final length adjustments.

I know Word Of God states that it should be solid charcoal gray, but I think I'm going to leave it somewhat variegated (although probably darker overall).  It makes it a lot more interesting, and I think it'd blur your outline better, which I'm assuming is the secondary purpose (the first being making you look totally awesome )

I am half tempted to try making obsidian daggers in my Copious Free Time, because it's theoretically possible (and that's all the motivation I need).  I took an archaeology class where we spent one lab hammering at pieces of obsidian to get a feel for what the chips looked like before going off to classify a bunch of them (yeah, it was a really cool class. the labs were basically archaeology field work practice.)  ...But I have to remember that it didn't work out so well.  It turns out that if you hold your rock wrong, you're likely to have the chips coming off slice RIGHT THROUGH your gloves (even if you're wearing heavy leather gardening gloves) and slice right into your hand.  Oops.  ("And that was the first time I ever coked my keyboard with blood.")

I still have my notes from that class somewhere, though...

[firstRainbowRose]

Everything looks awesome.  Just a warning: No matter if you hem all of the edges or just leave them be, everything will end up tattering.  It's just the way the stupid thing goes.

Have you considered using the edging glue?

[menandore]

Fray-check type stuff? I dunno... I don't like how it looks, but if I get desperate I may try it. 

[firstRainbowRose]

I don't know what the brand name was, but I ended up using it on some of my tendrals since they're cotton, and if I try to melt them they just burn.