Linings

[Privateer6]

Ok folks a question on lining the leggings and clout, or aprons, of the suit. Looking around the net for some ideas for ribbonwork colors, I noticed that one person puts a lining in the straight dance suits she makes "to prevent stretching, skin irritation and sweat damage to wool." How many of you guys have a lining, and what type of material should be used if lining your suit. Also any hints would be appreciated on making the suit.
Thanks
GJJudd

[Fat Albert]

No lining in these drawers! I have had my clothes for years now and I think they are shrinking! Oh wait... thats just me eating too much fry bread. On that note, I would suggest that you use ties on the leggings rather than loops. Nothing beats the ease of getting dressed when you don't need to run a belt through legging loops. Good luck!

[hobbs49]

I've lined my leggings in the past. Mostly because of the skin irritation factor that wool sometimes produces. It can make them a bit warmer tho. I just used some spare cotton (calico) material that my wife had laying around. When I did mine, I only lined the "tube" portion of the leg.

In response to FA, I've always used ties and always wished I had loops. Ties can come undone and can also be a pain to tie as least for a big guy like myself. I normally just ended up keeping the knots in thus creating a loop. With Albert's input, I guess I'm coming to the conclusion that both methods have their strengths/weaknesses.

[Steffan Redhawk]

I'm not a straight dancer, want to make that 100% clear.

Lining the wool is generally a good idea if your dancing alot, or don't take it to the dry cleaners. What Hobbs stated about skin irritation and stuff, also good.

My leggings have ribbon (like 1" ribbon) stitched to the top, just a few inches on each side, so I can tie the leggings to the shoelace that holds my aprons on. (I find this much lighter, and faster getting dressed than a belt loop) When I had to put each peice on one at a time, it would take me almost 2 hours to get dressed.. Now it takes me less than 45 minutes, (without braids, my hair is short now anyway)...

You asked for tips, here is my tip for a str8 outfit... Line your bells, felt, trade cloth, whatever, anything to create a buffer between your skin, leggins, leather, and bells, the thicker, the better. Definatly if your doing sleighbells. If you line it, it'll actually give the bell a higher pitched sound, the more you line it, the more buffer you create, the louder they'll get!

I use two rows of sheepbells (48 bells) (and yes, that's almost 7 pounds) I use cloth, and then about 1/8th inch of ducttape (Also to help protect my ankles from the cutting edges of the bells, since I use dog collars for my bells) Fortunatly, the ducttape creates a firm enough buffer to increase the loudness of the bells, unfortunatly, having them stacked on top of eachother IMMEDIATLY creates a muffler... When I find a way around this that doesn't involve some sort of sheet metal barrier, I'll post it.

Shirts -

I've only seen this a couple of times, not only does it look sweet, it helps you stay cool.. Use satin all you like, and use another color in Cotton, to help your underarms and the like breath... Your seamstress should know how to do this to make it look good kinda looks like a < > under the armpit. I've seen some dancers uses those little quarter inch screens... those don't work too well, usually get clogged up quickly.

Hand Mirrors -

Don't spend a fortune on one! Make it... Get the wood, cut it in the design you want, get a peice of mirror, and you can use an Xacto knife to etch in a design, and a pair of pliers to break it out, use the knife to take care of any unfinished edges. Stain the wood, let it dry, then use "gorilla glue" (follow the instructions) to set the mirror... Holds for life.

Your stick -

Don't even bother with one unless you have one of the following two skills : Beading (gourd or peyote stitch) or whittling... Whittle your stick, and bead what isn't whittled... don't leave any bare spots, a southern straight rig should be one of the neatest, cleanest, most attractive outfits out there, coming from a NTD, I wannabe straight....

I can think of more, but this post will be 5 miles long, in closing:

Don't wear tacky rings... matter of fact, if your married, wear that one, put the rest away... If you think it makes your outfit look better, LOL... then work harder on your outfit...

BTW, if your FAN doesn't look SAAAWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEET, neither do you, so drop the pheasant fan, or turkey fan, and spend a few hours making a nice one...

k, done for now

Aho

[_wuliechsin_]

I use under Armor so I do not have a problem, with irritation, sweating ect.

[Privateer6]

Thanks everyone for the the replys. I'm not worried about hte irritation factor, 1've worn 100% wool pants before and had no problems. It's the keeping the wool clean that I am concerned about.

[Steffan Redhawk]

Dry Cleaner <G>

my cleaner charges me 2 bucks for my vest, like 4 bucks for my shirt, and does my leggings for free

[CHEROSAGE]

I have 2 sets that were handed me. One set I'm the third generation and the other i'm just the second generation to were them. Both of these are wool. I don't have one set to include the other 2 sets of wool and the buckskin(tab) set with any lining. I have had some dry cleaned and cleaned the buckskin myself. I haven't seen any with linings but I haven't seen everything. I do have insoles ( Dr. Scholls) in my mocs.

[Fat Albert]

Hey hey hey! So the secret for me for keeping my stuff unfunky is simple. After a dance, lay out your clothes so they get some air and dry out. When you are done, transport them hanging inside a garment bag. Many guys keep everything in a garment bag down to their drops and wings (if they don't fit in a cedar box). To top it off I know quite a few who put a bag of cedar in with the clothes and/or some sweetgrass. As I have been taught you can never go wrong with some cedar for your most important things!

Finally, dry cleaning is an option as has been mentioned before but I would recommend you take it somewhere you trust. I never take my suit somewhere I have never used first with other clothes. Also, talk with them to make sure they are willing to take it. Some places won't take anything super personal (ie beaded aprons) if they think they can mess it up somehow. Just depends on where you are.

Last story for you... my uncle who dressed me the first time told me when we were putting on the wool that when he made the set a while back he had a really nice girlfriend who wanted to help him out. She surprised him by throwing his set into the washing machine at home. Needless to say, the wool shrunk and on top of that the ribbon colors faded down. Moral of the story: make sure anyone who is going to have access to you clothes knows how to handle them or find a lazy girlfriend!