Construction of the Bodice

Since this is needlepoint, at first I was like “I AM GOING TO CUT THE NEEDLEPOINT” AAAAAhhhhhhhh. I hoped it will be okay and not unravel on me, but it was fine. One note to remember here is that the center back piece needs to be cut out twice. Once for the needlepoint outer bodice and once for lining.

The acrylic yarn makes the needlepoint very thick so I had to split open the darts to make it easier to sew the seams. Also, the fact that I ended up using pellon didnʼt help at all either.



Next up, skirt construction...

Maori Needlepoint Bodice

This part of the dress is the most time consuming and also the hardest to source. I looked at all the craft stores, that I knew of, and even went to a needlepoint specialty store. Regular craft stores didn't have any needlepoint canvas (except for plastic). The needlepoint specialty store looked at my like I was crazy for wanting a couple of yards. They promised to call me when they had some in which took a few weeks. During all this, I managed to get a 12 count canvas and bought 3-ply wool yarn. The picture in my previous post is of that needlepoint. It took about 6 months to do. I have a full time job and a child so I was stitching in what little time I had.

I really would like to know what other people have used and what the results were. I have started on my next dress and have used a 10 count needlepoint with that one. Also this one I am using 4 ply acrylic yarn.

Traditional Maori Dress

The aim of this entries is to perpetuate the art and techniques of making maori traditional dresses. Any suggestions, additional information, techniques, and vocabulary are welcome.

Some tribes use different names for the same thing, but I will use the ones I learned from my teachers and will gladly add the different names you may have. The purpose is to support each other in this craft due to the fact it seems to be dying out as the people I know who have made these dresses with the proper knowledge of the patterns are older. I don't know anyone my age who makes these.

My purpose in writing here is for these costumes: the womens' pari (needlepoint bodice) attached to a cotton knee-length skirt (panekoti). This blog can also encompass the mens' costume of the the sash (tapeka) and waist band (tatua). A word often used when referring to these costumes is taniko which means "woven" which is the proper name for it when dyed flax leaves are woven to construct the garment but I don't know if it should be used with needlepoint constructed garments.

This blog is also a journal of my attempts to make the pari (maori women's costume).

More to come soon : )