The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I'm attending public rituals with a group and they asked us to wear attire that's just for the rituals we do with them, something that isn't street clothing. While there are many websites that sell clothing like this my problem is that a. I don't have loads of cash sitting around for this and b. I'm plus sized and pregnant so getting clothing off of a website would be difficult.

So what I'm asking really is where did you get your cloths, what do you consider ritual wear, and what suggestions/advice do you have to give?

 
I would classify ritual wear as any clothing you reserve specifically for ritual.  I usually do my rituals at night after a shower, so I just put on clean "everyday" clothing and that works for me.  I think if I were going to a public ritual I'd probably wear black exercise attire.  It's usually loose enough to move around in and it's usually pretty plain styling.

I'm attending public rituals with a group and they asked us to wear attire that's just for the rituals we do with them, something that isn't street clothing. While there are many websites that sell clothing like this my problem is that a. I don't have loads of cash sitting around for this and b. I'm plus sized and pregnant so getting clothing off of a website would be difficult.

So what I'm asking really is where did you get your cloths, what do you consider ritual wear, and what suggestions/advice do you have to give?

There's a couple of things to consider here:
- Material (I strongly prefer natural fibers for ritual work: cotton, linen, wool. Silk is considered a magical insulator, some people like it for ritual robes, other people don't. I generally stretch as far as rayon, which starts as wood pulp, just because it gives you some more options)

- Sleeves: long sleeves can catch on candles. Or objects. This is not good. You may also find sleeves get a little too warm in some cast circles.

- Length: Long skirts (i.e. ankle length: calf length is usually just fine) are a problem if you're moving, unless you're very used to living in them. (I am. Most people aren't. If you're not wearing longish skirts a couple of days a week, consider something shorter for ritual wear.) It's really easy to trip someone else up or trip yourself.

- Adaptability: if you want something you can wear for lots of rituals, I've found that black with a selection of shawls in different colors over goes a long way. (You can generally pick up cotton sarong style shawls very inexpensively at thrift stores or various import stores.)

- A pocket or something that can double for one (a pouch that can slide on a belt) is an *immensely* useful thing. Group rituals may produce lyric sheets, objects you've charged in ritual, things you want to make notes about, etc. and having a place to store those is very handy.

My usual group ritual dress for a long time was a black chiton-style robe: these are very easy to make. Take a rectangle of cloth as wide as your armspan and as long as you want the robe to be. (I'm 60" tall, so I use 45" fabric: if you're taller you probably want to use 60" wide fabric)

Sew the two sides together, hemming the top 12" or so instead of sewing them together. Hem the top and bottom if you need to. (This is all straight sewing, so if you're willing to hand sew, it doesn't take terribly long or a lot of skill to do. If you have a friend with a sewing machine, it's about a 10 minute job.)

Sew ribbon ties across the top (leave space for your head, and pin them until you sort out the placing) down your arms. Or sew the top closed (again, with space for your head.) I prefer the ribbon. You can also pin at the shoulders with a larger cloak pin type thing. (Those big sorta-blunt kilt safety pin things do very nicely, and even a decorative diaper pin might do.) If you search on 'chiton' online, you should find some easy patterns.

The other option is something that's usually referred to as a T-tunic (basically, a very large t-shaped robe.) There's all sorts of variations out there. I find they tend to bind under the arms unless I get rather more fancy with sewing than I generally like.

These days, my ritual robes run to a black dress from Lotus Traders (searching on their site is really sorta painful, but if you type things like "black dress" into the search box and wait for a bit, it will pull things up. Holy Clothing (http://holyclothing.com/) also has some useful dresses that hold up well, though some of them are more fitted than might do in pregnancy. (They do tailor usefully for plus sizes, though.) Both tend to run $30-50, so making your own is likely cheaper, but they're not amazingly expensive options.

Dharma Trading Company may also be an option: they do clothing blanks for dyeing. Dye can be sort of a production, but you can also do a lot with solar paints (which they sell) even if you don't use the solar function of them (i.e. blocking the light reaching them). They do sell some black blanks, though the plus size options are a bit limited.

For some reason I always pictured you as way taller than that.

 
I am very very short. I blame my mother. (To be precise, I'm actually 5' and a half inch. But y'know, 60" does nicely for fabric.)

I got my mother's height and my father's bone structure. My father, who grew up in the UK, was required in school to play rugby because he was built for it.

Plus side: I have been in one building my life where someone said "Watch your head" and I actually had to. (It was descending a 14th century Italian tower.)

Is it a matter of creating a specific mind set or is it a matter of respect, kind of like wearing a suit or nice dress to church?

Can be both, but for me it's mostly the former.  Putting on garb helps 'trigger' the mind-set.  Same with that fist whiff of incense or that first sip of libation (which you must sample for quality before you begin )

I'm attending public rituals with a group and they asked us to wear attire that's just for the rituals we do with them, something that isn't street clothing. While there are many websites that sell clothing like this my problem is that a. I don't have loads of cash sitting around for this and b. I'm plus sized and pregnant so getting clothing off of a website would be difficult.

So what I'm asking really is where did you get your cloths, what do you consider ritual wear, and what suggestions/advice do you have to give?

I've bought all my ritual wear at charity shops (which I think Americans call thrift stores). Saves a fortune! I have a vintage cloak that makes me look a bit like a hobbit (to stay on the theme of this thread), but which is warm (lined wool), mostly keeps me dry, and looks just about acceptable in a druid circle. I think I'm officially supposed to wear white robes, but I object to that, so I don't. I just wear ordinary clothes under the cloak. For home rituals I have a long black dress that does fine for indoor stuff, although would be a bit light for anything outdoors. You'll be really surprised at what you can get second hand.

My usual group ritual dress for a long time was a black chiton-style robe: these are very easy to make. Take a rectangle of cloth as wide as your armspan and as long as you want the robe to be. (I'm 60" tall, so I use 45" fabric: if you're taller you probably want to use 60" wide fabric)

Sew the two sides together, hemming the top 12" or so instead of sewing them together. Hem the top and bottom if you need to. (This is all straight sewing, so if you're willing to hand sew, it doesn't take terribly long or a lot of skill to do. If you have a friend with a sewing machine, it's about a 10 minute job.

 
Thank you all for your suggestions and advice. I'm either going to try to do the chiton styled dress or I'm going to try and get a black summer dress and jazz it up with scarves and other colourful knitted shawls.

I'm used to wearing what I'm comfortable with which a lot of the time is some of my street clothing but I want to honor what the group wants to do and not be disrespectful.

Again, thank you all for your suggestions! They were very helpful.