Cloak

A rectangular cloak (pihepihe) made from New Zealand Flax, with black tassels and partly stripped and dyed tassels at intervals on the outside, kiwi feathers around three edges and a black tassel fringe along the fourth (neck) edge. This garment was made by finger-weaving or twining without the use of a loom, which forms the wefts (aho). The main technique is double-pair twining. This began with a selvedge at the bottom edge and ended with a plait at the neck edge. There are six warps per cm, and the wefts are seven mm apart. There are three grouped extra wefts (aho poka) on each side at the middle and three each side at the hip to provide shaping. The loose ends of undyed 'warps' (whenu) at the ends of neck edge form small fringes. The side edges have twined two--ply warps, one of which is wool. The rolled black two-ply tassels on the main part of the cloak are inserted sideways, at the neck edge upside down in pairs by single-pair twining. The partly stripped and dyed tassels are inserted vertically in pairs. The feathers are also inserted vertically in threes or fours. Many of the partly stripped and dyed tassels are broken off. Some rolled black tassels are broken off near the fringe ends. The black-dyed flax is generally very fragile.