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corvidbrained

my tags are "ripley post" and "rips project tag"

#ripley post #rips project tag

corvidbrained

misread the pattern on the second toe. oops

#rips project tag #knitting #hand knit #knit socks

corvidbrained

Reblogged kurokuro08

edwardianvictorianera

Dressmaking in Paris, 1907.

marzipanandminutiae

I would like to point out what these women are wearing themselves. Because "what did WORKING women wear?!" is a refrain I hear a lot re: recreations of even the most basic historical clothing that has any visual interest at all

the lady on the far right has a brooch and a necklace! and some insertion lace on her blouse! the center-right lady in the plaid shirtwaist seems to be wearing a decorative necktie of some sort! all of them have sleeve puffs that are maybe a few years out of date, but not by much!

and these are working seamstresses! literally At Work!

working-class people have always loved beauty just as much as the rich. and found ways to incorporate it into their lives

suzannahnatters

Virginia Postrel in her book THE SUBSTANCE OF STYLE specifically points out that ornamentation is always possible no matter how limited your resources. You might not have quite enough food, but you can still put your hair in a braid more easily than you can buy a milk cow for your family. You might have to whittle your spoons yourself from a branch foraged in the wood, but you can still carve a knotwork pattern into the handle more easily than you can learn the craft of forging metal.

A thirst for beauty isn't something limited to the rich and knowledgeable. It's something that makes us human, and I worry that people who can't accept that working class or disadvantaged people from history might have appreciated and prioritised beauty and style in their lives are also failing to accept that these people were fully human. I mean think for just a moment where this trope of the filth encrusted medieval peasant came from - it wasn't from people who respected their dignity and personhood.

Cleanliness, style, and ornament are all ways that as humans we express our dignity, and attributing filth and squalor to people is a pretty common way to deny their dignity.

Yes. Of course their lives contained beauty.

beggars-opera

"Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons which are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence" - A Christmas Carol

This woman literally took her gown apart, turned it inside-out, and remade it into a more modern style. TWICE. And then managed to dress it up with some silk ribbons.

corvidbrained

Reblogged

lil-leviathan

Huge plug for the local library system today

So I have been working on a recreation of an early medieval hood, and the best and most detailed information about it is in this ONE academic paper- a masters thesis from 2009. I've found blog after blog after blog that cite it as a source, sometimes with their own great writeups of their own, enough that I could piece together what was probably contained in the document. But nobody ever linked the document itself. Google scholar only ever had the second paper by the same researcher.

Anyway I sent in a loan request to the library for this possibly unpublished online masters thesis and they got back to me in an hour with a Wayback Machine link

lil-leviathan

It's all in Norwegian so I'm finding likely useful passages and plugging them one sentence at a time into Google Translate, and oh my god this is so much more information than I ever anticipated!

THE WARP AND WEFT HAVE DIFFERING SIZE, TWIST DIRECTION, AND FIBER CONTENT!

The warp is mostly guard hairs, spun very tightly and much finer. The weft is spun of the fluffier undercoat and is quite a bit thicker.

My little woven sample was about 50 threads per 5cm. This hood has, in the FINER warp, 10 threads per 5cm. The weft is even less at about 7 threads per 5cm!

THATS SO COARSE! AND OF COURSE IT IS! ITS OUTERWEAR IN THE NORTH OF NORWAY A THOUSAND YEARS AGO! AND ROUGHLY MADE AT THAT ACCORDING TO THE STITCHING!

NONE of the blogs who make recreations of the hood cite this. And why would they? They're not spinners! They're not weavers! They're starting with a commercial piece of wool twill!

My mind is blown and I want to get to sampling so bad

lil-leviathan

@crookedtines Here's the link! You can download the PDF from it. The info on general fabric construction is on section 4.1.4 on page 38

https://web.archive.org/web/20160312120634/https://www.ceilingpress.com/Resources/Nye%20tanker%20om%20Skjoldehamnfunnet.pdf

#saddens me #that recreations dont mention it #thats such an interesting fabric and would affect how it behaves

corvidbrained

Reblogged owlmylove

onewhoturns

I was thinking through what else I’m looking forward to this holiday season and I realized I haven’t mentioned it on here, just on discord, but— MY MOMS BEEN MAKING ME A REALLY COOL ART THING??

I think I’ve talked about it before, but my mom has been a quilter for most of my life and in the last few years started doing these really cool fabric collages, and it was my turn to request one so I asked for a phoenix cause I’m obsessed with this one art piece I did in art therapy ages ago

Anyway, my mom has been working on it and THIS was the last update I got???

I’m so excited for it?? Can’t wait to see where it’s at by the time I get there this weekend

daydreamingdragon

dude holy fucking shit???? this is. beyond insane. i also quilt, though i've never tried paper piecing - though this doesnt even look like that. this has surpassed any and every sort of traditional quilt work. i can't even imagine how this is put together. im just staring at it in absolute wonder. youve short circuited my brain with how beautiful that is, and 'beautiful' isnt a strong enough word for what this is

onewhoturns

So, as far as I can tell, this is a technique involving cutting tiny pieces of fabric with the colors/patterns you want and pinning and using fabric glue, and then sometimes sewing over top depending on the size of the pieces (this is what I’ve gathered from listening to my mom talk about it, but I know she learned the technique from a specific artist I can’t remember the name of who sells books and classes). My mom also frequently uses tulle over areas with lots of small piecing, usually as a way to adjust color but also I think cause it’s easier to sew the tulle piece than try and quilt aaaaalll of the little bits and pieces.

Here’s some pics from the workroom when I visited in November, and some pics from in-progress pieces before they were finished, if that gives you a better idea of how it works ^^

And here’s some finished pieces!

onewhoturns

Update! I asked my mom for the name of the artist who she learned the technique from! If you’re curious about this style, you can find more info on her website! https://susancarlson.com/

Susan Carlson Quilts

Apparently she’s very generous with free tutorials as well as having books and workshops

onewhoturns

Update! Re:technique, it’s mostly glued at first, with extra glue as well as some free motion quilting on top over areas that don’t have tulle over them, and tulle stitched over some areas.

Also updates on the phoenix!