Reblogged
Reblogged kikiknits
When I was 3 years old I went to a preschool that had this little green crocheted crocodile finger puppet that was my absolute favorite toy to play with of all time. I named her Chelsea, because Chelsea starts with C and crocodile starts with C and more often than not wild animals in fiction aimed at kids have names that start with the same first letter as their species. I played with Chelsea every day, because she was my favorite toy, and because the other kids weren't really interested in her, and also because I eventually started to hide her in a special secret spot in the room so no one else would find her before I did. She was so beloved by me that when I graduated from preschool, my teachers gave Chelsea to me permanently, because it was clear no one else would ever love that little crochet crocodile as much as me anyway (in part because I hid her). They waited a few weeks after I graduated before doing it, too, and sent Chelsea with some post cards as if the crocodile had been on a whirlwind "travel the world" vacation before deciding to come live with me.
And Chelsea remained my favorite toy all through my childhood. There were others I loved nearly as much, like my Imperial Godzilla and the big red T.rex from the first Jurassic Park toy line and my tiny knockoff plush Charmander, but Chelsea always held the place of honor in my heart. She was my absolute favorite toy.
I kept a lot of my favorite toys through adolescence, even if social pressure eventually got me to give away a lot of them (and some, y'know, broke). That's obviously not surprising to you if you've followed my blog, since I still collect toys into my adulthood. But it's important to note because while I know I made a conscious effort to never throw out Chelsea every time I pared down my collection... at some point, she went missing.
I became aware of it when I graduated from high school. I was feeling really emotional about leaving that stage of my life and, y'know, becoming an adult and shit, and in that state I decided to find Chelsea to reassure myself that I hadn't entirely left childhood behind. But Chelsea wasn't there. No matter how hard I looked, I could not find Chelsea anyway.
And that was, like, devastating, because the only explanation was that somehow, at some point, I had accidentally tossed her out with some other "childhood junk" while trying to grow up and be responsible in my teen years. I had literally thrown away my childhood in a careless attempt to be more grown up.
Of course I knew she was just a toy - nothing more than some yarn twisted together in the loose shape of a crocodile, lifeless and soul-less and more or less worthless in the objective light of day. But she was also Chelsea, my best friend since i was three, my stalwart little pal, a source of comfort for most of my life at that point, and I had just... tossed her out! Like garbage! What kind of person was I becoming if I could do that to my best friend?
I was very visibly distraught, and my mom noticed. Being very crafty, she tried to find the pattern for Chelsea so she could knit me a new one. The problem is, she had no idea where to find said pattern. She checked all her books of crochet patterns, and when that failed she tried the internet, but no matter how hard she looked, she found nothing.
So my mom found the next best thing.
The original Chelsea was a tiny finger puppet, and I had "met" her when I was three. Well, I was eighteen now - shouldn't Chelsea have grown too? And as has been established, this crocodile was fond of whirlwind vacations. My mom found a pattern that looked as much like Chelsea as possible while also being a much bigger crocodile, and gifted her to me before I left for college - to show that while we can't stop the flow of time or how it changes us, that doesn't mean we have to leave it behind.
And yeah, I decided to believe it. That's Chelsea now. Yeah, I know that in reality it's a completely different set of yarn made by my mom rather than... whoever it was that crocheted the original Chelsea, but then, Chelsea was never really the yarn. She was the feelings I put into the yarn, you know? So that's Chelsea, all grown up, and still my most prized toy.
...
Flash forward... Jesus, eighteen years, holy shit. A few weeks ago I saw a post trying to identify a different crochet crocodile pattern, and thinking it was cute, I decided to try and look for it on ebay and etsy, just to see if maybe I could find it. I didn't, but do you know what I found instead?
A very familiar crochet crocodile finger puppet. An intensely familiar one, you might say. Of course I bought it. And of course I asked the seller if, perhaps, they might have the pattern for it or know where it came from (they did not, alas). And after a few days, she showed up at my house.
She's not Chelsea, obviously. For one thing, she's far too clean and fresh looking - Chelsea was very well loved, and looked the part, while this crocodile finger puppet has definitely not endured years upon years of a child's affection. And, more importantly, she's not Chelsea because we've already established that Chelsea grew up into a bigger crochet crocodile. This has to be Chelsea's younger sister, Cici.
And if I could find another of Chelsea's kind after all these years, then maybe, with a bit of luck, I might find the pattern for her, and be able to make more of them. Fill the world with Chelseas.
Reblogged yarnandink
writing 🤝 crochet/knitting
usually a tension issue making things go weirdly?
Yes, exactly. Though I usually think of it in terms of sewing machines, y'know? Cause with knitting, poor tension can make it look not-the-best but you usually still get a THING at the end. Whereas with a sewing machine if the tension is off, you sometimes get that horrible snarl of thread on the bottom and it makes a scary noise and jams. But you twiddle the tension knob a little and that exorcises the demons. Because, as we all know, every sewing machine has the devil in it.
Reblogged yarnandink
Anonymous asked:
Op got any advice on finding sources for 18th c mens fashion? (most of the things i get are for women And That Aint Me Goal)
(edited lots of times because I keep adding more stuff, but there’s bound to be more that I’ve forgotten, and I fear this is not very well organized)
Oh boy I sure do!!! (I assume you mean sewing and wearing it?)
It is, unfortunately, pretty hard to find resources for 18th century mens fashion on the internet. (Note to self: make more tutorials.) But as I’ve been doing it for some years I do have a list of useful stuff!
My first piece of advice is to get yourself a copy of Costume Close Up. It’s my most used reference book, and my sewing is SO MUCH BETTER since getting it. The first half of the book is women’s garments and the second half is men’s garments (11 mens garments, all quite nice, with pattern diagrams and pictures), and it goes over the construction in fantastic detail. It explains so, so much. 18th century clothing construction is completely different from modern clothing construction, but once you learn it it’s quite straightforward, and lends itself far better to hand sewing in a lot of places.
(Really, I cannot stress enough how totally different it is. If you haven’t done any modern sewing before then that’s fine, you’re probably in a better starting place to learn 18th century ones than I was! I took a 2 year college fashion course where I learned modern construction techniques, and about 95% of what I learned there is irrelevant to 18th century sewing.)
One place Costume Close Up is a bit lacking is in the shirt chapter, because the shirt it features had the cuffs and collar replaced in the early 19th century and has no ruffles, so there’s no mention of sleeve buttons or how to put ruffles on.
Here I originally had links to a bunch of questions I’d answered, but I’ve answered a lot more since I first posted this, so I made an FAQ page.
For hair, I really recommend getting a copy of The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty. Yes, it’s only got tutorials for women’s styles in it (because it’s a companion to their dressmaking book) BUT all the techniques are easily transferable to mens hairstyles! And it has recipes for powder and pomatum and stuff! ‘Tis a good resource, with much good insight into 18th century hair.
I’ve got a blogspot sewing blog where I post about my sewing projects in a lot more detail, so I’ll leave links to some of the more informative of those ones:
- In which I talk about shirt ruffles.
- In which I talk about the pattern of my 1730′s coat, and a little bit about the construction.
- In which I talk about the construction of my 1730′s coat in excessive detail with about 50 photos.
- And the post on how I made my 1730′s waistcoat.
- And the 1730′s breeches construction.
- A similarly detailed post for my 1790 black & white coat.
- And one for my yellow striped 1780′s-90′s waistcoat.
- This waistcoat post has some decent construction photos too.
- This is a very tiny post about a queue bag with not many pictures, but I’ll leave a link anyways because a queue bag is an important accessory.
(But be suspicious of any posts earlier than 2018, because a lot of my construction is much less good before that. The further back in the archive you go the less idea I have of what I’m doing.)
(Photo by Hailley Fayle)
I have a youtube channel, which doesn’t have many videos because I am very slow, but I do have some tutorials and sewing videos, and try to cover things as clearly and thoroughly as I possibly can. I have posts on my blog with extra information & links for some of these videos. And written instructions for a couple of them, but I don’t usually do both.
As of the most recent edit of this post I have videos on death’s head buttons, cloth covered buttons, sleeve links, hand sewn buttonholes, machine sewn shirts, and hand sewn leather gloves.
If you want to do embroidery I recommend getting a copy of 18th Century Embroidery Techniques by Gail Marsh. Much like Costume Close Up, it explains everything! How an 18th century embroidery shop worked, how to transfer a design and stretch it in an embroidery frame, and all the necessary stitches and techniques. It has chapters on the many different kinds of embroidery and I really need to try them because I have only made 2 embroidered waistcoats and neither of them have proper 18th century embroidery. (I find the metal embroidery chapter especially intriguing, and have a bunch of metal embroidery supplies bookmarked on etsy. Did you know you can still get metal spangles and purl and all that stuff?! I’d really like to try crewel too. I love those big bold wool flowers.)
18th Century Fashion in Detail from the V&A is a fabulous book that I recently acquired. Not a pattern book, but a very good inspiration book. It has detailed photos of many many garments (about half of them are menswear) and line diagrams of what the entire garment looks like. The variety of embellishments shown there is mind boggling. There’s a lot of amazing embroidery, of course, but there’s also a painted waistcoat, one trimmed with strips of dyed green rabbit fur, and one with a pattern of decorative holes punched in it to let the lining show through! The introduction also details how the various businesses that made up the clothing industry worked.
Fitting & Proper - A book with patterns & construction details similar to Costume Close Up.
A Glimpse into 18th Century Tailoring - Another book with pattern diagrams & construction details, also fairly evenly divided between men’s and women’s garments. The text is printed in two columns, with Swedish on one side and English on the other.
(While I provided internet links for the books I mention, I strongly encourage you to order books through your local bookstore if you can.)
Other useful links:
The Cut of Mens Clothes 1600-1900 - a book of patterns that’s available online as a free pdf and also another better quality pdf (and somehow, magically, still hasn’t been taken down for copyright infringement. Which is good because it’s out of print and expensive! Go download it right now!!) This is VERY HELPFUL for pattern drafting and I’ve used it a lot! It hasn’t got much on construction though.
LACMA Pattern Project - More patterns on grids that you can scale up! I look forward to trying their c. 1790 cutaway coat one.
I should write a post sometime about how I scale up patterns to fit me. I basically trace out a little diagram of the pattern pieces, measure myself, guess at how big the various pieces ought to be based on that, and draw them up full scale on a big roll of stiff brown paper. An unprofessional method, I think, but it works surprisingly well for me. (Though that might only be because I’ve had years of practice… my earlier patterns were not good.) I usually mock them up in old sheets or very shitty thrift store fabric to make sure that they fit.
Burnley & Trowbridge - they have some good historical sewing tutorials on their youtube channel. Lots of little videos about certain techniques and things, and also a men’s shirt sew along, and a work cap one.
Neal Hurst’s youtube channel - He’s a tailor & collections curator at Colonial Williamsburg, and has some videos on sewing techniques, and some very long livestreams where he chats with various experts about particular topics.
Functional buttonhole tutorial (video)
Quick little post about how I made some metallic buttonholes, which is something I need to cover more thoroughly someday.
How to make bird’s eye thread buttons for shirts. That’s just one kind though, a lot of earlier 18th century ones seem to have Dorset knob buttons, and Dorset wheels are also on a lot of shirts (though mostly later ones I think.)
Gina B Silkworks has a lot of videos and books, workshops, etc. about various kinds of passementerie buttons, some of which are 18th century.
The Historical Sew Monthly Challenge - This isn’t specifically an 18th century thing, but it’s something I’ve been participating in (to various degrees) since 2013, and it’s actually what prompted me to make my sewing blog. I find it to be good motivation to finish things, and the people who run it are really lovely.
18th Century Material Culture - Lots of… slide shows I guess? They’ve got a bunch of pictures of specific garments all collected together, anyways. But I’m a tad suspicious of them because their coats page has a few sleeved waistcoats on it, and sleeved waistcoats are very obviously not the same thing as coats.
Here’s a link to my pinterest. I know a lot of people hate pinterest but I find it to be an excellent way to organize my historical reference pictures. (Oh my god I just noticed I have over a thousand pins on the extant 18th century waistcoat board?) Beware of pinterest captions in general though, there’s a LOT of mislabeled stuff floating around there. Thank goodness we have reverse google image search.
The more you look at reference pictures the more you’ll develop an eye for what looks “right”.
There are probably more things that I’m forgetting at the moment, but if I think of them I’ll edit this post & add them.
Some places to buy stuff (Not at all a complete list, and your best options will vary depending on where you live. I live in Canada so most of these are North American.)
- Puresilks - They have an incredibly huge variety of silk, especially taffeta. (Which reminds me, stay away from slubby dupioni if you’re looking to be historically accurate!) I’ve ordered from them a few times and have always been pleased with the taffeta, but once I got a brocade labelled as rayon and it turned out to be polyester. Since writing this post their prices have nearly doubled, so I haven’t ordered from them in a few years.
- Silk Baron - never bought anything from them but I’ve heard they’re good?
- Pure Linen Envy - Reasonably priced linens, and they’re right here in Canada for once! Their summer breeze weight is my favourite thing to make shirts out of, though the featherlight works for even finer shirts, and they have some heavier ones that are great for summer outerwear, buckram, waistcoat backs, etc.
- Cotton Lace - As the name suggests, they sell nothing but cotton lace, and some of the designs work very well for 18th century shirts.
- Renaissance Fabrics - Wool, linen, silk, and some other stuff. I have two pieces of wool from them and it’s nice. And they will send you up to 4 swatches for free!
- Burnley & Trowbridge - Fabric, trim, buckles, linen thread, books, etc. I love everything I’ve gotten from them except their wooden button blanks, which are overpriced and bad quality.
- Wm. Booth Draper - They carry much the same stuff as Burnley & Trowbridge.
- American Duchess - They mostly do women’s shoes, but sometimes they do mens. Their stock doesn’t stay the same all the time though.
- Sock Dreams - They have quite a few passably 18th century stockings! My beloved O Woolies seem to have vanished from the store though :(
- Delp Stockings - I’ve never bought anything from them before, but they have a lot of historical stockings.
- LBCC Historical - cosmetics. I have their white foundation, liquid rouge, and lip stain and they’re good! They last forever too, you only need the teeniest little speck. (A word about the white face paint though - it looks lovely in dim lighting but terrible in bright sunlight or camera flashes.) Darkened eyebrows were part of 18th century makeup too, and for that you can just burn the round end of a clove and use it like a pencil.
I realize that a lot of the things on this list are fairly expensive, so you ought to have a good hard think about how much 18th century sewing you want to do before investing in them. Since this is my One Big Thing that I spend the majority of my free time on, and since I wear much of what I make for everyday, I feel okay about buying some expensive supplies now and then. And I do try to be very economical with my good fabric, and use all my scraps, just like they did in the 18th century! This isn’t to say you can’t make nice things with cheaper supplies though. I have several wool things made from picked apart thrift store skirts, and some plain cotton things that are somewhat inaccurate but still good. The selection at my local fabric store isn’t very good, but nice things do turn up occasionally.
Some general advice:
- Trust the overall shapes of historical patterns, even if they look weird to your eyes. They aren’t supposed to fit the same way modern clothes do. A lot of movie costumes look “off” because they add modern amounts of ease to the clothes.
- Just as you cannot always trust movie costumes or pinterest captions, you should be aware that the styled outfits on museum mannequins sometimes get things very wrong also.
- Proportions are also super important in patterns! Look at portraits and observe how big things are in relation to other things, and where they sit on the body.
- If you make your patterns out of stiff paper, like I do, you can punch holes in the pieces and hang them on shower hooks. This makes them easy to store because you can put several patterns on a coat hanger and hang them up in the closet. I also was taught to not add seam allowance to my patterns, which means when you trace around them that line is your stitching line.
- Label your pattern pieces. Do it. Write the date you made the pattern and what the pattern is for on every single piece. (I admit this is something I’m still bad about) You may think “Oh, I’ll remember what this is for” but then 6 months later you’ll find 4 different unlabelled breeches patterns and have no idea which is the one that actually fits you properly.
- Wipe down the work table before you set your sewing on it, especially if your fabric is a light colour, and even more especially if it’s a table that multiple people use. Wash your hands before doing hand sewing, and wash your ironing board cover once in a while too. Clean your iron when it gets gunky.
- On that note, you should also keep your sewing machine clean and well oiled. The manual will tell you what to do.
- Machine sewing and hand sewing are both good! I do both in most of my projects, in varying amounts. A lot of 18th century techniques are much much better done by hand, but I don’t see any problem with doing some machine sewing (instead of the backstitch or running stitch) on certain construction seams that aren’t visible, especially for shirts. (I should note that while I do strive for accuracy in most of my projects, I am not a reenactor.)
- Facebook groups can be a great resource sometimes, but you’ll also find people telling you completely untrue things thinking they’re being helpful, so don’t trust anything without sources. And there are also a few assholes who hate fun, so just remember that miserable grumpy old reenactor men aren’t the boss of you and you should sew things that make you happy.
- It’s best to use cheap fabric for your first few attempts, because you won’t be brilliant right away, but don’t be afraid of expensive material forever! It’s so much nicer to work with nice materials, and you should use them instead of hoarding them.
- Here’s a post of some of the garbage I made when I was first trying to sew clothes. Don’t be discouraged by your early attempts! Keep sewing, we all have to start somewhere! With years of practice I’ve gotten so much better, and so will you!!
- It’s hard to find good lace these days, and if you can only find shitty lace then plain organdy ruffles are always a better choice. I’ve tried putting bad lace on shirts and sadly there’s no way to hide its badness.
- A few accessories can make a world of difference in how “complete” your ensemble looks. Gloves, hats, watch chains, muffs, fans, a walking stick if you can get one. All good things to add!
Good luck with your sewing! Have fun and remember to wax your thread and use a thimble!
Reblogged yarnandink
Sometime last year I got back into knitting and I kept thinking to myself "why on earth would anyone make another generic-ass sweater by hand when you could use that time to make projects that are actually interesting"
Anyway after working a handful of semi-ambitious projects I get it now. Fuck this, just let me knit stockinette in the round. I'm tired.
Reblogged yarnandink
SO excited that I got my two practice alligators done!
This is from Susan B. Anderson's book Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out Knit Toys, though I made a few changes as always
Reblogged yarnandink
can you tell us what all the species on the marsh sampler are? i love it so much!!!
yeah babey!! Row by row, from the top--
Row 1: Red-winged blackbird | Grasshopper | Mallard Ducks | Honeybee | Raccoons
Row 2: Field mouse | 💙Great Blue Heron💙| Mysterious Elegant Fish I Saw Once (species unknown) | Painted Turtle | Bald Eagle
Row 3: Swans | Crawdad (I call them 'crayfish' but at the last nature fest I took a poll and was soundly outvoted) | Killdeer | Woolly Bear | Canada Geese
Row 4: Whitetail Deer | Monarch | Specific coloration of frog I see all the time, but have never known the name of | Muskrat <3 | Snake I saw in a tree once (species unknown)
Row 5: Dragonfly | Rabbit | Green Heron | Egret | Firefly
Sorry not to have all the official full names-- I'm at the marsh all the time, so me and the animals are pretty tight, but we're not all on a first-name basis yet ;) Most of these are based off of videos and photos I've taken-- if you want to see some side-by-side comparisons, I made a little vid of em--
Reblogged
Where the hell do I purchase sewing patterns now
Hello there!
Unfortunately, the answer is going to be online shops. You might get lucky and find some irl, but the bulk of your shopping will be online.
That said, Michael's does carry some patterns in person at the stores that carry fabric. It isn't as extensive of a selection as Joann's had, but if you need to have it that day or want to take advantage of sales and coupons, see if you can get it at your local store.
Direct from the pattern companies is your next option. This only works if you want from the big name companies (err...company, they're all arms of the same company now), and you would likely have to pay full price unless they had a sale, as well as get the pattern shipped if it's a physical pattern. A lot of the patterns these days come in a digital format, though, so if you don't mind printing yourself or sending it to a print shop, that's a more immediate option.
Next line of attack would be known online sellers. There are a few companies that make sewing patterns specifically for cosplay, and several cosplayers who make sewing patterns, typically for specific outfits but sometimes more general patterns. There's also various indie (non-cosplay) clothing pattern sellers out there.
I would warn you against Etsy or similar as a general search unless you know who the seller is/they are vetted, since there are a LOT of AI generated patterns out there these days. These, for obvious reasons, will not work. Unless you're good at spotting AI, I'd stay away or ask around if a particular seller seems good before buying. (A tip: usually real sellers are more expensive because they put actual work into drafting, grading, and testing, and AI patterns tend to be dirt cheap for what they promise.) A lot of AI patterns are also directly stolen from real creators, so be careful! (I know Aranea Black's corsets are out there with bad gen AI images, for example, even though her patterns were always free and you can still get them if you know where to look)
Not a comprehensive list of pattern sellers, but ones that I know are legit and come to mind:
Dr-Cos Japanese site with a whole bunch of free and some paid patterns. Prints in A4 size only, so Americans, beware (or just buy A4 paper).
Maridah Cosplayer with some basics and some cosplay specific patterns. I highly recommend the modular patterns like the sleeve parts.
Indigo Patterns Cosplayer who sells mostly specific character patterns but has some great blocks (the bodice blocks are supposed to be fantastic)
First Stop Cosplay Cosplay focused shop with both licensed characters and general patterns. Sells both digital and physical patterns.
Cut/Sew Patterns Shop with both physical and digital patterns for both cosplay and J fashion
Katkow Pattern company focused on drag queen wear
Charm Patterns Largely vintage-inspired clothing
Corsets by Caroline Corsets and only corsets, but about the only corset seller you will need
Redthreaded Historical costuming but can still be useful for cosplay, depending on the character
Of course, if you are looking for something specific, you can always search for that and then work backwards to find out if they're a reputable seller.
Also, if you want to learn how to make your own patterns, I recommend Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Jo Armstrong (any edition from the 00s and newer should be fine, and I think Archive.org might have it?)
I hope that helps! Good luck :]
Reblogged swords-n-spindles
*dusts this blog off*
The world is on fire, but I will still make nice things for the people I care about because we must still have our small moments of joy.
(Pattern is Pallas Athena from Ravelry)
Reblogged yarnandink
I just found the most amazing knitting pattern for a dragon plushie. The dragon is beautiful and the entire pattern has videos showing how it is made, absolutely amazing.
Just look at it! It is so beautiful
The little wings!
The toenails on this one omg
And it seems relatively easy to do- at least the process is incredibly well explained from what I have seen, with a written pattern and videos. Anyway, it is insane, the videos don't have as many views as you would think, and there were so many dragons. I probably put in too many photos on this post but I love them all so much. I am going to make this the second I can- unfortunately I don't think this is a "do in class as a stim" project.
Reblogged
SEWING MACHINE HANDLERS, COSPLAYERS, ANYONE WHO PROSUCES CO2, I SUMMON THEE TO GIVE ME TIPS FOR SEWING MY FIRST COSPLAY AAAAAAA
Here are my fabrics if it matters
Blue one was gifted by my sigma alpha rizzler of a friend
Hello there!
You have chosen some fun but somewhat difficult fabrics for your first cosplay, so I wish you luck! I don't mean to scare you off, but there is a bit of a learning curve with these, but once you work with these, you can do pretty much anything.
First, your question in the tags:
It depends on if the zipper is separating or not.
For a regular, non-separating zipper, set your machine to a wide zigzag with a short stitch length (so the needle will move back and forth across the stitch a wide distance but won't move forward much). Use this to sew across the bottom of the zipper below where you need it to be sewn to the fabric but above where you plan to cut it. Sew across the zipper teeth, being careful to not hit the teeth but instead sew across them. Do this several times until you have a good amount of thread. You can backstitch to secure at this point. Cut off the excess thread and then cut the zipper below the threads. This will act as a new zipper stop.
If it is a separating zipper, do pretty much the same but inverse. Instead of sewing across both sets of teeth at the bottom of a closed zipper, you will sew across one set of teeth at the top of an open zipper. This will act like the little metal stoppers that come on the zipper and prevent the pull from coming off when you close the zipper, but won't prevent the separation at the bottom.
(You can also buy the little metal stoppers and apply them with pliers but I never bother.)
Bad MS Paint doodles of what I mean:
Separating on left, regular on right. Green is the thread marks and the dashed green is the cut lines.
As for fabrics:
The sequin will honestly be harder than the foiled knit imo, but I know that people who hate working with knits would disagree with me. You pretty much have to remove all the sequins within the seam allowance and stitching line before you sew, otherwise you will break all your needles (ask me how I know). Wear eye protection when sewing this.
As for the foiled knit, you will need to use a stretch stitch (thread doesn't stretch, fabric does, so you'll pop your stitches when it stretches) and do something to reduce skipped stitches. I use a stretch needle, which is named as such on the package and helps both protect the knit and prevent skipped stitches, and use either a walking foot if you have one or parchment paper over the fabric as you sew if not to stabilize the fabric, which will also prevent skipped stitches.
Don't stretch as you sew, as this causes ripples.
You may need a teflon foot if your regular one sticks to the foil.
Here's a link to an old Powerpoint of mine about sewing stretch fabrics: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/198ObT8rcaGiIyuAmtkEkjDcWtLvycGaI/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105249766242436708013&rtpof=true&sd=true
The stitch I would recommend for general construction is the triple stitch, which looks like ¦¦¦ on your machine. If your machine does not have one of these, use the narrowest and longest zigzag you can.
Honestly knits aren't bad, they just require a bit of different technique than wovens.
I hope that helps! Good luck and happy crafting :]
Reblogged theexhaustedmermaid
Happy Trans Day of Visibility, y'all. 🏳️⚧️
💙💖🤍
Reblogged cosplaytutorial
Hey i’m a fashion design student so i have tons and tons of pdfs and docs with basic sewing techniques, pattern how-tos, and resources for fabric and trims. I’ve compiled it all into a shareable folder for anyone who wants to look into sewing and making their own clothing. I’ll be adding to this folder whenever i come across new resources
plussizedandrogyny
Updated just now with new hand sewing resources (mainly buttonholes) and textbook pdfs on fashion history, fashion illustration, and thinking through designs!
OP I owe you my life
OP you are the greatest person currently in my life. You beautiful, thoughtful creature.
