Awkward J Writes @awkwardjwrites - Tumblr Blog

sunnysideanon-deactivated202003

soft asks to get to know people

what song makes you feel better?

what’s your feel-good movie?

what’s your favorite candle scent?

what flower would you like to be given?

who do you feel most you around?

say three nice things about yourself (three physical and three non-physical).

what color brings you peace?

tag someone (or multiple people) who make you feel good.

what calms you down?

what’s something you’re excited for?

what’s your ideal date?

how are you?

what’s your comfort food?

favorite feel-good show?

for every emoji you get, tag someone and describe them in one word.

compliment the person who sent you this number.

fairy lights or LED lights?

do you still love stuffed animals?

most important thing in your life?

what do you want most in the world right now?

if you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

what would you say to your future self?

favorite piece of clothing?

what’s something you do to de-stress?

what’s the best personal gift someone could give you (playlist, homemade card, etc.)

what movie would you want to live in?

which character would you want to be?

hugs or hand-holding?

morning, afternoon or night?

what reminds you of home (doesn’t have to mean house… just things that remind you of the feeling of home)?

headspace-hotel

so many articles about Fast Fashion, not enough articles about what the hell is happening to the quality of clothes

Like okay. People own more pieces of clothing nowadays and they wear them a lesser number of times before throwing them out. BUT.

Why do we pretend like this is pure vanity or careless wastefulness, rather than forced by the qualities of the clothes themselves?

The other day, I was going through boxes of old clothes in the basement in search of fabric to practice sewing on. The difference in quality of the fabrics themselves is shocking! The worn-out old jeans from twenty years ago are MUCH thicker and tougher than anything more recent. My old baby clothes are made as sturdy as my work clothes from today.

In the past couple years, I have had entire seams rip out of clothes on the first wash. That's not normal!

Polyester blend shirts that feel cozy and soft when they are new, become scratchy and rough after 20 washes or so. I am trying to avoid polyester, but it gets harder and harder; the other day i couldn't find a single pack of crew socks that was 100% cotton. SOCKS!

Also, pilling is out of control. The newest pants I bought developed pills within a single day of walking around campus with a backpack.

These companies are trying to frog-boil us but touching clothes from twenty years ago, the useless crap of today would stick out like a sore thumb...

hey-gray

I used to caddy. I got around 35,000 steps (around 19 miles) on an average day of work. I bought 6 pairs of socks once a year, and they never formed holes in the bottom until I had already bought new socks. I still buy that brand of socks, but now I work a desk job. The socks I bought in February are already wearing thin.

I still have shirts I bought in middle school that I have worn fairly regularly that are hole-free, or only have holes where there is more wear (e.g. armpits). The wear on them matches pretty closely with the wear on shirts I got in the last couple years. One shirt I got new just a year or so ago is practically dissolving - big ass holes all over, including several in the middle of the chest.

These are not the only examples I have. I see no explanation for these facts other than a recent decrease in quality across the board. It's frankly ridiculous, and I want to do something about it, but I don't know what I can do. On an individual level, sure you can buy used, but even good quality clothing does eventually wear out, so not everyone can buy used. It seems like the only solution is producing good quality clothing, but how does an individual even work towards that?

headspace-hotel

I know there has to be real documentation of this buried somewhere in the abyssal detritus of the modern world....The companies made the choice at some point, to start using shorter staple length fibers, lesser quality fibers, less sturdy weaving, worse stitching...and the worse stitching is often pointed out by people who sew because it is visible, but i've never seen an analysis of it spanning the whole chain of clothing coming to be.

Personally, I've been experimenting with natural fibers that are alternatives to the usual ones. Dogbane (Apocyonum cannabinum) is the flax equivalent native to North America, and extremely promising, but it's far from the only one.