My hope with this blog is to gather those of us in the g/t community who happen to be interested in or actively participate in fiber arts! Whether you knit, crochet, sew, quilt, weave, spin, or anything else under the sun, it's always good to have fiber friends! I also come from a writing background, so I thought this could be a good source of inspiration and references for those in those types of g/t circles!
Asks are open for questions! I'm far from an expert in all things fiber arts, but I'm happy to help!
Submissions are open for your own works if you would like to share, as well as any other sources of inspiration! (Please keep things sfw ❤️)
We also have a discord server called The Giant Tiny Textile Exchange as a gathering place for g/t fiber friends! Even if you just think fiber arts are neat, feel free to come join us!
Conversations (Ongoing List)
Fiber Arts in G/t
Knitting in G/t
Crochet in G/t
Sewing in G/t
Nalbinding in G/t
I work in a shop where we repair sewing machines (a LOT of sewing machines), and unsurprisingly we see a lot of the same problems over and over again, so I'm here with some advice on how to keep your machine running longer.
When you break a needle, dig around until you have found the broken piece. If you leave it in there, it can end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and break something vital.
SLOW DOWN. The function of your sewing machine depends on the different moving parts ending up in the right place at the right time. Having to go through a lot of/heavy material slows the needle down, but it doesn't slow down the mechanism underneath the needle plate. If you try to go your usual speed, the needle will arrive too late and collide with something it shouldn't, breaking either the needle or the bobbin case. If the material is especially heavy (say you're sewing several layers of denim, or sewing webbing onto canvas), take your foot off the pedal and turn the machine by hand.
Clean out the bobbin area after each project. Really. Your machine comes with a little brush for this purpose. If it doesn't, a little dollar-store paint brush will work just fine. Remember what I said above about things being in the right place at the right time? Everything needs to be able to move freely for this to work. I know it looks like it's just a little dust and fluff, but it will jam up your machine eventually.
If you can, get your timing adjusted by a professional. I know most people don't have a sewing machine repair shop in their neighbourhood, but if you can do this, it's worth it. If the machine's timing is good, then you're more likely to have a little leeway for heavier fabric or a lintier bobbin case. When the timing is just a bit off, it takes less of an obstacle to put the needle in a place it shouldn't be.
If you can, buy a machine built before 1980. If it's still working 50 years after it was made, it's gonna keep working. Those older machines are made with metal gears and therefore weigh a ton, so they're definitely not a good choice if you don't have a permanent setup for your machine, but it means they basically last forever. Newer machines are made with plastic parts, and no matter what you do, they will break.
Don't buy a Singer Heavy Duty. I'm sure those machines have their benefits, but they are absolutely not heavy duty. We repair more Singer Heavy Dutys than any other single model of sewing machine. If you're already stuck with a Heavy Duty, then follow my advice above even more scrupulously, and start shopping around for a replacement if you can. You can get a used sewing machine of better quality for significantly less than a new Heavy Duty.
To keep things working properly, make sure you're:
threading your machine properly
using the right kind of bobbin
adjusting your tension properly
and using the right kind of needle for the fabric you're sewing!
(These things are unlikely to break your machine, but they will keep it from sewing properly.)
Other than that, get your hands on your machine's manual and read it carefully. If you can, bring your machine in for a cleaning and adjustment now and then. Your machine will need repairs every once in a while: it's a lot of little moving parts! But these are some basic precautions you can take to avoid some common problems.
The lined paper blanket is finally done! It’s made to scale of a college ruled 8.5inx11in piece of paper.
No pattern used, it was entirely self drafted. This took me about 3 months to complete, working on it on and off. I probably put around 80 hours into this blanket so far, but that’s just a rough estimate.
Honestly, this was the post I was most excited to make when I started this blog! I haven't seen many people talking about nalbinding, as it's not as widely known, but I think it could be a dark horse g/t fiber art.
The name nalbinding comes from Danish, literally meaning needle binding. It's a way to produce fabric from short pieces of wool yarn, using a large and blunt sewing needle-shaped tool to create stitches looped through one another. Tension can be kept over the thumb or the needle itself, and when torn or worn down, the fabric will not unravel!
It predates knitting and crochet by many centuries, although in form it is most similar to the latter. One stitch is worked at a time by running the needle through the working loops and the ever-growing fabric. There are many types of stitches with differing densities, tensions, and functions. Like crochet, nalbinding is very good for making things with odd or circular shapes, like socks or mittens or hats.
Nalbinding came into my radar when someone adjacent to my crafting circles asked about it, and I fell down the rabbit hole. It's still a relatively new craft to me, but it's gotten me so excited by the idea of sharing this with the g/t community!
For a brief history and demonstration of nalbinding (mostly to keep this post from being entirely too long) I highly recommend this short video. It certainly piqued my interest when I first heard of nalbinding!
The Potential
Nalbinding would be one of the easiest crafts to maintain by a tiny or a giant, in my opinion! For one thing, it's designed to use shorter amount of yarn at a time compared to knitting or crochet, which could be handy in environments of scarce wool sourcing (like a giant or tiny scavenging for materials). Wool would be ideal, since the fibers at the end of the yarn can easily be felted together in order to join a new strand, but it could likely be done with any fiber available.
The needles would be easy to come by as well since they can be made of wood, antler, or bone. So long as those materials are around, one can make a long, wide, and flat needle to use!
There are also more open-weave forms of nalbinding that could be great for mesh fabrics! Great for hunting/fishing for more outdoorsy giants/tinies, or bags for carrying larger items made with more conservative amounts of materials. Here's a tutorial video of someone using this looping style of nalbinding with plant fibers:
Nalbinding is a newer craft for me, and I'm still taking time to learn more about it! The project I have on the needle right now is going to be a small pouch-style bag; I'm not working from a proper pattern, sort of using the intuition I've learned from crochet to start a circular shape for the base, and now I'm working up the straight sides. It's still in the early stages, so it resembles a shallow bowl more than anything at the moment, but it's coming along!
This is definitely more of a ramble than previous posts at this point, but this is a craft I don't see talked about a ton and I more so wanted to put in on the g/t community radar to hopefully get a conversation started! Let me know if this sparks interest, I'd love to see other ideas for the g/t potential with this fiber art!
Sewing is one of those skills that exists in literally any representation of g/t, even if it's not emphasized! Most people wear clothes, and those clothes have to come from somewhere. If they're not being sourced from another place, like doll's clothes for borrowers, then giants and tinies likely have to make clothes for themselves! So long as they have a needle and thread, they can make and mend their own clothes and other articles.
As per the usual format now, I'll be going through examples of g/t sewing in media that I'm aware of, talk about some of the practical application in g/t scenarios, and provide some examples of what gives me real life g/t vibes in sewing.
Just a heads up, I am a relative novice with sewing compared to knitting/crochet, having picked it up only in the last few years. So if anyone more experienced has more ideas, please share them!
In Media
This time around I actually have quite a few examples of on-screen sewing in g/t that I know of, and as always I'd love if anyone would share others that aren't shown here!
The most practical example of tiny sewing I know of is the scene from Studio Ghibli's Arrietty (The Secret World of Arrietty) in which she and Homily are putting together very large bags in preparation for their move. Not only is it a nice quiet moment that starts to build the tension and seriousness of their situation, but it also showcases the difference in skill and experience between mother and daughter.
While appearing rather large in comparison to real life hand stitching, you can see that Homily's stitches are tight and even along her own seam. Arrietty's, on the other hand, are uneven, and within the scene Homily points out that some of them are too long and she'll have to start her seam over to make sure it's properly secure.
Homily is shown sewing in several iterations of The Borrowers that I've seen, as shown below. She seems to be mending things in the 1997 and 1992 versions, and I think 2011 Homily is running her needle through a ribbon, maybe making a ruffle? It's hard to tell since it's not exactly the focus of the scene, but it's clearly a way for her to cope with her husband very audibly getting into trouble.
And for once I have examples of giant sewing to include as well! @taters169 recently shared one with me in the discord, in a version of Gulliver's Travels I hadn't seen before. The Lilliputians pitch in to make him a new jacket!
Another, shorter example is from an old Disney short about Paul Bunyan, an American folk tale about a giant lumberjack. There's a brief scene, timestamped below, in which the town that found and adopted Paul as a baby came together to make his clothes. Not only does this include sewing, but there's also a big group spinning yarn to knit into cartoonishly large booties for him. Again, it's very short, only one shot in the whole thing, but it's nice to see those details included!
The Potential
Sewing has been around since the dawn of time, so there's really no reason why any giant or tiny couldn't have some access to it in some form or another, if they really try! Needles can be made from bone or antler if metal isn't available, and tinies can potentially use human-sized needles for their own purposes. Sewing needles come in many different thicknesses and lengths, so depending on the scale, they don't have to be too unwieldy. The smallest needles I've seen were quilting needles (shown below), but I'm sure if a tiny or giant is crafty enough, they could make their own.
As for thread, that can be sourced from loads of places! It can be spun from natural fibers, like animal hair or plant fiber or silk, or it can be repurposed. Giants could use spools of rope, and tinies could use some of the thinner threads available.
Similarly, fabric can be homespun and woven, or found and gathered and recycled. I think it depends on the kind of setting you're working with, and whether the giants or tinies live adjacent to human society and have to source things that way. If they live independently, then the former is certainly a possibility. The latter is the reason patchwork items give me major g/t vibes! It's a thrifty way to put clothes together when you don't have enough of any one fabric for the entire thing. The smaller the patchwork, the bigger I envision the person wearing it since I can only imagine giants could find very small amounts of fabric at a time, proportionally.
I guess that leads right into:
Real Life G/t Vibes
With regard to sewing patterns, Vibes are really open to interpretation. I often gravitate to simple garments that don't have too many bells and whistles. Adjustable garments as well, especially if one imagines a giant or tiny could have less access to fasteners.
I recently found a company called Matchy Matchy Sewing Club. I'm in no way affiliated with them. They're a US based company that sells cotton and linen fabric, and PDF sewing patterns. The patterns are designed in such a way as to have several panels, giving ample opportunity to mix and match fabrics into some very cute patchwork looks!
I will say that printing PDF patterns can be tough on a domestic printer, so if you can, I would find a service that can print patterns full size for you. I can't speak for international services, but I know that in the US you can use PDF Plotting and have patterns printed and shipped to you. I haven't used it personally yet, but from what I've heard, it's more worth it to upload several patterns to print at once to make the shipping worth it. If anyone knows of other services that work internationally or in other countries, please let us know!
Fabric choice is also a factor in g/t vibes. Solids are kind of a blank slate, but if there's any sort of pattern on it, I feel it kind of works like visual storytelling. For instance, Moda has a line of tone-on-tone fabric called 'Grunge' that almost looks pre-distressed, great to give one some rugged, well-worn vibes! In a similar vein, I'm a huge fan of their speckled metallic line, which is a fun and random-looking small scale print.
The scale of prints can do a lot to imply how large or small someone is, without being obvious enough to those not in the know. Small scale can give the impression of being big in comparison, while large scale has the opposite effect! Examples below, small scale Liberty Tana Lawn on the left, and large scale Robert Kaufman Organic Flannel on the right.
The thickness and texture of the fabric can also play a part. For example, cotton woven fabrics are much thinner and more drapey than typical quilting cottons, and there are lightweight canvases that are stiffer than typical cotton, but still usable in garments if one wanted to make something that looked like it was originally made for dolls!
I feel like I could go on forever about this, but I'll cut myself off there. What do you think? I'd love to hear your ideas and inspirations for g/t sewing! And if you'd like to chat with more g/t fiber folk, come join us on our discord!
Unlike knitting, I don't know of any examples of crochet in g/t media, but I am also not all-knowing, so feel free to add to the conversation if there's an example out there! In the meantime, I'll just give a brief overview of the craft, and go straight to how I think it could be used in g/t settings, and real life examples that give me g/t vibes.
Crochet is the art of turning yarn into fabric using a single hooked tool. In contrast to knitting, which involves several live stitches on the needles worked one after another in a row, crochet is worked one stitch at a time. It's a lot younger than knitting, so it's taken a bit to build up to a similar level of popularity, but it's quite versatile!
The Potential
I'm surprised that there aren't more examples of crochet in g/t since one needs only one tool and some yarn! I can see giants carving down some tough wood into a workable tool easily enough. Tinies could be similarly resourceful with building materials, maybe bending some wire into a hook they can use. Depending on the size of the tiny, they might even be able to use the broken-off ends of steel crochet hooks, which are used for exceptionally fine work (more on that later).
It is also possible to crochet even without a tool! This is probably more feasible for tinies than giants, depending on how well they can source yarn, since this skill is easier to achieve when using chunkier-weight yarn. The nature of crochet, working one stitch at a time, makes this much easier to achieve using just your fingers than knitting!
Crochet is also good for odd shapes since they can be achieved using only the same tool as you'd need to make any old rectangle! This is why it's popular to make dolls and toys using crochet, and the relatively more sturdy nature of the knotted stitches makes it good for practical use in baskets as well.
Real Life G/T Vibes
Similarly to knitting, I get tiny vibes from things made with big, chunky yarn. I also love that it's easy to make baskets and bags with crochet; being able to easily create something practical like that seems like an important skill for tinies!
Super Chunky Hexagon Cardigan by Michelle Greenberg via Ravelry.com
And from the giant side of things, there's actually a much bigger micro-crochet trend than there is in knitting! Those extra-fine steel hooks I mentioned earlier come in handy for it, along with thread thin enough to use with them. It's easy enough to use any old crochet pattern and make it super teeny tiny, and plenty of people do!
Please do let me know if there are examples of crochet in g/t media that I'm not aware of! And if you're interested in more conversations like this, please join our discord channel!
(This is a continuation of a conversation that began here, for context)
I'm intending for this to be partly an informative post, as well as a conversation starter in case anyone had ideas or questions regarding the topic. As part of the g/t writing community, I know how handy it can be to have resources for niche topics, so hopefully this can help or inspire someone! I'm going to talk about knitting in existing g/t media, some of the possibilities I can think of as far as knitting for giants and tinies go, and some examples of what gives me real life g/t vibes in knitting.
Knitting, for clarity, is the art of turning yarn into fabric using a pair of needles. It seems like one of those crafts that people have plenty of ideas about with tinies, but doesn't so readily come up with giants. Maybe we'll fix that here, we'll see!
In Media
I've noticed this has mostly been explored from the tiny side of things, at least in established media. Now's the part where I admit that I do not have a comprehensive understanding and grasp of g/t media, so if there are further examples of this that exist, I'd love to hear about them! For now, the most immediate examples I can think of is The Borrowers, both in the book and one of the film adaptations.
The first is featured in one of the original covers of the original book, a colorized version of an illustration that shows Homily knitting on a pair of pins.
The text describes her as "knitt(ing) their jerseys and stockings on black headed pins, and, sometimes, on darning needles (...)" and goes on to describe her using spools of silk or cotton thread to do so. This is doable, especially since both thread and pins can vary in thicknesses, which can affect the way the fabric created behaves. One would simply need to find or make pins that were more dull, because those things can get Sharp!
Darning needles, which are slightly bigger than what you'd think of as sewing needles but still pretty thin, are a little thicker and I would think would be used with something a bit more substantial than thread. I'll get into this more in depth when I get around to talking about spinning, but yarn can be spun pretty finely, and tinies could easily be resourceful enough to manage to get it to a usable size, no matter the needles used.
As an aside, the BBC's 1992 iteration of The Borrowers quietly goes into more detail about this side of their existence. It ran for two seasons, covering most of the books up til "The Borrowers Aloft", I believe. The whole thing can bee found on YouTube, and someone recently posted an HD remaster!
Homily's knitting crops up throughout the first arc as not only a tool for keeping her family warm, but as a way for her to cope with her anxiety. She quickly picks up her knitting (from a small ball of wool she seems to have wound herself rather than from a spool, which is much more mobile) after an argument with Arrietty, and while she waits for Pod to come home from late-night borrowing.
Then, after they flee the cottage, they collect wild wool (seen above) from the brambles to use as insulation, and I believe the implication is that it's later spun into yarn for Homily to use to make Arrietty a sweater/jumper and herself a cardigan, shown in this short clip:
Seriously, if you haven't seen this adaptation, I highly recommend! Lookit Homily getting to be a bit of a badass for once!
The Potential
Knitting like this is plausible in g/t spheres, in my opinion. A lot of modern knitting has grown to lean away from separate straight needles like the pins would facsimile, choosing circular needles instead. Basically it's a few inches of solid needle attached to a flexible cord that more easily allows a knitter to work in a continuous tube (like hats), but they can be used to make flat things (like scarves) as well.
Even if an article is made of tubes- hats, sweaters, and even socks- they can still be made flat and seamed together. So if all a tiny has access to are a pair of pins, or if all a giant can do is carve and polish some wood into straight needles, it's a perfectly valid way to go about things. I'm not going to put a limit on the innovations of big or small folk to be able to come up with workarounds if they truly wanted to make a circular needle equivalent, though. Maybe a tiny could use a sturdy yet flexible bit of wire with the tips worn down to a taper, or a giant could MacGyver something with literal cabling, who knows? I'm all for hearing other ideas!
Real Life G/t Vibes
Most Vibes I get from knitting are from things made with really thick or thin yarn. Big, chunky yarn reminds me of how even the thinnest of yarn would probably still be quite lofty to a tiny. To me, it gives the feeling of having found doll's clothing and using it to keep warm!
The Harper Jacket by Ciadree via Ravelry.com
And I know it's not really useful to a hypothetical giant, but knitting tiny things does give one the feeling of being big. I'm often reminded of Althea Crome, the self-proclaimed micro-knitter who made the knits in the movie Coraline and has a whole gallery of miniature knitted art!
Mixing different weight (sizes) and colors of yarn also gives me very homemade, using what you have on hand even if it doesn't match kinda vibes, which I find fitting for both giants and tinies. They (most likely) don't have textile shops where they can get all matching bits. Or maybe they do, and that's valid, too! I'll get into more detail about that when I talk about scraps and stash eventually, but I think this post has gotten quite long enough.
If you have any more ideas or questions about this topic, and especially if you have more examples in existing g/t media that I don't know of or forgot about when writing this, please do keep the conversation going!
This is my attempt to explain what exactly I mean by g/t vibes when it comes to fiber arts. I'm mostly curious if this is a Vibe that other people feel about it, but it just hasn't been talked about so we don't know that we agree? Idk, please hit me up if this at all resonates.
For a quick summary for those who don't know, fiber art is a category of art that uses textiles (yarn, fabric, thread, and in general natural or synthetic fibers). They're a labor of love since a good chunk of them are traditionally, as well as in the modern day, done by hand, though there have been machines invented that can get the job done quickly. Fiber arts include but are not limited to: knitting, crochet, sewing, quilting, embroidery, cross stitch, needlepoint, weaving, spinning, dying (as in yarn or fabric), and many others that I'm sure I'm missing.
Also for those who don't know, g/t is short for giant/tiny and refers to the phenomenon of significant size difference, usually between characters in media. Major mainstream examples include The Iron Giant, Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, Gulliver's Travels, or The Borrowers, to name a few.
I've been into fiber arts for about 14 years as of writing this! I've been a knitter and crocheter for that time, and since the pandemic have become a sewist and quilter. And like most of us, g/t has been with me for pretty much as long as I can remember. I'm by no means an expert in anything I do, but I've been at it for long enough to have a lot of Feelings about where these two interests overlap.
It's a bit hard to put those feelings into words, so apologies in advance if this turns into a bit of a ramble.
Fiber arts aside, I feel like most people in the g/t community are starved enough for proper content that we rely on Vibes to cope. It's about the Feeling of something being big or small, or making you feel big or small, whatever tickles your fancy at the time. The best way I can think to equate this in the fiber art world is: things someone made that I can imagine as being made or used by someone who's big or small.
Those big, chunky blankets people knit with their hands out of really thick merino? Major tiny vibes!
Patchwork clothes or quilts made from teeny amounts of fabric from all different colors and types? Hella giant vibes!
And don't even get me started on no-waste fashion!
I plan on going into further detail in separate posts so this doesn't turn into more of a novel, but I hope this makes sense as a (somewhat) brief overview of how I view G/T Vibes in fiber arts! Do let me know if you agree, and if there are other things that give you The Vibes!
