Jesus Tapdancing Christ... THIS is a good welt pocket and the people who designed Simplicity 2895 ought to be blasted well ASHAMED of themselves for the crap way THEY wanted a welt pocket made. *SNARLS*
This is how I learned to do it and a good example of what you want to see in a short form tutorial: pinning, pressing, seam finishing, good fabric handling.
I would mention that you can make the pocket facing with a small panel of your matching fabric that is visible and the rest in a lighter fabric to reduce bulk. That's a lot of denim layers for comfort.
My sister just told me about a site called freesewing, where you can adjust patterns from your exact measurements and it will "generate" them — but not generate as in what ShitGPT does, just mathematical tweaking of existing patterns, the way professionals would do it if you were going to a tailor. Many patterns also have photos of people posting what they've made, and it seems like it works really well most of the time. I just thought it seemed like a neat site, especially since i saw a lot of example photos with my build that had gotten some pretty good results. That they also don't sell your data is a neat bonus
FreeSewing is open source software to generate bespoke sewing patterns, loved by home sewers and fashion entrepreneurs alike.
I folded an origami cat, and I'm very delighted by how the face came out, as well as the implied movement of the body! The shaping was the hardest part to get right
Designed by Tanaka Masashi, diagrams can be found in Tanteidan Magazine Issue 95
random question: do you have advice on where to buy fabric? the major sewing supply store near me closed down, and I'm unsure where to start looking now. as you always seem to have amazing taste in fabrics, I was just wondering if you have any advice? thanks a bunch!! (and thanks for sharing your work with us, it's always a delight to see! :)
If it was a Joann’s that closed down I feel your pain, alas. Either way, I do have a few recs (U.S. based):
Mood Fabrics (most of celestial Gale came from them haha)
Fabric Mart Fabrics (they have a constantly rotating selection so if you want something, don’t wait too long, but constant sales and really interesting finds)
Fabric Wholesale Direct is not one I’ve personally used yet but I’ve heard good things!
Etsy has some great options if you know more specifically what you’re looking for
And for sewing notions/supplies/etc I highly recommend Wawak Sewing Supplies. Hope that helps!
(Other folks, feel free to chime in with more recs!)
Oh hey, do you know what time it is? It is highly specific resource time!
Today we have the Royal School of Needlework Stitch Bank! There are HUNDREDS of stitch types in the RSN Stitch Bank.
And more added regularly, let’s look at a recent addition
I picked the first one in the 25 recently added Elizabethan stitches, the Elizabethan French Stitch
The stitch bank provides written and photo tutorials as well as a video option to learn to do it yourself. There are examples of the stitch in use, resources, references, everything but a needle and thread!
I looked at some of the tutorials last night and holy shit I'm so impressed! They're SO thorough!
Not only do they have written and video instructions, but there are photo and illustration options for each image AND a "flip view" button so that left handed people can see all the images in reverse!
I am going to jump in and add, as you said they are very detailed in their directions, something that takes a lot of time and money.
If anyone who has enjoyed this resource has the means, I encourage you to adopt or sponsor a stitch to help keep this free to access. I know not everyone has the means to (fair, been there) but if you can, check out their sponsor options
RSN Stitch Bank Progress
And one other resource I have shared before, The Lady's Magazine. Embroidery patterns from 1770-1819. In case anyone wants some historic ideas for using all these new embroidery stitches
A few years ago, when I was living in the housing co-op and looking for a quick cookie recipe, I came across a blog post for something called “Norwegian Christmas butter squares.” I’d never found anything like it before: it created rich, buttery and chewy cookies, like a vastly superior version of the holiday sugar cookies I’d eaten growing up. About a year ago I went looking for the recipe again, and failed to find it. The blog had been taken down, and it sent me into momentary panic.
Luckily, I remembered enough to find it on the Wayback Machine, and quickly copied it into a file that I’ve saved ever since. I probably make these cookies about once a month, and they last about five days around my voracious husband - they’re fantastic with a cup of bitter coffee or tea. I’m skeptical that there is something distinctively Norwegian about these cookies, but they do seem like the perfect thing to eat on a cold day.
Norwegian Christmas Butter Squares
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
Turbinado/ Raw Sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chill a 9x13″ baking pan in the freezer. Do not grease the pan.
Using a mixer, blend the butter, egg, sugar, and salt together until it is creamy. Add the flour and vanilla and mix using your hands until the mixture holds together in large clumps. If it seems overly soft, add a little extra flour.
Using your hands, press the dough out onto the chilled and ungreased baking sheet until it is even and ¼ inch thick. Dust the top of the cookies evenly with raw sugar.
Bake at 400 degrees until the edges turn a golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Let cool for about five minutes before cutting the cooked dough into squares. Remove the squares from the warm pan using a spatula.
It basically makes the platonic ideal of commercial sugar cookies, only in bar form. When I give them to people (which I do a lot, because this is one of those simple recipes where the results seem very impressive), I just tell them they’re sugar cookie bars.
The OP version of this has become my go-to cookie for basically all things and I have a whole cohort of friends and colleagues who would murder each other to get them. Haven’t tried any add ons yet, since the base recipe is SO GOOD.
I’ve reblogged this before and I’m reblogging it again because I’m about to make it again tomorrow and I wanted to add my own tale of just how amazingly delicious it. it was SO incredibly simple to bake and with an extra dusting of brown sugar on top and served warm and soft they gift you with the taste of the nectar of the gods when paired with a small glass of milk. this image is from when I first made them a couple years ago:
hello fellow artists. google has fallen. pinterest/duckduckgo AI filters don't work. do not despair; here is a list i made of places to find reference images without having to sift through piles of worthless garbage. (for future editing convenience i am just linking my blog post on dreamwidth.)
✨ good places to find art reference that are not full of AI trash 🌈
and would it be too mean if I said that when it comes to discovering new books to read it seems like of people would rather just act willfully helpless and blame tiktok for "ruining literature" instead of putting in a very small amount of effort to find the damn books?
whenever this conversation comes up a lot of people start saying something akin to "just read older books" and while I do agree that humanity has an absolutely staggering backlog of books big enough to keep anyone entertained, it often seems to come with an unspoken implication (or, sometimes, ca very clear statement) that this is necessary because all books published now are Awful and Bad. to which I would like to say, respectfully, Shut The Fuck Up. the books that annoy you are not the sum total of everything being published.
personally I think best results will always come from just wandering around a library or indie bookstore and picking stuff up, but variety is the spice of life so here are some other places where I like to learn about cool new books coming out
BookBrowse is a great resource that includes readalikes, new releases, and the option to filter fiction and nonfiction by genre, subgenres, time period, setting, page count, debut books, and small presses.
Discover books that entertain, engage, and enlighten. Reviews, excerpts, reading guides, reading lists, info for book clubs & more.
BookPage publishes small monthly magazines that can be found in many libraries and bookstores, but all of their lists, author interviews, and reviews can also be found on their website. each month spotlights new releases across a variety of genres and age groups.
Find expert book recommendations for the best books to read in all genres
Electric Literature publishes short stories, poems, novel excerpts, interviews with authors, and even the occasional book list
Books by Katie Kitamura, Angela Flournoy, and Susan Choi are among the year's most celebrated novels
the Indie Next List compiles a monthly list of titles recommended by independent booksellers across the US, with an archive of lists
Lit Hub publishes lots of great pieces and literary news, in addition to book lists
over at Paste we've got, you guessed it, reviews, recommendations, and author interviews
Paste Magazine is your source for the best music, movies, TV, comedy, videogames, books, comics, craft beer, politics and more. Discover you
like sci-fi, fantasy, and horror? check out Reactor Mag! among other things, they have monthly compilations of all the genre fiction coming out
Reactor’s regular book reviewers talk about notable titles they read in 2025
and for my podcast heads check out The Stacks, where host Traci Thomas is dropping weekly interviews with authors about their new books and the podcasts' monthly book club reads
In the UK, drop by your local independent bookshop and pick up a (free) copy of Booktime magazine - or read it online, here:
The Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland is a trade body founded to promote retail bookselling in the United Kingdom and Ireland. I
The magazine comes out every other month and covers new releases in the two month period the magazine covers. There are interviews with authors and featured books none of which the publishers themselves have any control or say in; they can’t buy a featured book slot in the magazine. It’s an excellent resource and you can support your local indie at the same time if you have the cash to spare for a book.
All you need in life is a color picker willing to expose you to the unbounded madness we call color vision.
me, absolutely clueless: "I want a color just like this one, but in red"
color picker: Fuck you think you are, a Mantis Shrimp? Don't talk to me again until you can afford a wide gamut monitor.
The circle and triangle are a lie we tell ourselves to cope with the ugly reality... Now this-- this is the real deal!
In seriousness, this is oklch.com, a color picker for the OKLCH color model.
There are whole several hour lectures one could take in color science and theory, but to keep it short: the set of colors we can see, the set of colors monitors can display, and the set of colors computers can model are three circles that only somewhat overlap.
In this case, if I wanted this color
but in red, I could just go of Photoshop and move over the hue slider, getting this as a result:
Which is.. acceptable, but not as "bright" and "vibrant" as the green I had. Looking at the graphs in the OKLCH color picker, we can figure out why:
It tells us that a red with the same luminosity and chroma as this green is out of gamut—that is, it cannot be displayed by this monitor.
In this case, you can use the edges of the graph to find the color that is closest to what you want. You can, for example, keep the chroma but sacrifice lightness,
keep the lightness but drop the chroma,
or a bit of both, which is what the common HSV triangles already do.
What if what *I* see as blue, *you* see as a slightly different blue because you're using Chrome instead of Firefox and despite a decade of messing with profiles we STILL can't get this right somehow.
Historical dress and fashion has been one of my main hobbies for over 5 years now. I’ve really only gotten comfortable in my style over the past year or so. It's taken me a long time to learn how to sew, alter, and how to spot genuine vintage pieces in the wild. I have some questions I get a lot on tumblr and IRL + a few question from the asks I got that were so specific I felt they needed their own separate answers. Everything is below the cut! Also I have a fashion inspo blog @drcoffeebones
What inspires your style?
I'm just a vampire who's never moved on. Thanks to my obsession with Gothic horror I’ve become a Victorian era hobby historian (well I say ‘hobby’ but I am in the process of getting my MA). Other inspiration are the 1980’s new romantics and post punk goths (the other half of my wardrobe is goth twink). I also am a huge fan of classic Hollywood films and gay glam camp. It’s all vampire inspired at the end of the day.
Where do you find your clothing?
It's a combination of thrifting, vintage markets, and making my own things by hand. I don’t buy anything online because vintage resellers tend to jack up the prices and I am doing this on a shoestring budget. My closet is 50/50 homemade and bought. I’m a small man and have kind of odd proportions so I do alter almost everything I do buy to fit me better.
Do you have any non thrift shop suggestions?
Darcy Clothing is the best place to get 19th c fashion, however, I can only recommend this place if you are straight sized and have some cash (I personally don’t fit their clothing)
Medieval Collectibles is a strange choice by they are what I’d call ‘beginner friendly’ and a fan favorite in my irl friend circle. The size range depends on independent brands... they also sell swords and armor if you need that
American Duchess is THE place for historical shoes and I’ve only had a good time with them. They are expensive
Bonus eyeglasses! Vintage Optical Shop – Eyeglass Warehouse
Where did you get that shirt?
I make most of my shirts by hand. Men's regency shirts are actually one of the easiest and best ways to learn how to sew your own wearable clothing. The pattern is super easy to be altered for different sized bodies and you don’t need a sewing machine to make it tbh.
Bernadette Banner's regency shirt tutorial is fantastic
Here's my own pattern formula, you don’t need anything fancy. Now go make yourself a shirt!
Good luck with my dyslexic shorthand lol
Wait what other things have you made then?
I've been doing fiber arts since I was 9 years old and have made costumes at varying levels of professional for over a decade so I’ve made a lot lol. Here are some of my fave more involved pieces I’ve made for different galleries over the years.
Where do I get fabric?
I get most of my stuff form shops irl but I also use these spots sometimes:
wmboothdraper.com
periodfabric.com
renaissancefabrics.com
linen - thelinenlab.com - graylinelinen.com - they got other stuff to
wool - woolsome.shop
silk - silkbaron.com
swansonsfabrics.com - the best bang for your buck but also 'you get what you get'
moodfabrics.com - has a little bit of what you might need / one stop shop
wawak.com - zippers buttons you name it
rosemille.com/collections/lace - where to find lace trims
Bonous - studsandspikes.com - this is where to get spike hardware (one day I’ll post some of my leather fits)
Bonus Questions from my asks
Answering @briannyssey : There are 2 primary things I consider when thrifting. Age and Material. You want to try your best to find vintage and for everyday clothing I would prioritize things from 1980-2010 in terms of age. I can at a glance tell the age of most garments cuz I've been doing this for a while so I will give you the simple cheat code with is TAGS! Tags are you’re best friend and if you can familiarize yourself with what tags look like in different eras it will save you so much time.
Here is my vintage label resource – this site was recommended to me by a long time pro in the vintage and historical resale trade and it's fantastic!
The other thing on the tag you want to check no matter the era is what it's made of. I on principal avoid polyester like the plague that it is when it comes to everyday ware. Not all synthetics are doomed to fail – nylon and rayon are often solid. Spandex is case by case (I avoid stuff older than 25 years with it). I sometimes skip viscose, acetate, bamboo (yes bamboo is a synthetic like rayon), and acrylic but it really depends on the garment. Cotton, silk, linen, and wool (and it’s siblings like mohair and cashmere) are often more solid and last better. Cotton quality can be a bit iffy but a bad cotton dose me better than a good polyester.
The last thing I’ll say is that, no matter what, you need to wash your clothing according to the tag’s instructions + invest in a drying rack or line. These days clothing is GARBAGE, but the other huge reason a lot of people’s clothing falls apart is due to putting things in a modern heat dryer that SHOULD NEVER be in there. Also don’t wash your clothing on HOT unless you need to sanitize them. Heat breaks down the fibers faster than anything. A little patience will save you a lot of clothing, I promise you.
Answering @theghostofachilles : I am going to try to give you the best advice I can as a straight sized twink. Bad news is buying stuff from the store is not really an option for this style, esp if you're a unique size. Good news is I still have some advice.
I would really invest in getting some sewing and alteration skills under your belt. I would look into some tailoring tutorials for starts. If you are on the short side like me you can hem men’s pants. Proper length pants will give your legs a straighter cut. Additionally investing in pants compatible with button bracers (suspenders) will offer a flattering cut + will look more dandyish. A pro tip is that you can sew buttons onto ANY pants to make them compatible with button bracers.
If you cannot find poet shirts off the rack in 3xl I would try out the shirt tutorial I’ve included. It’s possible to complete with or without a sewing machine. Men’s vests are also a go to if you have a bigger chest, as they will box our your shape and are very adaptable in size (again I'm gonna point you to thrifting here if you can).
The other things to keep in mind is a lot of the fashion is accessorizing. Investing in some good neck ware is honestly a game changer that can take a boring normal button up shirt to fancy dandy. I personally prefer scarves and jabots (super beginner friendly tutorial) wish are a bit more vampire than dandy. Still fluff and ruffs also disguise a large chest.
Answering @northirish : Of all things this stumped me for a while because I kept going back and forth on what I’d actuality ware. I’m obnoxiously indecisive but also I often do have to dress to impress strangers so I have a few outfits like this sort of set.
I’m going to go with the outfit I tend to favor for the ballet which is as follows: Crisp white poet shirt, black low cut vest, black stockings, hounds tooth beeches, hounds tooth suite jacket, silk neck scarf in black. Outerwear would be my dress shoes, black cape (either full floor length cape or my faux fur caplet depending on weather), top hat, my golden brass handle walking cane, and I’d probably pair my bras jaw bone ear weights or my silver ram heads.
For the bonus question: This past week I found two of my top most sought items (the smoking robe, and not photoed yet, a pair of men’s leather pants that FIT ME!?). I think at this point my remaining white whale is a real serious fur coat that’s not insanely expensive. I’ve been looking for years now and still have yet to find one that is even my size and good quality fur. I’m talking like Edward Gory levels of drip fur coat.
i hate that every time i look for color studies and tips to improve my art and make it more dynamic and interesting all that comes up are rudimentary explanations of the color wheel that explain it to me like im in 1st grade and just now discovering my primary colors
“red and green are opposites 🥰” cool now how do i paint a tree with pinks and blues without it looking like a child’s finger painting or incongruous blobs of rainbow vomit
ok i can’t explain it very well but im looking for tips and techniques for rendering art like
with specifically the highlights and colors being hues that compliment each other, don’t distract from the scene, and make it more interesting/visually appealing
gonna drop some sources I have saved on Pinterest! I don't know if these all link back to the original sources so apologies for that
cohesive but still contrasting
This kind of talks about color and composition
This is a bit about landscape specifically
Values & composition
Contrast in composition
Balance in colors & values
This one's more for palette building but I think it's useful and can be applied to the other ones
Cohesion within compositions/lighting
"Chromatic fringe" - I also see people using this with shading, they bring in a transition color that is a different hue than the base color or shadow, it makes it so that less vibrancy is lost and it doesn't get muddy!
This one specifically has a lot of process behind the style of painting you're looking for!
Also one of my favorite artists who makes bright and colorful art like this is Not Sorry Art on TikTok & YouTube, her website is here and it's<3 my fav. She has some videos where you can see her process
With the oranges painting you put as an example, I noticed they painted the lighter values more toward yellow - they also exaggerated the hues of the undertones of the photo, so I'm guessing they either did it in their head or bumped the saturation up to get a closer look! I really love these paintings you shared and I definitely share your desire to paint/draw like that :)
If you'd like 2 Print books that I absolutely reccomend to every visual artist regardless of Media, Color and Light and Imaginative Realism by James Gurney are basically religious texts for artists, even the 3-D people because his understanding and explanation of how light and form work is that damn good.
If you're wondering about Mr. Gurney's chops:
James Gurney is the Dinotopia Guy (that link includes his Dinotopia books, prints and online classes too)
I know this says stand mixer, but this is very much doable by hand. The dough is roughly the consistency of play dough and can be shaped however you like-- and you can also substitute flavors out, if peppermint isn't to your taste. (Start with a small amount and taste test; some flavors are more overpowering than others.) This is one of very few recipes that's doable even without a proper kitchen, since it doesn't need heat at all. It'll last at room temperature about as long as regular butter will.
PUMPKIN PUDDING PIE w/ ORANGE ZEST & CARDAMOM WHIPPED CREAM
(makes ~3 pies)
2½ cups sugar
15oz can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
½ tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
2½ cups milk
4 TBSP butter (melted)
1 orange
1 tsp powdered sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 TBSP powdered sugar
1 tsp cardamom
pinch nutmeg
pumpkin pudding pie w/ orange zest
preheat the oven to 325°F
prepare the pie crust (that's another recipe's job—either find a scratch recipe or buy a pre-made dough or graham cracker crust)
blend 2 ½ cups sugar, pumpkin puree, eggs, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl (if using a mixer, blend with a paddle attachment)
add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt; blend until well mixed
add the milk and melted butter, whisk until well mixed (if using a mixer, blend with the whisk attachment)
pour your batter into the crust, filling right up to the edge (the mix will be more liquid than solid, but it will rise/solidify in the oven)
bake at 325°F for 55 minutes
remove from the oven and let it cool
top with sifted powdered sugar
zest an orange over the top of the pie (microplane if possible but regular zester is fine; have found that the most aesthetically pleasing version is to peel the orange and then finely dice the peel but that's a hassle!)
whipped cream
put your metal mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for at least 15 minutes
whisk powdered sugar, cardamom, and nutmeg together in bowl
add heavy cream; whisk until stiff peaks start forming
@surikane and I had a joint medievalcore birthday party this year ! I made this little jester costume very loosely based on various 15th century illustrations, with some appliqués and quilting that are not quite of the period.... We chose the colours based on the heraldry of our hometowns. The little boar bell is for the eastern zodiac sign we share.
Here it is from mockup to party !
Crafty Things @marzipan5toast-crafts - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
