Hi Lis! I'm hoping you can give me Binder Sewing Advice - a friend of mine sent me his old swim binder, and it's a little loose in the chest, so I want to take it in. I have a sewing machine but I know very little about sewing. Do you know what techniques I should use to make the seams strong enough, and what kind of thread? also I've been madly appreciating your posts lately
Oh yay a sewing ask!!
First thing: GET A SEAM RIPPER. GET THREE SEAM RIPPERS.
Sometimes you make mistakes. Sometimes you need to take stitches out on purpose. Sometimes you’ve sewn two left sleeves. Mistakes happen! But with seam rippers, you have the power to unmake reality. You can undo mistakes. You are like a GOD with a seam ripper. You can get ones with fancier handles, and those are great, but I spread my money out on buying multiple cheap ones because I have ADHD and misplace them a lot and there is no despair like needing a seam ripper and not being able to find it.
Okay. Onwards.
If you google your sewing machine model, you can usually find its owner’s manual, and maybe even video tutorials so you can see how to use it. This is tremendously valuable. I keep my machine manuals on my phone and often refer to them.
When sewing swim fabrics, it’s useful to use stretch/ballpoint pins and needles instead of ordinary ones--their sharp tips been carefully rounded so they won’t sever the threads of the fabric and create a fray or a weak spot. Similarly, it’s better to use polyester/all-purpose thread instead of cotton. This shouldn’t cost very much--less than $10 or $15 all told, in Canadian dollars.
Unless the binder is totally seamless and you’re putting one in for the first time, it’s usually good to take it in at the seams. Depending on which way you fold it, you’ll either be creating a double stitch seam, or a French seam.
With binders in particular, I’d recommend securing the new seam with a method that can be easily removed but won’t poke you--maybe with safety pins, maybe setting your stitch length to as big as it’ll go and putting down a temporary seam (this is called “tacking” or “basting”) that can easily be pulled out--and then put it on and take it off again. If something truly fits your form, sometimes it’s too small to get into and you have to make it looser. Then you can take your temporary seam out, and put a permanent seam in for real.
Think about whether you want the excess fabric of the seam to be on the inside or the outside of the binder when it’s worn. Traditionally seams go to the inside of a garment, because that looks nicer. I have sensory processing issues and hate seams, so when I get a choice, I put them to the outside of a garment.
For the real seam, begin and end the seam by backing up, to make it less likely to fray at the edges.
Extra fancy version: Then, once you’ve sewn a new seam, I recommend pressing it flat to one side--depending on the material, maybe ironing the seam down with an iron on a very low setting--and sewing the seam flat to your fabric (”topstitching”). This makes it sturdier and less bulky.
(If you’re new to sewing, don’t worry about it being at the absolute outer edge of the seam. It’s better to have it closer to the middle, sewn all the way, than to have your line of stitching wander off away from where it’s doing any good)
I... think that’s it? Feel free to send me questions or pictures if you need more help!
It’s 2017, or ~2014, I think. I remember there being some heated arguments, and I remember things like “futarchy,” “the left,” “identity politics,” “a block on every color of the rainbow,” and,
And who is the one topic on which we don’t seem to have opposing views? Ais’ Riel, we’re sure you’d have heard of her. A rich, loud, caustic little man with a terrible voice, endlessly feuds with Ais. As the partis rime. But she is loved. She is loved by all, for she has made her home at last a place where anypony can be happy. A place where, like a well-lubricated fireplace, all manner of follies will now flow freely.
Moderate Social Competence: What do you do when you keep trying to make plans with someone and they seem genuinely enthusiastic about it, but it just doesn't happen? ever? (e.g. I ask them what day would work for them and they say they'll get back to me (but don't), or they're habitually flaky and the follow-through doesn't materialize.) I know the first explanation is that they just aren't interested, but in the situations I have in mind that's clearly not the case.
I would expect executive dysfunction; likely due to ADHD.
OK, well, if this were me then it would definitely be executive dysfunction due to ADHD. I am usually decent at this, but only by using alarms and preparing myself an hour early.
If this person really wants to make plans with you that work, maybe sit them down and talk through what’s causing the issues. If there’s a superficial problem each time (missed the bus, took a while to find phone, forgot until the last minute), it may be best to work out better planning styles together. (cf: me always prepping an hour early.)
To some extent, it might rely on them delegating their ability to plan these things to someone else (like, well, you). If so, try to figure out how you’ll actually get them to hold to the plans that get made for them.
If they don’t want to work on solutions to flakiness then... IDK. This mostly seems like a planning problem than a social problem?
mathemagicalschema replied to your post: i hate it when people spell it “thruple”. it...
but why would you use that horrible word when you could just say “triad”
i feel like idea is that in a throuple every member is into every other member, while in a triad maybe it’s like...just two total relationships among three people
mathemagicalschema replied to your post: The lives of non-depressed people are kind of...
The PHQ-9 is a simple depression-screening inventory and the overwhelming majority of people score zero on it. If your score is above five or so your mental landscape is significantly different from that of a non-depressed person
oh. i totally forgot about the PHQ. anyway thats wild
