#scarlok

[shoshimakesstuff]

Toye, show me your feet.

[forthegothicheroine]

Halloween wasn't a big thing in most of the places I lived, but a few years ago I started getting trick or treaters so I dressed up the next year. Wasn't sure what to be, so I got out a '20s black opera cape, a fez and grey lipstick. A little girl asked me what I was, admitted I had no idea. (I take a similar approach to Purim, tbf.) Another child refused to take anything from me. :/

Aww!  I certainly would have taken candy from you in that outfit (I would still take candy from you in that outfit!)  For similarly undefinable weirdness, you should read the short stories of Kelly Link- my favorite collection of hers is Pretty Monsters, but any of her collections will include lots of deadly magical realism.

[shoshimakesstuff]

DECEMBER by @onelungmcclung, part of the ask him to dance series

"He knows McClung as well as he knows most of the men but he never realised just how much the other man talks to himself until they’re sharing a foxhole in Bastogne and all the time McClung is twisting his hands, rubbing them together in an attempt to keep himself warm, and murmuring to himself.”

[shoshimakesstuff]

“Be quicker if you make it.

You askin me to stay so I can make you coffee?

Hey, says Toye. Shut up.”

RETURN — @onelungmcclung

[harrietvane]

scarlok replied to your post: Do you have any tips for learning dressmaking?...

my comfort zone is very much hand sewing, but I have an old and therefore fairly unintimidating Singer sewing machine to befriend, which I haven’t used as much as I should because tension seems like unpredictable magic so far. time to enter the fray, I think.

I mean, to be fair - there’s very little that a machine does that hand-sewing *can’t* do (see: all of human garment making before the mid-19th century), it’s just it will do it faster.

Re: tension, it’s actually pretty rare that you should have to change the basic thread tension setting on a home machine, unless you’re getting quite adventurous with fabric types, or trouble-shoting a specific tangle problem, so I would say if it’s sewing a decent straight stitch and decent zig-zag for you, let it be.

And for sure: a simple tote bag is a great ice-breaker between you and your machine before launching into more controversial topics. If you haven’t got a serger (which i don’t, what am I a millionaire?), among other things it helps you practice running a neat zigzag along the edges of your fabric to prevent fraying, which you will be doing a LOT of when making garments. When a pattern says ‘finish your seams’ that’s generally what it wants you to do. A lot.

(Until you learn French seams or bound seams which you become addicted to, because they make your garments feel 🎵so fancy🎵)

[harrietvane]

scarlok replied to your post: scarlok replied to your post: ...

I think it genuinely might be – it’s very similar to foot treadle ones I’ve seen, only hand turned instead. anyway, thank you, I’ll try couturing my way through it! <3

Ooh a hand-wheel! Now that’s a vintage machine.

Also fun fact, you don’t always have to finish your seams! Pinking shears (scissors that cut a wicked looking zigzag) were made for this, as woven fabric will generally resist fraying along a bias - if the cut is diagonal to the threads, which on woven fabric is a basic grid, the fabric weave will just stay put through the magic of physics. Also jersey fabric, where it’s tiny tiny little knitted loops, will also generally just refuse to fray, so you’re all good with jersey anyway as well.

If your fabric is a loose-weave and you want to hand-finish rather than bind or flat-fell, this is basically an old-school hand-finished seam allowance: http://www.sempstress.org/skill/finishing-a-seam-allowance-by-hand/

You can pretend you’re in a Parisian couturier in 1930. But sit by a strong light.

[harrietvane]

scarlok replied to your post: scarlok replied to your post: ...

if your machine doesn’t do zigzag stitching (I’m not 100% sure rn, would have to check, it’s pretty old), is it still good for this kind of sewing?

I think most machines from the mid-20th century onwards would have the ability to toggle the needle side-to-side (making a zigzag), but if it’s a genuinely OLD singer from before the 1950s, like with a foot treadle, you may only be able to do a straight stitch, and so won’t be able to finish your seams that way. That still leaves you with hand-finishing (ooh couture!), covering seam allowances with bias binding (aka hong kong seams), or flat-felling (where you fold one seam allowance under the other and stitch it down flat, like you see in a lot of jeans).

[dhaaruni]

🐄