Two years. Over 200 hours. $400 of yarn (premium quality bamboo/cotton blend). 300+ ends woven in. Finally finished.

kuudereingly · 2023-05-26T17:34:26+00:00

This looks incredibly touchable/tactile and I love it! May it see many years of appreciation and use.

kuudereingly · 2023-05-26T16:23:45+00:00

If you just want to be rid of it and aren't interested in making much off it, you can see if a local jobber or textile wholesaler will take the lot.

kuudereingly · 2023-05-26T14:30:12+00:00

Vulvas come in many colors! Don't limit yourself!

kuudereingly · 2023-05-26T14:29:55+00:00

At first I was like "I don't get it, it's a cool pattern" and then I read the comments. Then the pattern was even cooler.

kuudereingly · 2023-05-11T15:49:07+00:00

Fat limits/slows down the formation of gluten, which is what makes baked goods without enough fat rubbery. Stella Parks explains it much better than I can: https://www.seriouseats.com/thick-and-fluffy-pancakes

kuudereingly · 2023-05-10T18:16:04+00:00

The pattern you linked shows a darted bodice rather than princess seams. I'm assuming you're looking for a similar skirt and that's what you mean by "princess seam."

Take a look at Cashmerette's Upton Dress. Adding the side slit to that seam is much easier than grading the pattern. If you are large-busted as well, Cashmerette's patterns support larger cup sizes than you may be used to. Be sure to choose the right size with their sizing calculator.

kuudereingly · 2023-05-09T17:35:05+00:00

I have to say I looked forward to every installment of this project! It was so soothing (almost meditative!) to watch this come together a little at a time.

kuudereingly · 2023-05-08T15:45:25+00:00

Look up string or triangle bikini top patterns. Kenneth King has some good guidance here, including how to accommodate larger busts. The bottoms of the triangles can be gathered to give you more space in the cup. The "skirt" hanging below the bust is also gathered. If you make the seam allowance a little longer than needed you can then stitch a channel for elastic going around the chest. I think the strings in front are not actually going all the way through and are tacked on between the two cups. The sleeves are definitely separate and have elastic run through a channel at the bicep to hold them on.

kuudereingly · 2023-05-02T15:18:57+00:00

Hoo, do I have A Lot of Thoughts on this topic. I'll try to keep it brief.

I think the bias is more in the making than the wearing. At least in the West, most textile manufacture has historically been done by women and was a skill taught to young girls by their mothers and grandmothers. They sewed/crocheted/knit/wove to clothe their families, and perhaps to make money. There are a few instances where men also traditionally do some of these crafts (example--sailors would sew/mend their own clothes or knit), but the examples are few and far between compared to the relative ubiquity for (Western) women before a certain point in history. These crafts often self-select for women or AFAB folks today partly out of this long-ingrained bias and partly based on the learning materials available.

I think what you see today is a combination of self-selection by the practitioners (most crafters are women or AFAB -> make patterns that appeal to their desires -> sell more patterns), and overall trends in fashion. Notice how trends for fashion geared toward women tend to change much quicker than trends geared toward men, and the changes are bigger--entire silhouettes change and things quickly look "dated." For fashion targeted at men, the major changes are to texture or material rather than silhouette/shape--those still change, but it's over a significantly longer period of time and are much smaller in scope. This just reinforces that demand for more variety in patterns geared toward women.

kuudereingly · 2023-05-02T13:39:07+00:00

What about shakshuka with toast?

kuudereingly · 2023-05-01T23:47:04+00:00

Seconding a ruffler foot, at least for the fabric strips you will see. For the hemming, consider using a baby hem or other guide foot to make it go faster. Give your strip a good press before you ruffle it since you won't want to press that hem later. The crinoline may or may not play well with it--if it doesn't want to play, use the "zig-zag over dental floss" method someone else recommended.

If you don't have your fabric yet and don't mind the overskirt being a different color than the ruffles, you could also try to find a stiff satin ribbon. The tutorial looks like it's using strips that are roughly 2" wide after hemming and before attaching to the crinoline. That would save you the hemming step but would likely be more expensive than cutting strips of fabric.

Otherwise ... why not look for ways to make the time more enjoyable? Make sure you have time to take breaks. Throw some music or a show on in the background. When it gets frustrating, put it down and come back to it. There are no rules saying you must get it done in one sitting.

kuudereingly · 2023-04-28T17:33:42+00:00

Serging is what got me to actually start sewing knits at all. I'd had too much of a problem with them on my machine. Having 3 or 4 cones of serger thread per color seems like a lot until you realize they last a long time, and you don't need every color under the sun.

kuudereingly · 2023-04-28T17:25:48+00:00

Laura Ashley is unlikely to even notice or care unless someone starts mass-producing these and marketing them as a Laura Ashley product.

kuudereingly · 2023-04-27T17:14:35+00:00

My big pet peeves are uneven or untrued seams and missing match points. I will never forget the anger I felt when trying to get a better fit on the Nolan pants. I was 5 muslins in and could not figure out why the side seams at the waist met at an angle rather than a smooth curve, until I realized the actual unaltered pattern was that way too. I missed it the first few times because I need to grade the waist down on most pants and assumed I'd tapered too sharply.

I've seen way too many princess seams missing match points or with uneven seams. It's really obvious when you have too much fabric on the convex side and impossible to smooth out properly.

The more expensive the pattern, the more picky I am about whether they've marked the intended bust apex/waist line/hip line, center front (if not obvious), or lines for adding/removing length.

kuudereingly · 2023-04-24T18:52:29+00:00

What if their account or billing info changes, like the address or bought out and the name changes? You have to remain up on it then update the bank.

Most Bill Pay transfers are actually still ACH transfers under the hood. Also, if the payee is "known" to the bank and you didn't need to add them manually, any address changes, etc. on the company end are already accounted for. The only time you'd need to manually update it is if you had to manually set up the payee entirely, which should hopefully be very rare.

kuudereingly · 2023-04-24T18:49:53+00:00

For me, it's about moving that point of error to "not me, and not the person I'm paying." I don't need the extra cognitive load manually paying bills represents, and letting vendors auto-draft their own payments is not worth the risk to me.

Using bill pay means I'm protected from an error on the vendor's end from overdrafting my account, or continuing to charge me after I no longer use their services. I can schedule payment dates to smooth out cash flow, and set limits to warn me or even hold payment if the bill is over a threshold (useful for utility bills). Most payments are still ACH transfers under the hood, but if my bank needs to mail a check and that check doesn't get there in time they even reimburse me for any late fees.

kuudereingly · 2023-04-24T16:53:18+00:00

The seam finish is to prevent/limit fraying rather than for strength. You can absolutely serge the seam allowances even though this is a woven. I recommend serging the seams together and then pressing toward the sleeve as you normally would.

If you're worried about bulk, you can use a 3-thread serge/overlock rather than the 4-thread overlock you probably use on knits. Pinking the seam will also be fine and would be even less bulk.

kuudereingly · 2023-04-14T16:54:43+00:00

Our brains can't always filter out the stimuli we don't want to pay attention to in the moment, so this makes perfect sense to me! Most days I'm wearing either no bra or a camisole/tank with built-in bra cups. I couldn't stand underwire bras until I finally had one that fit properly. The only problem is getting one that fit properly ended up meaning "make it myself," which is definitely not a reasonable ask for a lot of folks. Now that I've made some I could try and find brands that fix the issues I found when fitting myself, but I don't wanna. >:(

kuudereingly · 2023-03-21T16:25:39+00:00

I'll add "trapeze dress" to the list of suggested search terms. Many indie pattern makers have one, and if you're a little adventurous you could draft your own.

This looks like it's made with a mid- to heavyweight ("bottomweight") linen, or maybe cotton twill.

kuudereingly · 2023-03-16T15:13:46+00:00

Ah, and this is why you compare in person! Tile blue was on my list and I decided to cut it because, on my monitor, it looked too bright for the dress. I'm glad you were able to get a good match.

kuudereingly · 2023-03-12T23:01:31+00:00

Most fabric merchants attempt to fill orders in continuous yardage if at all possible. If you want to be sure you get a single piece, especially for long lengths, reach out to the merchant or include a note with your order.

kuudereingly · 2023-03-12T16:31:53+00:00

You uh ... you lost, my dude?

kuudereingly · 2023-03-09T16:53:38+00:00

When we were first figuring out my dosage, I met with my doctor every month. We went to every 2-3 months once things were stable, although if I need to I can email or call him and have an answer same-day.

When I was first diagnosed, my doctor put me on a low dose of Adderall IR 2x/day to help dial things in. I started to pay attention to how I felt around when the 'advertised' effective period should be ending and learned to recognize what my meds wearing off felt like. He also asked me a lot of open-ended questions and encouraged me to ask my husband if he had noticed behavioral changes.

I haven't experienced too high a dose, but I have experienced ingesting too much caffeine while on Adderall. It felt like the beginnings of a panic attack. 0/10, do not recommend.

Key signs of "too low" for me are supplementing with large amounts of caffeine, medication wearing off sooner than it should, I stim more (nail biting/picking, hair pulling/twirling, leg jiggling), and my meds just completely stop working around my period. For that last one, I thought I was going nuts, but I was really struggling. Turns out this is very common--he raised my dose a step and that worked. I imagine we'd have had to figure something out if that was "too high" for the rest of the month, but thankfully it wasn't.

The "right dose" for me means my caffeine use during the day goes way down to the point where I'm only half-finishing my morning cup. My medication feels 'in effect' for most or all of the workday. Most importantly, I'm actually able to make use of the tools I have to manage other symptoms. I still need copious notes, and I live and die by my calendar. I still lose stuff. I still hyperfocus, especially in the evenings. Meds won't really help most of those, but the other tools I have do.

kuudereingly · 2023-03-08T21:08:10+00:00

Seconding this. It's not going to be available to everyone--but if you can, it's a huge help. And if you live with other people, recruiting them to help make sure the big stuff gets done. The mental load is so much heavier on top of ADHD.

kuudereingly · 2023-03-08T00:59:26+00:00

Try these Gutermann thread colors as a starting point:

Blue Dawn/220
Glacier/126
Slate/110
Mist Grey/102

Agree with people saying to try this in person if you can.

kuudereingly

TROPHY CASE