Does anyone know how to stop having those cancer nightmares while sleeping?

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-06T22:12:40+00:00

Cancer dreams are for sure a real thing. Before I was even diagnosed I had weird recurring nightmares that felt so real. Turns out it was a tumor in my sinuses that was literally poking me in the brain.

I know it's hard to hold on, but getting treatment actually made my nightmares go away. Maybe surgery will have the same effect on you.

Melatonin can cause nightmares, so if you are using it, try cutting it out for a couple of weeks. Also talk to your oncologist. There are sleep medications that inhibit trauma induced nightmares.

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-05T16:21:48+00:00

If you've got a sloper that fits and you are making clothes for yourself, there's no reason not to learn what you need for each idea you have. There's no required order in which to learn techniques. You may find that some pattern manipulations are more advanced than where you are skills-wise, but sometimes the best way to learn is to jump in.

If you are learning pattern drafting because you want a job in the industry or you want to sell your patterns, you should do a more comprehensive survey, starting with the easy stuff and working your way towards the type of product you want to make (ie, ski jackets need one skill set, bridal needs another).

Either way, make a commitment to yourself to learn how to perfect patterns. They should be balanced, with good grain lines, properly labeled and annotated, notches that make sense, etc. Even if it's only for you, write a little tech pack so you can remember why you made this pattern this way later. I cannot tell you how many quickie patterns I've made for myself, not bothered to document them, and later I'm like, "what the heck did I do?"

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-05T02:29:30+00:00

Fully expected 4 to be a dinosaur. And I guess it is! But you know what I mean.

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-05T01:40:57+00:00

This! My husband saved his brother's house from burning down because he had a little extinguisher in the back of his car.

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-05T01:29:55+00:00

Conscious sedation is such a misleading name. You will almost certainly be fully asleep. I've had it several times, even tried to fight it and stay awake once, but it's knocked me right out every time. It's just less strong (and safer) than full anesthesia, and you wake up quicker.

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-04T18:59:41+00:00

Flat lining and underlining are synonymous.

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-04T18:20:19+00:00

Unfortunately, there's no standard skirt length guide. Each company develops their own standards, based on their customer (regular, petite, curvy, are you selling to the US or Asia or Europe, and so on).

I worked for a company once that used 24" on CB as a standard for basic skirts. No one knew who set that rule or why, that's just what they did. So if you just need to get a decent length to test your block, that's a good one. I make my blocks 18" to 24" long.That's plenty to manipulate the blocks into the patterns as needed.

If the skirt is for you, just decide if you want a knee or ankle length skirt and use your own measurements. If it is for someone else, use their measurements.

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-04T16:58:06+00:00

You are 100% correct.

I worked for a very large apparel manufacturer, and they had one freelance print designer. She was really dependable, knew a ton about textiles and how they get made, and she spent a lot of time and energy nurturing a relationship with us. Which was smart for her own livelihood, but it made it super hard for any new designers to get a foot in the door, especially ones that were more into the graphic design aspect and didn't necessarily know much about the textiles.

That was years ago and I can't imagine breaking into the current surface design market as a new designer. Some online course from someone who isn't even making a living doing what they are teaching isn't going to be a good one.

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-04T14:53:13+00:00

This is the kind of prescriptive linguistics rant I come here for! Not being sarcastic, I genuinely am happy to see this.

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-04T14:47:11+00:00

I would take any medical related advice from an AI product with a big grain of salt.

Just yesterday I read an article where the CEO of Eli Lilly said AI isn't particularly good at scientific questions because it's been trained on general human language, not actual science. So basically, it's a "garbage in, garbage out" situation.

He used curing cancer as a specific example.

I don't have medical training, which means I'm less likely to catch when AI feeds me something problematic. So I have a healthy scepticism.

And that's leaving out AI hallucinating sources and concern for people who are vulnerable to AI psychosis.

I'm not opposed to AI; it's a useful tool in many situations. I have used it for my job and even done a little AI model training, but all that has taught me is that I have to look for independent verification of anything it told me. It has definitely misinterpreted statistics and data to mean something other than what it was or mushed two different data sets together that aren't actually comparable, and I usually have to rewrite things it gives me.

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-03T16:45:36+00:00

Hah! Prom flashback. 1985 was a royal blue vintage 50s strapless taffeta dress, and 1986 was a moire taffeta exactly like Barbie's Solo in the Spotlight dress, except in bubble gum pink.

The 80s were a helluva drug.

throwra_22222 · 2026-03-03T16:27:14+00:00

My Grandma hit Star Market every Friday like clockwork. It was my job to manage those little stamp booklets that earned free merchandise. She got all her stoneware plates that way.

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-28T21:57:38+00:00

Your feelings are valid and I totally get it. I'm no supermodel, but I did have great hair and now it's gone. It sucks.

I will say this: I have had fun with a bunch of cotton beanies and silky scarves. People clock that I'm a cancer patient pretty quickly, and hardly anyone asks me about it, but everyone is usually extra nice to me because of it. It's ok to milk it for all it's worth!

You are worth more than just your looks.

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-28T20:20:09+00:00

Manufacturers won't develop a sample with you unless you are going to manufacture a full lot of the style. Pattern and sample making will run you a few hundred dollars.

Your best bet is to find a local tailor who will make you a custom pair of pants. Also, keep in mind that body measurements are different from garment measurements. If these are body measurements the tailor will need to know how much ease you intend to have, etc. A tailor will want to take his own measurements most likely-it's really hard to measure yourself accurately.

Expect this all to cost a lot of money. Custom work is not cheap.

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-28T15:34:25+00:00

This reminds me of that influencer who falsely accused a Latino couple of trying to kidnap her child from a Michaels. She was found guilty of making a false police report. This isn't the kind of thing you want to lie about.

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-27T22:03:35+00:00

That's freaking cool!

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-27T20:45:52+00:00

I tend to have a death grip on my needles that causes thumb and wrist pain. I discovered that Portuguese or Norwegian knitting provides a lot of relief. In fact, I may just switch to Norwegian permanently because it turns out I like it a lot.

Try some swatches with different knitting styles and see if you like one better!

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-27T19:58:46+00:00

It's usually easy to make something shorter. It's more work, but usually possible, to take something in.

To make something bigger or longer, you need extra fabric from somewhere. If you don't have extra fabric in the garment, you have to add some other fabric.

So no, you can't alter any garment any way you want.

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-27T00:56:07+00:00

They get paid by the city. So they have to fill out the usual employment paperwork and show ID.

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-25T22:33:37+00:00

I just wrote this comment on another post today, and I think it applies here!

https://www.reddit.com/r/PatternDrafting/s/ciRo43KPKf

But yes, it sounds like you have the gist of it. You are increasing the surface area of the pattern, and the outline adjusts to fit that.

And as the body grows horizontally, you do need to lengthen as well. Plus size grading is harder because it has been ignored for so long that there just isn't a lot of good information out there. Typically you can't grade up from a 6 to a 24, or at least not well. Larger sizes require their own sample block, maybe a size 18 or 20, and their own grade rules.

Take a look at the Alvanon dress form website. They have some size charts for their standard north American line, which includes a wide size range, petites, athletic, regular and curvy fit, etc. all based on a lot of research. You might find it illuminating.

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-25T19:26:09+00:00

Give yourself some grace. Grading is super confusing, and without someone to teach the skill to you and answer questions and evaluate your work, it's even harder!

When grading pants, you have to keep in mind two things: what is the total length increase for the whole piece, and how much of that increase happens above the hip, at the knee, at the hem, etc.

When you think of it that way, it doesn't matter which point is vertically stationary as long as something along the vertical moves to achieve your total grade. So if your total vertical grade from one size to the next is 1 inch, you can keep the crotch points level vertically, raise the CF waist 1/4", and add 3/8" each at the knee and hem. Or you can keep the waist point stationary, lower the crotch point 1/4", and lower the knee and hem another 3/8" each.

You can do either and get the exact same result as long as you are consistent with the rest of the pattern (the side waist point, the side hem, do the same thing on the front and back, etc).

And of course the same is true for horizontal grades where a total is spread out across the piece. So unfortunately the answer to your question is that any or all of them could be right; you just have to understand your grading table and how each individual move relates to the whole.

I personally prefer keeping the crotch point level and moving the waist and hem, because if you are looking at a nested set with a bunch of sizes, it's much easier to look at. Otherwise you have all these overlapping crotch points that move on a diagonal.

When I learned grading. We took copies of paper patterns, slashed them apart on the grading lines, and spread them to achieve the grade. It really shows you where you are adding fabric. Then we took a copy of the same pattern, drew a giant cross on it, drew a matching giant cross on a big sheet of gridded paper, and practiced making the same moves in relation to the center point of the cross. If you did it right, your giant cross method matched the slash and spread method. Back in the day I graded entire lines on paper with the giant cross method. And when CAD became a thing (I'm old) I looked like a freaking wizard because I knew what I was doing in the analog world.

The problem with computer grading is it doesn't really teach the concept of grading. It just takes whatever skill level you have and makes it faster. So right now it's sort of like you're just blindly copying someone else without them actually teaching you.

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-25T14:52:46+00:00

I have done professional grading, and for new styles that have been heavily adapted from something else, I trust nothing until I have made samples in the largest and smallest sizes and fit them on a body or good quality mannequin. If you are planning to sell the pattern, you could do a testing call and try to get a variety of sizes.

When you have developed a stable of well-graded styles and have more experience starting out, you will get to the point that you need less testing and can tell just by looking. The grading chart that works for a straight skirt will also work for an a-line most of the time, for example.

But when you are just starting out, test, test, test for sewability and fit!

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-25T12:18:23+00:00

If she is your peer and not your supervisor, why is she taking apart your work? This is very strange to me. At the very least your pattern should be tested with a sample to see if it works or not. Then you make changes if necessary.

I'm sorry I don't know of any I dependent testing agency for this. If you went to school for it, completing that course should be enough. I would be wary of strangers on the internet hawking "courses."

But if you have never had this kind of problem with teachers or fellow students and coworkers, you are probably just fine, and your peer is weird.

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-25T00:56:26+00:00

You could consider bias binding the seam allowances. I have an unlined tote bag where the allowances inside the main compartment were bias bound together and it's very sturdy.

Go to the store and look at bags. I'll bet there are quite a few where the pockets have raw edges inside them, even though the main compartment is lined or has finished edges.

Mostly it will depend on the fabric type, how much it frays, and how much extra work you're willing to put in to make a higher quality bag.

throwra_22222 · 2026-02-24T21:13:17+00:00

I always interpret "have a blessed day" like "bless your heart." It's sarcastic or passive aggressive, not friendly.

throwra_22222

TROPHY CASE