liberatethenight

[liberatethenight]

so many articles about Fast Fashion, not enough articles about what the hell is happening to the quality of clothes

Like okay. People own more pieces of clothing nowadays and they wear them a lesser number of times before throwing them out. BUT.

Why do we pretend like this is pure vanity or careless wastefulness, rather than forced by the qualities of the clothes themselves?

The other day, I was going through boxes of old clothes in the basement in search of fabric to practice sewing on. The difference in quality of the fabrics themselves is shocking! The worn-out old jeans from twenty years ago are MUCH thicker and tougher than anything more recent. My old baby clothes are made as sturdy as my work clothes from today.

In the past couple years, I have had entire seams rip out of clothes on the first wash. That's not normal!

Polyester blend shirts that feel cozy and soft when they are new, become scratchy and rough after 20 washes or so. I am trying to avoid polyester, but it gets harder and harder; the other day i couldn't find a single pack of crew socks that was 100% cotton. SOCKS!

Also, pilling is out of control. The newest pants I bought developed pills within a single day of walking around campus with a backpack.

These companies are trying to frog-boil us but touching clothes from twenty years ago, the useless crap of today would stick out like a sore thumb...

[liberatethenight]

[liberatethenight]

DIY treadle table

[liberatethenight]

going to start researching sheep breeds that are like endangered or need conservation and then seek out their wool to use, preferably buying directly from the herders, so i can support them

[liberatethenight]

Ribbon PSA

This is 10% a PSA and 90% a Today At Work.

Petersham and grosgrain ribbon are not the same thing and they’re not interchangeable.

Blue ribbon is grosgrain, white is petersham. They’re both double-faced, ribbed ribbons.

Grosgrain has a straight, finished edge, and petersham has the fluted, ruffled edge. Petersham’s edge is usually flatter, where grosgrain’s is likely to have a little bump at the edging. The edge of petersham is slightly stretchy and is very flexible.

You can use petersham for anything that you can use grosgrain for. However, the edge of grosgrain ribbon doesn’t stretch or compress, and the edge of petersham ribbon does. This means that if your pattern tells you to line the edge of a hat or stabilize the top of a yoke or something with petersham, you cannot use grosgrain for it, because that straight edge will not bend or compress. You’ll get something lumpy and sad.

[I told a customer we don’t carry petersham (which we don’t. It’s hard to get a hold of if you’re not shopping online), and she was quite condescending when she found grosgrain and told me that maybe I didn’t know the store as well as I thought. And, I mean. It’s not worth it to tell the customer that they’re actually wrong because of a small detail (it is if they’d be receptive to it but this lady wanted to be right), but, y’know, she was wrong.

And, y’know, I didn’t say anything, just came home and ranted about the minute details of my pedantic textile knowledge, so that you can benefit from this and I”ll feel better.]

BTW, petersham is great for stabilizing and preventing things from stretching. When I’m making ballet tutus with non-stretch basques (the waistband of the tutu), I always put a line of petersham along the top. This prevents the fabric from stretching and warping, which is a huge concern when it’s something so tightly-fit. If you have a curved waistband or neckline that needs more stability and anti-stretch than bias tape can get you, check out petersham. It’s also very useful in hats and bonnets, because putting it on the inner brim will let it form to the curved edge of the hat, but also prevent the hat from stretching. This is especially important in felt hats or straw hats, becuase woven straw and felt both stretch and distort very easily. Basically, any application where you need the flexibility of bias tape for stability, but bias tape will stretch too much, petersham is what you need.

Also, if you’ve been looking for that cute wave-edge ribbon, because it feels pretty and perfect for whatever you’re making, you now know to google petersham. It’s usually more expensive than grosgrain, but mostly because it’s usually made of cotton or rayon, both of which are more expensive to make ribbon from than polyester. A high-quality ribbon can be ripped off a project, cleaned, and sewn onto another one, where a cheaper ribbon (think the stuff you get at the craft superstore in the fabric department) will show holes and won’t smooth back out, making it more disposable.

And there you go, some information that won’t ever be relevant in your life. At least I feel better, now.

[liberatethenight]

An unusual and finely tailored tobacco-coloured wool coat

c. 1911

Kerry Taylor Auctions

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Cashmere Cape, ca. 1912

Reville & Rossiter Ltd.

via Vintage Martini

[liberatethenight]

Hella Big Skirts panel

Ever wanted to make a hella skirt? Wondering how to keep your hella big skirt puffy? Join cosplayer fabrickind to learn the ins and outs of patterning, sewing, and supporting the large, fluffy skirts of your dreams!

This is just the bare bones of the panel, as many of the examples were elaborated on in-person, and it is just the slides, not any of my notes. It is not meant to be exhaustive or definitive, and is just meant for general advice and suggestion purposes only. If anyone has feedback they would like to give, feel free to do so. That said, I hope that people find this information useful.

Here is a link to a pdf of the presentation. You may download for personal use, but please do not alter the presentation, repost without permission, or do any sort of other unauthorized use. (If you have a question about how you can use this presentation, please send me a message with your question and we can work it out. I promise I’m not scary. ;]) Feel free to reblog this post as much as you want, though. I do these panels and post them because I want the information to be shared.

I hope someone finds this helpful! :]

[liberatethenight]

I started with succulents like everyone else but tbh orchids are rapidly becoming my plant blorbos. Everyone takes care of them wrong and it's not your FAULT because the care instructions that come with them are!! Incorrect!!! If you do what they say then your orchid will die!!!! If you give them the right environment they're SO easy. They're such easy plants to grow. They have been UNFAIRLY SLANDERED by a MISINFORMATION campaign. They don't deserve this.

[liberatethenight]

Saving this to the aesthetic blog for shopping reasons...

Dear Marzi,

I know you want to do Renaissance Revival sleeve slashes with green silk puffs (bordered with lace) on your new bodice. it WOULD look very very cool. but consider:

You would need to order more green silk and it would not be done in time for holiday travel

IT IS A WINTER BODICE, YOU ABSOLUTE PEABRAIN

DO NOT BREAK UP THE NICE COZY WOOL SLEEVES WITH NON-INSULATING-WEIGHT SILK

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

WE'RE NOT EVEN GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT YOU'RE USING ANTIQUE CHANTILLY LACE AGAIN DESPITE KNOWING THAT THAT SHIT IS AS BRITTLE AS APRIL ICE

"wah wah they don't make it in non-plastic anymore though!!!" YOU ARE A MENACE TO INNOCENT LACE IS WHAT YOU ARE, MADAME

get your fucking act together,

Marzi.

[liberatethenight]

【-The Devil Bat-】 Halloween Gothic Lolita Vest

◆ Shopping Link >>> https://lolitawardrobe.com/the-devil-bat-halloween-gothic-lolita-vest_p7976.html ◆ Very Very Limited Quantity!

[liberatethenight]

THERE IS. a website. that takes 3D models with seams and pulls it apart to make a plushie pattern and informs you where things need to be edited or darts added for the best effect. and then it lets you scale it and print off your pattern. and I want to lose my MIND because I've lost steam halfway through so many plushie patterns in the mind numbing in betweens of unwrapping, copying all of the meshes down as pieces, transferring those, testing them, then finding obvious tweaks... like... this would eradicate 99% of my trial and error workflow for 3D models to plushies & MAYBE ILL FINALLY FINISH SCREAMTAIL...

[liberatethenight]

Favourite Designs: Wulgaria ‘Cathedral Moon’ Gown [x]

[liberatethenight]

The rise of vegan leather, which is typically made from polyurethane, a type of plastic that has a more favorable Higg rating, has brought unintended consequences, industry officials say. Even as leather is replaced by synthetics, Americans are still eating lots of beef — which means the hides from those slaughtered cattle have nowhere to go. In 2020, a record 5 million hides, or about 15 percent of all available, went to landfills, according to the U.S. Hide, Skin and Leather Association, a Washington-based trade group.

“They’re throwing the hides in the offal barrels out back,” said Ron Meek, a former meat processor who has been helping smaller plants weather the downturn in leather demand.