#not so much for like clothes but like the ladybug I made and Petunia the opossum I sure did

[tj-crochets]

Heya! Do you have any tips for pattern making? Specifically a long sweater for a doll?

Loads! It varies a bit between crochet and sewing patterns, but surprisingly not that much?  The easiest, most basic pattern making (aka like 90% of what I do) is breaking the thing you want to make down into basic shapes. For a sweater, the most basic shape would be rectangle for the front, rectangle for the back, and two (or four) rectangles for the arms.  There’s some refining you can do based on style of sweater, neckline, desired level of positive or negative ease, sleeve style, etc, but all that is more towards clothes designing than general pattern designing which is something I absolutely don’t know the right terms for.  So! To design a basic sweater, you’ll need a few things. Mostly, you’ll need a doll to size it to, fabric with some stretch in it (like fleece or minky or an old t-shirt or something) or yarn if you are crocheting, and some paper (either to make the sewing pattern or to write crochet notes on).  I’m going to put the rest below a read more because it will be long:

All these notes are specific to a very basic rectangle-based design, but you can easily make alterations to change up your pattern. The design will be two main rectangles for the front and back, sewed up the sides to the armpits to make a tube (either from crochet or fabric), sewed a bit from the top outside edges towards the neck (making an almost boatneck style neckline) and with either two piece sleeves (two rectangles sewed along long edges to make a tube per sleeve) or one piece sleeves (one rectangle sewed together along long edges to make a tube per sleeve) The absolute easiest way to design a pattern is to base your measurements off of a piece of clothing that already fits the doll. Barring that, I’d take flexible measuring tape and find measurements for how wide you want the sweater to be at the shoulders, and see if that measurement will also be wide enough that that measurement times two (the finished circumference of the sweater with the back and front sewn together) will be enough to fit over the doll at all points; you might have to make the rectangle shape more of a trapezoid to make it fit over the hips, or make the shoulder measurement of the rectangle a little longer and have what I think are called drop shoulders? Depending on the shape of the doll, it might be easier to design the sweater to be pulled up from the doll’s feet instead of pulled over the doll’s head. Either way, it might be wise to not finish up the shoulder seams until you can test how difficult it is to get it on the doll.  Also measure the length you want to sweater to be. Now that you have the size for your rectangles (or trapezoids, if you are going that route), you either need to crochet two panels from any stitches you want that are that size, or add a seam allowance (I usually use 1/4″) and cut out the fabric (including that seam allowance!). Once you are done with either method, I’d pin the shoulder seams at the corners to check the fit on the doll and have a start point to measure from to get the size of the arm rectangle. For crochet, you absolutely could crochet the sleeves in the round. For sewing, you pretty much measure the circumference of the widest part of the arm, add however much positive ease you want (to make the sleeve wider so it doesn’t fit like a second skin), use that by the length you measured earlier to make a rectangle, add a seam allowance, and sew up the long ends. Then sew the sleeves to the body of the sweater, sew up the side seams of the sweater, check the fit and mark where you want to stop sewing along the shoulders to make the neckline, and sew that.  Other notes: if you don’t have flexible measuring tape, you can use a piece of yarn or string to figure out the length you want and then measure the yarn or string with a ruler. Depending on the fabric you are using and the look you are going for, you’ll either need to sew a hem at every unsewn edge (and thus account for it when adding your seam allowances) or decide you don’t want to hem and don’t include a seam allowance on that edge because there will be no seam. When using minky for the one shirt pattern I made (for a teddy bear wearing a Star Trek red shirt) the sleeves and bottom of the shirt were hemmed but I left the neckline unhemmed to curl under a bit In my experience it’s easier to hem the sleeves before you sew them into tubes, but easier to hem the bottom body edge after it’s assembled, unless the sweater will be super tiny.  For crochet you don’t really need seam allowances but you will have to account for stretch; something all in dc will have more stretch than something in sc. If you’re making a tight, stiff fabric you’ll probably need to make it a bit bigger than you think you will to be able to actually put the sweater on the doll. I hope this helps! Pattern making seems to vary a lot between different pattern designers and some of my plushie pattern making skills don’t seem to transfer over into clothes pattern designing, so I’m hoping some other sewing and crocheting friends chime in to offer other strategies and tips. 

[atomicsuperhero]

The Aphid vs. Ladybug Saga Continues

So we’re about 10 days out from releasing our first batch of ladybugs into the greenhouse to deal with our aphid infestation. We released approximately half the first day, and then we’ve been slowly releasing a few more at time every couple of days.

Things were looking good, within just a few hours there was a marked difference in the number of aphids on the seedlings. We were optimistic that 1000 ladybugs had solved our aphid problem. A week out, we’re not so sure…

We made a shroud of tulle fabric that we had in the sewing room to try and keep the ladybugs from escaping the greenhouse so quickly. At first we just had it hung over the door of the greenhouse. Then we moved it so if hung straight down to the floor over the entire length of the shelf of plants. It worked ok, but plenty of them still found their way out.

They did pretty well, within a few days the Dracaena seedlings were almost clear of aphids. We’re still not positive if they’re all going to survive since the aphids did so much damage before the ladybugs arrived. Most of the other seedlings in the greenhouse are doing ok now too, they seem to be mostly clear of aphids.

But, the petunias, which had the worst infestation to begin with, are still not out of the woods. At first it was looking optimistic, like everything else. But a few days after the rest were looking good, we noticed more leaves on the petunias that were loaded with aphids again. So we’ve sort of isolated them from the rest.

We moved them up onto the top shelf, and completely shrouded them in the tulle. The tulle is wrapped around, underneath all the trays, up to a bar above the trays, and then around the ends too. We’ve got it clothes-pinned together to seal off the exit opportunities as much as possible. Every few days we add a few more lady bugs in and close it up quick. A couple of days ago we released the last of them into the shroud.

The bag says that in 7-10 days we should be seeing ladybug eggs and nymphs. I haven’t seen any yet, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. Either way, I hope they pretty much take care of the aphid problem soon, so our petunias don’t all die.

It’s clear we’re going to lose some of the seedlings, there is a few here and there that are in pretty rough shape. I’m just hoping that the one batch of 1000 aphids will be enough to get our little baby plants through until they are a little stronger and can be moved outside.

I feel like I need to add a note about the much-discussed efficacy of ladybugs. If you google live ladybug suppliers, as I did, you’ll mostly likely come up with a long list of articles about “why you shouldn’t buy ladybugs for aphids.”

I’ve previously mentioned that I think these articles are a bunch of BS. But after thinking some more I realized that in a broader garden they’re probably right. Ordering 1000 ladybugs and releasing them over my entire yard/garden would be an exercise in futility. 1000 ladybugs free in my garden is 1000 ladybugs free in my entire city, they would disperse quickly and have very little impact on my yard or garden as a whole. We have a more controlled environment, a small greenhouse, with the ability to control their movement somewhat with fabric and release them slowly over time.

So, if you have an aphid problem in your yard, I probably wouldn’t recommend ordering ladybugs to deal with it, unless of course you want to order 100,000 or something. But if you have an aphid problem in your house, or in a greenhouse, or even a cold frame, it might be worth a try.

[adrelianafernandes]

Feathers

Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug. All rights belong to Thomas Astruc and his team.

Summary: In Mr Pigeon, Ladybug was witness to Chat Noir's allergies to feathers. So was Marinette to Adrien's allergies after being judged winner of the design competition. What if Marinette actually connected the dots?

Notes: Another repost. I’m also looking for a beta to bounce ideas off, since I love to hear feedback about my work. Message me if you’re interested!

XxX

"Is this a joke?" Mr Agreste asked, staring closely at the two identical hats.

Chloe gasped dramatically, stamping her foot. "No fair!"

She crossed her arms, wailing: "Marinette copied my design! It's scandalous! How could you do that!"

If that weren't enough, she started crying into the podium dramatically.

Mr Agreste raised an eyebrow at her dramatic behaviour.

"I apologise for the situation, Mr Agreste, but I can prove that this hat is my original design," Marinette said smugly, her arms crossed as everyone's attention was drawn to her instead of the wailing Bourgeois heir.

Instantly, Nathalie turned the tablet away from the wailing Chloe to face Marinette.

"Go ahead," Mr Agreste said solemnly to Chloe and Sabrina's gasps.

"Uhm," Marinette began as she took the hat off its podium. "Everything on my derby hat is hand-made, from the embroidery to the weaving of the band to the stitching of the brim."

Chloe scowled as she realised that Marinette was just about to unravel her carefully laid plan.

"It was all done by myself," Marinette continued. "And last, there's a special design element that only the true designer knows about."

She turned the hat upside down, tilting it to expose the gold embroidery that spelled out her name in elegant gold cursive. "I signed mine."

Chloe gasped in shock as her hands flew to cover her mouth, accidentally knocking over her podium. Instantly, everyone turned at the sound of the crash as the hat too fell upside down, exposing the gold embroidery.

Chloe ran off, sobbing once more as she departed the school grounds. "Daddy!" she wailed.

Nathalie turned the tablet around to face Marinette once more, Mr Agreste looking impressed.

"Very exquisite creation," Mr Agreste said approvingly as Marinette blushed, staring at the hat in her hands. "You definitely have the labouring hands of a hatmaker, Miss…?"

"Marinette," Adrien interjected, placing his hand on Marinette's shoulder as he gestured at the aspiring designer.

"Congratulations on your demonstration, Miss Marinette," Mr Agreste continued. "You're the winner."

Instantly, Marinette and Alya looked to each other, exchanging looks of glee.

"Thank you, thank you!" Marinette gasped in joy, bowing, her face absolutely ecstatic.

"Adrien will wear your derby on our next advertising campaign," Mr Agreste continued.

Adrien grasped Marinette's hands, the girl gasping and blushing at the contact.

"Awesome job, Marinette," Adrien praised, his emerald eyes meeting sapphire. Instantly the blush grew tenfold and Marinette's smile grew larger as she met his eyes.

Taking the derby hat from Marinette's suddenly warm hands, Adrien started to put it on his head… only to stop when he felt a ticklish sensation up his nose.

"Ahh, ahh, ah, ah, ah, choo!" he sneezed, startling Marinette and Alya at its suddenness.

He sniffled, eyes lidded as he wiped his nose. Marinette blinked in astonishment, sapphire eyes wide. Then Adrien's eyes rested on the shocked looks on the designer and reporter's faces, and he paused.

"Uh, sorry!" he said, looking apologetic at the two. "I'm allergic to feathers."

As if to prove his point, he sneezed again.

Marinette gasped in realisation. "Oh!" she said softly, before flinching as he sneezed again. Then a smile graced her face. "Gesundheit!" she called, waving at him.

"Ah, ah choo!" Adrien sneezed again, before sniffling and waving to her. "Thanks," he said weakly before walking off, presumably to somewhere where he could get some tissues.

Behind him, Marinette exchanged another excited look with Alya, before jumping in the air. "Woohoo!" she cheered as the two laughed in joy.

Then a thought occurred to her, and called a quick "Sorry! Gotta go!" to Alya before chasing after Adrien. "Adrien, wait!"

The boy paused, just about to step foot into the limo, derby hat in hand, and turned to her. "Ah choo!" he sneezed once more, before turning to Marinette.

"What is it, Marinette?" he asked, sniffling.

"Uhh, the derby hat. We could, I mean, I could, not to say you can't, but obviously you're the model and all, but not saying you're not because you're perfect…"

"Miss Marinette," Mr Agreste interjected sharply from the screen inside of the limo. "Can you get to the point? We're on a tight schedule."

"Yes!" Marinette snapped back, and once more confident and all business. "The feather in the derby hat. I could switch it for something else, since you're allergic to it. I could use a flower, or maybe a fake feather, or some other ornament for derby hats."

Mr Agreste raised an eyebrow, before looking at the derby hat in Adrien's hats. "Impressive, Miss Marinette. Most designers wouldn't alter their completed and submitted designs, particularly switching out the centerpiece of the design - in your case, the pigeon feather. Very well. Nathalie, clear Adrien's schedule for the rest of the day. Adrien, go help Miss Marinette pick out a new ornament for the hat, since you are the model and we should make sure that you aren't allergic to the new ornament, or Miss Marinette's efforts will be wasted."

Adrien gaped in shock for a moment, before grinning. "Yes, father," he said, before closing the limo door. Instantly the car zoomed off, and he sneezed again.

"So, where to first?" he asked.

Marinette pondered it for a moment, a comment from Chat Noir suddenly popping in her head about feathers. It was weird, that both of the blonde-haired, green-eyed boys she knew were allergic to feathers…

"Achoo!" Adrien sneezed again. "Sorry," he said, sniffling.

"Well, you're not allergic to flowers, are you?"

"Shouldn't be." Adrien said cautiously.

"Great! Then first stop is my house to drop off the hat so you don't sneeze all the time, then we'll go to the florist's to see the flowers!"

XxX

"Oh, hello Adrien!" Mrs Cheng said cheerily from the counter of the bakery. "It's good to see you again!"

"H-hello, Mrs- achoo!"

"Well now Adrien," Mrs Cheng said cheekily. "I doubt my ancestors had the name achoo."

"No, no!" Adrien said frantically. "Please accept my sincere apologies."

"Oh, relax Adrien." Mr Dupain said, coming out from the kitchen. "She's just teasing you."

"Oh," Adrien sighed in relief. "Hello, Mr Dupain, Mrs Cheng."

"Now, Adrien, you can call us Tom and Sabine, all of Marinette's friends do."

Adrien froze. "A friend?"

Marinette smiled at him. "Yeah, you're a friend of mine!"

Tom grinned. "A really good friend, actually."

"Papa!" Marinette exclaimed, before making to drag Adrien upstairs with her. Halfway up the steps, though, she suddenly remembered all of the pictures that were still up on the wall.

"Oh no!"

"What is it, Marinette?" the three chorused in unison.

"Uhh, nothing. Adrien, why don't you stay down here? I'll just put the hat up. It'll only take a minute, heh."

Adrien had barely nodded his consent before Marinette ran upstairs like a whirlwind. He shrugged, before he walked down the steps when he heard crashing upstairs. He made to go back up, but Mr and Mrs - ahem - Tom and Sabine stopped him.

"No need, Adrien. This always happens all the time."

"Really?" He asked dubiously.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it. Especially in the mornings when she's in a rush to go to school."

"Papa!" Marinette exclaimed.

"But Marinette, I'm only telling him the truth!"

Adrien laughed, stopping the incoming banter between the two as they heard him. He stopped for a moment, and smiled nervously.

"Are you staying for dinner, Adrien?" Sabine asked.

"Then he can stay forever!" Tom exclaimed.

"Papa! Mama!" Marinette screamed.

Seeing his cheeky grin, she immediately grabbed hold of his arm and began to drag him out of the bakery door. "Bye Papa! Bye Mama! I'll see you later!"

"... I still ship them."

"Me too."

XxX

"What flower is that one?"

Marinette blushed. "It's called a black cat petunia."

"Black cat?"

"Yeah, it's kind of a tribute to Chat Noir. After he saved me from the Evillustrator and all."

Adrien smiled to himself strangely, before looking closer at the flower. 'An even more fitting tribute than you think.'

He took out his wallet. "How much is it?" he asked the florist.

"What- no Adrien, you can't pay for me!" Marinette shrieked, still holding the flower.

Adrien handed the money to the florist. "Too late," he said, smirking.

Marinette glared at him, before she jolted, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "Should we- Ahh, I don't mean in that way, but oh my god, it's we anyway - go?"

Adrien stared at her, shocked, for a moment, before nodding. "Yeah, I want to see how you're replacing the feather with a flower."

"Huh? Haven't you seen the designers do it? I mean, some of them might replace things like buttons and such, right?"

"I haven't seen it unless I'm the one wearing the clothes. Models don't really see the clothes unless it's the final product. Even then, it's mostly fixing seams."

"Oh," Marinette murmured, rolling the flower in her hand, before her phone beeped. "It's 4 already. We should get going."

Then Adrien's phone rang, and he frowned at seeing the caller ID. "Sorry, I've got to take this."

He picked up. "Hello, Nathalie?"

Marinette sighed at that. It looked like her time with him was going to be cut short once more.

Adrien hung up. "I'm really sorry about this Marinette, I really wanted to watch you work."

"It's okay! Tomorrow's a weekend, so you can come over and watch me work then!"

His eyes widened. "Really?"

Marinette nodded firmly. "Yeah!"

He smiled - a real smile, not the smaller ones he had at school - and grasped her hand. "Thanks, Marinette."

XxX

"Say, Chat Noir, are you really allergic to feathers?"

"Yeah," the response came. "Why, My Lady, concerned for this poor alley cat?"

"As if! It's just that my friend, he's also allergic to feathers."

"It's a common allergy, I suppose."

"Well, it was weird how I found out, I suppose. I didn't even know until today!"

He laughed. "Tell me about it! Two of my friends just found out, and one of them was really nice about it."

"Oh?" Ladybug raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, see, she designed a hat for me, but she used a feather in the design. I kept on sneezing, but I had to wear it, so she generously offered to change it for me - and she dedicated it to me, even! Well, superhero me, but she doesn't know that."

Ladybug froze. "What?" she said weakly.

"Yeah, it was really nice of her, right?"

Marinette's mind was racing a thousand miles an hour. Adrien was blond. So was Chat Noir. They were both allergic to feathers. Chat Noir's friend had designed a hat for him, and she used a feather in it. Marinette designed a derby hat for Adrien using a pigeon feather. Chat Noir's friend replaced the feather. Adrien and Marinette had gone searching for a flower to replace the feather that afternoon. His friend dedicated it to Chat Noir. Marinette had told Adrien the petunia was a tribute to him.

"-Lady! My Lady!"

"Adrien?" she said cautiously.

It was Chat's turn to freeze. "What did you say?"

"Adrien. You're Adrien. Oh my god, why didn't I see it before! Oh my god, I've been so blind!"

Instantly Chat slapped a clawed hand over her mouth. "Quiet! Do you want the whole of Paris to know?"

She stopped then, but her eyes met his. "So, you're really…"

"You can't tell anyone!" he whisper-shouted fiercely, before his expression turned melancholic. "Being Chat Noir is my freedom. If my father knew, he'd trap me in that mansion again. Alone."

Ladybug touched his cheek. "Oh, Chat."

"Do you understand now? No one can know."

She nodded. "No one else, kitty."

They sat in silence there for a moment, before he spoke up again. "How'd you know that I was Adrien?"

"Well," she said slowly. "First of all, you're both blonde. Then, you mentioned being allergic to feathers."

"Those two are common enough," Chat said. "It could have been a lot of people."

"I know. What actually confirmed it for me was your friend. The one who replaced the feather for you."

"How could that have clued you off?"

"Tell me, Chat," Ladybug spoke, excitement bubbling inside of her. She knew her most closely guarded secret was about to be given away, but to this person, she would entrust all of her close secrets to.

"Did she happen to replace that pigeon feather with a black cat petunia?"

"What- how did you know?!"

"Look at me, Chat, really look at me."

For the second time that day, emerald eyes met sapphire. Then Chat Noir let out a soft gasp as he realized he recognised the confidence in those eyes. While he always saw them on Ladybug, it was also in someone else's eyes - someone who had bested Chloe at her own game and impressed his father earlier that day.

"Marinette?" he breathed.

Ladybug exhaled. "Yeah."

Then he took a deep breath. "Can I… kiss you now?"

Ladybug gasped softly.

"It's something I swore to myself during the first Akuma attack. I told myself whoever it was beneath the mask, I'd love the girl. It's not just because you're Ladybug, it's also because you're Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the girl who's class representative, the one who beat Chloe down and also impressed my father."

"Chat," she breathed, before her eyes glowed with confidence again. "I've love you too. Since that day in the rain. When you gave me your umbrella. And also when you're Chat, the one who saved me from the Evillustrator, and the one who protected me from Timebreaker."

"Ladybug…"

"Chat…"

"I love you."

They both closed their eyes, and their lips met.

Then their lips parted, and now their eyes met, brilliant emerald meeting glittering sapphire.

No words were needed then. Their eyes met and thousands of words passed between them.

Then they smiled.

They knew everything was right in the world.