Hi! I've been sewing for ~10 years and am finally ready to venture into sewing clothing (i want to start with a basic button-down Hawaiian shirt) but when I look at patterns online, I don't know enough about clothing patterns to recognize when they're AI, and a lot of them seem... suspicious. I'm mainly a quilter, so I can recognize those from a mile away, but I know nothing about apparel/anything-with-sizes patterns. Do you have any tips or recommendations for only buying legit sewing patterns? (I couldn't figure out how to ask from my side blog that is sp for sewing)
I used a purchased sewing pattern once in 2011 and I've drafted everything myself since then, so I'm not the right person to ask, but hopefully people will leave suggestions in the notes.
I guess the best way to tell would probably be to see if there's a blog or a social media presence indication a real human who's been around for years, instead of just a lone etsy shop that's popped up suddenly. I've also heard the ai scam ones are suspiciously cheap?
I know there's also a website called Pattern Review.
Even though I haven't sewn any of these I would like to shoutout my friend Scroop Patterns, who is a real human & sewing/costuming teacher who I've been following for about 15 years and who puts a ton of work into her patterns and instructions, and thoroughly tests them. Even sews up at least one sample for each pattern on a cheap beginner sewing machine! She also has posts with the tester makes, and various other useful information on her blog.
None of them are button up shirts, so it's not what you're looking for, but she's got a nice variety of both modern and historical things that get very good reviews so I'm sure somebody seeing this will find them useful.
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So I’ve seen your shipping charts, and in the fixed story Karkat would actualize himself, understand Blood, and as prophesied would be personably responsible for bringing the ‘true’ ships into being, but how do you think he would actually do that? I can only imagine the shipping chart. It would be beautiful. Because I honestly can’t think of any other way to force these characters who would resist and push towards their crushes into the correct situation that directly involves Karkat, unless he uses his Knight powers to use the Blood aspect in such a way that like, pushes them more together or something? I just think it’s much funnier that he brings everyone together into an emergency meeting or something and has a crazy pinboard behind him and raves about Serendipity for hours while trying to ship people and almost no one having it and either leaving or it becoming a huge shouting match while they occasionally reflect just a little or something. This thought just kinda came to me and if you haven’t thought of it before I NEEDED to inform you(I imagine you have but better to be on the safe side).
P. S. You are literally the best Homestuck Theorist(do you call yourself a theorist or something else?) and I will die on that hill
Yeah, this is basically what we've been imagining, hahaha. Karkat already has a propensity in canon itself for making shipping charts, remember?
(Plus the penis ouija originally began as an attempt by Karkat to once more tap onto his innate shipping magic.)
This is why I keep saying things like "everything in Homestuck turns into shipping" and "shipping is actually the most important thing in Homestuck" - the endgame ships are deeply tied to Karkat and Blood, and Blood is tied to the concept of fate. In a work like Homestuck, where free will is real and branching timelines exist, "fate" is more like the idea that there is actually a "best" outcome for people, in the sense of "living your best life". It contrasts Breath's freedom and especially how important "mistakes" are: you need to make mistakes in order to grow up. You need to try things you wouldn't normally try, you need to step out of your comfort zone, you need to cause problems and then deal with the consequences of your own actions. But the idea that, at the end of that journey of self-discovery, you can actually find the "right" path to walk for you - that's what Blood and fate are all about.
Karkat worries that Blood is an insanely weaksauce power, and I think that this "sleeper" nature of it is why: it doesn't, and can't, pop off until people are actually ready for it. Moreover, Karkat only measures power through the rules his society has imposed on him: he views strength in terms of personal power level, the ability to administer an asskicking. The thing is, he's always been an innately powerful Blood player, the same way Dave's always been an innately powerful Time player - who else but Karkat could've united that pack of bloodthirsty morons long enough to win a session of SGRUB? Who else but Karkat could've convinced them to connect with the humans through space and time purely to sate his own idiotic hatecrush on John? Karkat's power lies not within himself, but within his ability to - like destiny itself - move the people in his orbit. He's always had an uncanny romantic acumen, and when he isn't freaking his shit, he's also always been a very incisive and accurate judge of character. When he isn't so mad he turns stupid, he's incredibly empathetic and kind. People listen to him because, at the end of the day, he cares about all the jackasses on his team, and they can sense his love and compassion for them.
Breath is all about free will, independence, and youth. Blood, its yin-yang matched pair, is all about destiny, relationships, and maturity. It represents the forces that bind - our interpersonal relationships, platonic, familial, and romantic, but also our own relationship to ourselves, our innate proclivities and personalities, the things that would make us happy.
Karkat also speculates that Blood has something to do with an "undying warrior's spirit" he's always felt within him, and he's right: Blood is about holding on. It's about doggedly refusing to let go of hope and the idea that something beautiful is out there. It's about being willing to stick it out until you can reach a happy ending.
Sara: I first came in because of the name. Serendipity. It’s one of my favorite words.
Jonathan: It is? Why?
Sara: ‘Cause it’s such a nice sound for what it means: a fortunate accident. Except I don’t really believe in accidents. I think fate’s behind everything.
Jonathan: Oh, you do? Fate’s behind everything?
Sara: I think so.
Jonathan: Everything’s predestined? We don’t have any choice at all?
Sara: No, I think we make our own decisions. I just think that fate sends us little signs, and it’s how we read the signs that determines whether we’re happy or not.
Ergo, Homestuck's concept of a happy ending is intrinsically tied to its romantic relationships, especially as those romantic relationships operate on an allegorical level. There's definitely criticisms to be made about how Homestuck doesn't really acknowledge aromantics and asexuality, but I'm not personally interested in making them; just know that, yeah, I acknowledge that Homestuck's assertion that romance is its end-all be-all can rub people the wrong way. But since my approach to analysis is to primarily engage the work on its own terms, Homestuck's romances are highly allegorical, and thus, proper configuration is basically a requirement for the true happy ending.
Not only that, but Hal becoming a Real Boy - itself a requirement for that true happy ending - is also fully contingent on the romance shit. Karkat places such cosmic significance on his black quad - and shit, dog, when it's a Blood player doing that, pay attention - that Hal's Realization is basically guaranteed to have something to do with Karkat finding true hate. After all, Karkat boasts that his hatred is powerful enough to hate a hole through reality into a fresh new one, free for the hating.
Perhaps as to be expected by the Romance Jesus of the team, but Karkat's quads are crazy. Calliope, a cherub, in red, the insane genocidal sea dweller prince guy in pale, and the magical white rabbit that was a computer that became Real in black. But I also don't think Karkat, who so idolizes the idea of soul mates, whirlwind romances, and the magic of true love, would have it any other way.
Anyways, in the book commentary, Hussie jokingly called my ilk "Homestuck scholars".
This collection in the ideal universe will serve as a set of handbooks for the Homestuck scholar, both providing illumination into the series, and containing it entirely, if also approximately. And for those of you who choose to possess the work for mere enjoyment, I hear you. I feel you. Let's you and me direct our combined enjoyment at the notion that there is such a thing as a Homestuck scholar. It's true. They are real.
Some people call themselves this unironically. You are free to call me one, but only if you are, bare minimum, lightly roasting me for it. At the end of the day, I am doing something pretty objectively cringe, and I'm happy to admit to that. If you told me face to face that what I'm doing is both embarrassing and a waste of time, I'd be like, "yeah". Not to disparage the other Homestuck Scholars, but let's be so real about what we are doing here.
Another batch of samplers is up! And I'm already excited for the next batch-- I'm quite happy with the last two updates to Samplerbot, and I think the upcoming samplers are gonna be real pretty. :)
As a stitcher, working on Samplerbot has been good for my artistic instincts-- especially when it comes to being more adventurous with fabrics! I typically stick to white and black and coffee-dyed, but now I am thinking I might like to find a deep red... or another jewel tone, perhaps...
the problem with tumblr spells is all of you lil sluts are casting and not giving it time to charge so you're all casting cantrips and not 9th level death spells. everyone wants to be the one to take them down no one wants to be the one who assists
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I thought about just tagging this 'nuff said, but it's not.
I want to say something to all of the women under 50 on this site. Ready?
You do not have to be over 50 to start taking up space.
Can I make that blink? Is that a thing Tumblr can do? Because, seriously. The sooner you believe you are allowed to take up space, the better life will be.
The temporary pause is over! Samplerbot is up and samplering again, and all the requests I saw in the notes have been queued up along with its regular posts.
Today's update has a couple parts to it: first, four new borders have been added; second, I've made it easier (on my end) to test new borders, new fonts, and new styles of sampler in bulk, and to tweak all those things if they don't look right at first; and finally, Samplerbot has a new style of sampler: Lasagna Samplers!
The lasagna samplers are inspired by Elizabeth Holland's sampler from 1737 (Samplerbot's 'border 66' was adapted from her work, too!). Along with a regular border, lasagna samplers have decorative dividers in-between the lines of text (the lasagna 'noodles', you could call them).
I'm currently working on making it so every existing border could make a lasagna sampler, but since Samplerbot just passed 150 borders (!🥳) it'll probably take me a while.
Also, not new, but I'm very happy with how the new line spacing function is working. I think this next batch of samplers is going to be very lovely!
Thanks for reading, and thanks for checking out the bot! Hope you all have been having a lovely summer,
The soil testing equipment on Curiosity makes a buzzing noise and the pitch of the noise changes depending on what part of an experiment Curiosity is performing, this is the way Curiosity sings to itself.
So some of the finest minds currently alive decided to take incredibly expensive important scientific equipment and mess with it until they worked out how to move in just the right way to sing Happy Birthday, then someone made a cake on Curiosity’s birthday and took it into Mission control so that a room full of brilliant scientists and engineers could throw a birthday party for a non-autonomous robot 225 million kilometres away and listen to it sing the first ever song sung on Mars*, which was Happy Birthday.
This isn’t a sad story, this a happy story about the ridiculousness of humans and the way we love things. We built a little robot and called it Curiosity and flung it into the star to go and explore places we can’t get to because it’s name is in our nature and then just because we could, we taught it how to sing.
That’s not sad, that’s awesome.
*this is different from the first song ever played on mars (Reach For The Stars by Will.I.Am) which happened the year before, singing is different from playing
In time for the Grand National, I'd like to square the four central blocks of my Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse quilt, and work out a sashing/border size/design that will work with the finished squares to make a full-size bed quilt.
That sounds fun, @flipkat, did it go well?
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The central 26" blocks have come out more like 24.5", and I am not super-exact in my seams, so I've worked out that I should be able to do a 5" pieced inner border (5.5" blocks), an 8" outer pieced block border, and then a 10" pieced block border around the whole thing. I've only made one of the 5.5" blocks so far, but the idea is sound.
The finished piece is to be called "If I Never Have Sex, Is It Really the End Of the World? (The Four Unicorns Of the Apocalypse)" in a tribute to asexual perpetual virgins everywhere.
(Block pattern is Lisa the Unicorn, for the curious. All rectangles, no paper piecing!)
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one of the biggest things I can advocate for (in academia, but also just in life) is to build credibility with yourself. It’s easy to fall into the habit of thinking of yourself as someone who does things last minute or who struggles to start tasks. people will tell you that you just need to build different habits, but I know for me at least the idea of ‘habit’ is sort of abstract and dehumanizing. Credibility is more like ‘I’ve done this before, so I know I can do it, and more importantly I trust myself to do it’. you set an assignment goal for the day and you meet it, and then you feel stronger setting one the next day. You establish a relationship with yourself that’s built on confidence and trust. That in turn starts to erode the barrier of insecurity and perfectionism and makes it easier to start and finish tasks. reframing the narrative as a process of building credibility makes it easier to celebrate each step and recognize how strong your relationship with yourself can become
Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” that was written in 1950 is set on the day of August 4th, 2026 (tomorrow)!! Now’s your chance to read it around the time it’s based in!
Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.
The thing is, even if you were lucky and your parents taught you how to clean, they probably didn't teach you how to clean the stuff you clean stuff with, like brushes, mops, sponges, rags, and so on. Or how to clean your cleaning appliances, like a dish washer, clothes washing machine, and clothes dryer and its ducts (if you have a ducted dryer), or a carpet cleaner, vacuum, Or how to clean up clean messes, like spilled bleach or detergent.
My parents threw away all of these things (even the vacuum cleaners and the dryer) when they got too dirty to function, because no one even told them THAT they could be cleaned. Cost them thousands of dollars over the years.
All I'm saying is that cleaning is not intuitive, and not knowing how to clean is not a moral failing, but it is something you can learn.
I'm going to reblog this post with resources for learning how to clean things and how to clean cleaning things (I'm not at my desk at the moment). If you have any favorites, please feel free to add them in too!
I like this video because it does a great job of introducing the basic foundations of house cleaning (and because he doesn't use bleach, which is a common allergy in addition to being awful to inhale). He also talks a little about how to clean a vacuum. And why you shouldn't put grease from your pots and pans down the sink drain. I also love that he mentions that different houses and different people have different needs and different versions of what clean and cleaning looks like.
He doesn't mention though that the toilet seat comes off. I take my toilet seat off to clean under the hinges and clean the seat more thoroughly once a quarter.
This is another video from the same guy about cleaning and depression. This advice, especially at the beginning, can feel really really difficult and oppressive to hear. However, I find that it's generally pretty solid. But I'm autistic and so is he, so that gets a massive Your Mileage May Vary stamp on it.
I have a favorite part of this video. It's from 10:52 to 12:36. I think we could all use to hear that. There's a HEFTY pause after that one. I promise the narration does come back.
I'm also going to recommend KC Davis' book "How To Keep House While Drowning"
This is a pair of videos about how to correctly load and use a dish washer.
The first one is a quick 1 minute 30 second overview on loading. I can't find the exact video I'm looking for, so consider this a substitute for that. If I can find the one I'm looking for, I'll swap it in.
The second is a half hour deep dive on dishwashers and detergents. The short form of that is you shouldn't need to pre-rinse anything, detergent pods are overpriced and can cause problems, some dishwashers have a filter in the bottom that needs to be cleaned (but most don't), run your sink until the water is HOT before starting your dish washer, and put a little detergent in the pre-rinse dispenser when you're washing extra dirty dishes (or on the inside of the door if your dishwasher doesn't have a pre-rinse dispenser).
How to clean a front load washer (with bleach). This should be done monthly or every time you wash really soiled clothes.
With expert tips and tricks for all types of washers.
How to clean a top loader (without the removable agitator thing). This should be done every 1-3 months depending on you unit, or every time you wash really soiled clothes.
Regular cleaning of a top-load washing machine will prolong the life of the appliance and leave your laundry cleaner and brighter.
How to clean a top loader (with the removable agitator thing). This should be done every month, or every time you wash really soiled clothes.
These carpet brushes are a LIFE SAVER if you have dogs. This thing allows me to go from vacuuming about 4 square feet before my vacuum is full to vacuuming half the living room (I don't vacuum often enough. You should vacuum weekly, and I just can't.). I have to unclog the vacuum less often. It fluffs up some of the flat spots in the carpet. And I also use the brush to shampoo my rugs in the spring.
A spot cleaner (or a carpet cleaner with a spot cleaner attachment) is another life saver, ESPECIALLY if you can afford to splurge on a heated one. I see them at Goodwill or at yard sales occasionally, and they're worth picking up. The shark one in the video is great too.
This channel is gold. There's tutorials for cleaning EVERYTHING on there. Just go subscribe!
Gonna throw another potential resource at the end of this very long list, which may be potentially helpful for others like me who loathe videos. It's... the weirdest thing that has genuinely been helpful to me in housekeeping. Absolutely full of useful advice, and bizarrely still relevant in large part. (Though, caveat, research ANYTHING to do with chemicals or cleaning products more complicated than vinegar + lemon + water for modern information.)
It's America's Housekeeping Book (1941). Available for free download on the Internet Archive. (Large PDF file at the link here).
The LISTS y'all. The step by step lists. The emphasis on efficiency and arranging spaces for the least resistance possible. The basic concept of "take a tray or basket into a room when you are tidying up so you can put things that belong elsewhere on it and take them out LATER in ONE GO".
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I am pleased by people messaging me telling me that after adding a carb or protein to their snacks or meals they feel more satisfied all day. Yes, my plan is working. People are getting through their days with less hangry.
