Makin' stuff

upper tension too loose or equilibrium of tensions out of wack, she’s using an industrial in the video so the bobbin and upper tension can be ADJUSTED adjusted, on a either home or industrial machine check these in loosely this order:

needle wrong size or type

old/bent needle

wrong stitch length

wrong pressure foot

pressure foot not making complete contact(mostly industrial)

not holding the thread tails as you begin sewing

bobbin wound too loosely/too tight or with wrong type of thread

thread too old/fuzzy

timing is off

feed dog position is off

wrong bobbin for your machine (top loading home machines)

but also, 90% of the time I've seen this on a machine that was working just fine?

My machine sewn shirt tutorial is FINALLY FINISHED! Written tutorial on the blog, video tutorial on youtube. Both probably more detailed than necessary.

I have no way of knowing how many shirts it's caused to exist, but it seems to be quite a few! I've gotten a lot of nice comments from people saying they made shirts and found it very easy to follow, as well as a number of people saying it helped solve problems they'd had on previous shirt attempts.

Unfortunately coletterie.com does not have a tumblr, but this image is so helpful I had to share.  So often people ask us what fabric they should use for a certain cosplay, and two things you should always ask yourself are: 1) how much does it need to flow, and 2) how heavy does it need to be.  Sheen and texture are obviously important as well, but picking a weight and stiffness is the first thing you should tackle.

From The Coletterie’s awesome blog post:

When you choose a fabric for your sewing project, ask yourself these questions to decide on an appropriate weight:

Should my fabric be sheer or opaque?

Will a light fabric be difficult to sew for this project?

Will the fabric be sturdy enough to tolerate stress on the seams?

Will the heaviness of the fabric cause bulky seams?

And to decide on an appropriate amount of drape:

Will the fabric have enough drape to flow the way I want?

I was expecting a like a Chart or two, maybe some written instructions. not Seventy Seven full color pages for One type of rose.

she has also made a website since the first post (link) the patterns are cheaper there and the payment is handled through PayPal (and I'm guessing she gets a Way bigger cut of the money than with her Etsy so maybe check out the site instead) of the Etsy listed above.

also quick faq below the cut bc idk, supporting small businesses ran by WOC is important and this lady is rad. I just genuinely love her products and want more people to know about them.

I was window shopping and well. If you were hesitant about trying a patty pattern bc money is Tight for everyone rn. Here's one that just straight up free because she discontinued the pattern collection it was a part of.

The Loose Ends Project matches crafters with a project that is unfinished because of death or disability. They offer help with a spectrum of textile mediums in over 80 countries. One project I find particularly lovely: “My mom was making this octopus for me. She was 67 years old when she passed away from COPD. She was hospitalized for pulmonary rehab several times and would always take it to work on while she was there and loved to talk about it with people."

This thing has been out of print for like, 26 years and some of us want to make chubby classic pikachu so uh... I figure it's okay to share bc it's kinda hard to get your hands on the remaining physical copies.

Bonus points: Aelith made some embroidery/applique files for it too

despite the many astonishingly useful features my real favorite part is the color picker which is 100% identical to the MS Paint of my childhood

-took a pottery class

-wanted a backflow incense stand

-fixated on In Stars And Time

I mean, generally yeah. My caveat for the first part is that nothing is impossible to start with. It’s okay to learn on something more challenging if you learn better with trial and (lots of) error. aka me i am boo boo the fool

And “heirloom” does generally mean ‘this will stay and be passed along for generations on penalty of death’ because a massive amount of work goes into it. A lot of the time “heirloom knitting” just straight up means Shetland Lace which

is fully bonkers