Samelie4

So, you have spoken and I will share this with you (yeeeii!). For Halloween I’m making a robe à la anglaise, so I needed a new pair of stays (I’ve made before 2 other pairs but both suit me big nowadays). This time I wanna sew by hand and make the stitches visible over the top fabric. I’ll be posting this tutorial while I’m working on it so when I finish a step and then I’ll share it with you about the day after and if you want to you can do your homework and we’ll work together ;)

Step 1 is to collect your inspiration and make some decisions.

This might sound easy but is the key for a successful outfit. I made a pinboard with all the images and links that I think might work for me. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted and how to do it, so it was easy, but you have to think about some things first before making the pattern. Hey, don’t panic! I’ll help you through every stage alike if you can draft the pattern by yourself or if you’re really a beginner. Here are my recommendations:

What kind of stays do you wanna make? In general I think half boned stays are better for any kind of body (may be only the most extreme figures would really need full boned) and it’s perfect for all levels: You’ll have fewer stitches for you to control (and sew) better and if you have an advanced level you can make all the canals visible or even in contrast colour, and if your a beginner you can cover the imperfect stitches with the final fabric (so you don’t have an anxiety attack).

Hand or machine sewing? This is a tricky question. Of course if you wanna be historically accurate you HAVE to do it by hand, but if you’re not worried about this and prefer a machine, do it. But of course practice is everything, so if you wanna start with hand sewing this is a good opportunity: you won’t need many kinds of stitches, this project needs a lot of repetitions of the same chore so you’ll definitely get better, and if you don’t feel so good about how it’s gonna look like, you can cover everything with the top fabric.

Do I need a pattern or will we draft it from zero? Do I need to know about pattern making? Many costumers buy their patterns, but I think it’s better to draw it and make adjustments for you body for a perfect fit. For this being easier for all of you (with or without pattern making knowledge) I’ll use a base from the 1770s stays drafted from the  book “Corsets and Crinolines” by Nora Wagh and we’ll adjust it for our personal measurements. It’s a lot easier than it sounds so pattern making knowledge is not really necessary. This stays have a good shape and are easily changed for other decades silhouette variations.

Now, I collected this images that I think will be very useful to you for this stays, so if you don’t wanna loose yourself with lots of images of beautiful, please use these as references and inspiration.

First, historical references:

Let’s take a look at what good costumers have done before in stays with visible tunnels and not visible:

Step 2 is choosing the materials

I draw my stays before moving to the pattern mainly based on the red example from the V&A Museum (that’s the first photo on this post), and already had a clear idea of what I wanted them to look like, so this is what you have to think about:

Historically accurate or not? Depending on the country there are some materials that were not available there during the 18th century, but usually the material for inner wear is linen but you can also use cotton and silk (sateen, damasque, brocade or even taffeta are OK). The 18th century historically accurate colours are NEVER bright ones, since chemical dyes are from the second part of the 19th century, and for inners the preferred colours were neutrals for you to wear them under light or dark garments. If this is your very very first project then maybe you shouldn’t use historically accurate fabrics since they are expensive and you need to really know your materials through some projects before being able to manage them perfectly.

Base, lining and top fabrics. You’ll need 2 layers of the base fabric (the boning will be between these), I use a mexican cotton light canvas called manta since it’s stiff and hard enough for all the stitches and pressure the stays will have, you can use cotton canvas or a slightly thick linen. The lining fabric is usually a light linen but you can also use cotton poplin; these both fabrics (base and lining) MUST be natural fabrics or you’ll sweat horribly while wearing your stays. For the top fabric I’ll use a light grey silk satin, you can use silk (or a polyester lookalike) satin, tafetta, brocade, damasque or linen or cotton (plain or printed).

Threads. The easiest option is using the common polyester threads that are sold everywhere since they have a HUGE colour range, but truth is (historically accurate) that you should use linen, silk or cotton thread, meaning you have to use thread of the same fiber than your fabric. The biggest issue here are the colours and availability of these materials (in my country linen thread is not available and silk thread is very hard to get in many colours), so you can sacrifice some accuracy to get the same colour in fabric and thread using polyester thread or you can substitute silk thread for rayon, linen for cotton, of all the above for polyester.

Boning. Let’s face it, there are not many options in many places, so taking in account the flexibility of the whale bone I prefer to use ¼" plastic boning instead of metal boning. I’ve read some people use reed but I haven’t tried it.

Etcetera. You can use contrast or same colour grosgrain for bounding and decoration and linen tape for closure in the back (or also ribbon or grosgrain too), be creative.

Now you have a full shopping list and things to think about before starting the next task: the pattern.

Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus

“hE’s NoT- He’S- WeLl hE’s cErTAinlY nOt NAkeD aNyMOrE!”

It’s here !! The guide for two-legged people who don’t know how to draw wheelchairs !!! 7 pages of infodump ! Disclaimer : I don’t know everything, I have one (1) experience of wheelchair user who used both bad and good chairs, and I share what I learned.

Image description :

1) Calvin in his wheelchair saying “yo” under a huge title “how to draw manual wheelchairs properly by Calvin Arium, a wheelchair user comic artist”.

2) A character says “my character self propels in a chair that was outdated in 1970 lol” Calvin says “so it looks like you two legged people don’t know the difference between an hospital chair and a chair made to be independant” an arrow point the crapppy chair, saying “we never want to see this again”

a bubble says “the hospital chair is extremely unpractical, tough considering it’s cheaper than a good custom chair a lot of us have only this”

3) a character hurt himself trying to reach the wheels of the hospital chair. Several arrows point why the chair is unpractical : “high backrest restrain shoulders movement” “huge armrest restrains wheel access” “separated footrest : amovible, cheap, bulky” “x structure, foldable but heavy” “huge front casters for stability” “heavy wheels”

4) Several arrows point an active wheelchair (the KSL by Küshall) : “usually no armrest” “a low backrest allow more movement” “light, design, ferning expersive” “special cushion to avoind injuries” “knee angle is usually 90°” “one single piece of frame, sometimes entirely welded” “weight : from 4 to 10kg” “often rigid” “center of the wheel is the center of gravity” “higher quality wheels : less spikes”

5) A hand grab different parts of the wheel, pushing harder in the second half. Bubbles says “some have gloves, some don’t. The hand must grab the biggest area possible. Less movement = more energy. This is a common but not only way to push.Calvin is on his back wheels, rolling on grass and dirt bubble says “popping a wheelie is when a wheelchair user rolls on their back wheels to roll on every complicated surface.

6) several drawings illustrate the folding frame, the ergonomic but rigid and expensive backrest, the separated footrest (only for folding frame), the handles, the folding handles, athe amovibles handles, or no handles, the cool fancy loopwheels, the pretty custom colors 

7) More Features ! The fancy rigid-foldable frame, the anti tippers (sometimes used by beginners), the motorization (wheels, smart drive) when propelling yourself is difficult Calvin says "and now vroom vroom motherfuckers”

Consider also supporting me by buying me a coffee on ko-fi : ko-fi.com/calvinarium 

Thanks !

me: oh that one was pretty fun I should finish reading that. What fic was that?

me:

me: wait

me: *remembers that it's MY fic I need to finish writing it*

I could watch this forever

Just making things nice

I got an ask from @therska about this, and it turned into a larger post.

First of all, it’s called comic relief because it relieves the tension. I can’t talk about comic relief without talking about tension.

1. A note about tension

Why would you want to relieve the tension? Research showed that if you write your tension as a steady line (horizontal but also upwards), it feels as if there is no tension at all. If you push your tension up and let it fall back again and again, the reader is on the edge of his seat, eager to know what will happen next.

Comic relief is a literary device you can use to create that breathing space that momentarily brings the tension back down.

This is a simple graph I made. In reality, I use comic relief not four but probably closer to a hundred times in a book, and the instances are not that long. Sometimes the comic relief is only one sentence long. It doesn’t have to be a whole comedic scene in between the thrilling ones. It can be, though.

2. A character created for comic relief

The easiest strategy is to write a character you can use again and again for the comic relief. A well-known example is the squirrel from Ice Age.

This character can be clumsy, be a goofball, have bad luck, spew funny one-liners, anything. You can use any kind of humor technique for your comic relief character. Characters like the squirrel serve no other function but comic relief, which makes them one-dimensional.

The downside of a specific comic relief character is that once readers realise it doesn’t have any other function, the relief becomes less effective. Another downside can be that it’s difficult to justify why this clumsy goofball stays part of your gang. Why do they take him along on this adventure when he keeps screwing up?

3. Comic relief ingrained in your story

A more difficult but more rewarding strategy to write comic relief is to use your existing characters or the situation in which your scene is set to momentarily bring breathing room. Again, you can use any type of humor strategy.

The advantage is that your character is well-rounded, and you don’t have to justify why the character is there. This form of comic relief makes it harder for your readers to realise what you’re doing, and if they do, they don’t feel cheated.

For example: the essence of Deadpool is his comic relief. His deadpan remarks, silly poses and sarcasm defuse the tension again and again. This results into a film that’s not an just action movie, despite all the fighting.

4. Comic relief as distraction

You can use comic relief as a strategy to distract the reader from what you’re doing. Did you just drop a big clue, or threw in some foreshadowing? Do you want to plant a red herring without making it too obvious? Throw in some comic relief immediately afterward.

J.K. Rowling does this often in her Harry Potter series. For example, when Ron and Harry are in Divination class and Harry is told his tea leaves predict the appearance of the Grim, a death omen who looks like a big dog, this foreshadows the appearance of his godfather, who takes the shape of a big dog. Immediately after that, Ron says something ridiculous he sees in his tea leaves, which deflects the readers’ attention.

I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing advice here. New topics to write advice about are also always welcome.

Tag list below the cut, a few people I like and admire and of course, you can be too. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.