#jadenray64

I started sewing by asking my mother to show me the basics. It was something as simple as making bed sheets (two big rectangles of fabric, can't really go wrong with that).

I moved out a couple of weeks after touching a sewing machine for the very first time, but got one of my own because I wanted to learn and get better at it, so I began watching YouTube tutorials and trying things out on scraps of fabric if I had some lying around. I learned that a regular sewing machine does not like furry things (faux fur or real fur, doesn't matter) and that if you're doing leather or other non woven materials, be sure about the first time you sow because you can't even out the holes again once they're punched.

It's honestly been a lot of googling, trying and going.

Whenever I start a new project, I take some of my intended fabric and I cut a square (about 10 x 10 cms) and I try out ALL the stitches on my sewing machine to see how the fabric reacts to it (and how the machine reacts to it, honestly, sometimes it's like a greedy child).

There's been lots of going to the fabric store and talking to the employees there about fabric choices (lycra is the bane of my existence) and dyeing (also the bane of my existence).

I'm also in Kamui's Cosplay Group on Facebook (Kamui Cosplay is a professional cosplayer) which has at least 9000+ members, which helps when you take a picture of the weird thing your machine is doing, post it there and go 'what's wrong' because more experienced people will help you figure out if it's the stitch length, the thread tension or something else that's funky.

I made a lined coat as a side project to get to learn how to use patterns, and then I went ahead with my Ronin costume, which, the first time around, not so great, too much Worbla for the armored parts, but second time around I made everything out of fabric, and by the time I'd done shoulder pads, piping and faux leather for a while, I was like 'I'm gonna do Captain Marvel!' and sort of just sat down and started at one end until I was done with it. It took me two months, but at the end, I'm very proud of it, lol.

So, just, I sat down in front of a machine and tried to get to know it, lol.

Great idea, babe! (for torture tuesday) 

At first, Bucky Barnes welcomes the chair. He’s been kept in a vertical cage for days now, unable to fully stand or recline. Unable to sleep. 

When they strap him to the chair, it’s a relief. The chance to sit. The chance to give his quivering muscles a break. Even when metal brackets encircle his head, and some mechanism inside them crackles. It’s not pain yet. And Bucky lets himself sag into the chair.

“The orders are simple,” a Soviet says, circumambulating Bucky and the humming machine. “Don’t sleep.”

Happy birthday, honey! I’m running out of time, but I wanted to be sure to get something for you for your birthday. (for torture tuesday) 

Bucky has been granted a rare gift from the Soviets: a bath. He scrubs his hair clean with a bar of soap, and floats in the murky water. Alone in the bath, he is granted a moment of stillness. It’s heaven.

Then, two Soviets file in. 

Hot oil and mundane whump for Steve is a great idea!

Steve cooks mashed potato latkes on the stovetop, just as his mother taught him. He hums as he cooks, though he doesn’t hear himself over the crackle and splatter of oil in the pan.

I had no idea there was such great lake snobbery. Is a state better because it touches more lakes or because it has more coastline on the lakes.

I’m going to go with “both” because Michigan touches four lakes AND has 3,000+ miles of Great Lakes coastline, which is about 2,000 miles more than any other state.

Melting contact stories are the exact reason I don’t wear contacts anymore (that and the time I got liquid eyeliner caught under the contact and my whole eye went possession black while my roommates looked on in horror). 

Anything under the nail is agony. Toes also have way more nerves than they have any right to. And oh my god, breaking an elbow must be its own hell.

How do you stop trying to write something perfect? I feel paralyzed with the impossibility of it.

Good question! I think writing for a fandom helps. No one wants Ulysses when they read fanfiction. They just want to be with their favorite characters again.

My advice for getting over badness in general is to purposefully write bad. Use all the adverbs you want, let your characters scream and cry, tell instead of show. Break all the rules.

(I think you’ll be surprised by how often “bad writing” turns out to be really effective. Perfection comes accidentally.)

Then, when you’re editing, just replace the parts that aren’t working. Take out the adverbs you don’t need, figure out if there’s a more subtle way of showing the audience what’s happening, etc. Learn to love editing because it’s a chance to admire yourself.