devynconstance

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Went on my last ever Joanns shopping spree a few weeks ago and never posted what I got so I'm doing it now. Luckily I knew exactly what I needed for some upcoming projects so all of this was well worth the effort.

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Finally got the stays finished! Best success yet and actually so very comfortable. There's some things I'd like to alter for the next iteration but this will work perfectly for the project I made them for in the meantime and are 100% functional in there purpose so i couldnt be happier with the outcome!

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redwork pouf

hand embroidery, cotton floss on cotton canvas

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I don't understand why "I can't even sew a button" is the default phrase for people to say when they can't sew. like bitch me neither, sewing in buttons is an absolute pain in the ass and it's by no means easy.

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If it makes anyone feel anybetter KEEP THE FUCKUPS (and your scraps) as your skill progresses and depending on how bad the original attempt went you can either fix what it was supposed to be or reuse the material for something else later.

Skirts can become shirts.

Shirts can become bags.

Scraps can become a quilt.

And fabric shredded beyond all reasonable use can become stuffing for pillows, stuffed animals, ect.

The possibilities are endless and material is never truly waisted even if the original garment comes out a little wonky or even completely wrong!

Truly I hate to do this to you all but; you can watch all the videos and read all the blogs in the world but you cannot learn to sew without at some point picking up a piece of fabric and fucking it up. No tutorial exists that will stop you at some point ruining this poor piece of cloth. The visceral act of holding a project and wondering where you went wrong is the only way to learn sewing; you cannot escape it. I’m sorry

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I saw a fun craft that I want to try that requires paper shopping bags - the video I saw used Trader Joe’s bags, but I don’t have a Trader Joe’s near me so I ran to the Aldi in my neighborhood to pick some up.

Tell me why I’m at the self checkout, counting out 40 bags and looking over my shoulder like some kind of furtive character, because my brain is screaming at me, “They’re going to think you’re in here acting strange, buying just bags, exchanging money for goods like some kind of whackadoo.”

Truly, a 10/10 anxious experience.

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The Great 12-legged mother of spiders. She is carrying her eggs with her and will not tolerate disturbance

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Finished the bias tape on my pair of stays. I'm not super happy with it, hand stitching would have given a much better result I think, but I'm on a little bit of a time crunch and limited on materials so this is good enough for now. Last step is adding the grommets and then I can finally move on to the petticoat!

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Upgraded my valet!

My old one was a $10 find at a salvage furniture store, though I never liked how the trousers hung on it. The new one was a marketplace find, and I love the front trousers bar, drawers, and little tray.

Even though my closet is off camera, the valet is a nice way to slow down and enjoy both my dressing routine + my clothes. It also helps with getting an outfit prepped the night before. (And I have a landing pad for the contents of my pockets -- maybe I'll only lose something once every *other* week.)

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I love a good Very Specific Resource. Here are the links to my posts about resources carefully crafted to share a specific bit of history (updated as needed)

Public Domain Image Archive - thousands of images from various repositories no longer available under copyright

Medieval Murder Maps - interactive maps of murder and accidents in medieval London, York, and Oxford

Travel in Times - plan travel routes in England and Wales in various centuries

The Quilt Index - a digital repository of quilts, makers, and their stories

Louis Armstrong Archives - Some highlights from the archives and how to access the full collection from home!

RSN Stitch Bank - hundreds of sewing and embroidery stitches, their uses, their structure, how to make them, and history!

Archive of 80s mixtapes - a whole lot of tapes from the 80s and also tapes of background music from Kmart in the 80s and 90s

Feast Afrique - What started as an exploration and celebration of West African culinary heritage has since expanded to include history, language, culture, and customs of West Africa and the African diaspora.

Letterform Archive - Thousands of high quality images celebrating graphic design, calligraphy, and typography. The beauty of letters!

Historic Menu Collection - Over 17,000 historic menus, 1.3 million historic dishes transcribed. Historic popularity and price range, map it, and more.

Palestinian Embroidery - Digital archives dedicated to the preservation of Palestinian embroidery. Over 1,000+ free patterns

Black Craftseople Digital Archive - enhancing knowledge of Black crafts people (both free and enslaved) and the objects they produced.

Georgian Lady's Magazine Embroidery Patterns - Free embroidery patterns from 1770-1819

The Dutch Textile Trade Project - History and trade of textiles in the 17th and 18th centuries. Fabric types, images, data on trade.

Estonian Knitting - Bog knits! History! Techniques!

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The sewing equivalent to a painter cleaning their paint brush in their coffee cup is dropping your pins is your coffee cup

Ask me how I know

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Linda Friesen 'The Moon Maiden' Haute Couture Gown

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I'm fucking dying at this page someone shared on Bluesky.

Behold, the Embroidery Trouble Shooting Guide that forgot to close its <h3> tags.

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Stays are coming along nicely. Getting close to the finishing now!

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I take back every good thing I've ever said about my sewing machines automatic buttonhole stitch

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Hobbit vest updates! The main construction is finished and fits very well. Last steps are the welt pockets and the buttons/button holes so I'm playing with placement and layout now. I'm really excited with how this is turning out, it's probably one of my best made garments to date!

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Mood fabrics is the biggest catalog of free patterns ive found so far. They have a ton of free patterns in a lot of sizes but the blog post style instructions can sometimes be hard to follow for a complete beginner. (I also haven't bought any fabric from here yet so I can't attest to their fabric quality)

If you've learned/are learning how to scale a pattern up or down theres also a ton of free patterns on the commercial pattern archive. This is also a really great place just to see the basic shapes that go into different garments but there is no instructions included with this one which does make things more difficult. https://copa.apps.uri.edu/

I personally got most of my patterns from youtube before learning how to draft my own. Sometimes they'll just tell you the measurements and you'll have to trace it out yourself but other times they'll link to digital download which is always nice. It helps a lot to have a more specific search here. For example if I want to make a skirt I'll search "how to sew a 3 tiered skirt free pattern" or "how to make a midi skirt with leg slit". The more keywords you know easier something will be to find.

Finally this one's kind of a long shot but I figured I'd add it anyways, you might be able to find patterns on the Internet Archive. I mostly use this for finding free resources/books on sewing techinques, historical fashion, and some historical sewing patterns but there is so much more on this site and it's one of my favorites for research but you actually have to search through books and documents for what you're looking for and for that alone id categorize this as a more advanced option but its here if you want to check it out anyways.

Hey Craft Side of Tumblr,

Does anyone know of a site like Ravelry but for sewing patterns? Or could just recommend a good site for free beginner sewing patterns?