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Leliel, Angel of Night 🌙

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Am I spamming people too much with content from The Video Game, when our original connection was over The Volleyball Show? I'm nearly certain I saw someone on my other blog do an indirect about that.

I want nothing to do with The Video Game's fandom, and also nothing to do with The Volleyball Show's fandom ... and yet somehow, after lurking in both, some part of my brain is saying "Hey you're making a cosplay! You should film all of that! And make a youtube channel about the process!"

And I'm like BRAIN WHY WOULD YOU EVEN SUGGEST THAT? Where did that even come from? Do I ... want to be perceived now? Do I want to be perceived by That Group? With the chronically online, toxic, absolutely infuriating behavior? The parasocial relationships and morality policing and lack of regard or respect for anyone. Why? To what end? (I know where the limits of fandom are, for me, socially, psychologically. It's nonsensical to even crave that. And yet I do.)

Why can't my brain do what it's SUPPOSED to do and write the original fiction thing I wanted to write? OR at the very least edit the last thing in the Volleyball Show fandom that I care about. Which is mostly drafted!! Why can't my brain focus on that?

Why can't I just make my costume in peace and silence? Why do I want to do it with, or for, anyone else? Like, what is even going ON?

How much is this bc my brain is on fire right now specifically in this moment of my life/mental health crisis; and how much is this a thing that would've happened anyway?

I have free time, and very little focus, and I'm spending it making something with my hands. That should be good. That should be healthy. And yet my brain is like ... ping ponging between all these things I should do and why I should or shouldn't do them and actually none of this is peaceful - but opting out of doing any fandom thing or creative thing is EVEN LESS PEACEFUL. It doesn't matter that this is a hobby, I've let creative productivity become A Part of Me. I cannot enjoy doing nothing.

Tiny little vent post

It would be. So fucking nice. If my brain could like, stick to something. I'm in between fandoms, and also checked out of fandom, and wanting to create things and be perceived and also yearning to continue lurkage with zero pressure, and trying to write, but also not to pressure myself to write. Sometimes I want to write the things I already started and finish them and give them the satisfying grand finale I've got scattered between my draft docs and my brain. And sometimes I just start something totally new and Flex My Creative Muscles and be a Writer. And sometimes that's hard. So I play video games bc that's easier. And then I want to make things - this time specifically things made out of craft supplies.

And somehow in the shuffle between all of my interests and none of my interests and the desire for connection and the desire to never be perceived in a fandom ever again I've ... somehow ended up at a metaphorical buffet and given myself a metaphorical stomachache? At first i couldn't decide what to metaphorically eat and then I ate a bunch of stuff that feels like it Didn't Go Together a la mentos and cocacola and now I'm eating nothing, just sitting at a table full of Stuff and groaning.

Could my brain please just - do. One. Sensible. Thing?

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Tiny little vent post

It would be. So fucking nice. If my brain could like, stick to something. I'm in between fandoms, and also checked out of fandom, and wanting to create things and be perceived and also yearning to continue lurkage with zero pressure, and trying to write, but also not to pressure myself to write. Sometimes I want to write the things I already started and finish them and give them the satisfying grand finale I've got scattered between my draft docs and my brain. And sometimes I just start something totally new and Flex My Creative Muscles and be a Writer. And sometimes that's hard. So I play video games bc that's easier. And then I want to make things - this time specifically things made out of craft supplies.

And somehow in the shuffle between all of my interests and none of my interests and the desire for connection and the desire to never be perceived in a fandom ever again I've ... somehow ended up at a metaphorical buffet and given myself a metaphorical stomachache? At first i couldn't decide what to metaphorically eat and then I ate a bunch of stuff that feels like it Didn't Go Together a la mentos and cocacola and now I'm eating nothing, just sitting at a table full of Stuff and groaning.

Could my brain please just - do. One. Sensible. Thing?

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i NEED to know how you draw blood so well. I'm on my hands and knees begging for a tutorial 🙏🙏

Blood Tutorial

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Tutorial: Sew a Keyhole Neckline with a Facing

Since I keep trying to explain facings to friends (and keep feeling like I’m failing miserably), I decided to do a longer tutorial, after all, about how to I use a facing to sew keyhole necklines on simple medieval-style tunics. This is an attractive and sturdy neckline for LARP/Dagorhir/SCA garb. I’ve used it on literally hundreds of tunics.

This tutorial ended up getting pretty long and scary, but don’t worry: this is not a complicated process. It’s just hard to explain over the internet. So– let’s go!

What is a facing, anyway?

A facing is just an extra bit of fabric that you sew to the edge of your garment and fold down to conceal a raw edge. I use them on necklines, instead of folding the edge down in a traditional hem. If you don’t get the concept, @vintage-aerith has a great tutorial here. Facings produce very sturdy, flat, and non-bulky edges.

For example, this tunic has a keyhole neckline finished with a self-colored green facing. The edge of the neckline is NOT folded over and hemmed: the facing is an extra piece of fabric that was stitched on to the edge and then folded to the inside. You can see the ‘lower’ edge of the facing– it’s the darker green line about 1.5″ in from the edge. I then tacked the facing down with embroidery. It’s a very clean, unobtrusive finish.

This tunic has a very fancy external orange facing, combined with a collar! The process is very similar to above, but the facing is flipped to the outside. This is an easy way to add color to a garment. (Forgive my dork-face and overlarge tunic– this was for a customer who’s about a foot taller than me!)

You should use facings because:

Hemming necklines is a pain. The curve will not want to fold down flat. Facings, on the other hand, are exactly the same size and shape as the neckline, so they automatically lay flat.

The point at the bottom of a keyhole is a nightmare to hem, and if you hem it badly, it will fray and rip, fast.

When you fold down a neckline to hem it, your neck-hole gets bigger. When we’re talking LARP/SCA/Dagorhir garb, a bigger neck-hole always means more sunburn. If you use a facing, you’ll get a neckhole exactly the size you planned.

Hemming stretches your neckline out. The more you handle a cut piece of fabric, the more it will stretch. A stretched out neckline = more sunburn, again. This facing method minimizes handling of cut edges, so the neckline stays nice and tight.

Facings are fast and easy once you understand what you’re doing and why. I can knock one out, start to finish, in about ten minutes. No lie.

Now that I’ve convinced you that facings rock, onward!

1. Make Your Facing Pattern

You’ll first need a pattern for your facing, and to make that, you need to know what size you’d like your finished neckline to be. I recommend a neckline that’s made of a circle that’s about 5.5″ in diameter and a 3″ slit, like this. This is juuust big enough that it will pull over most heads. 

Draw your 5.5″ circle on a bit of scrap fabric. (I traced a saucer onto a sheet from a charity shop. Pure class, me.) This will be the hole your head goes through.

But, you protest, a 5.5″ circle only has a 17.25″ circumference! That’s way too small for anyone’s head! Well spotted: we’ll add a 3″ long slash down the center line so you can fit your head through. 

Now we’ll mark the center and shoulder line. Since your tunic has a front half and a back half, you’ll be sorely tempted to put half your neck-circle on the front and half on the back.

But if you do this, your tunic will be really uncomfortable! Your neckline will constantly creep forward around your shoulders. This is because most of your neck is actually in front of the shoulder seam, so 2/3rds of your circle– about 3.66″ on a 5.5″ circle– should go in front of your shoulder.

Add 1.5″ around the edge of the hole and and around the slash. 

Cut the fabric out along the outer line.

Cut out the center hole, and cut down the slash. Note that you’re just cutting the slash open with one pass of your scissors– you’re not trimming anything away. 

Now you have a mock-up for your facing. It should look something like this. (Mine is super ugly because I’m traveling and only have terrible blunt scissors with me.)

Pull it on. Can you fit this over your head? Does it lie comfortably? If you can’t get this over your head, cut the slash a tiny bit longer and try again. If that doesn’t work, make the hole a tiiiiny bit larger. Remember that a smaller neckhole is better (sunburn!).

Don’t be fooled by my weird face– I am happy, because mine fits okay! I’ll now trace my mock-up onto a bit of sturdy poster board, making sure to mark the center front, back, length of the slit, and shoulder seams with notches.

The front white piece is my facing pattern, which I use to trace out the facing piece on fabric, ie, the background piece in olive green. Note that the fabric facing does NOT have the hole cut out. This is important!

Next, we’ll…

2. Cut Out Your Facing

Lay your new pattern on a bit of your fabric. Using chalk or a fabric-marking pencil, trace it all the edges and mark all the notches. Cut along the outer line until your facing piece looks like the dark shape in the photo above.

Here’s where it gets tricky, though: you won’t cut the interior circle, yet. This is because that inner edge isn’t really an edge at all: it’s your stitching line. When you’re stitching your facing onto your tunic, your needle will follow that inner line that you’ve chalked onto your fabric. See how in the photo above there’s a line marked in yellow chalk on the dark olive green facing? That’s the stitching line, so DO NOT CUT THE CENTER HOLE OUT IN YOUR FACING.

Similarly, DO NOT CUT A HOLE IN YOUR TUNIC YET. We won’t cut either hole until the facing is stitched to the tunic. That’s right– it will look and feel really weird, but trust me, there’s a good reason for it.

3. Finish the Edge of Your Facing

The outer edge of your facing will fray if you don’t do something to prevent that, so take a moment to serge or zigzag around the edge of your facing piece. It’s way easier to do this before you stitch the facing onto your tunic.

4. Stitch Your Facing Onto Your Tunic

Okay, so. I like to start by sew the neckline on my tunic before I do anything else. That way, if I screw it up, I haven’t wasted time (or fabric) by adding sleeves and gores and stuff. 

Note how, in the picture above, no holes have been cut in the facing or the torso panel. This is not a mistake. Why aren’t you cutting the holes, you might ask? Well, fabric cut along curves stretches. Badly. This is bad news if you’re trying to match the hole you cut in your tunic to the hole you cut in your facing. Getting them to match requires a ton of pinning and fussying and delicate handling. I hate pinning and fussing, so I sew my facing to my tunic before I cut any holes. This way, everything is stabilized nothing can stretch out. Cool? Cool. Now, my torso panel is one long rectangle, which makes up the main front and back of my tunic– there’s no shoulder seam. Fold your tunic in half both ways and use your iron to crease these folds. These creases now mark your shoulder line and center lines. You’ll use them to line up your facing.

Lay your facing onto your tunic, right sides (ie, outsides) together. Make sure to match facing to the tunic’s center front, back, and shoulder seams. Remember how 2/3rds of your neckline will be on the front of your tunic? Check that, now. When your facing lays straight and flat and properly positioned on your tunic, pin it in place. You’ll now slowly stitch through both layers along the line you marked. The slash is a little different, though, so see the picture below for an explanation of how to stitch around it.

The stitching travels around the slash, with about 1/4″ to 1/8″ between the lines. The bottom of the slash should be crossed by just 1 stitch. If you use more stitches, this point will pucker when you try to flip it to the inside.

Once you’ve stitched along the entire stitching line, you’ll finally cut the neckline open.

Be extra careful cutting the slash open. You’ll cut through the gap between the two rows of stitching, stopping just shy of the stitch at the very bottom of the slash.

Okay. So, you’ve got your facing sewn to your tunic, but all the raw/cut edges are still exposed. To fix that, you’ll now fold the facing to the wrong side (ie, the inside), so the raw edge will be hidden inside the fold. This can be a little tricky, so be patient and use plenty of steam with your iron. To turn the points out, use something pointy but blunt, like a big bamboo knitting needle, to poke them right-side-out.

Once you’ve got your facing turned to the inside of your tunic, iron it well so the edge of the neckline is flat and crisp.

Hooray! All that’s left, now, is topstitching through the tunic and the facing in matching thread so your facing won’t creep back out to the right side. I like to use two lines of topstitching– one 1/8″ from the edge of the neckline, and another 1″ from the edge of the neckline. Make sure you’re catching the edge of your facing!

Hooray, you did it! That wasn’t so bad, was it? And look how sturdy and clean your tunic’s neckline now looks. That keyhole is never going to rip, I tell you that.

Huge thanks to Stellaria for writing the original tutorial that taught me how to do facings, and for putting up with my hare-brained innovations on her methods. Stell is the best. 

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Tutorial: Add a Mandarin Collar to a Keyhole Neckline Tunic

Hey, folks! A follower recently asked how I added the orange collar seen in my sew a keyhole neckline with a facing tutorial. I shared the process with my Facebook friends a few years ago, so I thought I would update those old photos and descriptions and share them with you here! They’re quick and dirty, but it will help you get the idea of how to add a mandarin collar to a keyhole neckline.

Your finished neckline will look something like this, if you sew your facing to the inside. If you prefer a decorative contrast facing, you can sew the facing so it folds to the outside, like this!

Right, let’s go!

#1. Prepare your facing piece as normal.

Finish the edges with serging (or a zigzag stitch, or whatever you like) so it won’t unravel.

If you don’t know how to sew keyhole necklines with facings, refer to this tutorial here to learn!

#2. Cut out the inside of your keyhole’s facing. 

I don’t normally do this at this point when I’m sewing tunics without collars, but this time, it’s necessary.

DO NOT cut the slit of the keyhole at this time.

#3. Trace that hole in your neckline facing onto the body of your garment. 

(The photo below should be rotated, but you can see that about 2/3rds of the neckline is forward of the shoulders, because that’s how our bodies are built.) Cut this out, too.

DO NOT cut the slit of the keyhole now, either.

Handle both your facing and cut neckline delicately, as these can stretch out of shape if you tug at them too much, and then they won’t match when you go to sew them together.

#4. Make your collar pattern.

There are a couple of different ways you could do this. You could sew a collar that’s just a straight band, but the top edge won’t want to follow the neck, Something with a bit of curve is trickier to sew and attach, but it will fit the neck more closely and be more inclined to stay standing up.

I used this method for drafting the curved collar.

The line with arrows is supposed to be the grainline. It shows me how to lay my pattern out on the bias. This isn’t necessary, but it’ll curve around the neck more happily. The tutorial illustrates this better.

The writing on my pattern says ‘Mandarin Collar For Tunics, Cut 2 self on bias, blockfuse.’ This means that I’ll cut two pieces out of my main fabric to sew into the collar, while “blockfuse” refers to the interfacing I’ll add. 

NOTE: My pattern looks funky because I decided that the top curve didn’t follow the neck closely enough: I wanted it to be shorter, while keeping the bottom the same length. To do this, I cut the pattern apart in the middle and pivoted it together. This took a little wedge out of the center back of the collar, while keeping the bottom edge the same, so it can still be stitched to the tunic.

#5. Add interfacing to your two collar pieces.

I’m going to add some interfacing to my collar, which will help it stay stiff and stand upright. I used a lightweight fusible knit interfacing. I could have used a heavier interfacing, but this was  what I had sitting around.

Because cutting out your fabric in the pattern piece, and then cutting out your interfacing, and trying to fit the two together is HORRIBLE AND MURDEROUS, I have instead fused interfacing to a bit of extra fabric. I’ll cut my collar pieces out from the pre-fused fabric. This is called “blockfusing,” and it’s WAY easier.

More on blockfusing here, if you’re a nerd who enjoys these things. I certainly am!

Here’s my pattern piece laid out on the pre-fused interfacing. I’ll cut out two of these.

#6. Construct your collar.

Since we’ve last met, I’ve cut out my two fused collar pieces and stitched them together with a 1/4″ seam allowance, right sides together, along the top edge and sides of the collar, leaving the bottom open. This edge is what gets sewn to the body of the tunic.

#8. Trim the points of your collar.

The points of the collar can get bulky, so it’s wise to clip them down a little. Doing this will let the points turn better: they’ll look sharper once you flip the collar right side out.

#8. Turn your collar inside-out and press it nicely. 

Baste the edge of the collar shut with long stitches, using a narrow seam allowance. Mine is probably too wide, but that’s okay– I’ll have to pick those basting stitches out later, so they won’t be visible.

#9. Pin your collar to that raw hole we cut in the body of the garment and sew together.

You’ll be pinning right sides together. Don’t worry about the raw edge, we’ll add the facing and enclose all the raw edges with that. Use lots of pins. Make sure the collar meets at the center front with maybe a 1/8″ gap, and matches up with the center back points. Sew carefully at a 1/4″ seam allowance. It’s probably easiest to sew this with the collar, not the body of the garment, facing up. The collar will NOT want to squash flat, but that’s a good sign– it means that the interfacing we added is keeping it perky. Just sew slowly, and everything will be okay! Remember that the collar only has to match the body at the edge of the cut hole– it can misbehave all it likes beyond that, because that’s the only point we’ll be sewing down.

Here’s what the tunic will look like when you’re done sewing the collar to the body. (Excuse the beach towel– I needed an impromptu ironing board while my main one was out of commission!)

Note that you’re looking at the tunic from the OUTSIDE. We need to cover up that raw edge with the facing, so it won’t fray. 

#11. Pin your facing on from the right side of the garment and sew the keyhole facing as normal.

This looks super weird, but I promise everything is right sides together: the collar just didn’t want to lay flat for the photo. This is fine!

To clarify, from the top down, the layers go like this: facing, collar, actual garment body. (At the keyhole slit, it’s just 'facing, garment,’ because there’s no collar there to work around.) 

Sew the keyhole facing with the facing piece on top, like this.

#12. Do these finishing steps, and you’re done!

Once it’s all sewn together, you’ll cut the slit open, flip the facing to the inside of the garment, leaving the collar on the right side, trim away some bulk at the seam allowance, and do some topstitching. Basically, we’re almost done! Topstitch the facing, so it won’t flip out from the wrong side. I also edgestitched the keyhole slit and stitched in the crack between the collar and the body.

And that’s all!

Going further: hoods and external facings with collars

If you would like to use this method for adding a collar to a tunic with a decorative facing on the OUTSIDE, the steps are identical– you’ll just start from the WRONG side of the tunic, not the right/outside.  You can also use this method to finish the raw edge of a neckline you want to add a hood to. But that, as they say, is an exercise left for the reader. Thanks for reading, and happy sewing! Let me know if you make a collar like this– I would be thrilled to see what you come up with! Best,

Ilsa of Drentha

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genuinely wheezing laughing at this description of dicken's awful pet with lead poisoning

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Mediterranean apathy metaphors

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I'm not going to bother reading the article to find out if this actually works or if anyone is actually trying it. I'm just happy we as a society are showing proper reverence for Orbs.

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Mangrove trees are adapted to secrete excess salt from their leaves due to their high salinity environment.

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convincing this wandering swordmaster (loser, woman) to keep demonstrating her flawless technique to cleave a man from his life for me because her tits bounce really lewdly whenever she does it and she hasn't noticed yet

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i'm trying to flirt with this noblewoman but she keeps asking me to demonstrate my flawless sword technique and i don't think she realizes how much effort i'm putting in to make my tits bounce while doing so

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To avoid deer strikes, Finland is painting deer antlers with reflective paint.

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Gothic worldbuilding

One of the things that's surprised me the more I look into gothic architecture and its purpose is how intentional the design elements were at the time, but nowadays we just look at the same structures and go "Ooh! Pretty! Fantasy!"

Like, the whole point of Gothic architecture was to make taller structures "closer to Heaven". Y'know, bc that's a big deal in Christianity, and at this point in time the people most likely to have money for big projects were The Church. The pointed arches in doorways and high-ceiling buildings were not there as a decorative element, they were there because they were better at distributing weight in taller structures than rounded arches were.

Same with flying buttresses! They had a purpose! To keep the tallest part of the tallest spire safely supported and to distribute its weight down. The ceilings with curved X designs (aka rib-vault ceilings)? Same thing. They weren't there to be pretty, they were there to hold up the weight of tall things.

Spires were there to make buildings taller. The buildings were shaped so that their footprint looked like a crucifix, and that informed where the tall stuff went.

I never knew! I was just going to mimic all these elements bc to me they're beautiful, but now that I know what purpose they served it makes me want to ask a bunch of worldbuilding questions.

In my world, do people care about things being close to Heaven? To the sky? Ascending toward a god? In my world where people live in fear of their moons, would they instead build structures that hug the earth? Would they distribute buildings and holy sites outward instead of upward? Would the structural elements of those building types become decorative over time?

MUCH TO THINK ABOUT!

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UPDATE: An artist I really like is doing a commission SALE - but I don't know if I'm ready yet to get a commission slot?

I'm still trying to decide who these characters are and what they look like and what design elements to emphasize. It's hard not to just JUMP at the chance to get these characters illustrated bc it helps me SO MUCH, but I think I want to solidify my ideas first and then enshrine them in the art.

Maybe commissioned art is a "Finish your First Draft" reward I can promise myself.

Future Commission: Desired

One of the things that's been massively motivating in the last couple of days is realising that one of the Hansry artists that I fucking LOVE does book covers - so I want to get Project Bloodlust developed enough that I can get a commission from them of my gothic fantasy idiots!!!!!!!