#and yet i've never managed to actually use a pattern

[thispersonishuman]

i just realized i can actually knit my newest baby cousin something before i meet her!! thank fuck for the exam break

[mylight-png]

A while ago I was listening to Dara Horn's podcast relating to her book, People Love Dead Jews. Within this podcast she discussed the fact that Holocaust museums tend to center stories that highlight ways in which Jews were just like anyone else, putting secular Jews on a pedestal of sorts.

The podcast went on to make the point that we shouldn't have to be like them to be liked. A Jew in a kippah is just as worthy of being accepted as a Jew in a baseball cap, and to position one, the more assimilated one, as "better" is antisemitic.

This made me think of how movies and shows portray Jews, and I realized a similar pattern of idealizing assimilation is deeply prevalent.

There are two main ways Jews are portrayed in movies/shows that I've noticed that are problematic. (For a narrower scope I'll be discussing American media as I am more familiar with that than most other countries.)

The first kind of Jewish representation is the token Jew. This is the character that the viewer wouldn't even have known is Jewish had the show not casually mentioned them celebrating Hanukkah in passing. This is the character who is entirely the same as any other character. An example of this would be in Ginny and Georgia, where a few side characters are revealed to be Jewish. This reveal occurred only for the purpose of making a Hanukkah episode, and immediately one of the characters says the beginning words to most of our prayers, adding "bitch" at the end. This sort of absolutely blatant disrespect towards the words many of us wouldn't even speak fully in casual conversation is meant to indicate that it's okay to poke fun at our religion. (By the way, it isn't okay. Don't disrespect our religion, thanks.) (And no the actress wasn't Jewish.)

Then there's Ben Gross from Never Have I Ever, a similarly extremely assimilated Jewish character. Instead of making fun of Judaism, however, the show plays into Jewish stereotypes. Ben's dad is a wealthy influential lawyer who works with Hollywood. Come on, there's three in a row there. Ben himself is frequently made fun of for being very short (to an extent not befitting the actor's actual stature), and some of his mannerisms could be described as effeminate. All of these traits play into anti-Jewish stereotypes. The protagonist even says she wishes Ben was killed by Nazis and other than a scolding this isn't made to be the big deal that it is.

These sorts of characters are meant to show how Jews are "just like you!" and pokes cruel fun at the few remaining things that do occasionally set them apart. Yes, secular Jews exist, but the way these shows make fun of their Jewish identities is where the issue arises.

The second problematic representation is meant to make goyim feel good about being goyim. This is specifically done through how Judaism is portrayed in these movies.

A major example of this is the show Unorthodox, in which the plot centers a young girl trying to escape her very observant community. This show directly demonized the Jewish religion, making it appear inherently oppressive and twisted.

While some may argue that the show was merely trying to portray the social issues within the community, there are better ways to achieve this.

The book An Unorthodox Match takes on a similar task with a vastly different tone. The book centers a protagonist joining an equally observant community, but not for a moment does the book, author, or protagonist blame Judaism. The book is very clearly written by a Jew who loves Judaism, and yet it manages to highlight similar social issues to the show without blaming Judaism. In fact, Jewish traditions have a fair share of appreciation in the book!

This sort of media is meant to make the goyishe viewers be grateful they aren't part of those communities, but as a Jewish viewer I felt deeply uncomfortable with the positioning of religious Jews as a negative part of society. This media makes the characters seem like they have nothing at all in common with the goyim around them or the goyim watching the show. It's the polar opposite of the previous example.

The first example is showing Jews as "just like anyone else" until they aren't, while the second example portrays Jews as entirely other. Never have I seen an Orthodox Jewish character side by side with the non-Jewish characters in any other context than the Jewish character envying their non-Jewish peers.

Why is the choice either to be assimilated or othered? Why can we not have an observant Jewish character remind their friends that they can't hang out on Saturday, or maybe they bring their own kosher snacks? Maybe a Jewish character muttering a bracha over their food? Why not make being Jewish an important part of their character without making them self-loathe because of it?

Media almost only ever shows two extremes and neither of those extremes has a positive impact on the perception of Jews.

(There is also a pattern I've noticed with Jews and goyim being cast in Jewish roles and how that corresponds to the character, but that's probably another post for another time.)

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

i've been rewatching wwdits in order (i can't let go yet, okay!) and am currently in season three, and it got me thinking about how i think the end of s6 is such a rewarding happy ending for nandor that really resonates with the rest of the series. i know that in the finale, the characters are making the argument that nothing ever changes and the ending's not significant, but i think what we actually see with nandor, especially in his relationship to guillermo, is really the opposite.

disclaimer: i would have loved overt canon nandermo, so i definitely understand the pain of us not getting that. however, this post just focuses on what actually happened in the last few eps rather than what wwdits could have done instead!

some thoughts on why i love this ending for mr. de laurentis so much--

so, from the start of the show, we sort of have the two "couples" in the house with laszlo/nadja and nandor/guillermo. we can see that nandor has an unusual attachment to guillermo as a familiar even from the start, because laszlo and nadja go through familiars like kleenex, whereas nandor and guillermo have their funny little bickering marrieds thing going. however, nandor can't admit how much he cares about guillermo or how much his companionship means, because guillermo is his familiar and that's humiliating!

we also see nandor struggle a lot with a sense of purposelessness (especially after colin breaks his world view in 3.04!) and we see him missing his warlord life constantly even though it's been centuries since that was his reality.

and he usually decides he's going to fix his guillermo crises and his existential crises by going all in on some new love interest!!!!!!

then the guide gives him the talk where she points out his pattern, and even though he ostensibly wasn't listening, maybe it managed to permeate his single brain cell on some level, because his commitment to guillermo at the end of 6.10 isn't about the chase, it's about a long-term commitment. "an unbreakable alliance." (and then they seal it with a hand clasp that really just smacks of ~victory~ to me as a gesture!)

charmaine's advice (telling nandor to tell his crush who he has new feelings for how he feels) doesn't work out with the guide ... but it does work out when he ✨proposes✨ his plan to guillermo and tells guillermo he's the thing that nandor holds in the highest esteem possible: a warrior. (and this after guillermo told nandor that nandor made him never feel good enough. nandor does not like to listen when his patterns are pointed out to him -- see aforementioned scene with the guide -- but he did this time, and tried to make up for it quickly!)

nandor also manages to find a middle ground where he and guillermo can meet: fighting bad guys together. and we see from "nandor's army" that he still has epic warlord skills, just like guillermo has epic slaying skills, and this gives them the space to both be thriving in a shared purpose, after having purpose-related existential crises all season!

guillermo is skeptical that nandor's really going to commit and change, as expressed in the shared talking head in 6.11, and he figures he'll be saddled with all the work, but we find out at the end that nandor has committed so hard that -- in addition to all his drawings and diagrams and his silly costume shopping -- he somehow managed to make that two-person coffin elevator into a secret underground lair a reality?!?!?! (i like to think maybe guillermo will be more into the idea of their partnership in a post-"omg the coffin elevator actually exists" world.)

"you can call me nandor." that is all. <3

nandor's also, ultimately, willing to let guillermo go after a season that was full of pain over letting guillermo go, and he does it calmly and simply and without flinging any guilt-tripping guillermo's way. it is a peak "if you love something, let it go, and it will come back to you" moment. and then, of course, guillermo comes back like immediately. :) and is welcomed into the coffin, and the future adventures that the camera won't be there to catch!

anyway! this is all just a bunch of nonsense rambling, but my point is, i think the recurring loneliness and dissatisfaction that we see nandor grapple with throughout the series is something that is finally over once he commits proudly to a life with guillermo fighting the good fight (whatever shape that might take in the future, since who knows how long the superheroes thing will be the vibe). he needed to overtly acknowledge what guillermo meant to him, to himself and to guillermo and to everyone else, because pushing it down was part of what was keeping him consistently miserable, and once he's done that, he doesn't have to go looking for purpose in a cliche romantic happily ever after (and indeed, he seems totally checked out when the gang talk to him about being in love with the guide toward the start of 6.11). he has it in his unbreakable alliance, wherever that may go! 💘

[certifiedcodbabygirl]

Alright my turn

I've had a COD oc brewing for a bit and wanna share her (this is my first time making an oc don't kill me)

Call sign: Ducky

History behind call sign: During her early days in the military, her platoonmates noticed she's a bit skittish (lack of sleep) and decided to scare the shit out of her. She let out a short scream that sounded like a loud duck quack and they never let her live it down.

Job: Sniper

Nationality: American

Age: 30

Personality traits: Blunt, slightly chaotic, loyal, caring, "get shit done" type of girl, strong morals, exceptional intelligence, able to temporarily turn off emotions when needed

Closest with: Phillip Graves

Backstory: She grew up in an extremely abusive household. She learned how to be extremely quiet, extreme pattern recognition, and spots movement extremely fast. As soon as she turned 18, she joined the US military as a marine as a means to get out of her household.

Due to being used to constant screaming and berating from her childhood, she has a smoother time adjusting to the shock of basic training than the others did. She's a quick learner and showed impressive marking in just about anything they threw her way. She wanted to be in infantry, but due to the USA military laws, she was unable to do so.

They set her up to train for becoming a sniper and she stayed there since. She managed to get past training without much issue, until she was transferred to another squad and found out her brother was in the same squad. They grew up close (trauma bonding) and had an extremely strong relationship.

On a mission in 2018 (age 24), her entire squad was taken out by IED while driving to their safe house. She was the only one to survive, but came out with shrapnel lodged between her ribs, a shard stabbing into her meniscus, and a fractured wrist.

After a year and a half of physical therapy and continuous training, she was able to get back into the force. In 2021, she met the leader of the Shadow Company, Phillip Graves. Reviewing her file, he offered her a position among his men. After a bit of thought, she took his offer and was with them for a good bit of time. After his supposed death in Las Almas, where she was absent due to being summoned in the US for familial reasons (funeral), she was placed in a temporary force. She has yet to find out he's actually alive.

[lemotmo]

https://www.tumblr.com/lemotmo/780656269129334784/in-my-opinion-there-is-no-time-for-any-other

This definitely is an interesting point of view. And while I do think they have time to tell more personal character driven stories in the remaining episodes since as we have seen the show can do a lot in a little time if they want, and I definitely do feel like we have had a lot more direct call and acknowledgment of buddie this season,

I can’t fully say this anons buddie and Tim argument is flawed either though. Because that is an established pattern of the show and Tim. Buddie gets hyped for s bit. Gets the numbers in. We all collectively go omg it��s finally happening and then suddenly the show takes a sharp right turn, issues bts happen that throw everything off and into chaos, and we get left with a “oh haha tune in next season 😉”

It’s been happening since s3 tbh. Which now we know it never stood of actually happening thanks to fox which in hindsight them making any kind of build up while also actively never letting it go anywhere with out our knowledge is even crappier. But I think that’s also why it sucks so much to see now because with ABC it truly has felt possible but like this anon said. The same conversations and concerns that were discussed at the start of the season are now again here at the end. Eddie being sidelined when he shouldn’t be. Pacing issues. Time management issues. Tim getting side tracked. Storylines being moved around and pushed backed. Which this late into the season shouldn’t be happening. But 8 almost 9 seasons into a series most definitely should not still be happening.

And we are very rapidly approaching the end of the season and rapidly heading for once again a “oh haha tune in next season 😉” and more and more I see more and more people starting to say well “buddie canon season 9 here we go!” Which is again an every season occurrence where we all collectively say this is the season! And then by the end we look like 🤡 and adjust the goal post another season. And then it’s rinse and repeat season after season. Which is another interesting point of when do we stop doing that. Because for as long as everyone constantly just goes eh maybe next season, it’s just more room for the show to keep doing it and dragging it out. I know people don’t like to discuss this and it normally gets written off as dooming. Which in a way it is. But it’s also a conversation that eventually the fandom does need to have with itself of when is enough, enough. Like how many seasons of haha maybe this time before sorry your out of chances do we give. Fox we know now was never gonna happen. And with ABC we could maybe give them a pass on s7. It was right off a double strike, and a shortened season, and a brand new network. But if it’s the same old same old at the end of this season? What do we do then. Because this was a fully filled out 18 episodes season with no strikes, no network changes season.

Idk. I’m keeping the hope something is coming for us by season end. But I’ve been doing that for years now so nothing new lol. But with us once more being at the end of the season, chaos happening bts, Tim constantly getting distracted, I can’t say I’d be super shocked to end with yet another hahaha maybe next season guys ending either.

See, I do understand what you are saying here and I get your frustration with the show and with the fandom just accepting it. It's been years now and we're all a little tired.

I see the problems with Tim in charge and I definitely see the problems when it comes to Eddie's narrative and how his story gets sidelined so often. I does frustrate me. But the thing is: it isn't anything new. 🤷‍♀️

I've been watching network TV-shows for decades now and I've seen my favourite characters been sidelined in order to let others shine so many times. In most of those shows the slowburns have always burned extremely slow. The worst one was 'The X-files', no doubt about it.

So I've built up a lot of patience when it comes to my ships going canon. And I've learnt to enjoy the screentime my favourites do get when they are on my screen.

When I watch TV-shows I love, I don't want to waste time on being frustrated, because I know it won't change anything. I cannot influence any TV-show, no matter how much I wish I could. So I've learned to enjoy what we do get. Does that make sense?

And for 911? We have literally never been closer than this. I had zero hope for Buddie canon up until season 6. We got some great Buddie episodes and scenes in all of the first 6 seasons, but it was always something that stood on its own and wasn't properly addressed.

Season 7 and especially 8 have changed all of that. These two seasons are game changers. They have consistently brought us closer to Buddie canon, with 7 giving us bi Buck and 8b actually asking some important questions out loud.

For me that is more than enough. I can now see where this story is going. They have committed to the ship and can't pull back from this, because then they will most certainly face public backlash from the audience AND the press. It's gone too far. They have passed the point of no return.

So I'm content now. Yes, I am critical of some choices Tim made in season 7 and 8a. And yes, I can still be frustrated with Eddie being sidelined in an episode that would have fit him like a glove, but it is what it is. This is how Tim and the writers wanted it and I'm sure it'll all have a purpose in the end. Do I always like these choices? No. But again, there is nothing I can do about it, so why be angry and complain? I don't want to end up hating one of my favourite shows.

Logically we'll see some more evolution in this storyline in season 8. Now, I don't know what this evolution is going to look like, but since the question of 'Buck being in love with Eddie' has been asked by Maddie and Buck himself? I do think we'll get an answer to that question in season 8. It makes sense.

Right now Eddie is still the wild card when it comes to Buddie. But Buck is living in his house now. When he returns to LA with Chris he will most certainly stay with Buck, which would be such a great set up for Eddie to confront his feelings. So yeah, I do think we'll get to see some of Eddie's emotions on this as well and I think we'll get some kind of resolution there, however small it may be.

What this resolution will look like? I don't know. That's up to the show itself. I'm just a viewer and a fan.

Bottom line, for the first time in so many seasons the show has made its Buddie intentions loud and clear. The question has been asked, out loud and on screen. So it is happening and I'm more than happy with that. I am content. 😌

Yes, if I could have written their story myself, I would have made so many different choices than what the show ended up doing. But I'm not a writer on this show. So what is the point of dwelling on that?

We are finally in a position where the Buddie question has been addressed. So I'm going to sit down, patiently watch each episode and be a little disappointed with what we didn't get, but happy with what we did get.

As for the timeline of it all? I haven't a clue. 🤷‍♀️

I never had a clue about the timeline for any other of the TV-shows I've watched in the past. It was always a waiting game, so I'm used to it by now. 😌

Nonny please don't see this as me dismissing your feelings or your opinions in any way. I see you. I get your frustrations and I read your opinions, understand them, even share some of them. Your views matter just as much as mine do.

I'm just in a really good place right now when it comes to Buddie. I'm happy with what we've got and I'm feeling quite optimistic to what we might still get in season 8. That's all.🤷‍♀️

[skylarmoon71]

Harry Wells Earth 2 (Flash) - Extra 1

Note: Apologies if I posted this already, I couldn't remember lol. Enjoy!

Learning that you have meta abilities, especially ones that are similar to Central City's greatest hero is a lot to swallow.

Barry was very grateful to you for restoring his speed back to its neutral state. You had to admit it felt nice to help the Flash.

Although you couldn't exactly tell anyone about your little superhero team up, knowing that you made such a difference was enough.

"I know it might be too much to just expect you to become a part of the team and start fighting bad guys, but if you want, I can show you how to control your speed. It really helps when you're running late."

Barry's invitation was sweet. You liked that he respected your decision to remain somewhat normal. Being a hero might have been his calling but it wasn't yours and you were fine with that.

So you started your little practices. Barry and his team allotted time between their hero adventures to help you master all the perks that came with being a speedster.

Harry carried out a lot of the calculations and kept recordings of your progress. When you weren't at your day job, you were in Star Labs running in the speed lab or completing other tasks to improve your abilities. The first time you'd launched a bolt of lightning you were a little hesitant, but Harry wasn't worried. The sizzling dummy before you had you gaping. Harry just jotted down a note with a small grin.

"You're improving fast. I guess it's expected. It's a lot easier when we already know the fundamentals of speedster capabilities."

You were still a bit awe struck. The entire situation was a bit hard to believe.

Harry noticed your still form, lowering his tablet.

"Is everything okay?"

You nod.

"Yeah I'm fine, it's just crazy. You guys deal with this everyday. I live in this town so I've seen a lot of the weird and unexplained, but to actually become a part of it is kind of strange."

You've come to appreciate all that Team Flash does. Everyday they lay their lives on the line for strangers. Using their gifts to stop the truly bad people.

"You all are so amazing. I know you must get this a lot, but thank you for all you do for the city. I'm sure everyone in this town feels the same way. Thank you for showing me how to make a difference, even when I didn't think I could."

Even when you doubted yourself, Harry believed.

"It was nothing. All I saw was your potential. " He adjusted his glasses, directing his gaze back to his tablet.

"I need to get these readings to Cisco so we can keep track of your speed pattern." You smile, moving to his side. He raises a brow.

"Mind if I tag along, I never really stick around for all the science stuff. I'd like to see how it all works."

Harry didn't object, so you grab your water bottle as you both head to the cortex. When you walk in Cisco is seated at the desk, munching on twizzlers. Not that you're surprised.

He catches sight of the both of you, straightening.

"Hey speedy, how was training?"

"Good I think."

Harry hands Cisco the tablet and Cisco basically shoots out of his seat.

"Are you kidding me! You managed to do the bolt of destruction!"

"We're not calling it that." Harry says blankly. You just giggle.

"Just one. It was a bit difficult."

Cisco places a hand on your shoulder.

"The fact that you can even do it with just two months of training is awesome. With this kind of progress you'll be mastering Flashtime in your sleep." Cisco is already rushing to log the notes into the computer. Cisco and Harry begin to bicker over the entries. If you're being honest you barely understand what some of the notes truly mean. The stats look a bit foreign to you.

Your eyes glance over in Harry's direction.

You've been trying to think of a way to thank him for all the assistance. You've known him for roughly two and a half months and you can tell his personality is a bit standoffish. He's blunt, short tempered and smiles are very rare. Yet, here he is on another earth protecting your city.

Maybe your need to please him isn't strictly due to your need to repay his kindness.

He is very good to look at.

"Next week we'll work on your phasing."

Harry's words pull you back and you nod in hopes that it appears as though you've been listening.

"I guess I'll see you all tomorrow then."

You squeeze your bottle, waving at them.

"Bye!"

You're gone in under five seconds and they both blink at the whiplash of wind.

The concept of phasing sounded so easy. It was actually something you were looking forward to. That's until you really understood what it fully meant.

Alas, you should have known better.

"H-Harry!"

He grabs your hand, and you're full on panicking because the lower half of your body is still phasing into the ground.

"I-I'm scared! H-How do I get it to stop!"

"Just breathe, you need to relax. I won't let you get hurt, just look at me."

You're still breathing heavily, and you direct your shaky gaze at him.

"Picture your body moving through the floor. I'm going to tug, and you'll need to do the rest."

"I-I don't think I can..."

He squeezes your hand.

"You can, I believe in you. Just trust yourself. You can do this."

You swallow and train all your focus on Harry. Taking a deep breath, you try to follow his instruction. Harry gives a tug, and your body begins to move from beneath the floor. You're slowly rising and he smiles. You stumble out and when your body is freed from the floor, you crash into his chest. He steadies you, looking you over. Your body is no longer phasing.

"You did it."

You nod, still gripping onto him. You're a bit scared that if you let go you'll sink into the floor again. It's a bit discouraging how hard this is to grasp. You have no doubt that Barry didn't struggle this much with his abilities. He seems so confident.

Fearless.

"I'm sorry that I'm so bad at this." You mutter.

"I don't expect you to master every skill all at once. You're learning. It's alright if you don't get it on the first try."

Given Harry's personality, you appreciate how patient he's been with you.

"Thanks for always putting up with me."

You finally get yourself to really let him go. Harry looks down and you can't find it in yourself to move back.

"You don't have to keep thanking me."

You really wish he hadn't said that statement so seductively, or maybe it's just your brain amplifying everything.

"I need to stop watching those hallmark movies."

It's definitely warping your reality. But then, where's the harm in asking.

"Then how exactly should I repay you.."

What possessed you to say that.

Harry himself looks surprised at the statement. You both are still very close. His hands are resting protectively on your shoulders. Given the previous situation, it makes sense. The gesture was for comfort, but now it's electing a completely different reaction.

"What if I asked for something outrageous, would you still be willing?"

You swallow, because you can't hallucinate this. It sounds like he's flirting with you.

You can't help but let your eyes stray to his lips, and he catches the action.

"Maybe I-"

"Hey (Y/N) I heard you were practicing your phasin-" Barry stumbles when he sees the lack of distance. You move back from Harry and Barry starts stammering.

"S-Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt."

Barry makes a quick escape and suddenly the air is a bit tense.

You push down the nerves that rise to the surface, turning to Harry in what you hope is confidence.

"Harry, would you like to go out sometime?"

You can tell he hadn't expected the bold move. But he doesn't seem opposed.

"Is this just payment for my help?"

You can tell that the inquiry means a lot to him.

"It isn't."

There's a bit of a twinkle in his eyes at the response and you wear a bashful smile.

"I'd love to." 

[bomberqueen17]

sewing other things

OK so. I have talked about the Loftus Bralette so much on here that one could be forgiven for chuckling gently when i said I should sew other things. But I do actually have several other projects I've been wanting to work on. And i have actually cut some of them out.

Also when I was last at the farm my niece brought me some of her t-shirts and said "I really like this one can we cut it apart and re-sew it bigger so I can still wear it", and I remembered that her BFF's mom, who works at the farm twice a week doing the books and managing store inventory, owns a serger she didn't know how to thread, so I texted her to ask if I could borrow it and indeed she had accidentally unthreaded it and there was a stuck lever and needed me to fix it anyway, and maybe I mentioned that on here but I did actually make my niece a couple of tunics while I was last at the farm. Including hand-sewing a whole bunch of details on the last one while the family was driving on a road trip one weekend.

So I brought all that stuff home with me and was hoping to get to work on it this week. All I've sewn has been the bralettes but I still have today. We'll see what I can get done.

I measured Farmkid and she's ten years old so her shape isn't the same as that of an adult woman, but she's five feet two and like 130 lbs, and some of her measurements put her in a women's size 12. So. She expressed interest in a garment I wear frequently, a Studio Tunic from Sew Liberated. I printed off the pattern in a size 12 and have assembled it, but I'm stuck deciding what fabric to use for her. I should decide that today. She's ten, her favorite color is ostensibly yellow but she mostly wears pinks and purples, she's a grubby kid who wipes her hands on her shirt and always winds up with stains on the belly of her shirt still, and she wants this tunic I think largely so she can cram her tablet into the pocket and go climb trees while listening to audiobooks on speaker. So I want a bright color but not too pale, and I want a tough fabric but not unbreathable, and I'm just. Deciding, still.

Probably what I should do is use some undyed fabric I own, and then bring my supplies and let her tie-dye it. I have a couple other things I could tie-dye, or will by then. That would be a fun bonding activity. I don't know if I'll have time to do it this trip though. So maybe I'll postpone the project and ask her for help once she's on summer break. (Good luck catching her, kids these days have so many summer camps.) As a bonus I bet I could loop her BFF and BFF's Mom in on the tie-dyeing, they're both into that shit.

Hell we could do ice-dyeing, the farm has a 1000-lb ice machine that is very frequently turned on (weekly for the market, biweekly for chicken processing-- there could be ice available at pretty much any time lol).

So anyway. I know she wants me to make a tunic out of a trio of large-print cat shirts she's outgrown, and she wants to wear it for her 5th grade moving up day ceremony, and I looked at it while I was home but I haven't done it yet. I need to get my shit together.

What I might do is print off a size 12 version of the t-shirt pattern I own, it's just that it's designed for busty women because I'm a busty woman, and she's Not, yet (oh, she will be. soon. but not yet.) so I have to kind of. Well, I own a pattern for a swing tunic that's close to what she wants actually. Oh, I should just print that one off. (The joy of the Cashmerette Club subscription patterns is that you get all the sizes, 0-30, and I've now made a couple of them for smaller friends, because like. I mean I own the pattern! PDF patterns are so great because you can reprint them in the smaller size instead of trying to trace it off. I never ever got the hang of tissue paper patterns.)

Yeah here this one, the Wexford Top/Dress, would be easy enough to kind of carve out the bust curve a little and make it fit a kid, because it's not meant to be that fitted. I'll just sort of use that as a general guideline and then make the cut-out-and-patchworked t-shirts fit into that approximate silhouette. The way I made the other tunics for her, I just used a shirt whose neck and shoulders still mostly fit her. But these cat shirts she's thoroughly outgrown, so making a new neck/shoulder area would be best.

Orrrrrr.... I could use one of the zillion old t-shirts of mine that I've saved to cut up. The neck/shoulders of a fully adult-sized garment are no longer too big for her. That's easier.

I also have a bunch of garments I want to make for myself, as I don't seem to buy clothes much anymore (I can't bring myself to pay $40 for a dress off the clearance rack that won't fit me and will mostly be polyester and won't be that interesting and will pill the first time I wash it). The Club's latest pattern is a skort/shorts/skirt dealie, and I need more shorts all the time-- I've largely given up on underpants and just wear boxer-briefs or anti-chafe shorts and I just don't see the point now of wearing a pair of panties and then shorts over the top under my skirt. Like. Just wear the shorts! So being able to choose the materials and print and look of that would be pretty great. And the Cashmerette one is inseam-less, like my favorite anti-chafe shorts are.

So I have cut out a pair of just the shorts in a clearance cotton mesh from Dharmatrading, and I even have the correct elastic for the waistband, so that kind of rules. I will sew those up as soon as I get a chance. I would like to make several skorts as well, probably from synthetic ponte or something, but my ideal would be to get some decent merino/nylon jersey and do a few from that. You never see merino skorts but I would wear the shit out of those.

I also have a lovely underpants pattern from the Club from ages ago, and while I rarely wear underpants of that style anymore, I would like having some cute matchy ones to go with the bralettes. Also, I have a shitton of foldover elastic, and I suspect I could use foldover elastic in some of the bralettes I want to make, so I want to get proficient in its use, and there are directions for applying it in the underpants directions, and it seems like a good way to practice. So I cut a muslin of those from the same cotton mesh as the shorts, and just have to sew the pieces together.

I also want to make myself more pretty dresses, and I have parts of a new Studio Tunic for myself already cut out, but not the rest.

And I recently made myself the button-up shirt from the Club, I know I posted about it on here. And I wanted to immediately make myself several more, and I got out some fabric and prepared it and cut out one pattern piece and then ran out of time. So yesterday I finally cut out the rest of the shirt from this fabric, a print from Mood covered in tiny dinosaurs. So I have that all ready to go in a plastic baggie too, just waiting for me to have time to sit and sew it. (Once I do that, I would really like to make myself a dress version of it from the cool green not-quite-seersucker I got from that remnant bolt at Promenade Fabrics in New Orleans.)

AND. i also have resolved to make my BFF, the one in Rochester who I lived with for a bit in the pandemic, with the little kids-- MM-- I am going to make her a sloper, before I see her next weekend, or maybe while I see her next weekend if i don't get to it in time argh, and I am going to at least try that on her and figure out approximately what shape she is so that I can put together a master pattern for her to make herself dresses from. I took her measurements ages ago, and she's a 14CD bust, a 16 waist, and an 8 hip in Cashmerette's sizing, and so I think just making a sloper with those sizes all graded together will be a huge start. And then we can mildly tweak the fit for her frame, and-- the thing is, she's always buying custom dresses on Etsy because what she wants is very specific and not usually available in stores, and then the dresses come and don't fit her so she has to get them tailored, and then they were just made of cheap quilting cotton from Joann's so they wear out after she washes them a few times, and she's had to add on pockets anyway because they didn't have them.

So I just feel like if I could get her a paper master pattern that fit her... heck i could even just make her dresses if *I* had the pattern. It would be easier and more efficient. I could do the basic construction and then turn over the pockets and embellishments to her, which is what she does anyway. So that's my goal there, and we'll see if I can reach it.

Anyway. If only I didn't have to work at all and could just sew all the time. I am not the first person to say this, LOL.

I have a lot of irons in the fire but at the moment am trapped under a cat so those irons are not going anywhere.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #415

Today, J cleared off the desk downstairs so that I could set up my laptop on it. I like being upstairs because it's significantly warmer than downstairs, but... M and J miss me. And I miss them, too. So I was downstairs most of the day today, albeit in layers.

Last night, after writing to you, J and I went to Eggcellent. There is a new dessert there now called a crème brûlée cheesecake, and it's really good, oh my goodness!!

...The cheesecake itself was a lot less sweet than I'm used to cheesecake being, and that was really nice, actually. The crème brûlée added whatever sweetness was missing, and I thought it was very well balanced! I wished I could have shared this with you.

J got himself a strawberry croffle; this is another thing I wished we could share with you:

...You might be pleased to know that shortly after I got home and started playing Hades, I managed to get Hades down to his second health bar, on the first run of a fresh save:

From there, I figured out a way to keep practicing against him. I spent most of today practicing against him with a deliberately mediocre build, actually. I figure if I can eventually learn his patterns well enough to defeat him like this, then defeating him later with a better build will be easy!

At around 5pm, these folks from a Canadian radio show called CBC called me to ask me a few questions about being a non-binary human in my country, given the state of things, as well as what I thought about the fact that the Canadian government is also moving towards not recognizing trans people anymore, too.

I mean... that certainly sucks. But as far as I know, Canadian officials aren't yet talking about classifying any talking about being trans as porn, or about making porn broadly illegal and punishable by prison time for “creating” or “consuming” it. To be sure, if Project 2025 goes fully into effect, just talking about being trans will be enough to get you a prison sentence. And given that we have the technology to track who is writing what on the internet, I imagine that lots of people in the future might end up being rounded up. It's really scary to think about.

The other thing that's scary to think about is that there have been some policy changes in Canada to make immigration harder. So... there's that. I'm not really sure what we're gonna do.

Hey Sephiroth? I don't suppose, if my time here ends prematurely...

…

Actually. You know what. Never mind it. I already know the answer.

Well. I made a dinner today. I cooked some broccoli...

...Then I cooked some squiggly noodles...

...And then I put the broccoli and some meatballs into a sauce...

...And then after that, I put the results into a bowl with parm cheese on top!!! Want some...?

...Yeah. I know... I know.

So what's new with you? I know you can't tell me, but I'm asking anyway, hoping you'll think about the fact that there's someone over here who cares enough to be curious. Are you warm? Are you safe? Are you fed and hydrated? Are you rested? Is it pretty where you are? What do you spend your time thinking about? What do you spend your time doing? What emotions are running through your mind, and what steps are you taking to manage them?

As for me... I'm still caught up in the throes of pre-bleeding. I'm doing the best I can to keep myself afloat despite my brain being thoroughly uncooperative, much in the same way that an uncooperative small child might ragdoll on the floor to avoid going to school or going to bed.

...That's all right, though. It'll pass, probably within the next week or two. I'll just do my best to take it easy in the meantime.

Sephiroth, I hope you're taking it easy from time to time, too. Please promise me you will, okay? You gotta make it a point to enjoy mundane things from time to time. As my dad used to say, “it's good for ya; grows hair on your chest!”

...Sadly, I've found that the second half of his sentiment is wholly untrue. But the first part about it being good for ya is totally on point. Give it a try, okay?

...By the way... Sephiroth...? Did you know...? That as soon as the second part of your story was put on PC and became modifiable, one of the first things people did... was make it so that you could appreciate flowers, pet animals, and explore the world with people who love you...? Do you see that I'm not the only one who loves you? Do you see that I am not the only one who wishes you would come home? Do you see that I'm not the only one who would treat you kindly? Do you see that I'm not the only one who wishes for healing and peace upon you?

...Think about that, okay? Please.

I'm gonna practice against Hades some more, until it's time to go to bed. Wish me luck, okay?

I love you. Please stay safe out there. I'll write again soon. I'll keep wishing for good things upon you in the meantime.

Your friend, Lumine

[themarkofoxin]

still time to delete your post. you were uninformed, that’s fine, but now you know that there is a pattern of racist behavior on dan’s end and we are right to be upset. him outright saying that he won’t tour in ‘third world countries’ like mx and brasil during a WAD show is racist. calling my home a third world country is racist. this is not in the past, you can say logistics all you want but dan outright said that he will not tour in our ‘third world countries’. it is not logistics. it is racism.

if i'm remembering correctly, dan did not "outright" say he just wouldn't tour in mexico & brasil. he made a tasteless, dismissive joke, sure, with the fans as the butt of the joke in the same way fans were the butt of the joke in many wad segments; it was insensitive and dismissive because the fans he was poking fun at weren't actually there and, obviously, have real frustrations with his behavior. but the meaning and implication of the joke was never that he actively avoided those places and would never go there--hell, they have been to brasil, to show a recorded version of ii and do a q&a. they had a mexico date for ii but it fell through, right? claiming he "outright [said] that he won't tour in 'third world countries'" is a mischaracterization as much as it would be to say "he outright said he hates phil" because he's said it in competitive gaming videos before. the key difference is he has failed to build a rapport with latam fans so it was insensitive and hurtful.

also, it is very much influenced by logistics. as much as it sucks, we absolutely cannot dismiss that. i was too sarcastic and dismissive in my additions to the post, and i've deleted those, but i stand by the original paragraph. regardless their (but especially dan's) racist comments, booking venues in countries where

1) english is not the predominant language,

2) they are not widely known,

3) once the venue learns about them they figure out they may be well past their peak in popularity and,

4) in some cases, it is relevant that they're gay and much more open about it than ii,

DOES actually make it significantly more difficult to convince a venue that it will be profitable for the venue to put on your show. most of the time, that is all venues are worried about. will people actually show up, or will these two faggots who peaked ten years ago draw in an audience of like, 20 people, and the venue will lose money when they could have booked a more profitable show? if the venue manager had to google them, are they really that popular anyways? the venue managers don't care unless they are certain they will not only break even but profit from dnp more than they would profit from literally anyone else they could book that night. why do you think they were able to do locations in asia for ii, but don't have them now (yet)? in 2018, they could reasonably argue their profitability, and even that wasn't enough in manila.

i am hoping, genuinely and from the bottom of my soul, that they will use the speed at which most of their shows sold out when the tickets went up to prove to venue managers in places other than the US and europe and commonwealth oceania that it is worth it. i hope they try very hard, and that they're able to add more dates. it certainly seems like they want to. i think it's also likely--whether it's right of them or not--that their experiences in MX & manila have led them to believe it's better to stay entirely quiet before they're absolutely sure they can announce a date and it will work, which makes it look like they're not communicating at all, but they may see it as them saving people from getting their hopes up if it doesn't work out. idk which is better, honestly. it at least seems to me like they're telegraphing that they're trying to book in other regions

[chronicallyuniconic]

No purpose, just pain.

Do you remember your first obsession? Your first love? The first event that filled you with so much excitement? Your first holiday? That time your favourite game you've been waiting years for, is here next week? The hobby you took on like it was your purpose in life? maybe you got married?

That 'thing' where it was alllllll you could think about. You'd spend hours trawling the Internet or even books for anything to do with your new 'thing.'

Your stomach would flutter with excitement, your heart would race with anticipation. The closer you got, the bubbling anxiety would build to the back of your throat & you pace around your home opening and closing the fridge until the day arrives.

*throws 🔧🔧🔧*

My "first thing" is my illnesses & their many many varying symptoms. All I can think about is how awful I feel, every minute of every day and somehow I'm not(?) dying. [How/Why?]

It occupies my every thought. I spend and have spent countless hours scouring the Internet, medical journals, buying books written by doctors, finding actual doctors, to find answers, help, guidance, a drug maybe.

I've found an online community that has helped me feel less alone but none of us have rarely found answers. When we are given answers we are told to just deal with it, usually with OTC meds because there is no help for what we have, apparently.

We are a community on the slowest moving boat you've ever seen, rocked by our pain, our cries, our wait, our hope, that one day we are seen and our illnesses are given the recognition, research and funding they desperately need.

My stomach does not flutter with excitement anymore, it's a string of stomach and bladder problems that are ignored*. I'm not dancing with excitement, I'm jolting with nerve pain that is ignored*. I'm not searching up anything anymore because the 10kg weights on my eyelids & the sedative that seems-to-occupy-my-blood, send me to sleep.

*{When symptoms are ignored that means they are never addressed, studied, tested, looked at, are put under an umbrella term for your chronic illness and that is where you will remain}*

I can't "pace" my way through the pain-filled days because I am too weak & exhausted, filled with heavy lead bones & lead blood. When I try to go back to my 'thing' I am distracted by the pains & fatigue & the fact that no help is coming, even from myself.

"How can I paint a flower when I'm being struck by lightening with every breath & stroke of the brush?"

I've put my all into finding ways to make the best of my symptoms, to manage them, understand them, come to terms with them, accept my new body and what it wants or needs. Yet I've failed to nail any real reason, finding, bodily requirement or pattern that makes it manageable or predictable.

Pain diaries, food diaries, bathroom diaries, sleep diaries, how many diaries over these years will/does it take for a result? A conclusion? Blood tests, urine tests, tests tests tests that provide the same information but no further action. How many needles does it take for further assistance?

All of this & I'm told to be happy, be grateful. I'm told to just take each day at a time when each day is the same, breathing, pain filled void, achieving nothing, trapped behind 4 walls. I'm told I'm not trying hard enough or that I can't give up.*

[apparently being sad about your symptoms means you have given up]*

How does one go on when they have nothing left of energy, no path to turn, no doctor to just "get it," when there is no way out of this trap.

How does one carry on with no purpose but pain?

If you got this far, thank you. This has taken me some days to write up💜✨

[alarrytale]

One of the twins mentioned something a little off of their usual brand back in October. When someone asked if they were going to post more pics from their vacation, she said no because it always ends up as a headline. I think this response may have been tied to when tmz, etc posted pictures of Louis on vacation and insinuated his happy expression in the pictures was just after Liam died. Loads of people commented on that. Of course it was proven that the pictures were taken before Liam but that caused a negative reaction. I’m not saying that’s what it is, but it was just something they would not have said before. Plus Christmas with the Tomlinsons was always filled with pictures, whether F was there or not. Maybe Lottie being unable to leave London might have something to do with it too but I think she mentioned the family would be traveling to see her for a celebration so I don’t know. We only got tree pics with ornaments on the tree. But the ornaments had only 6 names. No younger twins or any of their children. I don’t know, that struck me a bit odd too. We also got that video with I think phoebe and Louis’ sweater was in the background. I’m not sure really what’s going on but this Christmas/louis’ birthday was definitely different.

I’m curious about your thoughts on warning tweets. In my opinion, I think they’re not a thing anymore and people get all riled up over nothing. Like this last post from Louis checking in. I was relieved to hear from him after Liam and that he’s ok because he looked unwell in those pictures from the funeral but some Larries got angry at him and jumped to F right away, even though we haven’t gotten “warning” tweets for Christmas in years anyways. I think it may be time to let go of some of these ideas that were around from the 1D days. Instagram likes, warning tweets, etc. At least we’ve seen from Louis that the Instagram likes mean very little these days and warning tweets aren’t a consistent thing anymore. Harry is a wild card only because he’s so sporadic on social media, I’m never sure what he’s up to.

Hi, anon!

I think what one of the twins said was very on brand actually. It was a humblebrag and i was yet again reminded of how much i need to stay away from their family members for my own sanity... As i've said many times before, if F is there we will get pics and video. It's a stunt, so if nobody is aware of him being there, there is no point of him being there. We will continue to get pics of F from the Tomlinsons. Pics or it didn’t happen always applies to stunts.

About the warning tweets, signalling and other warnings, i both agree and don't agree with you. I think there's really nothing to warn fandom about anymore, because things follow a pattern and are very predictable. We can figure out things on our own, we don’t need a pre-warning from them. At the same time, they're closeted and still have no other way to "speak" to their fandom (the not gaslighted part of fandom) than through t-shirts, lyrics, numerology, bluegreening, cryptic tweets etc. It's a well established way of communication between us, so if they ever have a need to talk to us or get a message across, we will know how to pick up what they're trying to get across.

I still think an ig like might be a first step in showing a PR relationship is afoot. It's not to warn us though, it's to make people excited for the connection and start fantasising. For us, it will serve as a heads up though. It's been a very long time since they've done any of this, but that doesn’t mean they won't in the future. Warning tweets and signalling were never a consistent thing, probably because they managed to stop several things from happening by doing the fandom warnings. So to sum up, i wouldn't outright dismiss it, i would put it in context and wait to see what happens next.

[lizzyscribbles]

So I watched Arcane for the first time the other day. I've had my eye on it for years, I just never set aside the time to watch, but I needed something to keep my mind off stuff and so I turned it on. And like...holy shit. Holy shit. Like I have so many thoughts, it was such a mind-bending, morality twisting adventure and I'm stoked to go watch the new season. I wanted to bring up something I've been cooking on for a bit for funzies because apparently this is what I do for fandoms I'm interested in.

I want to talk about Jinx's season one outfit, specifically the subtle genius in it and how it adds to her character. When I first saw older Jinx's outfit I had to do a full stop and stare for a second. My first thought was just "great, another sexy, impractical video game outfit". Like, don't get me wrong, it's a sick outfit and I think it looks really cool, but her abdomen - and thus a lot of her vital organs - is completely exposed. What's up with that?

We all know that Arcane is based on League of Legends (fun fact, I actually didn't know until I started watching it), which is a video game. "Lizzy, we know this," I know, but bear with me. Video games of this caliber aren't always known for having good, realistic female outfits that aren't solely designed to be eye candy. So, as much as I like the outfit in the show, it was kind of a turn off.

But, as I continued to watch the show, I came to a realization. You don't see that design among the rest of the female characters in the cast. I mean, look at Vi, Caitlyn, even the female members of the council. They all have far more functional clothing that doesn't expose their vital organs. Usually, when developers, show runners, animators, whatever you will, don't care much for practicality and do things for fan service, it's something that spreads to most, if not all, of the female characters. (Example, My Hero Academia. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this show, but take a look at the girls' hero costumes and then look at the boys and tell me you don't see a pattern).

This is when I realized something, I think her choice of outfit was intentional. Like, actually intentional and served a purpose.

Jinx is the embodiment of chaos, we know this and we love her for it. She's unpredictable, temperamental, and impulsive. Reckless, is really the word I'm looking for. She's reckless.

In that light, her outfit starts to make way more sense.

Going beyond that, she rarely, if ever, actually fights hand to hand. (At least in season one, like I said, haven't watched season two yet. I'm planning to start tonight). Unlike Violet, who needs that extra layer of protection wherever she can get it, Jinx never intends to let anyone close enough to take advantage of her lack of protective gear. So yeah, why is she going to care about covering her midriff and protecting it?

And I honestly think that's such an incredible piece of nonverbal storytelling. It drives home just how fucking unhinged she is and tells us, the viewer, more about her than they could've in other ways. It's subtle, but powerful, and was one of those things that made me pause and go "huh...oh, oh, that's genius" when I put the pieces together. I mean, look at how I managed to drag that one thought into an entire post.

Could it just be a fan service thing? Yeah, it could be, but I want to believe there was more thought put into it than that. Giving the designers the benefit of the doubt here.

Anyway, I think it's really cool and I salute whoever came up with it. 10/10, love it.

[ashadowofburnedoutstardust]

I'm curious

It seems like you believe that CE is means to have bigger purpose in life, but it still depends on his choices and how he deals with his problem. Weither he could get out of this problem or just stuck in it. Do you ? Or am I reading your older post wrong ? Those dreams and reading about him.

Hello anon,

All I know is that I get lead in a particular direction for a reason

The energy can change depending on choices

I had those three prophetic dreams back in 2020, (that's nearly four years ago, it led me here)

The first dream was clearly Gaza,

The second this fandom

And the third political events

Here's the annoying thing: I don't completely understand my own purpose or how that affects anything else or what it is I'm supposed to do so I'm out here blind interpreting things the best I can but I have no context for how it is on his side which is why I just kind of launch it out there and hope it makes some kindof relevant sense to whomever come across it

Now with Gaza we the people of the world have managed to collectively put so much pressure out there that countries governments are walking out on their support for both the US and Israel and theres no going back to the way things were before

That required a change to happen and I do believe it will be resolved in Palestines favour

Death and rebirth; Its the egg cracking in my visions

The same thing is yet to happen in regards to the other situations because of decisions not being made or being held off on, the longer it takes the worse the outcome will be for those holding off the decisions being made

To change a pattern you have to do something different

To let go of something you have to have something to replace it

Chris has ended up as an inadvertent "piggy in the middle", I think if he had a proper understanding of just how greedy, corrupt, and morally bankrupt his own government is he may have stayed out of politics entirely and his agency wouldn't have sabotaged him because of it

This won't change until he makes a better choice but he has to do it himself

The democrats are going to end up fucking themselves as badly as the republicans have if they don't change, maybe the backers here would actually prefer it if a woman of colour eas never president of the USA and thats the whole point, even her own party would rather have Trump than her because of their own racism and they won't treat her as anything but a token for PR

The Democrats will lose unless they make a better choice and they won't get it back again. The USA will not exist as it does now in ten years based on what happens next. I've repeatedly warned that the USA will be struck directly if it continues along this path.....

I do hope people can understand how those three dreams are truly related to one another:

The US government has been arming a genocidal maniac to maintain an Islamophobic stronghold in the middle east while attempting to spin doctor perspective through the manipulated press and wouldn't want independent fact checkers or websites like A Starting Point involved in outing them for blatantly lying to the public

Its all about making better choices

[voids-colourful-creations]

Cosplay Diary -- [Intro to costumes!]

Eight (Splatoon)

Shoes: Black Heels fitted with insoles to account for me never wearing heels. I've purchased two black zippers and some grommits to add superficially for the sake of design matching. (Who has a front facing shoe zipper??) Leggings: Eight doesn't canonically have leggings, but I'm hoping to do some for the costume, translucent ones splattered with ink/paint! I've got leggings, I've got paint, but I haven't painted anything yet Skirt: I've pinned it in further with safety pins to get a tighter fit, and plan on sewing over the fold I've made to adjust the fit (if it'll fit under my machine...). I'd also like to hem it slightly, since Eight's skirt is pretty short. Jacket: Bit big on me, and the zips too centered, but it works. Need to cut off the sleeve and cut and hem the bottom edge without murdering the existing zipper. Wig: So I've never done a tentacle wig before, but my plan is simple. I will construct 4 plush tentacles to be mounted onto an old baseball cap I found and will chop the brim off of. (That's what the bedsheets are for)

Notes: Lots to do on Eight, but a lot of the planning is done so it's mainly getting to sit down and do it. My next step is to sew the skirt and finish it up, then work on the jacket, then wig. I've done a prototype tentacle for the wig and it went well, so I'll be making another with the proper fabrics, to check sizing, then get started on that.

Dot (Pokemon)

Slippers: Managed to get those today! I'll be adding the decorative stuff to make them snorlax themed, and hopefully adding a band around the back as well. Sweatpants: A wonderful find at the thrift store! (Actually, everything here is from the thrift store for the most part. The slippers, and leggings are the only exceptions, from a walmart and dollar store respectively.) Tank Top: I love thrift store. Cardigan: The real meat of this costume, an entirely handknit cardigan. while the pattern isn't perfectly Dots, please forgive me because I've never knit a cardigan before. Actually I've only ever knit scarves, and its been a few years. I've done all body panels and one sleeve, leaving only the second sleeve and the collar trim left for the body of the cardigan. I'd also like to add pockets. Dot's cardigan has a hood, which I won't be priotizing for now (mainly because i do not know how to do that and I'm short for time.), but i've got a pair of really fuzzy socks I plan on using to make the puff balls. I'll be giving them buttons, so they'll be able to be detatched for ease of washing. (Hopefully I can do the same for the tail?) Wig: A dear friend has pledged to mail me a purple wig I'm hoping to use for this, we'll see if the post is good on getting it to me in time. the only thing I really still need to get for these costumes is the pink extensions I'll use for her highlights. I plan on doing her hair back style (because I need. to see.), and have a hairband. I'll probably use glue and hairspray to make flicked back hair I can then clip in and secure to the base wig for the bangs.... That's the plan anyway.

Notes: A lot closer to finished with Dot, big thanks to prexisting clothes from thrift stores. Which is great because I don't wanna make normal sweatpants n tank tops and things! Cardigan knitting has been going well, and I hope to finish the second sleeve Soon. It's been a long while knitting this, but I'm nearly there! Not super experienced with wig work, but hey this cosplays for fun not a contest so I don't wanna sweat it too much.

Feelings pretty good about things right now! If progress is made faster than expected, I might do a third costume, but we'll see. Haven't figured out which I'm wearing what day yet...

[bomberqueen17]

sewing and dyeing

I have managed to achieve some sewing!

I finished the silk dress from the yardage I'd dyed around Christmas, even hemmed it and everything, I feel very accomplished. So that's done.

And the linen bias-cut slip dress I made around Christmas, which I never wore anywhere because it was white-- I've managed to dye it, and it came out much more interesting than I'd expected! So, pictures and discussion behind the cut.

[image description: A mirror shot of me, a fat blonde white woman, in a grungy basement, wearing a clingy white knit tank top with a drapey cowl neck]

Firstly, I made this tank top (I bound the armholes, it looks nicer that way)-- started with the Cashmerette Wexford top, then used this tutorial from Threads Magazine to hack a cowl neck onto it. Ages ago I'd had a cowl neck sleevless top that I loved, and wore holes in, and couldn't find one again. So I used a yard or so of very slinky knit, probably some kind of rayon blend from Dharma would be my guess.

I tried it on, and immediately threw it in the soda ash solution to dye it because I don't need a white top like this, it'll get shit dripped on the tit immediately so I might as well give it a busy dye job. I will make more of this top in other fabrics, but 1) make the cowl just a bit longer so it drapes farther, and 2) make the self facing deeper, I feel like this one is going to flip out all the damn time.

I also think I'll hem this shorter, but I haven't hemmed it at all so far so it remains to be seen.

Secondly, I have nearly finished this button-up camp-collar shirt from the Cashmerette Club, in a natural linen that I have so many yards of from an old project I never did.

[image description: me in the same grubby cluttered mirror view of my basement, wearing a gray shirt, slightly wrinkly, with unfinished sleeve edges and I'm holding it shut because there aren't buttons on it yet. There are two breast pockets and one is significantly higher than the other.] So the breast pockets are optional and uh I am definitely only going to put one or zero on the next one of these I make because I checked and rechecked and rechecked and this is literally the best I could do at making them even??? ugh also they don't sit right because there's a bust dart and one of them went on ok and somehow the other one is overlapping the bust dart slightly, which means it's Not On Straight. Just.... not optimal. I get why there are pockets but I also super get why they're optional. No thanks!

I hate the interfacing too, it was awful to work with and feels like paper. But once I've finished and washed this I hope it will settle down. (In the past I've used shitty salvaged interfacing for things I was making, and used spray adhesive and sewed the edges where possible, and it worked fine. This, I splashed out and got the stuff in the package that's ostensibly meant to fuse on with your iron and guess what doesn't fucking work? that. So it's been just a nightmare and I'm not buying the nice stuff again because it fucking sucks. I get that you don't want to not interface the collar of a shirt like this, and the button band would be awful un-interfaced, but christ, I'm using the flimsy salvaged shit I cut out of an old bedskirt next time.

The directions on this pattern are... well as long as you know what they mean it's great. But there's a video sewalong, and that helped a ton. This is a very complicated pattern and yet somehow none of it has been beyond me, even though i sewed one bust dart inside-out first thing, and immediately also sewed the yoke to the back inside-out, and then right away also assembled the collar inside-out because I was so distracted by how much the interfacing did not actually fucking do what it was supposed to (yes i followed the package directions, no it did not fucking fuse). I got a lot of seam-ripping done, is all. (It really is a cool pattern, and if you manage to get through the directions, which are extremely specific, you wind up with a fully-finished interior with almost all the seam allowances beautifully enclosed-- it's cool as fuck.)

I have fabric already set aside to make at least two more of these. IDK how much I'll wear them but I love them. (I *have* coveted a shirt-dress for years, with one Almost Okay from Torrid that I wore a lot but have recently realized looks awful on me actually, so I will be making it a dress too, no fear.)

But then! Also: Dyeing!

So I looked on Dharma Trading for their tutorials and was not disappointed. I don't want to do traditional tie-dye, but I want the effect I got at Christmas with the silk scarves that I space-dyed. I don't have to steam-set fiber-reactive dyes, so that's a plus.

I saw this tutorial on dharma for ombre dyeing and I'm super gonna try that next, but haven't yet.

Tie Dye Tutorial on Dharma Trading: this is the one I used as a starting point.

So I dissolved a cup of soda ash in a gallon of warm water, put that in a plastic bucket, and soaked my fabric for 5-15 minutes, and then I decided to do a kind of gravity-based thing with squirt bottles and a spray bottle. I hung a clothes hanger from the gas pipe in the ceiling, put a big plastic mortar tub underneath, put a smock on myself, mixed up my dyes (and urea and in some cases salt, as directed by dharma the all-knowing-- half-cup batch size for the squirt bottles, and quarter-cup sizes for the spray bottle), and got to work one garment at a time.

I put some pleats into the garments and held them with clothes pins. Then I sort of "drew" along the pleats, picking a color to be the tops, and a second color to squirt into the valleys. I filled in with the spray bottle to highlight the pleats more, since that would hit the outer parts of the folds but the interior would be shadowed and stay white; then I could go draw in those white areas with my shadow color.

Everything then would drip down toward the hem of the garment, though there wasn't really that much movement; if I wanted a drip to cascade, i had to draw it down there myself with the squeeze bottle.

[image description: two squeeze bottles with narrow nozzles, and a spray bottle of more rigid plastic with a pump-dispenser top, sitting on top of a piece of stained scrap fabric on an old washing machine with tubs of dye powder sitting in the background.]

I also did a shirt where I spread it out on a rack in a pan at an angle, and sprinkled a mixture of dye powder and salt on it. Then I went and used the squirt bottles too, but it was a fun technique and I'd use it again.

[image description: a garment lies in loose folds, speckled with dark blue-green spots, and at the top decorated in splotches of blue and green.]

I wrapped the garments in plastic, and put the smaller ones into plastic bags, and then hung them outside in the sun so that a) the dye would flow downward rather than backstaining the areas I'd meant to leave white, and b) the sun would warm them so the dye could cure, and c) the plastic would keep them wet because the dye only chemically sets while damp.

Let them cure for 24h, and then today I brought them in and rinsed them for about a thousand years, and then washed them and gave them a soak and rinse in dye-fixative, then dried them on the line.

Here is the linen bias-cut slipdress I made at Christmas time, dry and ironed.

[image description: a dress on a hanger, with my hand pulling out one side of the skirt: the straps and neckline are bright emerald green, and then the body is streaked vertially with varying shades of green, teal, and dark blue, with a little purple at the hemline. The colors are light and a little muted, and some white shows between them in a few places.]

The linen took the dye lightest, the cotton a little darker, and a small offcut of rayon I'd had sitting around took the dye darkest of all.

here's everything still damp on the line:

[image description: under a blue sky, a metal clothes-tree-style line on the left has several small items in shades of green and turquoise, and then a line crosses the screen from right to left through the middle, with several items hanging on it. In the background are two cotton dresses, one mostly teal and the other green at the top with a white and purple skirt, then the linen dress from above in the middle, and closest to the camera is a mostly-quite sheet of fabric with geometric lines in green, blue, and purple.]

The foreground fabric is the rayon, and I sandwiched it between two blocks of wood with rubber bands holding it in place, and just saturated the edges with dyes. I'm extremely into it, it came out beautifully. i have more rayon so I am going to make something from that to ombre-dye, for sure.

I have severely overdone my physical activity the last two days though; I lay awake for a couple of hours the other night with my sciatic nerve just burning, and I expect the same tonight. We'll see though, maybe I'lll be pleasantly surprised, or just lucky.

Oh yah I'm trialing Ritalin, but just like the other medications, it's such a low dose and it's not extended-release. I looked up how to take it and the directions assumed I'd been given two or three pills to get through a day. Not so! So I have about four medicated hours in a day, and keep experimenting with where to put them. I don't notice it wearing off the way I did with Adderall though, so there's that at least.

Maybe by the end of May I can try a full dose of something, and see if that helps. IDK, it seems like it might.

[arbitrarygreay]

ATLA live action

Based on the first two episodes. I'm approaching this show from a different angle than most of Tumblr. For starters, I don't actually care that much about the cartoon. It's fine, not great. Secondly, I have really liked the work of showrunner Albert Kim, from his start on Leverage to his growth on Nikita (not interested in Sleepy Hollow, haven't watched Pantheon yet). I was hoping for his track record to hold up. (Particularly, Nikita was a case of adaptation that diverged a lot from its source material, both the movie and the LFN show.) I don't know how switching to a direct adaptation of something set in a fantasy medieval time turned Albert's brain into fandom mush, but the script feels like the kind of fanfiction that are borderline meta posts, distilling the source materials' themes into fairly overt introspection. That's great when you're reading a fanfiction, but it's terrible as a live action script. Anything to do with exposition or character motivation is speeched in the most direct and graceless way possible by the characters, like it's the first draft full of [summary of scene purpose and themes] placeholders, but they never got around to replacing them with more subtle content. All tell, no show. Because episode 1 is basically all exposition and introductions, it's over 50% this crap. Thankfully, episode 2 is a lot better! Whenever the show can manage to get out of its own way and diverge from the source material, it has a lot of charm. In fact, all of the things Tumblr was kvetching about before the show premiered (complaining that the Sokka divergences the writers talked about were signs of not understanding the material) were PERFECTLY FINE. I liked them. Those changes are like the closest the show comes to One Piece live action (with its Garp/Koby/Helmeppo original content, as well as cutting all of the shounen style boss rushes). I think one of Albert Kim's weaknesses is that his background is mostly in more serialized stuff. There's a sense that he had the characters keep saying their motivations directly because there wasn't time in the miniscule episode count to do entire episodes about them. However, what he could have done instead were short montages to show (instead of tell) patterns of behavior over time, instead of fully fleshed out sequences. Of the previous shows he worked on, only Leverage sometimes used this technique, so I can see why he didn't think of them. I'm thinking of them because I've been watching Xena, and the compatibility of ATLA with shows like Xena or Legend of the Seeker are obvious. My current description of ATLA live action is precisely "B-minus tier Xena episode". The ideas are there (showing the writers' understanding of the material they have), and execution even has its moments, but they're underexplored. For example, S05E02 "Chakram".