Shooting-starlight - Ace Of All Trades

Things I wish I had read in "beginner" sewing tutorials/people had told me before I started getting into sewing

You have to hem *everything* eventually. Hemming isn't optional. (If you don't hem your cloth, it will start to fray. There are exceptions to this, like felt, but most cloth will.)

The type of cloth you choose for your project matters very much. Your clothing won't "fall right" if it's not the kind of stretchy/heavy/stiff as the one the tutorial assumes you will use.

Some types of cloth are very chill about fraying, some are very much not. Linen doesn't really give a fuck as long as you don't, like, throw it into the washing machine unhemmed (see below), whereas brocade yearns for entropy so, so much.

On that note: if you get new cloth: 1. hem its borders (or use a ripple stitch) 2. throw it in the washing machine on the setting that you plan to wash it going forward 3. iron it. You'll regret it, if you don't do it. If you don't hem, it'll thread. If you don't wash beforehand, the finished piece might warp in the first wash. If you don't iron it, it won't be nice and flat and all of your measuring and sewing will be off.

Sewing's first virtue is diligence, followed closely by patience. Measure three times before cutting. Check the symmetry every once in a while. If you can't concentrate anymore, stop. Yes, even if you're almost done.

The order in which you sew your garment's parts matters very much. Stick to the plan, but think ahead.

You'll probably be fine if you sew something on wrong - you can undo it with a seam ripper (get a seam ripper, they're cheap!)

You can use chalk to draw and write on the cloth.

Pick something made out of rectangles for your first project.

I recommend making something out of linen as a beginner project. It's nearly indestructible, barely threads and folds very neatly.

Collars are going to suck.

The sewing machine can't hurt you (probably). There is a guard for a reason and while the needle is very scary at first, if you do it right, your hands will be away from it at least 5 cm at any given time. Also the spoils of learning machine sewing are not to be underestimated. You will be SO fast.

I believe that's all - feel free to add unto it.

Flock of Mareep

wait isnt gender over today

Having aesthetic attraction to a character without a trace of any romantic or sexual feelings attached is so strange

It's like there's a guy (gn) on my screen. I like how he looks and the way he moves. I don't want to have sex with him, I don't imagine myself dating him or something of that sort. There's no physical reaction at all.

But there's this ephemeral urge to, I don't know, simultaneously gnaw on him like a bone, study him under a microscope, encase him in chrome and put in my living room, and watch him do the same gesture that ticked me on a loop for approximately three million times?

Does that make sense??

ontario freaks me out bc people will live in houses in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but fields for miles. like are you good

Maintenance Required

[1/??] NEXT

I’ve come to a realization.

There’s this saying in english, “Gay as the day is long.” And that got me thinking…if you measure gayness by the length of the day, does that make the 21st of June, the longest day of the year, the gayest?

And, conversely, does that make the 22nd of December, the shortest day of the year, the least gay?

These are important questions that I believe we all need to ruminate long and hard on. 

GUESS WE’RE DOING THIS EARLY THIS YEAR. (Though, honestly, we never really stopped, did we?)

So. Let’s talk evacuation bags. This is specifically in relation to wildfires, but it can translate easily to other disasters.

A great resource is the Ready for Wildfire website. But I want to expand on their list just a little bit.

For your “grab and go we need to run in the next three minutes” bag you should have:

Face masks of some sort.

Snacks that you can just open and eat. More food if you have specific allergies and such that will make it difficult to eat at a shelter. At least a couple bottles of water. (Water is probably easier to just keep in your vehicle, if you have one, due to weight.)

A PAPER map marked with multiple evacuation routes. (Drive them ahead of time to get a feel for them.) Your phone could die or lose signal at any time. You need paper, and you need to know how to read it.

Prescriptions and other medications. Things like ibuprophen, tums, etc.. Some other general first aid supplies like bandaids and wound ointments are good to have as well. I also tossed one of my free C*VID tests in there this year.

Change of clothing. Try and have two if you can, one set of day clothes and one set of comfy night clothes. Plus several days worth of socks and underwear.

Extra glasses or contacts if you wear them.

An emergency creditcard and/or some cash.

Phone chargers including wall plugs. Even if cell towers go down/get overwhelmed your phone will still provide a flashlight, music, any documents you have saved on it, etc.

A jacket. Light or heavy, depending on the season at hand. Gloves and a hat if the current season is cold.

A battery powered radio with extra batteries or a crank/solar radio.

Pads/tampons if needed. Honestly, bring some even you personally don’t need them in case anyone else does.

Shampoo, conditioner, soap.

Copies of important documents.

Pet supplies including: Medications. Carriers. Leashes/harnesses. A few baggies and/or cans of food. A travel litterbox and a couple baggies of litter. Treats. A toy or two. Anti-stress sprays. Bowls.

A deck of cards. This isn’t really REQUIRED, but it is small and easy to tuck in so you can have something to help pass the time.

You need to have a version of all these things that is JUST for your emergency kit. It can’t be something you take back out to use, it all needs to just live in the kit. I keep all my human stuff in a big backpack, and all the pet stuff (minus the carriers) is in a little backpack. The backpacks and carriers all live in my coat closet right next to my front door.

This is the stuff you grab when you have no time. If you DO have a little time, then you can grab other things like family photos, computers, small valuables, etc.. But your life is NOT worth those things. One of the two people who died in the Marshall Fire died because he stayed behind to try and rescue his family history documents. Know what you’re going to grab, who is going to grab what if there’s more than you in your household, and what the evacuation plan is.

From my personal experience, the Twitter accounts for your local fire departments and county emergency services tend to have the most up-to-date information during an active disaster. Stay safe.

I swear to god that green day has had this exact same "scandal" like five times now.