Yesterday's sewing!

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

I'm purposefully doing the hems and placket by hand so I have something to keep my hands occupied while I enjoy my shows, but that means I want to finish at least the button placket before I put on the waistband, so who knows what order I'm going to do things in, or when. But certainly I've got something to do when I do!

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

Oh, I'm also experimenting with a travel bustle pad. Maria from Sew Through Time had one in a recent video, where it was a sort of flat plane with ruffles on it, that you then made into a more 3D shape when you pulled the drawstring and it looked like one could make it entirely out of cotton and wash and iron it without issue, which is not true of any of the padded pillow type bustle pads. We'll see!

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@sinituulia uh! travel bustle pad that folds flat sounds like a really useful thing!

is it this video? youtube.com/watch?v=Zxs4qF8yyS…

/me adds it to the list of videos to watch

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

@valhalla Yes, that one! It seems like such an improvement over various little pillows that are a hassle to wash and store

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@sinituulia thanks!

[artbyailbhe@mastodon.art]

@sinituulia that looks like a great idea!

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

@artbyailbhe I do not require much padding on the caboose and yet I yearn for more padding on the caboose! I'd just like it to be more practical!

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@sinituulia @artbyailbhe there is always room for more padding to the caboose!

and if there isn't, it means that the skirt isn't wide enough!

(maybe. I suspect that there is a practical limit, even for victorian skirts :D )

[laumapret@toot.lv]

@valhalla @sinituulia
I'm having entirely linen and washable pad, but different construction – it is approx. half circle with several lines of ruffles sewn on top. I brought it at Gibson Girl and changed the closure from quit thick waistband to a thin string so that I don't have a big knot bump in front. I really like it! But I would like to learn to starch it a bit.

[sinituulia@eldritch.cafe]

@laumapret @valhalla I've never really experimented with starch, it seems like I'd give myself even more work just to wear clothes!

There's the spray on kinds you can buy that apparently work, but it would seem silly to pay so much for something you can make at home

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@sinituulia @laumapret my mother always had a bottle of spray starch to be carefully ignored while ironing clothing, so I have one too :D

lately when I want to feel fancy or I have to spend the whole day outside I've started to use it when ironing my linen shirts, and it does work in making them feel nice and crinkle less, but it doesn't make stuff significantly stiffer like I've seen in the videos and blog posts of people dipping garments in starch.

Maybe it's possible, if one uses *a lot*, but I'm not sure it's really designed for being used that way.

I'm not sure how much it costs, because I still have the bottle I stol… er, borrowed from my mother¹ a few years ago, since each shirt-ful takes very little, and I suspect that for this usecase it would actually cost less than making it at home from food-grade starch, as the latter needs to be made in a bigger batch (and it doesn't keep, not it's really safe to starch all of your clothing and store them starched long term, I believe).

I still want to try and make the liquid one to dip some collars and petticoats in, but there are only so many hours in the day, and starching looks like a couple days of commitment.

¹ we live close enough that she can easily take it back once ever couple years when she needs it :)