ewx | (no subject)

I've made whole garments before now. But haven't done so in a while. Last time I tried to sew anything on was my karate badge and now it needs resewing, so arguably I can't sew any more...

Is that a new userpic?

This one? No.

I'm sure I've not seen it before...

Bizarre, that's not the icon I see. What is the img src for that icon?

http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/29365124/991541

Very odd. I was seeing the usual userpic (even when you were seeing that one), until just now it all changed to that one. http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=beckyc (http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=beckyc) is showing that pic as "Gabrielle", too.

What is it showing now?

It's back to Gabrielle in a cloak from here. What did you do?

I saved a copy of the image, deleted the image from my user icons and readded it.

Can you still see the other icon here (http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/29365124/991541)?

Yes. Gabrielle as currently visible is http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/78550219/991541 - i.e. same last component but different penultimate one.

*Nods* re changed number - I initially tried just reuploading it, which put it to the same place as before. Deleting it then uploading it changed the number. Was curious to know what happened to icon at 29365124/991541.

Well I only ever saw Gabrielle anyway. I'm wondering if it's a repeat of the bug earlier in the week that was mentioned in

lj_releases, where they were accidentally serving up the wrong content to some users some of the time.

Same here.

It all depends, essentially, on whether customer-facing elegance and polish is required. Given a needle, some strong thread, time and patience, I am generally capable of hand-stitching things together so that they damn well stay together, but the stitches will be ragged, wobbly and downright ugly if anyone ends up actually looking at them. In cases where that doesn't matter, I'd go for "nontrivial repairs" out of your options; in cases where it does, I'd call in an expert or just buy a new <whatever>.

IAWTC!

I'm assuming that I'm allowed to use a sewing machine for full garments; I certainly don't have the patience to handsew anything much larger than a hem.

Back when I was doing Viking stuff, there were some modifications I made to gloves (adding extra leather to make my hands hurt less when they get whacked by swords[1]), and some shoes that I got halfway through making. Both of those included a fair amount of sewing, and neither fit into the categories above.

It's a bit different with leather, as you have to punch all your holes before getting the needle and twine out.

[1] Blunt, of course, and wielded with some care, but solid iron, chunky and quite heavy. None of this silly rapier or epee nonsense.

I tend to make crafty things rather than garments.

Buttons are suprisingly hard to get to stay on. I think "Sewing it yourself is only free if your time is worthless" applies to me ;)

Or if you enjoy sewing, in which case it could be better than free.

Oh absolutely - like gardening, cooking, woodworking and that sort of thing. It can also be very satisfying to look at something and know that you fixed it.

Hmm, I've made whole garments, and they have required me to sew them up at the end, but the making has been out of wool (knitted or crocheted) rather than by cutting cloth to a pattern. I don't think this really counts.

The missus is a seamstress. She made her wedding dress (http://www.tuwanda.com/family/wedalb/wedalb.html) (and the girls' dresses, too).

I love the "stay tuned for more" at the bottom :-)

Hee hee. Like the good ol' "Under Construction" images...

Where I've included things like adding/replacing pockets as "basic things"; I've never done anything I didn't regard as a trivial repair, but my keys seem very good at making holes in pockets, so I've had quite a bit of practice....

I ticked non-trivial repairs, making whole garments, and pattern drafting, because they are three very different sets of skills. For instance, I tend to view drafting as a pleasant intellectual exercise, actual dressmaking as sometimes very difficult, and (for instance) invisible darning as some of the finest work I ever do.

I'm never sure with polls like this whether I'm only meant to choose my highest level of competence, or whether to tick all that apply. So I chose the latter :)

Um, making whole *big* garments is currently untested, but I'm pretty sure I *could*.

designing patterns> well, making things up as I go along and hacking about existing patterns.

Edited 2008-08-22 17:53 (UTC)

The most I have ever made is the top under this sari (http://www.fluffhouse.org.uk/mostly_a_cat/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=20279), which I hand stitched badly, working it out from first principles by staring at a t-shirt I had. I'm very happy and confident doing quick things badly (eg I can take some cloth and turn it into a bag in half an hour that will last through a play as a prop) but have never made anything 'proper'

I can follow pattern drafting instructions, but I haven't (yet) figured out how to get fabric to do all the things I want it to do without looking up how someone else did it.