Fabric twine, made from salvaged scraps, update - its 18 yards now, getting bigger.

(Part 6)

I just saw your Barbie jacket and fell in love, such beautiful work!

I want to get into sewing but have no idea where to start, do you have any tips?

Yes! FYI, I had the privilege of learning to sew at a really young age, around 10-12, thanks to 1) learning the basics from my mum 2) having a second-hand sewing machine I could futz around on as I pleased. But I truly think anyone can learn to sew, it does not have to be a childhood skill.

If you want to try it out before committing to buying anything except fabric, there are almost always community or adult education classes or courses that can teach you basics on their machines. Depends where you live but you might find them through your local community college or high school night class, library, YMCA/community centre, or even by asking at a fabric/craft store.

I highly recommend taking a couple of classes if you're a complete beginner - they can teach things like laying out and cutting patterns, threading a machine, the basic stitch and finishing options, etc. Often they can also teach you how to use your own machine, if you've bought one but you're a beginner.

If you want to try at home, at minimum you will need:

A basic sewing machine - you can very often find good second-hand machines online (ebay, craigslist, local buy/sell Facebook pages). Mine is a Janome and I've had it for almost 20 years, but the old 70s steel Singer machines are fantastic in terms of longevity.

A pair of reasonably sharp fabric scissors. You do not need to pay a million dollars for the best scissors, but going up a level from basic craft scissors, and keeping them only for cutting fabric (no paper) will make your cutting-out experience a lot easier.

A packet of sewing pins. For pinning down patterns and seams. I like the glass-head pins since they don't melt if you iron over them.

A tape measure for measuring yourself and checking your seam width, hems, etc.

An iron and ironing board (or table with a thick towel laid down, if space is a real problem).

A flat surface to lay out and cut your fabric - dining table or floor both work fine.

A needle for hand-sewing - to sew on things like buttons.

A box of empty bobbins to wind your bobbin thread onto.

In terms of patterns - there are a huge range of indie pattern companies online now (meaning they're not the big commercial patternmakers like Butterick). Most often, you can buy their patterns as a PDF and print it out on your home computer. In all honesty I much prefer indie patterns to commercial - they're often a lot more up to date with style, and usually not as expensive - but they can also be limited in terms of sizing, the range of style options, and some people really like a printed paper pattern instead of having to print your own. I recommend Papercut Patterns as an indie option that's great for beginners.

Indie instructions can also sometimes be a bit confusing (I find Etsy patterns the worst for this) although often you can email them and ask - or Google "[name of pattern] sew along" for a video tutorial. You can also find step by step video or blog post tutorials for pretty much every sewing technique, including things like putting in a zip, sewing buttonholes, etc.

Once you've picked your pattern, you'll obviously need fabric. There are a million people online who espouse the virtue of sewing with old bedsheets from thrift stores; in all honesty I don't love doing this because 1) I get a huge amount of joy from beautiful fabrics 2) if you want to make things that look 'professional'/store-bought, bedsheet cotton is not always your best friend. BUT it is probably the cheapest option for fabric, and a very good way to start or to test that a pattern fits and you know how to make it before you cut it out in the nice linen that cost $30 a yard. Using thrifted fabric is also obviously really eco-conscious, although a lot of fabric stores (especially independent ones vs chain stores like Spotlight or Joann) make a point of selling 'deadstock' fabric - fabric leftover from a clothing designer's run.

That's probably enough to start, honestly just fuck around and have fun with it, screw up a few times, lean into the imperfection. I still regularly scrap projects that aren't working for me, no shame in doing so as long as you're enjoying yourself!

So I just had surgery end of last month and have a shit ton of medical bills from 3 years of constant health issues and I unfortunately have no job due to being disabled. As such I'm selling some merch/merch sets I have. This is it for JJK but I'll have stuff for other fandoms posted soon too. Any reblogs for visibility would be appreciated! Thank you! ❤️

For the sake of simplicity I have these listed on my Etsy!

FYI: Free first class domestic shipping on orders of $35+

FYI I will be closing my online stores around mid November so I can focus on freelance work, and will reopen them around the end of December for just 1-2 weeks or so before closing again until early March.

If you were interested in buying anything, please order soon!

My US/Canada store is https://feriowind.bigcartel.com/

My International store is https://www.etsy.com/shop/Feriowind

My HxH merch is currently only available on BigCartel as one of my listings got reported for copyright infringement on Etsy and I think the strike has caused Etsy to withhold my money? Or Etsy is just being a mess again idk, point is I don’t want to risk another strike so I won’t be selling HxH stuff on Etsy. 

as for my new OFMD merch, it looks like I probably won’t be receiving them until late November most likely for most of them, if not early December? Current estimate anyways

Hi I love your art but I would just like to inform you that I found stickers made of your art on etsy? If they are made with your consent then please ignore this but I just thought I ought to let u know

If it is these ones, then they are made by me. But thanks for contacting me anyways.

Just fyi for future reference the only social media platforms I really use is Tumblr and Instagram, sometimes Twitter/tiktok. So if you see my art posts anywhere beyond that, it's probably not me. And so far I only sell things on Etsy. If you see something on websites like redbubble and similar sites, that's not me and I don't think I will ever use sites like this to sell stuff on

I ​just wanted to take the time to give you a little information about my store Jo Love's Creations.

​If you have ever gone to my Etsy store, you will see at the top of the page an announcement which reads: ​PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WHILE YOU LOOK AT MY STORE- the items you are buying are more like "a gift from me to you" for supporting the "self help crisis line and blog"; that I am trying to maintain and upgrade as soon as possible to a non ad, sponsored website. I am very close. As of April 2023 i am 90 % of the way there. Your purchase will make it possible to buy more storage space to allow me to increase the information needed to help those in need. Help me find the last $100 to give the website server. Many of the items you find here are one of a kind, FYI- "Jo Love's Creations" is online only and delivers all over the world... but if you want to get a coupon for the value of your shipping charges towards your next future purchases and live in the Lower Mainland; I am willing to meet with you to give you your items and the coupon in person, faster then the mail and can meet in Walnut Grove, bc (North Langley) if you purchase through this store. You may see an article written by Jo Love or moma jo, telling you a story about what you are going to buy and why they chose to put it in the store and what it represents and meanings are; plus there may be little excerpts of my life mixed in. Please also note that the colors you see may vary do to lighting and what color pixels you are using on your computer. If you have received a coupon, only one coupon can be used per total purchase, please. I am running a business so that I can make money to support a Self-Help Crisis Website. If you want quality, and uniqueness and homemade, it is not cheap... the baby blanket i am selling , took over 300 hours to make., the Hugit original took over 200 hours. I know I am not cheap. If you think you can buy it for less at Wal-Mart, feel free to do so , but it won't be a quality handmade JLC -Brand-Jo Love's Creations Original. Happy hunting....I hope there is a collectible you might like. 🦋

​So the next time you go there, please follow me and spread the word because I ​care and hope you do to. God Bless always moma jo www.etsy.com/ca/shop/JoLovesCreations

just a little fyi, i am in the process of testing out selling "digital items" instead of "physical items" in my etsy shop. this should cause no differences to you as a customer but if you do notice anything off or inconvenient please let me know!

An FYI about Etsy’s “free shipping for orders over $35” deal- it’s not strictly mandatory for sellers, but there’s a lot of manipulative language around it that suggests that sellers will be at a disadvantage if they don’t offer it. Some sellers (myself included) might not be thrilled over feeling coerced into offering the free shipping deal.

I totally get the appeal! I love free shipping! As a seller, though, it’s a little discouraging to see an order come in for exactly $35 and realize that I’m going to lose anywhere from $4-15 dollars off that sale (depending on the weight of the items). Etsy’s advice is to up your prices to cover the cost of shipping but personally 1) I try to keep my prices low enough for my products to feel accessible while still covering my supply costs/time investment and 2) that strategy works for higher priced items that were already going to be over $35, but it’s impossible to predict every combination of items someone might order to reach the threshold and I don’t really want to up my prices across the board

Idk how to end this, it’s not something that buyers really have control over and sellers technically have some control but are told their products will get less visibility if they don’t opt in. I guess just be aware that if you’re not paying for shipping, the seller is and most Etsy sellers are not rich or even necessarily making very much money from selling on Etsy

Also, reminder not to click on ads for Etsy products that show up on websites other than Etsy. If you do and then buy the product, Etsy just takes a chunk of the profit away from the seller for “advertising services”. Just look the item up directly on Etsy

Is there somewhere we can buy your art? Like, as prints or something?

Heeeeyyy

Yeah i do have a shop, it's pretty empty rn tho

BUT i just got a bunch of prints ready to be listed and put into my shop very soon!

You can find my etsy here https://etsy.me/3pryzR8

These are the prints and stickers I'm gonna sell there soon

Fyi there is gonna be a summer print collection in the comming month too

I also got keychains planned but it's gonna be some time until those are ready

December 7th, 2019

THE ROAD TO FASHION

Love creates all things...

I stumbled into fashion entirely by accident.  There was no "Ah Ha" moment where I said this is what I want to do for a living, no growing up with a shoe or purse addiction, no need to have brand name clothes or continually sketch the newest trending designs in my notebook.  It was a lot more basic than that.

As a young twenty something, I knew that I wanted to start my own business - that was it. I had no plan, no idea what I wanted to sell or what my business should be called but like many modern day entrepreneurs I decided it would be a good idea to open an Etsy shop. I took the first step down the road that day and I didn't even realize it.

Now when you've never run a business before you learn quite quickly that it is not as easy as it looks even with Etsy's cheat sheets. Setting up shop took quite a bit longer than I expected partially because I didn't have a name for my company and partially because I had no products to sell. This probably wasn't the best way to start off being a business owner but that's kind of what happens when you decide to walk in blind... you stumble.

I stumbled quite a lot. I think I spent more time catching myself from falling than I actually did building a business. In the beginning Times Lost Art or "TLA" as I like to refer to it now was more of a daydream while I was working at my "real" job than anything else. Case and point, I came up with the name for my business one day at work while I was washing my hands at the bathroom sink. Really inspirational stuff going on there, I mean REALLY!

I was big into cross-stitching and embroidery back then so that's what I decided to start making to sell in my Etsy shop. BIG MISTAKE! Anyone who has done any kind of embroidery can tell you first hand that it is extremely time consuming and you will never, ever, I REPEAT, never, ever be able to sell your embroidery for a price suitable enough to make up for the time you spent creating the piece itself.

And so I went on for a few years drifting in and out of the idea of starting my own business. My failures continually outweighing my successes. I was running out of drive and ambition and slowly but surely falling into the trap of living an ordinary, creativeless existence (if that is even a word).

Now working for a living isn't the only thing that can effect one's creativity. As with anyone's life, people can have an effect on it as well. Friends and lovers can appear and disappear as if by magic or at least that is how it feels sometimes. My artwork and designs were at a standstill, I was bored of spending so many hours cross-stitching even though I had become quite good at it. It was at that point that I decided to turn my attention to a newer hobby, one that didn't take quite as much focus and was quicker to execute... knitting.

I had taught myself how to knit a couple of years prior by watching YouTube videos of all things. (FYI - New Stitch A Day is an amazing website with numerous tutorial videos that I still reference all the time. I find them extremely easy to follow especially if you are a beginner knitter.) I found that I enjoy knitting very much. It is calming and relaxing and at the same time rewarding because you get to make something from literally nothing. You are essentially tying knots in a skein of yarn to turn into a garment. When you think of it in such layman's terms it really puts a new perspective on something that up until a few years ago I, myself, never considered an art form.

It wasn't until after my son was born, however, that I got this crazy idea to take that art form and start designing my own patterns. Up until that point it had never occurred to me to design my own, I had just been contented enough to follow someone else's knitting pattern. Once I had my baby, however, I had someone to make things for and the drive and ambition I had thought I'd lost came back in full force.

My very first design was created shortly after Halloween 2017.  My son and I are avid Batman fans but do you think I could find a bat toque? I looked everywhere in town and nothing. For it being Halloween where bats and ghosts and pumpkins are supposed to be abundant I was sorely disappointed. I had never made a toque before let alone used more than one colour of yarn at a time. Knitting in the round was something new to me as well but I was persistent. After about the third go around I finally managed to hammer out a basic design that was wearable. At this point my then 8 month old was so over trying on hats that he would pout every time I came near him with one.

Being able to make something for him was exactly the inspiration I needed because shortly after that nine more baby toque designs followed. I finally had a clear vision of what Times Lost Art was supposed to be. It wasn't the same vision I'd had when I began and for that I am thankful. I followed the road to fashion not by choice but by love, the love I had for my little "Gremlin". Now it was time to take that love and build a brand.

Gabrielle Vansteelandt 

Times Lost Art 

just a reminder i make and sell mcr patches along with patches for a bunch of other bands. if you’re interested please check out my shop either on etsy or here on tumblr! fyi there are way more designs on my tumblr shop

PSA

A kind person @lostspacecadetleon notified that my design was available on Etsy. I will open an Etsy store in the future, probably for the pillows! And I will notify you all when I do.

But these, once again, are fakes/copycats. Don’t buy them pls. I did do the DMCA thing and all the formalities so it’s probably being taken care of at the moment.

FYI: My design always looks like this (though the idea of adding pride flags is enticing - let me know if you want me to do it!): 

With the blue and red font, shirtless, wearing the red booty shorts, the grey background and my watermark. I always sell things under my name (thors-soft-cheeks or something similar) when the site allows it and I use the same icon:

everywhere. 

But apparently there are still people that think it is totes okay to just steal things I worked days or even weeks on. Like they actually just DO that. There is no respect in that. 

So without further ado: my things are here:

Facebook

Twitter

Society6 (shirts, wall art, mugs)

Teepublic (shirts, wall art, mugs)

Redbubble (shirts, wall art, stationery)

DeviantArt

Instagram

Archive of our own

These are just the ones I bought recently. Probably shouldn’t have bought them and I cringe to think of their total cost, but I did also get some good deals. The giant chunks of what I assume is clear quartz and fluorite and amethyst in addition to the giant chunks of the green one and blue (idk what they are, never bothered to find out) are from home goods. The selenite and giant red quartz are from an Etsy seller I adore Drowsy Candle Co. the blue rectangle on the right is from Vibes Up (I call blue lace agate but I don’t think that’s accurate.) the polished fluorite point and angel aura quartz crescent are from online. Bottom right is white and clear quartz and just a green rock I liked from camping (FYI national parks sell Huge clear quartz for DIRT CHEAP). All the small stones in the middle are from dragon fairy store. There’s a couple of clear quartz, rose quartz, amethyst, orange calcite, honey calcite (I’m a whore for calcite), carnelian, jasper?, red tigers eye, petrified wood, dragon blood jasper, hematite, howlite (sp?), obsidian, and lastly black tourmaline and Smokey quartz. Dear god I should not be allowed to control my own money. Anyone know what the big green and blue ones are?

What do you think of Hobonichi planners? I noticed you had one. They're SO expensive, so I'm wondering why they're so worth the cost? I do like the way they look though...🤔 (this is pet-diary fyi 😁)

Hello! I have a… thing… about planners… so it has taken me a while to reply to this. 

I have used Hobonichi Techo A6, Hobonichi Cousin A5 Avec (two 6-month books), and Hobonichi Weeks. They have their differences. I love they way they look, but the only one of these three that I used consistently for at least two months was the Cousin A5 Avec. I’ve since ordered two other planners and given up on them, and am unsure about what I’ll be using for next semester/year. 

Why are they worth the cost?

It’s all about the paper. Tomoe River paper is a premium Japanese paper that is much thinner than standard copy paper. It is resistant to a lot of bleeding and feathering, making it great for people who like to use fountain pens, watercolor, calligraphy pens, highlighters, etc. It is smooth as heck and I always want to touch it. The only pen I’ve personally used that bled through was a Copic, which bleeds through everything. The paper is just amazing. 

I’ll also mention the features. It lays flat, no matter where you are in the year. The A6 Techo has monthly layouts and a page-per-day. The A5 Cousin has monthly and vertical weekly layouts as well as the page-per-day. The page-per-day feature is something you don’t see in many planners, and the tomoe river paper lets you journal, write notes, paint, or do whatever every day of the year. 

The main reason they are expensive is probably that they are imported from Japan, which means you are either ordering online from the Hobonichi website or from a secondary website like JetPens and therefore covering part of the import cost. Why is this worth it? You can get either a Japanese language or English language planner, but the Japanese is cute and fun to use if you’re interested in or learning Japanese. It’s also one of the only ways to get your hands on the paper. 

What about a cover?

Covers are not necessary, but are cute and fans collect them like mad. You can order an official Hobonichi cover with your order through the Hobonichi website or JetPens, on Etsy, or through various facebook groups. Or you can just use an A6 or A5 notebook cover! Just search around on youtube for “hobonichi A6 in ____ cover” and you can often find examples of people using other brand covers on their Hobonichi. Otherwise, you can find offbrand covers on Etsy, Aliexpress, etc. For a minimalist cover, I used a Midori A5 Notebook Cover on my Hobonichi A5 Cousin Avec and it fit perfectly, keeping my notebook thin and portable. 

If you want to save money but try them out…

I really suggest looking at Etsy or Facebook Hobonichi BST groups. You can often find a single Avec  book (Jan-Jun / Jul-Dec) in either the A6 or A5 size for lower cost. Some people also sell their lightly used planners if they decide it wasn’t for them. This is also where you’ll find a large community of used and collectible covers. 

You can read tons more details comparing all of these planners, and the Weeks version, on the Hobonichi site!

Does anyone else feel super drained after talking to their parent(s)? I swear my dad’s job is to make me feel as awful as he can. I have, what I believe to be, a tooth infection (like babes, this shit looks gross lol. it’s bleeding and swollen and just not pretty lol) and my dad loves to remind me about how poor I am.

I put my shit under the cut because I don’t want to bum anyone out with my personal drama but I also needed to get this off my chest lol.

Here’s what my dad said to me when he asked “everything okay?” and I said “yeah, just trying to get approved for a care credit card so I can get this $3,000 dental surgery” 

“You won’t get approved for care credit because you don’t have a real job” <--- Wow, thanks. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me my job isn’t real (which FYI I OWN an online boutique where I sell handmade clothing, accessories and crochet patterns and I’m currently working on expanding my business into my witchcraft practices and i’m working on opening up my 2nd store offering spiritual services and tools.) But yeah, I don’t get McMoney to sign a shitty paycheck for me every 2 weeks, I must not have a ~real~ job :/  

“You’re just gonna end up getting sick again” <--- I know first hand the pain I went through a few years ago when this happened before, I am trying EVERYTHING I can to not have to go through that ever again.

“Oh so I guess now you can’t eat” <-- Making sly comments about my ED because now I can’t eat solid foods and my dad thinks it just an excuse I’m making up so I don’t have to eat. Which it’s not. I’ve been doing really really good for more than 2 years now. Yeah I’m not perfect but I’ve been on a good diet for a long time now and I don’t appreciate someone implying that I’m purposely harming myself again. 

“I’m gonna have to take care of you, like always” <-- Idk what he means by this because I’ve been on my own since I was 16 and have only gotten/asked for their help a few times throughout the years. And not even like big favors. I’ve asked for $20 here and there before when I’ve been a little short on my rent (in which 90% of the time they don’t help me anyways) but I haven’t asked them [my parents] for any help in a really long time.

“You can’t take care of yourself, you need to just come home” <-- I’ve been gone for 8 years. I moved out when I was 19 (2010) and never looked back. Before that from age 16 - 19 I was paying my parents $400 to live in my own bedroom. I was out of high school and working at 16 but still... Everytime something even remotely “bad” happens to me it’s “you clearly can’t handle this and you should come home” as if I haven’t been handling my shit since I was 16!!

I love my parents. Yeah my dad wasn’t the best growing up and I’m not going to make excuses for his behavior by saying stuff like “at least he didn’t let us starve” or “the abuse could have been worse.” He hit me, belittled me and put me down all the time. It’s part of the reason I moved away as soon as I was able to and why I mainly only mention my mom and not my dad, since we don’t have a very close relationship.

Sometimes I just wish my dad wouldn’t put me down so much. For once I’d like to hear him say “I’m proud of you” and “You’ve got this and I’m here if you need me.” But I’m not gonna hold my breath.

Anyways I got, what I think is, a tooth infection and I’m gonna try to go to the hospital tonight or tomorrow morning and cross my fingers they give me some antibiotics. Maybe some pain meds too (don’t want to push my luck but over the counter meds aren’t working for me). I’ll have to wait til Tuesday to get the prescription filled (I should have just enough for the antibiotics). 

I’m so tired but I want to do a little more work for my Etsy shop so I’m gonna work on these custom orders. Crocheting actually makes me feel better :)

BUYER BEWARE On May 3, 2017, I placed an order for a set of flower dice with LittleCluus, through Etsy. The payment of $55 was removed from my bank immediately. I contacted LittleCluus on May 22 and I was told that “they should start shipping out this week” and “it will take me a few weeks to get through them all.” On June 20, 2017, I reached out to LittleCluus again, since my order had not arrived. I was told “I have a huge batch of them being polished right now. Some have already been shipped. Once yours is close you should get an email me from [sic] with the tracking info for it.” I pointed out that their Etsy shop was not showing up, I was told “Yeah I’m just in vacation mode. I had a ton of pre orders on those flowers so I wanted to focus on those before I had anymore sales lol.”

That would be okay, except on speaking with Etsy, vacation mode does not work that way. In vacation mode the shop is still found, but no orders can be placed. If the site does not show up in a search, the shop is closed. I also found out on June 25, 2017, that LittleCluus had opened a new site several days before and was designing and selling more dice. Their Etsy shop was closed permanently. So much for focusing on the flower dice preorders “before I had anymore sales lol.” So I contacted LittleCluus again on June 25, requesting a refund, I was told, “Absolutely let me pull your set real quick so it doesn’t accidentally get shipped out and get that refund going for you.” I messaged back that if the order was ready to be shipped, I would rather have the set.

As of July 17, 2917, USPS is still “awaiting item”. The Etsy order made on May 3, 2017 reads as shipped, but this is just a loophole, just making a shipping label triggers that status. Giving the appearance of “Shipped” and buying more time. I have been told “a few weeks" and “two weeks” several times since May 22, 2017 the last being on July 3, 2017, and I am still waiting. Yet they are having more sales and designing and making more dice. I called the USPS to verify the online information (just to make sure it was up to date and accurate) it took me forever to get in touch with a representative, but when I did, I was told the same information shown on their website, my package has not been shipped, it is in pre shipping, awaiting the item.

I make custom jewelry and sell it, I tumble, polish and drill the stones I use to assemble the designs I craft. When I take orders, I only take what I already have made and on custom and preorders, I take only the number that I can complete in two weeks. I do not work on new designs if I have orders waiting to be filled. I do not make excuses for late delivery or specify a time frame and then not deliver, again and again. I do not give out misleading, and/or simply false information to my customers. My customers are given an expected shipping date and I ship their order on or before that date. I want to create a great reputation for my business, I want to make my customers happy and for them to know they can rely on me to get their orders out quickly and accurately, so if it is a gift, they will have it on time. I want return customers, I want reviews, both word of mouth and written to be positive. I do not want to have my business marred by negative reviews, BBB, FTC and other agency reports. Disappointing your customer base is the worst thing you can do as a small business owner.

Just an FYI about my experience with ordering from LittleCluus. I just want the dice I paid for, no more no less, but I am not holding my breath for either. I wish I had researched this earlier, I have recently looked into reviews for LittleCluus (Google search: LittleCluus reviews) and I have found a large amount of negative ones, with a lot of speculation on why orders are being taken and not being filled, but I do not care to speculate. I am staying with provable facts (I have full documentation of the dates and conversations). They speak for themselves. UPDATE: I received an email from Etsy stating “I’m so sorry to hear about the trouble you’ve had with this order from LittleCluus, and I regret to inform you that this seller is no longer eligible to sell on Etsy.” With that I will let you draw your own conclusions. If I ever receive my order, I will update this post and post a picture of them..

New update (no dice yet, just more excuses) posted: https://bethany365.tumblr.com/post/163187496297/littlecluus-dice-buyer-beware I had her business information added to the BBB, so if anyone would like to file a complaint you can find it under LittleCluus Custom Dice/Christina Whitton P.O. Box 860 Tenino, WA 98589. I am filling with the FTC and SBA tomorrow and then BigCommerce.com, Tumblr and Facebook.