when you're young, they assume you know nothing.

Making a folk skirt for my cold legs

Back in the before times—which I guess for most people means before COVID-19, but for me means before chronic illness smashed my world to bits—I used to do a lot of couture-style sewing. I have sewen entire historical ensembles. I sewed my own wedding dress. I thread traced and pad stitched and flat-lined. I was in love with the idea of fashion and wanted to engage with it on a sophisticated level. The problem was I didn't like anything I made.

Not only do I have a hard-to-fit body, but I have an electrolyte disorder that fucks up my hormones and makes my body size fluctuate like wild. When I could get things to fit well, they inevitably didn't fit well a month later. And the things I made were either too costumey for me to wear or too boring for me to enjoy. The sheer amount of money, and effort it took to create a garment I didn't like or could not wear destroyed my interest in sewing. I took a break for many years, though as sick as I was I could not have sewn even if I had wanted to. In the past few years, I have had the opportunity to live in Bulgaria for a few months at a time, here and there, slowly soaking up the culture. There I discovered my passion for Slavic folk attire. I have had the opportunity to view some amazing pieces up close at museums and festivals and to see countless up-close photos on Bulgarian buy/sell websites. Something that slowly wormed its way into my brain as I spent time appreciating these garments is how wonderfully flawed they are. I don't mean that they are not skillfully created. They, of course, vary from roughly made amateur attempts to some of the most amazing textile work I have ever seen. What they lack is the rigid rules of couture. The stuffy conventions that define high fashion are conspicuously and freeingly missing from these garments. They are not fitted but instead tied and belted into shape. Trimmings can be added ad-hoc with little coordination as old ones are replaced or new fancier ones can be obtained. Tunics, vests, skirts, and aprons are mostly stand-alone things and not part of a coordinated ensemble. Each item is beautiful and meaningful but modular. And most of all they tend to be extremely size adjustable. Not custom fit for one single body, but designed for any body that garment might be handed down to. Cue this winter, when I was once again looking with dread at the pants in my closet, knowing the things that fit were not warm enough for winter and dreading another round of buying things. There is a growing online trend for sewing historic-inspired adjustable clothing and I knew what I needed was an adjustable over skirt for going out. It needed to be long, warm, and easy to throw on over whatever I was wearing in the house. I wanted something that visually paid homage to the Slavic folk wear I love but their tie-on construction method wasn't going to work. Traditionally these skits had a long slit from the waistband down and tied shut. The ties let the skirt adjust to your size but the front would gap and was not very modest. This is why many historic European costumes include an apron. When wearing skirts of this type the apron covered this slit and provided complete modestly. Also, you have to either step into or drop these skirts over your head which wasn't what I wanted. While pondering how I wanted to make this I stumbled upon a video from "Sewing Therapy" about reversible hanbok skirt construction. The Hanbok is a traditional garment in Korea and like much traditional clothing, a very simple design made mostly of rectangles. As I understand it, and my understanding is poor, the skirt variant is a relatively modern creation. It has a waistband, two ties, and a large pleated panel. Importantly for me, the hanbok is made on the straight grain and not gored, or cut on the circle, just like Slavic folk skirts. They are very size adjustable and can be layered over any under clothes easily making them the perfect outer layer for winter.

I do not in any way claim that what I made in the end is a traditional hanbok. Pleated skirts with a waistband are a pretty pan-cultural idea and are frequently used in the construction of traditional European skirts as well, but the idea of making a pleated panel into a wrap skirt is something I first saw with this hanbok video and I wanted to make a point to give credit to Sara its creator. I hit up my local thrift store for cotton sheets for this experiment and lucked out on this burgundy and cream pair. The burgundy side I hit up with black fabric spray paint and whip-stitched a burgundy ribbon from my stash. For the cream side, I dip-dyed it with procion dyes. I added a simple pocket bag on one side and then stamped it with my possum skull block from my trash coat project. I made a point just to get this made and not to care about seams matching or thread color. I just wanted to have fun sewing again. And ya know what? It is imperfect and weird and works amazing to keep my legs warm and I LOVE IT. I wear this skirt constantly. I love it so much I have started on my second version, this time with some vintage 90s dino sheets.

Old animal crossing just hits different

god that last post really reignited the corner of my brain dedicated to Lovin Fearne hours.

Fearne is the Most Sincere Liar you will ever meet. Yes she is lying to you but she does mean it. Also she loves you <3 and that's why she's taking your wallet <3

i want to teach you how to play chuubo's marvelous wish-granting engine...

(diceless rpg released by jenna k. moran in 2011)

... in as few words as i can manage!

there's a person running the game and playing the world (here, they're called the hollyhock god or "HG" for short.)

and one or more other people playing several characters who serve as the game's central cast (the player characters, or "PCs" for short.)

if you're one of the PCs, your main goal is to progress through a storyline by earning experience points ("XP") before play, you'll be given a little card with a set of goals on it. this is a quest. it describes the kind of story you're here to tell with your character today.

a quest needs a certain amount of XP to be completed, at which point you earn a reward and proceed to the next quest.

you can get XP in a few common ways:

completing the goals described on your quest card (major goals can only be completed once and give a large amount of XP, flavor goals can be repeated indefinitely but grant a smaller number)

participating in scenes with other PCs and/or the HG, talking to and working with one another and describing how your character feels. (this is an XP action, and you can take one once per scene)

evoking a specific emotion out of the other players that they reward you with XP for (this is called emotion XP)

a scene involves one or more PCs interacting with one another or the world. once everyone's been in two scenes and taken two XP actions, that is a chapter. you tally up all the XP you earned, refresh your resources, and the session is over.

that is the core loop. you try to progress directly on your quest, you spend scenes interacting with other players, and you play into the archetype you've chosen for a few bonuses. finish a quest, unlock a new storyline.

in other words: you have experiences as your character which give them the will to grow and change.

check out this example ^^^

this one's structured for a loner character-- some mad scientist or mage who knows that the world is in danger and is eager to solve that problem all alone.

but... this isn't really a story about singular great men solving singular great problems alone, though. how much can you tell about this character, their conflicts, and where they're headed, all based on the quest structure alone?

your challenge is to:

do the things listed on the card, when possible. take up burdens, structure the weird ominous dreams and portents your character is experiencing, create scenarios where they have to rely on others against their better judgement (quest XP).

spend time with the natural world and/or the other PCs every scene, having experiences that affect your character personally (XP actions).

act as your character in ways that drive the other players to stunned speechlessness, the usual target reaction for this character's archetype (emotion XP).

be loose and have some fun with it. you'll be working with several quests at a time, so try to chain them together and create openings for other players to fulfill their own goals as well.

... and you've done it! those are the fundamental basics of the game!

hey baby, am i coming through?

cosmic american, anaïs mitchell

Môr - Knight of Fathoms

ac6 is a dressup game and you CANNOT convince me otherwise

what is the name of the awtdy au? it looks to be an acronym of some sort

(any more stuff about the au in general is welcomed)

correct! here's the two page comic i made to answer this question instead of just typing out five words like a normal person because i am nothing if not committed!

Wandering 🦊🌱