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A bit of a #sewing update.

Last weekend I was sewing the Augusta Stays, but I knew that while watching fosdem videos I could get to a point where I needed to do a fit test, which is not really compatible with fosdem, so I got ready for it by cutting a new top for myself in cotton voile, like the one at sewing-patterns.trueelena.org/… but with a bit more fullness and an attempt to give a ruffle look to the neckline and cuffs.

I started sewing on Sunday afternoon, and during the week it has progressed nicely, I've now reached the approximately 10 km seams around the neck (then there will be 5 km of seams around the cuffs, and it's done, I have already hemmed the bottom.

However, this meant that I procrastinated starting the binding on the stays. I hope that next week I'll find the courage to do them.

On the machine-sewing side, instead, I've been working on the jeans, but there were a couple of days when they just weren't working, so I stopped and did something else, and they are still stuck with the front and back assembled, and they need to be sewn together, and then finished with the waistband and hems. Next week, too.

OTOH, on the living room table there is now the last bit of elastic denim leftover with a pattern for a vest on top: it's a block from a victorian book, but I'm going to make it very simple, as a sort of wearable mockup for the pattern block.
sewing-patterns.trueelena.org/…
I'm not going to actually cut it until I've finished the jeans, so that I'm 100% sure I don't need any more pieces for them, because the vest will use most of the usable leftovers.

Oh, and the distractions when stuff wasn't working involved reading the Workwoman's Guide and taking notes for more handsewing stuff for the near future. A hint on what may be had by looking at my openclipart account :) openclipart.org/artist/valhall…

Basically, I didn't do what I had planned to do, but it still wasn't that bad of a week.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Un aggiornamento sul #cucito.

Lo scorso weekend stavo cucendo le Augusta Stays, ma sospettavo che guardando i video del fosdem sarei arrivata ad un punto in cui serviva una prova, che non è molto compatibile col weekend del fosdem, per cui mi sono portata avanti tagliando una nuova camicetta in voile di cotone, tipo sewing-patterns.trueelena.org/… ma con volant su collo e polsi.

Ho iniziato a cucirlo domenica pomeriggio e nel corso della settimana è andato avanti, adesso sono al punto in cui devo fare circa 10 km di cuciture sul collo e poi circa 5 km sui polsini, e a quel punto è finito (ho già fatto l'orlo sul fondo).

La cosa però ha comportato il procrastinare il rifinire gli orli delle stays, spero settimana prossima di trovare il coraggio.

Quanto al cucito a macchina, stavo lavorando sui jeans, ma ci sono stati un paio di giorni in cui le cose non funzionavano, per cui mi son fermata e ho fatto altro, e sono ancora fermi al punto in cui i davanti e i dietro sono assemblati, ma vanno cuciti assieme, e poi mancano cinturini e rifiniture tipo orli. Settimana prossima.

D'altra parte, sul tavolo della sala c'è l'ultimo pezzo di jeans elasticizzato con sopra un cartamodello per un gilet: è un modello preso da un libro vittoriano, ma ho intenzione di realizzarlo in modo molto semplice, come mockup indossabilke per il cartamodello.
sewing-patterns.trueelena.org/…
Prima di tagliarlo però voglio aver finito i jeans ed essere 100% sicura di non aver bisogno di altri pezzi, perché con il gilé userei la maggior parte dei ritagli di dimensioni significative.

Oh, e tra le distrazioni di quando le cose non funzionavano c'è stato leggere la Workwoman's Guide e prendere appunti per altre cose da cucire a mano nel prossimo futuro. Un indizio su cosa potrebbe essere sul mio account openclipart :) openclipart.org/artist/valhall…

Fondamentalmente, non ho fatto quello che mi ero ripromessa di fare, ma tutto sommato non è stata una cattiva settimana.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

The top is finished!

(don't mind the fichu-like scarf which may or may not be there to cover the thermal underwear I was wearing under the top)

And I've also had @Diego Roversi take pictures of most of the jeans, so that in the next couple of weeks or so I can hopefully finish and publish the blog posts for them.

As for binding the stays. we don't talk about binding the stays :D

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

La camicetta è finita.


(ignorate la sciarpa che potrebbe essere stata infilata a coprire la maglietta termica che stavo indossando sotto alla camicetta)

@Diego Roversi si è anche prestato per fare foto alla maggior parte dei jeans, per cui nelle prossime settimane spero di riuscire a finire e pubblicare i post relativi sul blog.

Quanto agli orli delle stays, quali orli delle stays?

reshared this

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

two tabs of the stays have been half bound (i.e. I've sewn the tape from the front, not yet from the back).

tooManyToCount remaining

#sewing #AugustaStays

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

due cosi¹ delle stays sono stati mezzi-ricoperti (ovvero ho cucito la fettuccia sul davanti, non ancora sul retro).

ne mancano… TroppiPerEssereContati

¹ termine preciso di sartoria storica, eh :D

#cucito #cucitoAMano

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

all of the bottom edge of the stays have been half bound.

I hope that sewing the tape from the back will be less fiddly than doing the first seam on the front (I hope), and then there is the top edge, which is significantly longer, but also much easier (I hope)

#sewing #AugustaStays

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Tutto l'orlo inferiore delle stays è stato rinifito a metà.

Spero che cucire la fettuccia sul retro sia meno incasinato della prima cucitura sul davanti (spero), e poi c'è l'orlo superiore, che è decisamente più lungo, ma dovrebbe essere anche più facile (spero).

#cucito



I've just realized it is indeed the passengers' fault if the trains are late.

You see, a few days ago @Diego Roversi forgot his book home, and the train was quite late. Evidently the train is late when at least one of the passengers does so.

So, if every passenger took care to bring their own book to read while on the train, the trains wouldn't be late anymore!

#badLogicIsFunnierThanGoodLogic

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Mi sono appena resa conto che è effettivamente colpa dei passeggeri se i treni sono in ritardo.

Qualche giorno fa @Diego Roversi si è dimenticato il libro a casa, e il treno era in discreto ritardo. Evidentemente il treno è in ritardo quando almeno uno dei passeggeri lo fa.

Quindi, se tutti i passeggeri facessero attenzione e si portassero un libro da leggere quando sono sul treno, i treni non sarebbero più in ritardo!

#erroriDiLogicaMaSonPiùDivertentiDellaLogica #trenò

reshared this



The #jeans saga continues.

Yesterday I started to cut the other denim I have bought, the one that is a bit heavier (385 g/m² instead of 355 g/m²) but also has some elastane in it (everything else is cotton, that part was not negotiable), and I decided to cut pieces for two pair of jeans rather than just one, with the two waistband variants (straight, where I add elastic to the sides and back, and shaped).

And now I can work almost assembly-line style on them, and see how long it takes me to finish two pairs.

And then my jeans situation should be fine, and I shouldn't need to make jeans for myself for some time.

#sewing

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Kermode (and since I'm running magic lantern on the camera I've just checked, but I don't think that it has a module to add syncthing support, even if I had a camera with wifi hardware)

(I could play arkanoid on it, however :D )

Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Kermode yeah, my smartphone is a pinephone, it's camera situation is, let's say, suboptimal :D

OTOH, it can run git annex (which is what I use on the pc and elsewhere to sync pictures and other files)



One silver lining of remoting #fosdem is that it's much easier to deal with an unwieldy productive fidget device (such as, I don't know, sewing a pair of stays that already has bones in it) when changing rooms only involves an mpv command instead of running between buildings in the rain, wind, snow, sun (all at the same time) :D
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

una cosa che consola del fatto che si sta partecipando a fosdem da remoto è che è molto più facile gestire un coso fidgettoso per concentrarsi produttivo scomodo da gestire (chessò, a puro esempio cucire un corsetto del 1700 in cui sono già state infilate le stecche) quando cambiare stanza vuol dire un comando di mpv anziché correre tra gli edifici sotto la pioggia, vento, neve, sole (tutti assieme) :D

reshared this





@Diego Roversi has just said that he prefers my diet-mode festive bread (a baguette dough with no fats) with raisins and candied citrus peels to the panettone with sugar glaze he was gifted at $DAY_JOB.

And I mean, it is good enough, but wow

#baking #bread

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Diego Roversi also, I'm absolutely not singing “Lucifer's Raisins” on the tune of the obvious Candlemass song every time I steal one of the burnt raisins from the top of the bread.
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Diego Roversi ah, e comunque non sto assolutamente canticchiando “Lucifer's Raisins” sull'ovvia canzone dei Candlemass tutte le volte che rubo un'uvetta bruciata da sopra il pane.
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

btw, the reason why I'm making this is that tomorrow it's Saint Blaise's day, and there is a tradition in this area to eat panettone that has been kept over from Christmas on that day.

My bread has been made fresh (it wouldn't have kept for over a month), but the candied citruses are leftovers from the same bread I made at Christmas, so that counts, right?

(oh, and we didn't start eating the one for tomorrow, there was a bit of extra dough and I accidentally made another smaller loaf :D)

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

il motivo per cui sto facendo questa cosa è che domani è san Biagio, e da queste parti c'è una tradizione di mangiare quel giorno una parte del panettone di natale che è stata messa da parte.

Il pane è stato fatto fresco (non si sarebbe conservato per più di un mese), ma i canditi sono avanzi dallo stesso pane che ho fatto a Natale, quindi conta, giusto?

(ah, e non abbiamo aperto quello di domani, è che c'era un po di impasto in più e mi è capitato accidentalmente di farne uno aggiuntivo :D)

Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Kermode @Diego Roversi right, I was thinking Candlemass the band, not Candlemass the day, which I should have done, yesterday :D

the song is called Lucifer Rising, but with raisins it's funnier




Macrame Bookbag


Posted on January 31, 2024
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:macrame
a macrame bag in ~3 mm ecru yarn, with very irregular knots of different types, holding a book with a blue cover. The bottom part has a rigid single layer triangle and a fringe.

In late 2022 I prepared a batch of drawstring backpacks in cotton as reusable wrappers for Christmas gifts; however I didn’t know what cord to use, didn’t want to use paracord, and couldn’t find anything that looked right in the local shops.

With Christmas getting dangerously closer, I visited a craft materials website for unrelated reasons, found out that they sold macrame cords, and panic-bought a few types in the hope that at least one would work for the backpacks.

I got lucky, and my first choice fitted just fine, and I was able to finish the backpacks in time for the holidays.

And then I had a box full of macrame cords in various sizes and types that weren’t the best match for the drawstring in a backpack, and no real use for them.

I don’t think I had ever done macrame, but I have made friendship bracelets in primary school, and a few Friendship Bracelets, But For Real Men So We Call Them Survival Bracelets(TM) more recently, so I didn’t bother reading instructions or tutorials online, I just grabbed the Ashley Book of Knots to refresh myself on the knots used, and decided to make myself a small bag for an A6 book.

I choose one of the thin, ~3 mm cords, Tre Sfere Macramé Barbante, of which there was plenty, so that I could stumble around with no real plan.

A loop of four cords, with a handle made of square knots that keeps it together.

I started by looping 5 m of cord, making iirc 2 rounds of a loop about the right size to go around the book with a bit of ease, then used the ends as filler cords for a handle, wrapped them around the loop and worked square knots all over them to make a handle.

Then I cut the rest of the cord into 40 pieces, each 4 m long, because I had no idea how much I was going to need (spoiler: I successfully got it wrong :D )

I joined the cords to the handle with lark head knots, 20 per side, and then I started knotting without a plan or anything, alternating between hitches and square knots, sometimes close together and sometimes leaving some free cord between them.

And apparently I also completely forgot to take in-progress pictures.

I kept working on this for a few months, knotting a row or two now and then, until the bag was long enough for the book, then I closed the bottom by taking one cord from the front and the corresponding on the back, knotting them together (I don’t remember how) and finally I made a rigid triangle of tight square knots with all of the cords, progressively leaving out a cord from each side, and cutting it in a fringe.

I then measured the remaining cords, and saw that the shortest ones were about a meter long, but the longest ones were up to 3 meters, I could have cut them much shorter at the beginning (and maybe added a couple more cords). The leftovers will be used, in some way.

And then I postponed taking pictures of the finished object for a few months.

The same bag, empty and showing how the sides aren't straight.

Now the result is functional, but I have to admit it is somewhat ugly: not as much for the lack of a pattern (that I think came out quite fine) but because of how irregular the knots are; I’m not confident that the next time I will be happy with their regularity, either, but I hope I will improve, and that’s one important thing.

And the other important thing is: I enjoyed making this, even if I kept interrupting the work, and I think that there may be some other macrame in my future.


blog.trueelena.org/blog/2024/0…

Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Kermode The trick is that I'm often doing repetitive things with my hand while I'm doing something else that requires concentration :) productive fidgeting :)

(also, I'm blogging stuff that I've done months ago and had not blogged yet)

Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Kermode right now he's the guy very close to me under the flannel sheets :D (I know, I know, we don't have real cold around here, but it still feels cold to us :) ).

he's also quite handy, but tends a bit more towards repairing things rather than making new ones (not exclusively, however), but our house *is* full of things that we have done something to.



Right now, I'm really glad that I have a set of leather thimbles in various sizes that I've made to give away to people who want to start sewing by hand because

a) my middle finger is hurting too much to wear my metal one
b) the sewing on my leather thimble has just self-destroyed
c) I need a thimble to be able to re-sew a leather thimble

#sewing #sewingPersonProblems

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

In questo momento sono *molto* felice di avere dei ditali di pelle in varie misure che ho fatto da regalare a chi vuole iniziare a cucire a mano, perché

a) il mio medio fa male e non riesco ad usare il mio solito ditale di metallo
b) le cuciture del mio ditale di pelle si sono appena autodistrutte
c) ho bisogno di un ditale per riuscire a ricucire un ditale di pelle

#cucito #problemiDiChiCuce

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Se devi cucire cose molto spesse e consistenti potrebbe essere utile un ditale palmare, come quelli usati per le vele e le espadrillas.
in reply to rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua

@Gustavino Bevilacqua UTC+01:00 no, per quanto sia robusto anche il corsetto del 1700 rientra più nel lavoro di precisione che non nel “cose spesse e consistenti”, serve controllare l'ago con le dita
Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''
@Kermode yeah, you don't *really* need a thimble to handsew, but it makes a *huge* difference in how confortable it is!


I was measuring ingredients for a dough in a bowl, using the tare button of the scale after each ingredient. Then I removed the bowl, and the number on the scale was 404.

which is extremely appropriate for a bowl that is missing.

#baking

reshared this

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Stavo misurando gli ingredienti di un impasto in una ciotola, usando il bottone per la tara dopo ciascun ingrediente. Poi ho tolto la ciotola dalla bilancia, e segnava esattamente 404.

che mi pare *estremamente* appropriato per una ciotola che non c'è.

reshared this



a post about algorithms and their lack of on ao3 (but I think that some points also apply to the fediverse)


Here I am one again #fighting against #appstreamcli validate

given this (image urls are not important here)

[...]
    <screenshots>
        <screenshot>
            <image type="source" xml:lang="en">https://[...].png</image>
        </screenshot>
        <screenshot type="default">
            <image type="source" xml:lang="en">https://[...].png</image>
        </screenshot>
    </screenshots>
[...]

appstreamcli validate complains
E: [...]: screenshot-image-source-missing
   A screenshot must have at least one image of type `source`.

... ok?

this works:

[...]
    <image type="source">https://[...].png</image>
[...]

but them flathub validation will complains that a lang attribute is required.

So here I am once again commenting out ninja test from PKGBUILD

End note:

$ appstreamcli --version
AppStream version: 1.0.1
in reply to Fabio

Oh, also:

puri.sm/posts/specify-form-fac…

E: [...]: custom-key-duplicated Purism::form_factor
   A key can only be used once.


Filed under: perspectives.

“It's just a pair of jeans, it's a relatively quick sew, once I have a fitted pattern I can easily make a pair in one week¹”

(this is half a subtoot and half a sub-phone-call-with-my-father)

¹ I can only sew a short time each day, maybe an hour or two

#sewing

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

IMHO jeans take longer to make because of all the topstitching - if you care about it looking good.

And if you find that the fabric behaves differently to the one you've nailed the fit with - and care about that. 😄

in reply to Lil Meow Meow

@Lil Meow Meow well, most of the clothing I make tend to use either french or flat felled seams, and having to topstitch is already faster than flat felling by hand :D I'm not bothering with contrasting thread, however, and that already helps :)

as for the fabric, I was thinking more in the general direction of “I have made and used a regular pair of jeans, and then I can reuse the pattern every time I need new jeans”, more than the stage after the mockup and before the first pair :D



Confy 0.7.1


Version 0.7.1 of #Confy, the #gtk4 / #libadwaita conference companion, has been tagged.

This release brings small fixes.
Main highlights are:

  • New German translation.
  • Flatpak now will use GNOME Runtime 45

#Arch #AUR packages are updated, #flatpak on #Flathub should be on its way.

sr.ht/~fabrixxm/Confy/

Diego Roversi reshared this.



Today I have watched a few videos¹ about traditional Karelian dress; I don't think that the (autogenerated, i assume) subtitles have *ever* managed to get that word right.

However, one time it was subtitled as Carribean, and now I have these visions of people dressed like the pirates of the Carribeans on the lakes between Finland and Russia, and I can't unsee them.

¹ the first one in the series is youtube.com/watch?v=GECRnLSbXg…

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Oggi ho guardato dei video¹ sul costume tradizionale della Carelia, e non credo che i sottotitoli (suppongo autogenerati) siano *mai* riusciti ad azzeccare quella parola.

Una volta Karelian è stato sottotitolato come Carribean, e adesso ho delle immagini mentali di gente vestita come i pirati dei Caraibi sui laghi tra Finlanda e Russia, e queste immagini non usciranno più dalla mia mente.

¹ il primo della serie è youtube.com/watch?v=GECRnLSbXg…



I was looking for something else (which I then found), but I stumbled on this

periodic reminder that Mazzini and Vetinari are the same person.

portrait of a man dressed in very dark clothing (no true black, for Vetinary) with an hollowed face

from: mebic.comune.milano.it/mebic/r…

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Uhm… pare che la testa galleggi sopra le spalle alla Magritte, o è solo una mia impressione?


First short trek after months. With snow! Not bad!

kirgroup.net/~fabrixxm/trek/20…



Aaaaaaand I've done all of the boning channels on the #AugustaStays I started in (checks for the old post) November 2022! And one spool of thread was enough! (I have another, luckily, as I plan to use the same thread for other seams, but for those I would also have had alternatives)

And since I took the picture I've also finished the eyelets on one of the center back pieces, and added boning to both of those and to the side fronts (but the sun has set, so there will be no more pictures until tomorow).

Now I only need to finish the rest of the eyelets, and most importantly to sew the whole thing :D

Maybe in January 2025 it will be done :D If I don't get distracted.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

all eyelets have been done

the small panels have also been boned, I still have to do the big front ones (and I've used about half of the boning called for by the pattern).

#sewing #AugustaStays

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

tutti gli occhielli sono stati rifiniti.

i pannelli piccoli hanno anche le stecche, ma mi mancano ancora i pannelli grandi del davanti (e sono più o meno a metà delle stecche necessarie secondo il cartamodello).

#cucito #cucitoStorico

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

all panels boned, first fitting done, and now I'm turning the sewing allowances and I've started to attach two of the pieces.

The instructions still have *a lot* of pages.

#sewing #AugustaStays

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

stecche inserite su tutti i pannelli, prima prova fatta, e adesso sto rifinendo i margini di cucitura e ho iniziato ad attaccare due pannelli.

Le istruzioni hanno ancora un *bel po'* di pagine.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

all panels have been joined together!

hopefully this afternoon I'll attach the shoulder straps

and then I have to decide whether I want to add seam tapes or not.

#sewing #AugustaStays

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

tutti i pannelli sono stati attaccati tra di loro!

se tutto va bene oggi pomeriggio spero di attaccare le spalline

e poi devo decidere se mettere le fettucce sulle cuciture o se saltarle.

#cucito

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

I've decided, no seam tapes.

I couldn't find narrow tapes other than white herringbone ones, and I don't care about the way the look, and the instructions say that it's mostly decoration, so...

I'm currently sewing seam tapes :D

because just after I had decided, I saw the 20 m roll of light blue tape I've bought for the binding, and thought that if I fold it in half it can work as seam tape, too.

#sewing #AugustaStays

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

ho deciso, niente fettucce sulle cuciture.

Non riesco a trovare fettuccia sottile se non quella spigata bianca, il cui aspetto non mi dice molto, e le istruzioni dicono che è soprattutto decorativa, per cui...

Sto cucendo della fettuccia sulle cuciture :D

perché immediatamente dopo aver preso la decisione ho visto la confezione da 20 metri di fettuccia azzurra che ho preso per rifinire i bordi, e mi son resa conto che piegandola a metà può funzionare anche sulle cuciture.

#cucito #cucitoAMano



A thought-provoking article about the common aspects of censorship through history and today

varve reshared this.



suddenly, I no longer received new posts from the rss feeds I follow.

it was DNS.

(I think it has been (re)solved)

(I'll see myself out)

reshared this




Adding two speaker is very easy and provide a all-in-one boombox without thinking to add external ones.

But, yes, if you want you can also add a big external acoustic box....



We need obviously two speaker, two plastic box and also a grid for protect speakers from accidental damage.


Do you remember this project? social.gl-como.it/display/3e3c…

Well, I'm thinking to Transform the old project into a modern multimedial boombox.ì by adding two lateral speaker.



valhalla> …dopo che ieri ho portato su *chili* di marmellata
@Diego Roversi > non credo che fossero *chili*
valhalla> no. aspetta, controllo
valhalla> 330, 340, 340. uno virgola zero uno chili! si può usare il plurale!
diego> va beeene

reshared this

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

This happened in Italian, but for people who are following me because they want to learn Italian here's a translation :D

valhalla> …and yesterday I've brought home *kilograms* of jam
@diegor@social.gl-como.it> I don't think it was *kilograms*
valhalla> they weren't. wait! let me check.
valhalla> 330, 340, 340. there! one point zero one kilograms! plural is fine!
diego> oooook



/me, has a work confcall today
/me, yesterday evening “I should really ask @Diego Roversi to make me a new jack - jack cable that I need to hear audio from this computer, because the one I'm using is on its last leg, but it's late, I'll do it tomorrow evening”.

guess what I had to do this morning? :D

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

/me, ha una confcall al lavoro oggi
/me, ieri sera “dovrei chiedere a @Diego Roversi di farmi un nuovo cavo jack - jack per sentire audio su questo computer, perché quello che ho sta tirando le cuoia, ma è tardi, glielo chiederò domani sera“

indovinate un po' cosa ho dovuto farestamattina? :D



New little toy project in #vala #gtk4 / #libadwaita : Oliver, a simple GUI for PHPStan.

Select a folder, it runs phpstan found in vendor/bin subfolder, shows (searchable) results, monitors reported file for modification to automatically analyze project while coding.

It's called Oliver because, you know... Stan... Oliver...

Code here:
git.sr.ht/~fabrixxm/oliver

reshared this



Mini Books


Posted on January 13, 2024
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:bookbinding
Two coptic bound small books, seen from the top with the pages somewhat open. One has purple and orange triangles on the cover, the other one waves in two shades of greenish blue.

In 2022 I read a post on the fediverse by somebody who mentioned that they had bought on a whim a cute tiny book years ago, and that it had been a companion through hard times. Right now I can’t find the post, but it was pretty aaaaawwww.

Two coptic bound small books, seen from the front. One of the covers is covered in grey paper, the other one is cardboard that has been spray-painted copper.

At the same time, I had discovered Coptic binding, and I wanted to do some exercise to let my hands learn it, but apparently there is a limit to the number of notebooks and sketchbooks a person needs (I’m not 100% sure I actually believe this, but I’ve heard it is a thing).

A coptic bound small book, seen from the front. The cover is made of white cernit, with thin lines painted in gold acrylic to form a sort of B shape.

So I decided to start making minibooks with the intent to give them away: I settled (mostly) on the A8 size, and used a combination of found materials, leftovers from bigger projects and things I had in the Stash. As for paper, I’ve used a variety of the ones I have that are at the very least good enough for non-problematic fountain pen inks.

Two coptic bound small books, seen from the front. The covers are covered in grey paper with a piece of light blue lace on top.

Thanks to the small size, and the way coptic binding works, I’ve been able to play around with the covers, experimenting with different styles beyond the classic bookbinding cloth / paper covered cardboard, including adding lace, covering food box cardboard with gesso and decorating it with acrylic paints, embossing designs by gluing together two layers of cardboard, one of which has holes, making covers completely out of cernit, etc. Some of these I will probably also use in future full-scale projects, but it’s nice to find out what works and what doesn’t on a small scale.

Two coptic bound small books, seen from the front. The covers are covered in grey paper, and they are half-covered by a piece of off-white tulle, cut on a diagonal. One of the two books has a cat eye embossed and painted in gold.

Now, after a year of sporadically making these I have to say that the making went quite well: I enjoyed the making and the creativity in making different covers. The giving away was a bit more problematic, as I didn’t really have a lot of chances to do so, so I believe I still have most of them. In 2024 I’ll try to look for more opportunities (and if you live nearby and want one — or a few — feel free to ask!)


blog.trueelena.org/blog/2024/0…

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@Luca Sironi @lorenzo :misskey: :xmpp: faccio un quote toot per non intasare il thread di là

sironi.tk/objects/ec185d38-525…

il problema del self-hosting individualista è che richiede soldi, conoscenze e/o tempo, ed esclude tutti quelli che non li hanno.

Non sono quantità di soldi enormi, non sono conoscenze che richiedono studio di una vita per essere raggiunte, ma se non le si ha si deve avere più tempo da dedicare (e non avere altro, magari di altrettanto importante, che si vorrebbe fare in quel tempo).

Il community hosting non risolve tutti i problemi, probabilmente qualcuno non viene raggiunto comunque, ma almeno allarga il range dei potenziali avvantaggiati da “i soliti nerd” a “i soliti nerd e tutti quelli che conoscono un nerd o che conoscono qualcuno che conosce un nerd”, ed è un aumento significativo¹

¹ anche considerata la propensione alla socialità tipica del nerd medio, grazie al secondo passaggio :D

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in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Sembrava un argomento interessante ma quando ho letto la parola "creatore" mi si è accopponata la pelle e mi è passato l'entusiasmo... :flan_despair:
Unknown parent

Luca Sironi
@gemlog
You lost me a little bit. If that help, for context, @valhalla was quoting, in italian, a conversation being held in italian.


Filed under: stop procrastinating (on one specific task) challenge 2024.

yesterday I've drafted a suitable womanswear trousers block. I've printed it out, so that I can start making a quick mockup before converting it into a jeans pattern¹ with all of the fiddly bits.

this morning I'm supposed to start doing that mockup.

and here I am, writing stuff on the fediverse.

I'm not starting very well, right?

¹ something like sewing-patterns.trueelena.org/… , except for people with more *bustle* than belly :D

Kermode reshared this.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Le cose che mancavano erano un bottone e i passanti per la cintura, quindi stamattina ho deciso di finirli al volo. Ho deciso di mettere un automatico anziché il bottone tradizionale da jeans con l'occhiello, quindi è questione di minuti, giusto?

No. Quindi ho deciso di ascoltare qualcosa mentre lavoravo, il che ha causato la saldatura di emergenza di un nuovo cavo audio, seguito da ulteriori imprecazioni contro il bottone e dopo qualcosa come un'ora e mezza finalmente ho un paio di pantaloni dotati di bottone.

I passanti possono aspettare.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

E le passanti?

invidious.projectsegfau.lt/wat…



A Corset or Two


Posted on January 7, 2024
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, period:victorian, FreeSoftWear
a black coutil midbust corset, from a 3/4 front view, showing the busk closure, a waist tape and external boning channels made of the same twill tape and placed about 1-2 cm from each other at waist level.

CW for body size change mentions

I needed a corset, badly.

Years ago I had a chance to have my measurements taken by a former professional corset maker and then a lesson in how to draft an underbust corset, and that lead to me learning how nice wearing a well-fitted corset feels.

Later I tried to extend that pattern up for a midbust corset, with success.

And then my body changed suddenly, and I was no longer able to wear either of those, and after a while I started missing them.

Since my body was still changing (if no longer drastically so), and I didn’t want to use expensive materials for something that had a risk of not fitting after too little time, I decided to start by making myself a summer lightweight corset in aida cloth and plastic boning (for which I had already bought materials). It fitted, but not as well as the first two ones, and I’ve worn it quite a bit.

I still wanted back the feeling of wearing a comfy, heavy contraption of coutil and steel, however.

After a lot of procrastination I redrafted a new pattern, scrapped everything, tried again, had my measurements taken by a dressmaker [#dressmaker], put them in the draft, cut a first mock-up in cheap cotton, fixed the position of a seam, did a second mock-up in denim [#jeans] from an old pair of jeans, and then cut into the cheap herringbone coutil I was planning to use.

And that’s when I went to see which one of the busks in my stash would work, and realized that I had used a wrong vertical measurement and the front of the corset was way too long for a midbust corset.

a corset busk basted to a mock-up with scraps of fabric between each stud / loop.

Luckily I also had a few longer busks, I basted one to the denim mock up and tried to wear it for a few hours, to see if it was too long to be comfortable. It was just a bit, on the bottom, which could be easily fixed with the Power Tools1.

Except, the more I looked at it the more doing this felt wrong: what I needed most was a midbust corset, not an overbust one, which is what this was starting to be.

I could have trimmed it down, but I knew that I also wanted this corset to be a wearable mockup for the pattern, to refine it and have it available for more corsets. And I still had more than half of the cheap coutil I was using, so I decided to redo the pattern and cut new panels.

And this is where the “or two” comes in: I’m not going to waste the overbust panels: I had been wanting to learn some techniques to make corsets with a fashion fabric layer, rather than just a single layer of coutil, and this looks like an excellent opportunity for that, together with a piece of purple silk that I know I have in the stash. This will happen later, however, first I’m giving priority to the underbust.

Anyway, a second set of panels was cut, all the seam lines marked with tailor tacks, and I started sewing by inserting the busk.

And then realized that the pre-made boning channel tape I had was too narrow for the 10 mm spiral steel I had plenty of. And that the 25 mm twill tape was also too narrow for a double boning channel. On the other hand, the 18 mm twill tape I had used for the waist tape was good for a single channel, so I decided to put a single bone on each seam, and then add another piece of boning in the middle of each panel.

Since I’m making external channels, making them in self fabric would have probably looked better, but I no longer had enough fabric, because of the cutting mishap, and anyway this is going to be a strictly underwear only corset, so it’s not a big deal.

Once the boning channel situation was taken care of, everything else proceeded quite smoothly and I was able to finish the corset during the Christmas break, enlisting again my SO to take care of the flat steel boning while I cut the spiral steels myself with wire cutters.

The same corset straight from the front: the left side is a few mm longer than the right side

I could have been a bit more precise with the binding, as it doesn’t align precisely at the front edge, but then again, it’s underwear, nobody other than me and everybody who reads this post is going to see it and I was in a hurry to see it finished. I will be more careful with the next one.

The same corset from the back, showing cross lacing with bunny ears at the waist and a lacing gap of about 8 cm.

I also think that I haven’t been careful enough when pressing the seams and applying the tape, and I’ve lost about a cm of width per part, so I’m using a lacing gap that is a bit wider than I planned for, but that may change as the corset gets worn, and is still within tolerance.

Also, on the morning after I had finished the corset I woke up and realized that I had forgotten to add garter tabs at the bottom edge. I don’t know whether I will ever use them, but I wanted the option, so maybe I’ll try to add them later on, especially if I can do it without undoing the binding.

The next step would have been flossing, which I proceeded to postpone until I’ve worn the corset for a while: not because there is any reason for it, but because I still don’t know how I want to do it :)

What was left was finishing and uploading the pattern and instructions, that are now on my sewing pattern websiteas #FreeSoftWear, and finally I could post this on the blog.


  1. i.e. by asking my SO to cut and sand it, because I’m lazy and I hate doing that part :D↩︎

blog.trueelena.org/blog/2024/0…




Random Sashiko + Crazy Quilt Pocket


Posted on January 5, 2024
A 18th century pocket in black jeans with a random pattern of pink running stitches forming squares and other shapes. The unfinished edges of the pieces of jeans can be seen, running more or less diagonally.

Lately I’ve seen people on the internet talking about victorian crazy quilting. Years ago I had watched a Numberphile video about Hitomezashi Stitch Patterns based on numbers, words or randomness. Few weeks ago I had cut some fabric piece out of an old pair of jeans and I had a lot of scraps that were too small to do anything useful on their own. It easy to see where this can go, right?

The wrong side of a pocket piece, showing a light coloured fabric with a grid drawn in pencil, a line of small stitches all around the edges and a mess of thread ends left hanging.

I cut a pocket shape out of old garment mockups (this required some piecing), drew a square grid, arranged scraps of jeans to cover the other side, kept everything together with a lot of pins, carefully avoided basting anything, and started covering everything in sashiko / hitomezashi stitches, starting each line with a stitch on the front or the back of the work based on the result of:

import random
random.choice(["front", "back"])

The wrong side of the other pocket piece, with just three lines of stitching and a piece of paper to mark the pattern. There are bits of jeans peeking out of the sides.

For the second piece I tried to use a piece of paper with the square grid instead of drawing it on the fabric: it worked, mostly, I would not do it again as removing the paper was more of a hassle than drawing the lines in the first place. I suspected it, but had to try it anyway.

The front of the pocket seen from the wrong side, with a machine seam around the lit, whose end has been cut in a triangle so that it can be turned.

Then I added a lining from some plain black cotton from the stash; for the slit I put the lining on the front right sides together, sewn at 2 mm from the marked slit, cut it, turned the lining to the back side, pressed and then topstitched as close as possible to the slit from the front.

The finished pocket attached to a belt made from the waistband of a pair of jeans (with button, buttonhole and belt loops still attached) whose raw edges (left when unpicking away the jeans) have been sewn shut by hand.

I bound everything with bias tape, adding herringbone tape loops at the top to hang it from a belt (such as one made from the waistband of one of the donor pair of jeans) and that was it.

The back of the pocket, showing another random pattern in two different shades of pink for the vertical and horizontal lines of stitching.

I like the way the result feels; maybe it’s a bit too stiff for a pocket, but I can see it work very well for a bigger bag, and maybe even a jacket or some other outer garment.


blog.trueelena.org/blog/2024/0…

Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Kermode if you follow the link to the post on friendica (not that to the blog) you can see how people on friendica sees it, with inline images :)

mastodon afaik doesn't support them at all

Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''
@Kermode I think so, I've never used fb either :D


Compile your kernel (or whatever) withour wearing your ssd:


If you have /tmp on your SSD, instead of a tmpfs mount:

- create a new directory and mount it as tmpfs (1Gb)

# mkdir /tmp/tmp
# mount -t tmpfs -o size=1G tmpfs /tmp/tmp

- now tell gcc to use it:

# export TMPDIR=/tmp/tmp



Proposal: can we please start talking about Meta!Threads instead of just threads, to prevent them from taking over the meaning of yet another common word, and one that is extremely useful when talking fediverse things?
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Proposta: possiamo metterci a parlare di Meta!Threads anziché solo threads, per impedire loro di impossessarsi del significato di un'altra parola di uso comune, e per di più una che è estremamente utile quando si parla di fedicose?
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Non è già finito tutto l'hype?

Di meta e metastasi non ne ho visto l'ombra...

Ma poi siamo veramente sicuri che qualcuno lo stia usando?

Delle poche persone che conosco che usano Minkiagram nessuno ha la minima idea di cosa sia Freds :flan_think:

in reply to ❄️ freezr ❄️

@❄️ freezr ❄️ più che finito l'hype non è mai iniziato: che io sappia la federazione ancora non c'è se non per tre account sperimentali (e solo monodirezionale).

Però un po' di post sull'argomento li vedo ancora passare

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

@❄️ freezr ❄️ ah, oltre al fatto che buona parte dei server li han bannati per buona misura, quindi non li si vede comunque.


Crescent Shawl


Posted on January 2, 2024
a woman wearing a shawl, seen from the back where it looks like a big dark grey triangle with a light grey border and another light grey border with a grid of holes. There is also a double line of holes in the center of the back, and two single ones towards the sides.

One of the knitting projects I’m working on is a big bottom-up triangular shawl in less-than-fingering weight yarn (NM 1/15): it feels like a cloud should by all rights feel, and I have good expectations out of it, but it’s taking forever and a day.

And then one day last spring I started thinking in the general direction of top-down shawls, and decided I couldn’t wait until I had finished the first one to see if I could design one.

For my first attempt I used an odd ball of 50% wool 50% plastic I had in my stash and worked it on 12 mm tree trunks, and I quickly made something between a scarf and a shawl that got some use during the summer thunderstorms when temperatures got a bit lower, but not really cold. I was happy with the shape, not with the exact position of the increases, but I had ideas for improvements, so I just had to try another time.

Digging through the stash I found four balls of Drops Alpaca in two shades of grey: I had bought it with the intent to test its durability in somewhat more demanding situations (such as gloves or even socks), but then the LYS1 no longer carries it, so I might as well use it for something a bit more one-off (and when I received the yarn it felt so soft that doing something for the upper body looked like a better idea anyway).

I decided to start working in garter stitch with the darker colour, then some garter stitch in the lighter shade and to finish with yo / k2t lace, to make the shawl sort of fade out.

The first half was worked relatively slowly through the summer, and then when I reached the colour change I suddenly picked up working on it and it was finished in a couple of weeks.

the same shawl, worn before blocking: the garter stitch part

looks denser in a nice way, but the the lace border is scrunched up.


Then I had doubts on whether I wanted to block it, since I liked the soft feel, but I decided to try it anyway: it didn’t lose the feel, and the look is definitely better, even if it was my first attempt at blocking a shawl and I wasn’t that good at it.

the same shawl, blocked, worn and seen from the front, where it falls in wide falls from the shoulders between the arms and the body.

I’m glad that I did it, however, as it’s still soft and warm, but now also looks nicer.

The pattern is of course online as #FreeSoftWear on my fiber craft patterns website.


  1. at least local to somebody: I can’t get to a proper yarn shop by foot, so I’ve bought this yarn online from one that I could in theory reach on a day trip, but it has not happened yet.↩︎

blog.trueelena.org/blog/2024/0…



I guess it's nice that the first Mikey Mouse is now in #PublicDomain, but where are all of those other lesser known freshly Public Domain works that are small gems and can now be recovered from oblivion?

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Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''
Overlong copyright and War on Drugs meta

@bookandswordblog my understanding is that this is not really the time when anything Disney has really become free to use, that there are still so many limitations on the use of Mickey Mouse as a character (thanks to trademarks, subsequent restyling, etc.) that they could afford letting the copyright expire (instead of lobbying for another extension) because nothing is really going to change anyway.

I'd love to be proved wrong.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Standard Ebooks has released their first batch of newly PD books here: standardebooks.org/ebooks . Free, beautifully formatted and carefully proofread ebooks.


TIL: one of the presidential cars of Italy (not the main one, of course) is an Ape Piaggio.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official…

thanks @Rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua for the wikipedia trip that lead me to that page :D

reshared this

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

TIL: una delle auto presidenziali italiane (ovviamente non la principale) è un Ape Piaggio

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official…

Grazie a @Rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua per avermi spedito in un wikipedia trip che mi ha portato a quella pagina :D

reshared this



I've been influenced


Posted on December 30, 2023
A woman wearing a red sleeveless dress; from the waist up it is fitted, while the skirt flares out. There is a white border with red embroidery and black fringe at the hem and a belt of the same material at the waist.

By the influencers on the famous proprietary video platform1.

When I’m crafting with no powertools I tend to watch videos, and this autumn I’ve seen a few in a row that were making red wool dresses, at least one or two medieval kirtles. I don’t remember which channels they were, and I’ve decided not to go back and look for them, at least for a time.

A woman wearing a red shirt with wide sleeves, a short yoke, a small collar band and 3 buttons in the front.

Anyway, my brain suddenly decided that I needed a red wool dress, fitted enough to give some bust support. I had already made a dress that satisfied the latter requirementand I still had more than half of the red wool faille I’ve used for the Garibaldi blouse (still not blogged, but I will get to it), and this time I wanted it to be ready for this winter.

While the pattern I was going to use is Victorian, it was designed for underwear, and this was designed to be outerwear, so from the very start I decided not to bother too much with any kind of historical details or techniques.

A few meters of wool-imitation fringe trim rolled up; the fringe is black and is attached to a white band with a line of lozenge outlines in red and brown.

I knew that I didn’t have enough fabric to add a flounce to the hem, as in the cotton dress, but then I remembered that some time ago I fell for a piece of fringed trim in black, white and red. I did a quick check that the red wasn’t clashing (it wasn’t) and I knew I had a plan for the hem decoration.

Then I spent a week finishing other projects, and the more I thought about this dress, the more I was tempted to have spiral lacing at the front rather than buttons, as a nod to the kirtle inspiration. It may end up be a bit of a hassle, but if it is too much I can always add a hidden zipper on a side seam, and only have to undo a bit of the lacing around the neckhole to wear the dress.

Finally, I could start working on the dress: I cut all of the main pieces, and since the seam lines were quite curved I marked them with tailor’s tacks, which I don’t exactly enjoy doing or removing, but are the only method that was guaranteed to survive while manipulating this fabric (and not leave traces afterwards).

A shaped piece of red fabric with the long edges bound in navy blue bias tape and all the seamlines marked with basting thread.

While cutting the front pieces I accidentally cut the high neck line instead of the one I had used on the cotton dress: I decided to go for it also on the back pieces and decide later whether I wanted to lower it.

Since this is a modern dress, with no historical accuracy at all, and I have access to a serger, I decided to use some dark blue cotton voile I’ve had in my stash for quite some time, cut into bias strip, to bind the raw edges before sewing. This works significantly better than bought bias tape, which is a bit too stiff for this.

A bigger piece of fabric with tailor's tacks for the seams and darts; at the top edge there is a strip of navy blue fabric sewn to a wide seaming allowance, with two rows of cording closest to the center front line.

For the front opening, I’ve decided to reinforce the areas where the lacing holes will be with cotton: I’ve used some other navy blue cotton, also from the stash, and added two lines of cording to stiffen the front edge.

So I’ve cut the front in two pieces rather than on the fold, sewn the reinforcements to the sewing allowances in such a way that the corded edge was aligned with the center front and then sewn the bottom of the front seam from just before the end of the reinforcements to the hem.

The front opening being worked on: on one side there are hand sewn eyelets in red silk that matches the fabric, on the other side the position for more eyelets are still marked with pins. There is also still basting to keep the folded allowance in place.

The allowances are then folded back, and then they are kept in place by the worked lacing holes. The cotton was pinked, while for the wool I used the selvedge of the fabric and there was no need for any finishing.

Behind the opening I’ve added a modesty placket: I’ve cut a strip of red wool, a strip of cotton, folded the edge of the strip of cotton to the center, added cording to the long sides, pressed the allowances of the wool towards the wrong side, and then handstitched the cotton to the wool, wrong sides facing. This was finally handstitched to one side of the sewing allowance of the center front.

I’ve also decided to add real pockets, rather than just slits, and for some reason I decided to add them by hand after I had sewn the dress, so I’ve left opening in the side back seams, where the slits were in the cotton dress. I’ve also already worn the dress, but haven’t added the pockets yet, as I’m still debating about their shape. This will be fixed in the near future.

Another thing that will have to be fixed is the trim situation: I like the fringe at the bottom, and I had enough to also make a belt, but this makes the top of the dress a bit empty. I can’t use the same fringe tape, as it is too wide, but it would be nice to have something smaller that matches the patterned part. And I think I can make something suitable with tablet weaving, but I’m not sure on which materials to use, so it will have to be on hold for a while, until I decide on the supplies and have the time for making it.

Another improvement I’d like to add are detached sleeves, both matching (I should still have just enough fabric) and contrasting, but first I want to learn more about real kirtle construction, and maybe start making sleeves that would be suitable also for a real kirtle.

Meanwhile, I’ve worn it on Christmas (over my 1700s menswear shirt with big sleeves) and may wear it again tomorrow (if I bother to dress up to spend New Year’s Eve at home :D )


  1. yep, that’s YouTube, of course.↩︎

blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/1…

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