@Oblomov @Yaku 🐗 @Rapita dagli alieni se ho ben capito l'articolo i soldi per comprare il materiale arrivano comunque dai genitori, che però pagano un tot alla scuola, che poi fa gli acquisti in comune (risparmiando rispetto agli acquisti individuali)
Esattamente anche qui lo stesso. La luna piena (ma bianca) visibile attraverso quello che rimaneva delle nuvole. Un minuto prima, come se non ci fosse.
@Kermode if it had been up in the sky maybe we would have been able to see the moon: it was rising while already eclypsed, so pretty low on the horizon just above the hills, and those don't count as sky, right? :D
Quella sensazione di quando sei stanco dopo aver fatto cose (e guardato gente che faceva cose) tutto il giorno, e all'improvviso di rendi conto: c'è della torta!
does anybody know what happened to the Costuming Drama youtube channel?
Apparently it has been “removed because it violated our Community Guidelines.”?
(I was still going through the backlog and I was a few years in the past, but other than possibly a glimpse of a *chemise* it didn't feel like a potentially controversial channel in any way)
For quite some time, I have been thinking about trying a bit of patchwork, and English Paper Piecing looked like a technique suited to my tastes, with the handsewing involved and the fact of having a paper pattern of sort and everything.
The problem is, most of the scraps of fabric I get from my sewing aren’t really suitable for quilting, with a lot of them being either too black and too thick or too white and too thin.
On the other hand, my partner wears polo shirts at work, and while I try to mend the holes that form, after a while the edges get worn, and they just are no longer suitable for the office, even with some creative mending, and they get downgraded to home wear. But then more office shirts need to be bought, and the home ones accumulate, and there is only so much room for polo shirts in the house, and the worst ones end up in my creative reuse pile.
Some parts are worn out and they will end up as cabbage stuffing for things, but some are still in decent enough conditions and could be used as fabric.
But surely, for English Paper Piecing you’d need woven fabric, not knit, even if it’s the dense piqué used in polo shirts, right? Especially if it’s your first attempt at the technique, right?
Well, probably it wouldn’t work with complex shapes, but what about some 5-ish cm tall Standard Compliant bestagon? So I printed out some hexagons on thick paper, printed some bigger hexagons with sewing allowance as a cutting aid, found two shirts in the least me colours I could find (and one in grey because it was the best match for the other two) and decided to sacrifice them for the experiment.
And as long as the paper was still in the pieces, the work went nicely, so I persevered while trying to postpone the Moment of Truth.
After a while I measured things out and saw that I could squeeze a 6.5 × 7 hexagon pattern into something resembling a square that was a multiple of the 2.5 cm square on the back of my Piecepack tiles, and decided to go for another Standard for the back (because of course I wasn’t going to buy new fabric for lining the work).
I kept the paper in the pieces until both sides were ready, and used it to sew them right sides together, leaving the usual opening in the middle of one side.
Then I pressed, removed the paper, turned everything inside out, pressed again and. It worked!
The hexagons look like hexagons, the squares look like squares, the whole thing feels soft and drapey, but structurally sound. And it’s a bit lumpy, but not enough to cause issues when using it as a soft surface to put over a noisy wooden table to throw dice on.
I considered adding some lightweight batting in the middle, but there was really no need for it, and wondered about how to quilt the piece in a way that worked with the patterns on the two sides, but for something this small it wasn’t really required.
However, I decided to add a buttonhole stitch border on all edges, to close the opening I had left and to reinforce especially the small triangles on the hexagons side, as those had a smaller sewing allowance and could use it.
And of course, the 11 × 11 squares side wasn’t completely an accident, but part of A Plan.
And there are more polo shirts in that pile, and while they won’t be suitable for anything complex, maybe I could try some rhombs, or even kites and darts?
I have been thinking in the general direction of doing a bit of streaming where I handsew stuff while talking about handsewing and the project I'm making and general craft things, maybe later in September, would anybody be interested?
It would happen on the streaming server¹ of our LUG, and I may then post recordings on peertube (if I create an account somewhere).
¹ lol, it's just an nginx with a bit of configuration
Stavo vagamente pensando all'idea di streammare mentre cucio a mano, parlando di cucito a mano, il progetto che sto facendo e cose craftose in generale, magari nella seconda metà di settembre, qualcuno sarebbe interessato?
Sarebbe sul server di streaming¹ del LUG, e (se apro un account da qualche parte) poi potrei mettere la registrazione su peertube.
Meanwhile, it's been a while since my last thread on crafting.
I've picked back up #knitting a shawl from *very fine* yarn that I started in 2022, when it looked like this:
and now looks exactly the same, but *a lot more*.
Now I have written down a plan and I think I can finish it by the end of September: it's longer than the usual time before I get bored with it and move to something else, but now that I can actually see the end I really want to do it!
(right now I have picked up a 8 days buffer, so there is hope)
Also, I've kept going on with the 16th century hemd inspired shirt I started (check notes 3 months ago: it's structurally done, I need to finish the bottom hem and the smocking at the sleeves, and then sort out buttons, so I hope that one too will be finished by the end of September, and then I can start some other project I have in the queue!
I've just started handsewing a backpack, so I don't really need another handsewing project, right?
well…
the backpack is at a stage where I have to think, and today I'm not really able to think, and also it's somewhat heavy sewing, and sometimes I'd prefer to do something lighter, so my plan was to have a second project to alternate it with.
something quick and easy, right? of course not :D
what about dealing with 4.5 meters of lightweight fabric, hemming all of it and then bringing it down to 36ish cm? That's more like it :D
I've decided to make a shirt by following the instructions for a 16th century hemd, except in cotton voile, and a bit shorter so that I can tuck it into my jeans if I want.
So I have spoken about my new 16th century German chemise/shirt, and I have also documented the whole process of making it so that I can show you how it is made. This hemd goes under the name of …
E mi sono accorta che è un po' che non aggiorno sullo stato dei progetti craftosi.
Ho ripreso in mano uno scialle ai ferri con un filato *molto* sottile che avevo iniziato nel 2022, quando aveva questa faccia:
e adesso ha lo stesso aspetto, ma *di più*.
Ho provato a mettere giù un piano e credo di riuscire a finirlo per la fine di settembre: le altre volte mi sono stancata prima e sono passata ad altro, ma stavolta vedo la fine, e vorrei davvero arrivarci!
(al momento sono anche riuscita a portarmi avanti di 8 giorni rispetto al piano, quindi c'è speranza)
Sono anche andata avanti con la camicia ispirata allo hemd del XVI secolo che ho iniziato (controlla gli appunti) 3 mesi fa: è interamente assemblata, devo finire l'orlo in basso e lo smocking sulle maniche, e poi decidere cosa fare per i bottoni, quindi spero di riuscire a finire anche quella entro la fine di settembre, e poi posso iniziare uno degli altri progetti che ho in coda!
Ho appena iniziato a cucire a mano uno zaino, quindi non ho bisogno di un altro progetto di cucito a mano, vero?
Ecco…
Con lo zaino sono ad un punto in cui ho bisogno di pensare, ed oggi non è cosa, e poi è un tipo di cucito abbastanza fisicamente impegnativo, per cul il piano era di avere qualcosa di meno faticoso con cui alternarlo.
Avrei potuto fare qualcosa di facile e veloce? ovviamente no :D
E invece avere a che fare con quattro metri e mezzo di stoffa, orlarla e raccoglierla tutta in qualcosa come 36 cm? Più nel mio stile :D
Quindi ho deciso di farmi una camicia seguendo le istruzioni per una camicia tedesca del XVI secolo, usando però del voile di cotone e accorciandola leggermente in modo da poterla infilare nei jeans alla bisogna.
Also, in a Pile of things I was supposed to be clearing I've found an attempt at English Paper Piecing that only needed me to remove the paper bits, turn it inside out and sew it shut, and I've just finished the paper bits removal.
yes, I am clearing the mess on my desktop, doesn't it look like I'm doing it?
Inoltre, in una Pila di cose che avrei dovuto riordinare ho trovato il tentativo di English Paper Piecing a cui mancava solo togliere i pezzi di carta, rovesciarlo e cucire chiuso, e ho appena finito di togliere i pezzi di carta.
Sì, sto riordinando il casino sulla mia scrivania, non si vede?
also, I've decided to sew a buttonhole stitch reinforcement all around the English Paper Piecing mat, so it's no longer 10 minutes and it's done, but I hope to finish it in the next few days too.
11/12 dello scialle finiti! Per caso ho calcolato dei nuovi obiettivi per avere qualcosa su cui mettere dei segni di spunta mentre faccio le ultime 20 righe o giù di lì? cosa ve lo fa pensare?
E ho anche deciso di rinforzare il bordo del tappetino in English Paper Piecing con dei punti occhiello, quindi non bastano più 10 minuti per finirlo,ma spero in questi giorni di finire anche quello.
The reinforcement around the mat has been done, the mat has been photographed (there will be a blog post) and put away in its final place (the gaming cupboard).
The shawl is progressing slowly but steady, according to the plan.
And half of the hem of the hemd has been done, and one of the sleeves is almost smocked.
*And* my temporary desktop is free of clutter and ready to be replaced with the real one!
(yes, these are my summer holidays, I'm not also doing my day job)
La cucitura di rinforzo del tappetino è finita, l'ho fotografato (ci sarà un post sul blog) e messo al suo posto definitivo (il mobiletto dei giuochi).
Lo scialle prosegue lento ma costante, secondo i piani.
E metà dell'orlo della camicia è fatto, e anche lo smocking su una delle maniche.
*E* la mia scrivania provvisoria è stata liberata, pronta per essere sostituita con la scrivania vera!
(sì, sto facendo le ferie estive, non sto anche lavorando in questi giorni)
(strictly speaking, 63/64 of the lace part, then I have 5 rows of garter stitch border, but I didn't bother counting those when calculating the milestones)
I think I can safely say that I may finish it at least one week earlier than expected, maybe a bit more?
At least the knitting: I may have to block it outdoors, and thus I fully expect that when I'll be ready to do so we will have at the very least a full month of rain :D
(volendo essere pignoli 63/64 della parte lavorata, poi ci sono 5 righte di bordo a punto legaccio, ma quelli non li ho contati quando calcolavo gli obiettivi)
Credo di potermi azzardare a dire che lo finirò almeno una settimana prima del previsto, magari anche qualcosina di più?
Almeno il lavoro ai ferri: è possibile che io lo debba bloccare all'aperto, e quindi sono sicura che quando sarò pronta per farlo ci sarà almeno un mese di pioggia continua :D
@Elena ``of Valhalla'' No, that's something I planned to add to README: no sound effect, you are expected to do them yourself ... you have to go "pew! pew! wosh! boom! pew! pew!" while playing
A bit more than a year ago, I had been thinking about making myself a cartridge pleated skirt. For a number of reasons, one of which is the historybounding potential, I’ve been thinking pre-crinoline, so somewhere around the 1840s, and that’s a completely new era for me, which means: new underwear.
Also, the 1840s are pre-sewing machine, and I was already in a position where I had more chances to handsew than to machine sew, so I decided to embrace the slowness and sew 100% by hand, not even using the machine for straight seams.
If I remember correctly, I started with the corded petticoat, looking around the internet for instructions, and then designing my own based on the practicality of using modern wide fabric from my stash (and specifically some DITTE from costumers’ favourite source of dirty cheap cotton IKEA).
Around the same time I had also acquired a sashiko kit, and I used the Japanese technique for sewing running stitches pushing the needle with a thimble that covers the base of the middle finger, and I can confirm that for this kind of things it’s great!
I’ve since worn the petticoat a few times for casual / historyBounding / folkwearBounding reasons, during the summer, and I can confirm it’s comfortable to use; I guess that during the winter it could be nice to add a flannel layer below it.
Then I proceeded with the base layers: I had been browsing throughThe workwoman's guide and that provided plenty of examples, and I selected the basic ankle-length drawers from page 53 and the alternative shift on page 47.
As for fabric, I had (and still have) a significant lack of underwear linen in my stash, but I had plenty of cotton voile that I had not used in a while: not very historically accurate for plain underwear, but quite suitable for a wearable mockup.
Working with a 1830s source had an interesting aspect: other of the usual, mildly annoying, imperial units, it also used a lot a few obsolete units, especially nails, that my qalc, my usual calculator and converter, doesn’t support. Not a big deal, because GNU units came to the rescue, and that one knows a lot of obscure and niche units, and it’s quite easy to add those that are missing1
Working on this project also made me freshly aware of something I had already noticed: converting instructions for machine sewing garments into instructions for hand sewing them is usually straightforward, but the reverse is not always true.
Starting from machine stitching, you can usually convert straight stitches into backstitches (or running backstitches), zigzag and overlocking into overcasting and get good results. In some cases you may want to use specialist hand stitches that don’t really have a machine equivalent, such as buttonhole stitches instead of simply overcasting the buttonhole, but that’s it.
Starting from hand stitching, instead, there are a number of techniques that could be converted to machine stitching, but involve a lot of visible topstitching that wasn’t there in the original instructions, or at times are almost impossible to do by machine, if they involve whipstitching together finished panels on seams that are subject to strong tension.
Anyway, halfway through working with the petticoat I cut both the petticoat and the drawers at the same time, for efficiency in fabric use, and then started sewing the drawers.
The book only provided measurements for one size (moderate), and my fabric was a bit too narrow to make them that size (not that I have any idea what hip circumference a person of moderate size was supposed to have), so the result is just wide enough to be comfortably worn, but I think that when I’ll make another pair I’ll try to make them a bit wider. On the other hand they are a bit too long, but I think that I’ll fix it by adding a tuck or two. Not a big deal, anyway.
The shift gave me a bit more issues: I used the recommended gusset size, and ended up with a shift that was way too wide at the top, so I had to take a box pleat in the center front and back, which changed the look and wear of the garment. I have adjusted the instructions to make gussets wider, and in the future I’ll make another shift following those.
Even with the pleat, the narrow shoulder straps are set quite far to the sides, and they tend to droop, and I suspect that this is to be expected from the way this garment is made. The fact that there are buttonholes on the shoulder straps to attach to the corset straps and prevent the issue is probably a hint that this behaviour was to be expected.
I’ve also updated the instructions so that they shoulder straps are a bit wider, to look more like the ones in the drawing from the book.
Making a corset suitable for the time period is something that I will probably do, but not in the immediate future, but even just wearing the shift under a later midbust corset with no shoulder strap helps.
I’m also not sure what the point of the bosom gores is, as they don’t really give more room to the bust where it’s needed, but to the high bust where it’s counterproductive. I also couldn’t find images of original examples made from this pattern to see if they were actually used, so in my next make I may just skip them.
On the other hand, I’m really happy with how cute the short sleeves look, and if2 I’ll ever make the other cut of shift from the same book, with the front flaps, I’ll definitely use these pleated sleeves rather than the straight ones that were also used at the time.
As usual, all of the patterns have been published on my website under a Free license:
I was in a B&B in Tuscany and there was a 1.5 l bottle of a soft drink with the label in English and German; it looked like the Swiss rivella, and the flavour was *mushrooms*.
Ero in un B&B in Toscana, c'era una bottiglia di soft drink da 1.5 l con l'etichetta in inglese e tedesco, aveva l'aspetto della rivella svizzera e il gusto era *funghi*.
Cioè, non "divieto di sosta sulla ciclopedonale" punto, come dovrebbe essere. No no. Divieto di sosta sulla ciclopedonale perché passano i trattori. Non passassero i trattori, fate come vi pare. Ma passano, eh.
Magari un po' di pietroni sulla ciclopedonale non sarebbero di troppo intralcio né ai pedoni né alle bici… e non ce li vedo i trattoristi a levarseli dal tracciato.
Vendo a offerta libera rilegatrice manuale a spirale Rexel CB205.
C'è anche un discreto numero di spirali di plastica nera, ma devo ancora recuperarle per sapere quante e precisamente di che misure.
Vendo perché sono passata ad un sistema di rilegatura diverso (ma anche il fatto di non essere più all'università e/o in altri ambienti dove girano dispense stampate in copisteria aiuta :D )
I've just put a debian live on an usb key, put it on the pegboard close to the home servers¹ and told my partner it was there in case he needed an emergency debian live.
And then asked him if I should put it on a cord with a fast release buckle, so that the emergency debian live could be pulled down quickly in case of emergency.
And… I need to do it, right?
¹ for which it is completely useless, because arch mismatch, but it was a convenient place
Ho appena messo una debian live su una chiavetta, l'ho appesa al pannello portaoggetti che c'è accanto ai server casalinghi¹ e detto al mio compagno che era lì, nel caso gli servisse una live di emergenza.
E poi gli ho chiesto se dovevo attaccarla ad un cordino con sgancio rapido, in modo da poterla strappare via in fretta in caso di emergenza.
E… adesso lo devo fare, vero?
¹ per cui è totalmente inutile, dato che l'architettura è diversa, ma era un posto comodo
Tonight I dreamed that the rain and wind had thrown down a fence around our house, a couple of goats were ready to jump in and we were afraid for out tomatoes¹.
This morning I got on the fediverse and found a thread (in Italian) about heavy rains in the center of Italy and then this:
Stanotte mi son sognata che pioggia e vento avevano abbattuto una staccionata attorno a casa nostra, un paio di capre erano pronte a saltare dentro, e avevamo paura per i nostri pomodori¹.
@Madeleine Morris out of curiosity, if you want to answer: when you sew japanese garments are you using a western style position pushing the needle with the thimble on the middle finger, or the method I've learned from shashiko instructions with the thimble at the base of the middle finger?
(this question prompted by me thinking about the cording I've done by hand in the japanese style, and how fast it it)
Qualche giorno fa parlavo, non ricordo con chi, di #libriScolastici sotto licenza libera, e dicevo di conoscere dei progetti, ma tutti abbastanza fermi
ecco, ho ritrovato in giro un elenco *quasi* aggiornato (ultima modifica nel 2022):
Meanwhile, yesterday evening I died. Or rather, they let me die. And by “let” I mean “piled monsters on me until I died, and then looted my dead body”.
And then on the next turn, with the new cards I had just picked I won.
I am thankful to @Diego Roversi for getting the cat companion when looting, however. It was just a +2, but it was a cat, and I didn't want him to go into the discard pile!
Intanto ieri sera sono morta. O meglio, mi hanno lasciata morire. E con “lasciata” intendo “mi hanno buttato addosso mostri fino a che non sono morta, e hanno saccheggiato il cadavere”.
E poi al turno dopo, con le carte nuove appena pescate, ho vinto.
Sono grata a @Diego Roversi per essersi preso il compagno gatto durante il saccheggio. Era solo un +2, ma era un gatto, e non volevo che finisse nel mazzo degli scarti!
Posted on August 17, 2025 Tags: madeof:bits TL;DL: if you’re using rrdtool on a 32 bit architecture like armhf make an XML dump of your RRD files just before upgrading to Debian Trixie.
I am an old person at heart, so the sensor data from my home monitoring system1 doesn’t go to one of those newfangled javascript-heavy data visualization platforms, but into good old RRD files, using rrdtool to generate various graphs.
This happens on the home server, which is an armhf single board computer2, hosting a few containers3.
So, yesterday I started upgrading one of the containers to Trixie, and luckily I started from the one with the RRD, because when I rebooted into the fresh system and checked the relevant service I found it stopped on ERROR: '<file>' is too small (should be <size> bytes).
Some searxing later, I’ve4 found this was caused by the 64-bit time_t transition, which changed the format of the files, and that (somewhat unexpectedly) there was no way to fix it on the machine itself.
What needed to be doneinstead was to export the data on an XML dump before the upgrade, and then import it back afterwards.
Easy enough, right? If you know about it, which is why I’m blogging this, so that other people will know in advance :)
Anyway, luckily I still had the other containers on bookworm, so I copied the files over there, did the upgrade, and my home monitoring system is happily running as before.
of course one has a self-built home monitoring system, right?↩︎
Caro Direttore, ho letto il suo editoriale sui bambini rom che hanno rubato una macchina e hanno investito e ucciso una signora. Ho sentito la sua sincera indignazione.
I've just realized that on my first #DebConf, in 2015, some people was using their (thinkpad) laptops as a tray to carry their meals. on my second DebConf, 2025, I didn't see anybody doing that.
I'd say that laptop design has gone really wrong somewhere in the process.
mi sono appena resa conto che alla mia prima DebConf, nel 2015, c'erano un po' di persone che usavano i loro thinkpad come vassoio per i pasti. alla mia seconda DebConf (2025) non l'ho visto fare.
direi che da qualche parte nel frattempo il design dei laptop ha preso una piega profondamente sbagliata
In my first or second Chaos Congress I carried sweet, sugary coffee on top of my closed thinkpad and spilled it. Nothing particularly bad happened, those were the good times.
@Lauma Pret 🕸️ this year at DebConf there was an accident involving a modern thinkpad and some plain water (the thinkpad survived, after being opened and dried) and that's when I discovered that modern thinkpads no longer have the water drainage holes under the keyboard.
I wonder, how Framework laptops are in this department... I keep fingers crossed that until I'll need next laptop, there will be at least third party keyboard with trackpoint for them, and then I'll probably switch. I've had TPs all my adult life, and they have seriously degraded in being suited for my autistic taste/needs.
Some went on my laptop, of course, but some were selected for another tool I use relatively often: more pattern weights like the ones I blogged about in February.
I couldn’t find the sources for the blue mobian sticker, only for other variants.
I have enough washers to make two more weights, and even more stickers, but the printer is currently not in use, so I guess they will happen a few months or so in the future.
@Oblomov I'm not going to change laptop, this one is still pretty new (to me)!
other than that, probably make more pattern weights, as I can always print more? :D (I'd need to get a new box to keep them in, as the current one is full, too :D )
The laptop lid is covered by a vinyl sheet, so in theory I could remove it, put a new one on and start again, but I don't think I want to do anything like that (the vinyl sheet was put in place by the shop that I've bought the — reconditioned — laptop from)
Also, saving stickers for a future laptop is of course an option.
@Oblomov also, If I knew how to design board games, I would definitely design a game that uses Standard Compliant stickers as tiles (attached to something lighter than the pattern weights, but still with some thickness) and various Piecepack pieces.
@Oblomov AFAIK because of the way copyright works a game with the mechanics heavily inspired by Settlers of Catan but a different setting, different text, different graphics etc. would be fine.
@Oblomov coincidentally, if anybody has an European source for fridge magnet bases in the shape of an hexagon 5.08 cm tall, I'd be happy to hear about it :D
(I think I can get sheet and cut them, but if pre-cut existed it would be easier)
quella che ho in casa aveva tipo il 2% di wasabi negli ingredienti (erano sulla scatola, non sul tubetto, e temo di averla buttata, per cui non posso controllare)
(non conosco il sito, io l'ho comprata in un supermercato etnico)
lì il wasabi è elencato negli ingredienti ma senza percentuale (però è bello in fondo, compatibile con i numeri citati prima)
onestamente non ho idea se in quelle quantià faccia veramente differenza, il grosso degli ingredienti alla fin fine sono gli stessi della pasta che non hai visto il wasabi neanche in foto
@valhalla@social.gl-como.ita Ma sai che, pensandoci, ha senso? Alla fine anche il cetriolo ha un retrogusto "pescioso", e infatti la salsa tzatziki è la morte sua! Mi hai mooolto incuriosito!
@Fabio Because in the first case you have a variable amount of input array parameters but only one callback parameter, and in the second case you have only one input array parameter but two optional parameters 🙃
@Fabio No, it returns a new array with all the non-empty values in the input array. It doesn't empty the array, unless there are no non-empty values in it.
@Fabio Definitely something that's too clever for its own good. You can definitely see the Perl inspiration at work here: "How about we shorten the syntax so that it's extremely counter-intuitive but pretty nifty once you figure it out".
Yesterday I had been reading yet another late Victorian tailoring manual, and this morning I was telling @Diego Roversi about the part when the author claims that there are some measurements that would be useful do draft certain garments, but a (male, of course) tailor can't take them on a female customer, and there are ways to guess them. But at least in one case, he suggested doing the obvious thing, and just ask the customer to have her husband or maid take the measure.
And I commented that everybody who was buying cycling or riding trousers from a tailor was living with a husband, or a mother, or a sister, beside having a maid.
Unless she was unmarried, and only had brothers, and her mother had died (while giving birth, of course) and she was running her father's house because he had not remarried yet.
Or even, she was unmarried, only had brothers, she was running her father's house because he didn't want to remarry and she was quite happy with the situation because she didn't want to marry herself but wanted to keep living with that very close friend (but just a friend!) who had been living in their house for quite some time now. But then, her not-a-lover could very well take her inseam measurements.
I might be slightly insane? Or am I going to prove something about the nature and accessibility of sewing and MYOG1 as a hobby?
I love my modular backpack, but it has a very modern look that is maybe not the best thing when otherwise dressed in historybounding dress, and it’s also a bit bigger than I planned or needed it to be.
So, when one of the shops I buy from had some waterproof cotton canvas on sale I failed my saving throw against temptations and bought a few meters, with the intent to make myself a backpack in a different style.
It needs to be a backpack, because my back doesn’t like asymmetrical bags2, and as far as I know 19th century backpacks weren’t the most comfortable things, so I decided to go for a vaguely timeless roll top model that has the added advantage not to require a lot of hardware for the closure, just a few D-rings.
Leather straps would look cool, but also require some tools that I still don’t have, so I decided to look for some cotton webbing, and when I finally found some in 25 mm and 50 mm width I could finally start on the project.
Except for one thing: thread. As much as I believe that regular n°50 cotton thread got a bad reputation from sellers who decided to cut quality in favour of profit, it is not up to the task of sewing a backpack. Nor that I’d use regular sew-all poly thread either.
I do have some of the thread I used for my other backpack, which would have been strong enough, but it’s also in black, which isn’t exactly the look I was aiming for on the natural / ecru colour of both the canvas and the webbing. I also misremembered it as only being available in that colour (it isn’t), so I wasn’t tempted into doing a full online order of technical materials just for that.
On the other hand, I did have in my stash some strong thread I could trust for this job, in natural / ecru. There was only one problem: it was 33×2 Tex linen, and not suitable for the sewing machine. You can’t handsew a backpack.
Or can you? Of course it’s going to be much slower, but I’m still in a situation where I have more time and space for handsewing than I have for machine sewing. And as for strength, my perception is that for the same stitch length an handsewn backstitch is stronger than a machine lockstitch, or at least it is more effort to unpick (and thus harder to accidentally unravel if the thread breaks).
And so I tried.
And it worked.
Having to backstitch everything instead of being able to use a running backstitch of course meant that it was slower than other sewing projects, and any time there were more than two layers of fabric I had to use the stabbing motion rather than the sewing one, which is even slower, but other than a few places with many layers of both fabric and webbing it wasn’t hard.
And to be fair, the seams were fewer and shorter than other sewing projects, and with the usual interruptions and uneven time availability it was done in less than a month, which is somewhat typical for one of my handsewn projects.
It may have been because of the pattern, but I think it’s relevant that it was also easier than other backpacks I’ve made, with significantly less cursing, even when doing seams that would have been quite fiddly when sewn by machine.
I have to admit that now I’m tempted to plan another backpack using the same pattern or a slight variation, sewn by machine in a different fabric, to see the difference in the time it takes and to check if the changes I think would make it easier to sew by machine are actually the right thing to do. But maybe I’ll wait a bit, other projects are in the queue.
Having used it for a while, I have to say that it is just the right size to fit all the things I usually carry,
The fact that it only opens from the top means that finding things that have fallen to the very bottom involves a bit of rummaging, but not having to change a zipper every few years when (not if) it breaks is also very nice, so I’m not sure which shape of backpack I prefer.
The soft back of course is an issue when the backpack is filled with small items, but the molle webbing is there exactly because I have plans to solve it, beside the trivial “put something flat towards the back”.
As an object, I’m happy with the result. As a project, it was way more than successful, exceeding all expectations, especially for something somewhat experimental like this one was.
Make Your Own Gear, i.e. sewing or otherwise constructing outdoorish equipment.↩︎
at least not if I fill them with stuff as I usually do with my backpack :D↩︎
Until now, schedule data was updated when opening a conference, if the cache was expired and the device was online. This means that if you keep confy opened and schedule changes, you'll never get any update. Latest code update automatically the current open conference schedule when cache expires (if online)... thinking about it, maybe there could be some sort of "diff" when something changes...
The update process now also should delete removed events from cache, hopefully (like the duplicated talks in that video...)
A small bug introduced recently that prevented to correctly open talk detail page from "next up" notification has been also fixed.
Meanwhile I was thinking that this thing needs a full rewrite on how data is stored. Right now every conferences gets its sqlite db in user's ".cache" folder. The db store schedule data and user stared talks. This means that if you clear cache, you lose you stars. This data should be saved in another place, be another db in ".local/state" or maybe in dconf... 🤔
and they are going to close the underground between Cadorna and Garibaldi. the stations, not the generals.
and now I'm thinking about a machine that turns a proverbially bad general into a competent and ideals-led one.
(note for people who will be in Milan next month: check the actual closures, that was just the bit of interest to me, but there will be disruptions everywhere)
io il mese prossimo devo farmi il solito Como San Giovanni - Milano Centrale - Genova per trovare parenti e andare a un matrimonio, ma inizio a pensare che la soluzione più sicura sia mettermi in cammino verso Pavia tipo Frodo
@Xab ecco, non ho visto se han chiuso qualcosa anche su quelle linee
ma tutto sommato Como - Milano a piedi non è così lunga, dovrebbero essere un paio di giorni, no? :D
(OSM mi dice 47 ore per fare Como - Genova, 26 per fare Como - Pavia e 14 ore per fare Como - Milano; soprattutto per la tratta Pavia - Genova non ho idea se tenga conto delle pendenze però)
Posted on July 24, 2025 Tags: madeof:bits An unsorted list, including some I already knew, but was reminded of.
dpkg-mergechangelogs exists.
Sewing your own shirt, posting it on planet and wearing it on the first day of DebConf, is more effective than a badge for making people recognise you.
I need to look into a number of tools for testings things (and try to start using some of those at $DAYJOB).
Masks are good. masks protect you from debbugs. masks protect you from ring cameras in the hotel you’re staying on the day after debconf.
It’s really nice to be chatting of random topics during lunch and discover that you are talking to the maintainer of a package of which you are one of the very few users! (the latter bit needs to be changed :) ).
I need to look into sequoia and all of the modern OpenPGP stuff.
Even if I don’t have a lot of money, apparently I have even less sense (there will be blog posts on the topic in the mid-term future).
I can go to a talk about AIand not hate the speaker (yeah, the bar is pretty low there :D ). The automatic subtitles still failed in the same way as automatic subtitles always fail.
/me, a person with an EU phone, currently in the EU, but living near the Swiss border> WHY is internet not working on this phone? we are in the EU!
/me, a day later, checks the mobile settings
Data Roaming. off.
sometimes, when things don't work it's not the #PinePhone's fault (actually, most of the time with internet not working it isn't, it's me not having remembered to pay for it)
but most of the time for me it was the pine phone's fault. So I sold mine. My previous phones worked fine. My current phone works fine. I'll get a Linux phone some day. But not that one.
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Rapita dagli alieni
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Oblomov
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Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Oblomov • •Oblomov
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rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua
in reply to Oblomov • • •Aboliamo i genitori!
Yaku 🐗
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Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Yaku 🐗 • •@Yaku 🐗 @Rapita dagli alieni dai, ma non vuoi comprare uno zainetto *leggero* nuovo per portare a scuola bottiglia dell'acqua e merenda?
però almeno non dovrebbero venire da voi a chiedere perché i libri non sono ancora arrivati
Fabio
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Quechua:
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Elena ``of Valhalla''
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