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user-inactivated  ·  1667 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski Craft Fair v3.5 - March 13, 2020

kingmudsy must be partially psychic. Once again, he didn’t post this thread until after I’ve taken care of some essential chores, which is good, cause I’ve been looking forward to this thread basically since the last one. If anyone has been half paying attention, I’ve become a little frayed between job problems, the economy reversing, and Covid 19. I apologize deeply for my inability to stay composed. The other day I told kleinbl00 that I found a junky jacket while doing spring cleaning. Here it is.

After taking a closer look at it, it’s not as bad as I first remembered, but I think my view of it is tainted by my disdain for it. I remember how I got this jacket, my bud called me up one day and said he found one of my jackets in his house while cleaning and that I should come get it. I told him I wasn’t missing any jackets, but if no one claims it, I wouldn't turn down something for free. He was incredulous that it wasn't mine, it’s my size (true), my color (eh, kind of, I like the tone but not in grey), and it was a workwear jacket which he knows I wear. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL on the last part. This is no workwear jacket. It’s a fast fashion, cheaply made yet overpriced, no good mall jacket. I’d barely even call it workwear styled. But look, this thing? This thing is gross. It’s lined, yet somehow on a windy day, the wind still cuts through it. It sits awkward on me. Worse yet, kind of like me, the mere state of existing is enough to cause this thing to fall apart.

Edit: goobster, you're a fashion guy. What would you call the style of this poor, little thing?

I mean, look at this thing. All over, threads are coming undone, hems are scuffed, it’s just a mess. I barely ever even wear this thing. In fact, it’s been so long since I’ve worn it, I forgot I even owned it. And the color. Ugh! It’s hideous and that’s saying something because if you ask Dala, she says I like nothing but earth tones and muted colors and heaven forbid I wear anything even slightly cheerful.

But you know, right now, the world is falling apart a bit, isn’t it? It’s trying to take us along with it, isn’t it? It feels like we don’t have a lot of control over the situation, let alone any real power to fix anything, doesn’t it? So I guess, as a method of self therapy, I guess I’ll fix things I can fix, and maybe this jacket will be one of those things. Who knows? Maybe by the end, I won’t hate this thing.

Man. I feel sorry for whoever payed money for these jackets. They got ripped off.

Look at this cuff. Look at it! It doesn’t have any density. It doesn’t have any shape. It’s falling apart. Even in the background, there’s loose threads. There’s loose threads all over this jacket. So what am I gonna do? I’m gonna start with this cuff and go from there. I’m not gonna do anything fancy, like reconstruct it or anything.

PSA: Careful searching “Cuff Repair” or “Cuff Reconstruction” into like, Youtube and such, unless you wanna see a bunch of stuff about surgery. Please, please, please use words like “shirt cuff repair” to filter results down to stuff you actually wanna see. Unless, you’re curious about surgery, then ignore my advice and knock yourself out.

No, I’m not gonna reconstruct it. I’m just gonna do a buttonhole stitch all along the seam to reinforce everything. What’s a buttonhole stitch you ask? Well, the way I’ve been taught, it’s the same as a blanket stitch, only the stitches are smaller and closer together to reinforce edges and keep them from fraying under friction.

To do that, I’m gonna have to use this polyester thread I have laying around (which coincidentally, matches the jacket quite nice). Now, I know what you’re thinking, you’re all like “applewood, I thought you don’t like using synthetics. You’re all like ‘plastic is evil, natural is good’” and yeah, usually you’re right, but for something like this polyester thread is almost necessary for two reasons. One, unlike cotton or linen thread, this stuff will hold up to abrasion much, much, much better, giving my work longevity. Heck, I expect my stitches to last longer than the fabric of the jacket, to be honest with you. Second, all of my cotton thread is thin. This stuff is about three times thicker, which means I’m able to fill in the same amount of area using less stitches than if I used cotton thread. Besides, I have the thread laying around, it’s gonna need to be used eventually, might as well use it on this jacket.

About an hour later, here’s how it turned out. Not bad, not great, but not bad. I don’t think this jacket can be saved, to be honest, but I guess I’ll give it a shot. Who knows? Maybe by the time I’m done with things, I’ll like how it turned out and actually want to wear it. We’ll see.

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Don’t read the news today people. Shit’s on fire, yo.