— gemma-antiqua: Ancient Roman gold and eye agate...

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gemma-antiqua
gemma-antiqua

Ancient Roman gold and eye agate ring, dated to the 2nd century CE. The eye agate gemstone was believed to ward off the evil eye. Source: Trinity Antiques.

Source: gemma-antiqua

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chimaerakitten
wastelesscrafts

Let's talk stitches!

While a sewing machine is super convenient, having access to one is not required for mending. Most mends can easily be done by hand. If you're really patient, you can even make entire garments by hand, just like they did in ye olden days.

So, let's take a look at a few basic hand sewing stitches to get you started.

Hand stitches for quilters: the running stitch, slipstitch, backstitch, whipstitch, and blanket stitch.ALT

(Image source) [ID: hand stitches for quilters: the running stitch, slipstitch, backstitch, whipstitch, and blanket stitch.]

The running stitch

The running stitch can be used for many purposes. It's popular in embroidery, and can be used to outline shapes or baste (temporarily secure) pieces together. It can also be used to ruffle fabric by hand, and I personally use it a lot to secure patches in place when covering up holes in garments. The running stitch is also the base stitch for sashiko, a popular style of visible mending.

Video tutorial for the running stitch

Text tutorial for the running stitch

The slipstitch

The slipstitch, also known as the ladder stitch, is my go-to stitch for closing tears and fixing torn seams. This stitch is frequently used to sew pieces of knitting together, too. You can also use it to make small size corrections in a garment, for example to add a quick dart or to make a side seam smaller. It's invisible on the outside, which makes it a great stitch to fix up things like plushies, duvet covers, or pillows.

Video tutorial for the slipstitch

Text tutorial for the slipstitch

The backstitch

The backstitch will likely be the stitch you'll be using the most when working on a project. It's a strong, clean stitch that can be used for almost anything: seams, hems, embroidery, attaching two pieces of fabric together, zippers,... This is also the best stitch to imitate machine sewing with. If you're only going to learn one hand sewing stitch, then make it the backstitch!

Video tutorial for the backstitch

Text tutorial for the backstitch

The whipstitch

The whipstitch, also known as the overcast stitch, can be used to stop fabric edges from fraying and is great to finish seams off with. It can also be used to quickly sew two pieces of fabric together, for appliqué, or as a decorative technique. I personally prefer the blanket stitch over the whipstitch because it's a little cleaner, but the whipstitch is faster than the blanket stitch.

Video tutorial for the whipstitch

Text tutorial for the whipstitch

The blanket stitch

The blanket stitch is great for finishing off seams and stopping fabric from fraying. It's also frequently used for appliqué and embroidery, and can be used to make button holes by hand. It looks neater than the whipstitch, but is also slower to get done.

Video tutorial for the blanket stitch

Text tutorial for the blanket stitch

Conclusion

Get yourself a spare piece of fabric and try these stitches out before attempting them on a real project. I promise you'll get the hang of them quickly!

If you're only going to learn one of these, then make it the backstitch as it's the most versatile hand stitch.

english-history-trip
nebmia

so apparently in 815 CE there was a common belief that sky pirates sailed ships in the clouds and (working in collaberation with frankish weather wizards) stole all the crops that got damaged in storms and took them back to the cloud realm of magonia.

And this was apparently a common enough belief that an archbishop felt the need to write a treatise to debunk it and insist that only god controls the weather, which is the only reason we know about it.

there are three important points to take from this, i think

  1. This is great inspiration for your next dnd game
  2. Tropes that might seem relatively modern (like airship pirates) can often actually go WAY back
  3. The stuff your average medieval christian actually believed in will often have very little resemblance to christianity. And thats before you even get to the proper heretics.

    EDIT: people keep asking for the source and its now been added multiple times in different reblog chains. I should have put it in the original post but i am a fool: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/Agobard-OnHailandThunder.asp
shinychimera

You know, the more I encounter "people believed" things like this, and the more I try to look at them without the "myth of progress" lens (of we are more sophisticated than the people of history/people of other nations) -- the more these "beliefs" look like tumblr shitposts.

I just imagine folks standing in the middle of a wrecked field, knowing half a year's work has gone to waste and the winter's going to be hard, sighing and saying, "darn you, sky pirate Goncharov, why you have to be like this?" And everyone laughs a little. And next storm someone repeats the joke, and embellishes it a bit, and so on and so on. You might tell it to your kids with a straight face but pretty much everyone's in on the joke, and I just imagine the incredulous stifled laughter in the pews when they realize the archbishop is actually taking this stupid shit seriously.

findingfeather

The archbishop and half your neighbours who either aren’t in on the joke or - WORRYINGLY- you thought were in on the home but are now insisting it’s not a joke and you don’t feel gaslit because that terminology won’t be invented for another half millennium but if it did you would.

You know, like on tumblr/the internet.

english-history-trip

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