Solo Dressmaker Part II

[Sosicly Magnolia]

12th of Autumn, 513AV

Sosicly had finally had a chance to work on her own silk again. The orders for the masquerade had been doled at as evenly as possible for the Weft and Warp students and workers alike but there was more demand than there was supply.

Setting her waterskin beside her, which was filled with a juice instead of water, and set herself up at the loom. She thought the best thing about continuing work was how easy it was to begin again. Kneeling under the loom she checked that the treadles were still hooked up. Then checked her tension, and made sure everything was as needed to be.

She took a moment to touch the length of fabric, stroking the gold with a little smile, pleased with the fact that it would not require much more. And there were not many knots or parts where managed to somehow weave a stitch wrong, not to mention it would be covered by the feathers. Settling in front of the loom Sosicly began to count her rhythm, hit the first treadle to open the shaft and slid the shuttle across. The girl caught it, pulled down the beater, hit the next treadle and repeated the process in the opposite direction.

Only a few more inches to go.

[Sosicly Magnolia]

When she finished the cloth most of the midday students had gone, and most workers had begun to leave for the evening. Sosicly took a moment to nod her goodbyes, took a sip of her juice, and focused on the task of removing the piece from the loom. She walked to the back of the loom, she noted there was a little bit left and she picked up a strand of scrap thread then moved to the front. Opening the shed twice more she ran the scrap thread across the end of her piece to hold it in place, then beat it gently. When she finished she walked to the back again, this time with a pair of scissors and carefully snipped off the knots tying the warp to the back. When Sosicly finished she moved to the front and very slowly pulled the piece from the heddles until it had slipped away from the loom. She took all the ends and tied them in a loose knot, threw it over her shoulder, then moved to the bottom of the loom. From there she began to unravel the piece off the bottom rod, pulling smoothly and firmly. When she reached the end she snipped them off as she had the back then tied those ends in a loose knot as well. The girl folded the silk back and forth until it was in a neat pile then reached in sewing kit, pulled out a needle. Having gathered the necessary supplies, she set herself up leaning against the loom. Silk in her lap she untied one end and threaded the weft thread through it while keeping a firm grip on the warp threads. Taking up her needle she threaded the weft thread up and back over the piece, going into the silk piece from the top and putting the needle down through about a fourth of an inch of warp threads. Then she tightened gently, creating the first hemp stitch. It was a lot like doing a backstitch in sewing she thought, then repeated the process with the same amount of warp, continuing on until she reached the end. When she reached the end she began to sew the weft thread in through itself vertically, tucking in the slight end and snipping what was left over. Sosicly gently pulled to ensure the stitch would hold, turned the piece over and began on the other side.

[Sosicly Magnolia]

She had just finished hemming the edge of her piece. Sosicly could not deny being pleased with herself, and held it up to catch the light, pleased even more when it fell neatly past her feet. It would give her more room to work with. But for the moment she was done with the easy part. Now would come the hard part. Looking around Sosicly noted there were only a few people left in the Weft and Warp. Approaching Alessa quietly the girl tapped the elder Symenestra shoulder and held out her cloth inquiringly. She was given a fleeting smile. “Well done. It will be a fine dress. Do you need help?” Sosicly nodded, then gestured to herself, the cloth and finally Alessa. She was given a quick nodded and owner of the Weft and Warp pulled out her own sewing box of pins. It was quick work with the elder woman helping her, deft fingers pinned the dress into a simple circle around Sosicly. When Alessa was done she stepped back with a little nod then grabbed a pair of scissors and began to cut from the bottom, trimming the dress with a few extra inches to make room for sewing errors. The girl in the fabric currently look like she was wearing a potato sack but it was a pretty colored potato sack. “You’ll likely have to pull it in but that should be the basic measurements for now.” Smiling her thanks, Sosicly carefully slid the make-shift dress off and moved back to her area and pulled out a few pieces of chalk. There spread the piece on the floor and began the slow process of marking her sewing pattern and pulling out the pins, setting them in a neat pile to return to Alessa before she left. Now that she had this part done she could work with the rest at home instead of waiting for spare time at the Weft. When she finished marking the dressed Sosicly rolled it instead of folding the piece, hoping to keep its shape and make it easier to read her own marking. After she folded in carefully in half again and again until she was able to fit in it her bag. She then picked up the pins, and handed them back over to their own who gave her another smile and her own nod of goodbye.

[Sosicly Magnolia]

At home Sosicly set to work immediately. She shoved everything off her table with a careful swish of her arm, cleaned it quickly then laid the dress out on it with care. When she finished that she pulled up a chair and her sewing kit, taking out the needle and what was left of her golden thread. If she ran out she could always use some of the yellow or even white, it would not be a large problem. Everyone had different ways of sewing but Sosicly had always like to start from the bottom and top. Hemming it so it would hold. Everything else was to be adjusted, or embroidered or fixed as a person desired but this was always the simplest part to begin with and left little room for error. Which in her case was a very good thing considered how much she did not enjoy the next part of the dressmaking process. Sosicly pushed the dress up until she reached faint chalk lines that told her where to fold up the ends. The girl took a moment to fold and repeatedly press the ends, dabbing a bit of water on them so that it stayed folded neatly enough for her to sew up. When she finished that she began the arduous task of threading the needle, she wasn’t sure why but she guessed that part would never come easy to her. She picked up the thread from her borrowed basket and attempted to stick it through the eye of the needle, not at all surprised to find a drop of blood welling up on her finger instead. Again she did the same, not bothering to use her thimble because the needle always seemed determined to find the unprotected fingers. Once she was finally able to thread the piece through she pulled it a bit of ways so it stayed on the needle comfortably then set it onto of the fabric. Then she dug into her sewing kit again, this time reaching for the battered paper of basic instructions, and spread it on the table beside her. A few scans of the page and she decided she would go with a basic catch stitch for hemming. Picking up the needle once more she began as the directions showed. Sosicly picked up the folded area pushing her needle through the top, down and back up in a slightly to large stitch that nearly took out her eye. Hastily the girl moved her head back and pulled the string tight. Then she repeated the process, top, down and back up through the fabric in her first stitch, an odd slanted line. When that was done she peeked at her instructions again before continuing. This time she moved the needle a bit away and repeated the top, down ad back up motion to create her second stitch and the first mark of a correct catch stitch. Soon she would have a whole row of little Vs instead of just her one lopsided one to complete the bottom hem.

[Ensnare]

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Sosicly

Skill	XP Gained
Observation	2
Weaving	3
Stealth	1
Drawing	1
Sewing	3

Lore Gained

Technique: Basic Catch Stitch

Items/Consequences: +1 Masquerade Dress. Sosicly's fingers shall be very sore for the next few days due to them being unprotected while sewing.

If you feel I have graded you unfairly, or if you have any questions, please send me a PM and we'll work the problem out.

Notes :

I quite enjoyed this thread. Good job! However I do have a suggestion, I'd love to see Sosicly learning the basics of sewing, perhaps through flashbacks, or some such other threads of when she was just learning or had major difficulties. I think it would bolster her skills, and add a decent cache of valuable lore for later on, even fleshen out her history!

(You can never have too little lore! Lore. Lore. Lore. They're better than gaining skills by a wide margin, because they point out what your character can or can not do.)