Solo Count One Stitch, Two

[Sosicly Magnolia]

21st of Spring, 505AV Tension radiated from the girls every movement. She sat as if waiting for an execution, her hands stubbornly held under her thighs while her mouth was set in a determined pout. The table itself was covered in an assortment of small pointed needles that gleamed in the Webs dim lighting. And on the opposite end of the table an older Symenestra who looked wholly unimpressed with her daughters display. “Draly, you will do this.” The girl shook her head and her mother’s expression tightened. “You will or you will get no sweet juice until you are old enough to pay for it yourself.” Sosicly nodded grudgingly and waited for her mother to proceed while glaring silently at the objects. Sewing could possibly be less interested than weaving, weaving made things. Sewing was just pointless. Her book plopped in front of her and she was handed a quill, an open inkbottle set beside it. Enasis Magnolia once more took her seat and proceeded to sit beside her daughter while the teacher sat in her previous seat. Her mother spoke again “You will take notes on the types of needles today. Then you will tell us which is which, then you will practice your stitches.” The look on the child’s face clearly said how much fun she thought that would be but her mother ignored it and the teacher, an Anthurium, smile slightly and picked up a long thin fat needle that’s pint, while sharp, looked blunt and had a long hole. “This is the actual needle,” she pointed first the long end to the hole, “this is the eye and this particular needle is called a darning needle and it is good for heavy clothing.” Sosicly stared a it blankly until her mother nudged her, “Write.” Darning needle: Long thick needle with a long hole eye. Used for heavy cloth. “This is an embroidery needle, its used to make designs for embroidery.” It was smaller than the darning, just as sharp but with more of an oval eye. “They can sometimes come in different sizes but this is the most common.” Embroidery needle: Medium length needle with a small, oval eye that is used for embroidery. The next needle, Sosicly noted, was medium length, a small round eye and very sharp looking but unlike the others it did not look distinct. “Sharps are all purpose needles, they will never work like the appropriate needle but they are good in a bind.” Sharp needle: Medium length, small round eye and used for everything but not the bestest needle. “Thicker threads, and silk cloth works well with this needle, you’ll see it often, especially in ribbon silks.“ It was about the same size as the sharp, with a longer oval eye and sharp point. “It is called a Chenille needle.” Chenille needle: Medium length, medium oval eye. Used for thicker fabrics and ribbon silk. The next was thin, longish with a sharp point and tiny round eye. Sosicly disliked it already. “Straw needles are mostly for bullion wraps, which you will learn about later, but can be used for many thin fabrics, silk included.” Straw needle: Long, thin with a small round eye. Used for thin fabrics and… Sosicly paused to look at her mother and held out the pen, not knowing how to spell the word. bullion wraps. Fat, longish and the only one with a blunt tip and large oval eye. It was officially her favorite needle because she knew her fingers would be safe. “Tapestry needle. You’ll always know it because there is no point. Its good for going between weft and warp threads.” Tapestry needle: Fat, long with no point. Used for going between weft and warps threads. “Finally we have our quilting needles, these needles are usually used exactly what the name stands for. But also they work great for short, small stitches.” It was a short needle, pointy and with a small round eye. Quilting needle: Short, thin with a small eye. Used for small stitches and quilting. Mama what is quilting? Sosicly tilted the book in her mother’s direction with the instructor got the silk. Her foot bounced impatiently while she waited for her words to be read and for the class to be over. “Blankets, draly. You should know this.” The girls look clearly said no she shouldn’t but she wrote no argument and glared at the cloth now in front of her on the table, along with the wispy strands of thread.

[Sosicly Magnolia]

“The sewing kit your mother will give you should have instructions but it is always better to first actually see a stitch, especially in sewing. Stitches will look similar but they are not. Today we will go over a few basics; there are six that everyone should know to sew even a simple piece of clothing. They are the basting, the running, the back, the overcast, the basic hem, and the blind hemstitch. We will go over them in that order.” Sosicly picked up her clothe and stared at the woman questioningly, her mother forgotten for the moment. The girl was handed what she thought was probably a sharp…or an embroidery; she wasn’t a hundred percent sure. “We will be using a sharp, go ahead and thread the scrap thread through the eye. There are two ways to tie, though most of the basics only call for one thread. You can thread it like this,“ she pulled the thread through only enough for an inch to be extra, then tied a knot on the end where the spool still was, then snipped it off after showing Sosicly, “or like this,” she then pulled more of the thread through until both ends were even and tied them in a knot as if they were one string. “Go ahead, I will wait.” And wait she did. First Sosicly dropped the needle then she hit her head looking for it. Next she couldn’t actually see the needle eye and nearly took out her own when she brought it towards her face. Third time was the charm though, and when she managed to get the tiny thread through the whole she yanked on it eagerly, all the way to the other end. Her head dropped on the table, and her mother plucked it up and deftly threaded it before handing it back to her irate child. With her newly threaded needle Sosicly waited warily for the instructions, eyeing the sharp end as if it was out to get her. “Our first stitch is the basting because it and running are nearly the same. You take your fabric like so, push the needle through like this but don’t pull it tight, they should always lay flat for the basic stitches unless it is part of your pattern.” She looked at her own needle and the fabric as if they would do all the work themselves, then Sosicly carefully made her first pierce. She pulled it all the way until the knot sat against the fabric, then pushed it up, pulled the thread until it sat against the fabric, puckering slightly, then continued one. Up and down, like a flat staircase she went on until she was told to stop. “Now for the running stitch you will do the same. Only, instead of pulling the thread through after each indent you will layer the cloth on your fabric like this then pull through. Like…so.” The instructor held up the piece and with a sigh Sosicly made to do the same. Making the little stairs into the fabric she made enough not finished stitches on her needle only to have them fall off before she could pull it through. Again she tried, dipping her needle in and out of the fabric until she could actually get the tip of the needle. But a handful more times it pricked her finger and the fabric stretched away from the needle. Sosicly pursed her lips in frustration and lessened the number of stitches she made on the needle before pulling it through successfully. Or so she thought, until the girl noted the knot on the other end. It was going to be a long lesson.

[Sosicly Magnolia]

Having pulled at the knot fruitlessly, Sosicly was given another piece of fabric, and had her mother rethread her needle. This time instead of the instructor she had been left with the one of the standard directional papers that came with sewing kits while the Anthurium woman went off to help another student. Her mother sat like a spider waiting for prey, eager to correct her daughter and eager to watch. Sosicly tried to read the instructions herself, staring hard at the hand drawn pictures but they only looked like squiggles to her. The stitch looked similar to the first stitch, the basting, but it seemed to go backwards. She eyed the name and smiled a bit, probably why it was named the back stitch. She picked up her needle and cloth after a few more chimes, and instead of inserting the needle at the edge of the cloth she started farther into the fabric. Then pulled the thread through, and ended the first stitch by putting the needle behind where she had entered. Sosicly then tugged it firmly, and glared at the directions in slight confusion. She had no where to go with her stitch at the end of the fabric but the directions showed it kept going. Another moment of careful inspection made her feel foolish, and she repeated her previous maneuver. The needle came up ahead of her last stitch then ended where the previous stitch had begun, a bit more confident she repeated the process until she reached the end of the fabric. She used her teeth to snap the end, completely forgetting to tie it off but then remembered they hadn't gone over that yet. Without the knot the fabric released from its tight bunch and smoothed out like it was supposed to look in the first place. Pleased that it matched the drawing Sosicly proceeded to ignore it in favor of watching Enasis thread the needle since she refused to do it anymore. When the needle was handed to her Sosicly looked to her next instruction but could not make heads or tails of it so she raised her hand and waited for the instructor to come back around. When the Anthurium woman returned Sosicly pointed a bit sulkily to the stitch in question. "Overcast stitch, unlike the others is usually only used to finished the raw edges of seam or even for design. It will go like this." The instructor used her own piece of cloth to show Sosicly. The girl dutifully followed along. She folded her cloth in half and where the two pieces met she would begin sewing. "For this we will go back to front over the edge of the fabric, like so." Again, Sosicly followed along pushing the needle through the back of the two pieces and straight into her finger. She quickly released it, and dropped the fabric but it stayed pinned to her finger until her mother swiftly plucked it out. As soon as Enasis had, Sosicly popped her finger into her mouth and fought with her watery eyes. "Ah. You should use a thimble, it protects your fingers from the needle. I will go get one." While the instructor returned she tried to show Sosicly how to wear it but the girl refused, insisting that it made holding things difficult. "You will poke yourself again. Now, continue." She did, this time watching where she pushed the needle through and moving her finger accordingly. Then she followed along with the instructor, pulling the thread over the two sections and back down through the back of the fabric. A chime later she had completely finished sewing the edges together, albeit too loosely this time in her fear of stabbing herself, and mentally cheered that there were only two left.

[Sosicly Magnolia]

Twice already she'd had the hem stiches explained to her, she'd read the paper but it still didn't make sense, and frankly she was quite finished with sewing. "After this your free for the day but you will finish this, Bittaly," her mother scolded quietly, "So pay attention. You can and will do it." Scowling at her more dramatically the girl turned to face the instructor once more who began again, "There are two basic hem stitches and like the running and basting stitch they are similar. They are called the hem stitch and the blind hem stitch, most people prefer the blind because you cannot see it." Anthurium folded the edge of her scrap cloth, "The main difference between the two are the amount of threads you pick up from your fabric. With the hem stitch you will pick up at least five but with the blind stitch you will only use two at most. But both stitches are completed the same way." Here there was a pause for Sosicly to fold her fabric, which she did with quick sore fingers, almost eager now that she was nearly done. Following the instructions first she poked the needle up through the folded fabric, then she took the next stitch to the left and painstakingly picked up a few threads of the main fabric with her the needle. It took several tries to do it properly but when she was done she moved to the left again, and repeated the picking up of the threads with the folded fabric. And then she repeated the maneuvers twice more before beginning the blind hem. Still listening to her instructor Sosicly repeated her earlier steps for the regular hem stitch but instead of gathering a few threads she shakily and slowly plucked up two on the main fabric. It hurt her eyes to hold it so close to see what she was doing, and trying to only get the two threads made her want to burn the cloth and dance on its ashes. A few more run throughs and she heard the words she had been dying to hear since she arrived. "You are done." She did not stay to here the rest or wait for her mother, Sosicly flung down scrap cloth, pushed back her chair and fled as fast as she was able. Her mother would not coerce her into another one of those sewing lessons for a least a season. The girl stared forlornly at her fingers, at least she hoped Enasis wouldn't. OOCI literally hated writing this and I like to sew. The descriptions were hard, and made me wish to chop off my own fingers! This last post had me copying Sosicly and fleeing from anything sewing related for awhile.

[Flyaway]

Skills

Sewing: 4
Observation: 2
Organization: 1

Lore

Sewing: Identifying Needles
Sewing: Purpose of Different Needles
Sewing: Sharps are All Purpose, But Not as Good as Purosed Needles
Sewing: Six essential Stitches
Sewing: Performing Six essential Stitches
Reading and Comprehending Instructional Literature

Note: I thought you handled this thread very well. I know these are hard, I did one on firing a bow, but I like how your PC reflected your frustration. I might have missed a lore, so let me know if You'd like anything changed!

If you feel I've graded you unfairly, send me a PM and we'll get things sorted out!