Solo Wearing Winter

[Rosela]

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Timestamp: 1st of Winter, 513AV

The first day of winter arrived cold and windy, but Rosela was prepared this time. While she’d been delayed in her wardrobe change at the beginning of Autumn, she had plans to make her first winter outfit that very day. She had the vague picture of it already, dark and classy, but she needed to spend the time working it out completely.

It was her day off, and as usual, she was headed to the shop early to work on her inventory. Looking back on the year prior, she felt significantly more prepared for the cold season, and already had most of her inventory done. Half of it was out on the shelves, for the early birds, and the rest would be going out that day. She’d planned on sweaters being big that year, and had bought several varieties of sweater-knit wool in anticipation. She hated sewing sweater knit fabrics, but there was nothing to be done.

The shop was cold when she arrived, and she kept her white fur cloak on for the time being.

”Ah, the abominable fur beast returns,” the shadow under her front desk remarked snidely. She gave the dark space a glare as she reached under for the sweater she’d half-finished the day before.

”You’re getting sloppy – you called me that two days ago.”

The shadow did not deign to respond, but she suspected if it’d had lungs, it would have huffed at her.

Moving to the back room, she settled into her chair and set the bundle of wool to the side. She’d finish it that day, but for now, she needed her new outfit. The paper and pencil were in her hands before she willed it, and began sketching her standard female figure. Taking extra care with the proportions, she lightly drew the angles for the shoulders and hips as well as the spine before drawing out the outline of the figure. She normally didn’t bother when designing, but was trying to change her habits and there was no better time than when designing for herself.

Soon enough the figure was sketched, with the additional four arms added as almost an afterthought. Grabbing her black pencil, she twirled it in her fingers before putting it to the paper. She knew she wanted black, as stark colors were always best in winter, and black was best for showing off one’s figure. Details tended to get lost in the dark fabric, which was why she’d seen it to be so slimming. Her figure was perfect, she knew, but she wanted to emphasize a few features.

The black pencil swept over the collarbone in a slight arc, and hooked over low on both shoulders. The band of fabric would run over her upper arms and across her chest, allowing her to emphasize her shoulders and neck while still keeping her arms warm. Just to make sure her arms would be okay, she grabbed her gray pencil in another hand and shaded in each of the arms to the wrist, making a note to the side in Arumenic that the sleeves would be cotton.

The hips were then covered in black as well, the skirt ending just below the knees. Another note was added for black leggings if she needed them. That left only the middle…where she added a cincher on a whim. She’d liked what wearing one did for her figure’s outline in the summer, though this one would have to be a dark color to mesh well visually with the black wool. Dark gray would look nice, and she just so happened to have a length of dark gray leather in from Load of Leather. She’d considered making gloves out of it, but there wouldn’t have been enough for more than a couple pairs.

Dark brown and red streaks made up her hair, down, as always, and she held up the design to look over it. For a moment, she considered putting the cincher’s laces in the back, but felt it would leave the front without any visual interest. It’d also be a royal pain to put on.

Calling the design finished, she got up and retrieved the bolt of deep black wool and a bobbin of her thick black thread. The thread, needle, even stitches would all have to change because of the knit, to mostly to keep it from unraveling. She knew her own measurements by heart, and quickly after pinning, began to sew parallel staying stitches around where she’d be cutting. Someday she knew she’d have to learn to knit the seams once she cut them, but for the time being, stitching and cutting worked fine.

Once she had the pieces cut out, she rolled the bolt back up and began pinning parts together. Both sets of hands working in tandem, she twisted a series of pins up both sides, and around where the long ‘collar’ would go. Per her usual practice of extra stability, she kept the line of straight stitches a quarter inch in from the edge, then looped zig zag stitches in the small space outside the straight stitches. Her right hand moved faster as always, but she forced herself not to rush her left; there would be no excuse if she herself wore poorly crafted clothing.

The same stitches were added around the collar, and when it came time to add the sleeves, they were quickly cut and sewn on, though using another line of basic straight stitches, as the zig zag ones would bunch the thinner fabric. Flipping the finished product right side out, she went over it once more to make sure no loose threads or crooked stitches were visible. Satisfied, she looked around the empty workroom out of habit, and quickly disrobed under her cloak. Cool air rushed up from the floor, and she nearly fell over herself trying to get the new wool dress on. Carefully slipping each arm into its respective sleeve, the wool felt gloriously warm against her skin. Taking off the cloak, she went out to the front room to examine herself in the mirror.

As expected, she felt the cincher would really pull the look together, but it wasn’t all bad as it was. With the right jewelry, it would look almost more formal. Flipping her hair back, she gave her backside a quick look before returning to the workroom. The cincher was next, and her fingers already ached at the thought of punching through the leather.

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[Rosela]

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”Red…or blue…” Rosela murmured to herself as she shifted two bolts back and forth in front of her. They were both tight-knit wool, and would be going with the dark brown leather in a shirt. She thought the blue would match her jewel-skinned clientele better, but the red better matched the leather. Humming in thought, she put both bolts down and returned to her design sheet. On it, she’d sketched a male torso, clothed in a, currently transparent, long sleeved shirt with leather patches.

Picking up a pair of pencils, one blue and one red, she colored half the shirt in one color and half in the other. It looked exactly as it had in her mind, and she picked up her plain pencil and drew two more torso’s further down on the page. She repeated her sketching process for each, drawing the angle of the shoulders and subsequently the ribs, but being sure to thicken everything to better match the Akalaks’ build. She also added ‘traps’ on either side of the neck, the extra muscles that seemed to make men look more bulky. The word was short for the actual name of the muscle, but the name escaped her for the time being.

On each torso, she then sketched sweaters identical to the one above, folded v-collar with leather patches at the elbows and inside the collar. One she colored red, the other blue. As she was reaching for her brown pencil for the leather, she recalled a bundle of off-color leather she’d received early in fall that she hadn’t been able to use for anything. She’d suspected it was a failed attempt at gray, and had come out faintly violet. She hadn’t been a huge fan of the color, but had bought it anyway because it was still good quality leather.

Jumping up, she began shuffling through her leather pile. ”Hey, where did I put that one thing of leather? The one I said was purple-y? From last season?”

”With the scraps,” the shadows answered promptly. ”You said that’s all it was good for.”

”Oh yeah…” Indeed it was atop the scrap pile, and she unfolded the wrapping as she brought it over to the table. Inside were several lengths of leather, all dyed the odd, silvery violet. Returning to her designs, she bent over the table and quickly colored in the leather patches on each sweater, one brown and the other silver with a vague overlay with the violet pencil. Satisfied, she pinned down the gray leather and drove the leather shears through multiples of the arm patches. The brown leather got the same treatment, and she had to switch hands halfway through to try and keep her palms from hurting.

She would be making four sweaters, two of each variety, in one go. Pinning down the red wool, she stitched off and then cut out two sizes of panels, one large and one slightly smaller. The process was repeated with the blue wool, and she began pinning sides together. After a brief mixup of sizes with the red, she had four almost-sweaters, and threaded her two needles with dark red thread. Two hands held either side at the top, two hands removed pins held either side just below where she sewed, and the two final hands worked the needles back and forth through the fabric. She moved slowly, matching her movements on either side to keep everything even. The seams were done in a couple chimes, and she repeated the process with zig zag stitches.

The patches would go in next, and with two hands reaching inside the sleeve, she stitched off and cut out a hole in each elbow. The leather was pinned in place next, and, after threading her leather needle, she began putting in the whipstitches that would hold it in place. As expected, her fingers began to ache with the effort of punching through the leather so many times, and by the time both sweaters had completed patches, she had to stop and shake her hands out.

The leather at the collar was much smaller, and took only a couple chimes to put in on each sweater. From there, she had only the simple task of collar, cuff, and bottom hems to finish. Snapping each right side out, she gave her usual once-over, and with a sigh, turned to finish up the blue wool and rethreaded her needle with dark blue thread.

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[Rosela]

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Rosela had planned on doing a set of leather gloves next, but her sore fingers requested easier work. She had a vague idea of a winter style for some of the pregnant women in town, something that would work if the woman was thin, getting bigger, or even about to pop. The ‘oversized’ style typically didn’t have much class, in her opinion, but she’d long since realized that the women of Riverfall were more concerned with the functionality of their clothing.

To pull off the look, the sweater needed to be long, just barely wide enough, and tailored in just the right places so that it wasn’t just a massive sweater hanging off a smaller frame. Under the arms would need to be taken up, even if the sleeves were still oversized. Similar thoughts ran on the collar, and she had the inspiration to make it an off the shoulder affair. The front bottom hem would need to be slightly higher, so it would look intentional when it got much higher over a large belly. Leggings would be in order underneath, cotton so it would stretch. The sweaters themselves could be made of some of the varieties of patterned wool she’d picked up specifically for the season.

Her design sketch was quick, a mere formality after she’d already figured out most of the design. Thin woman’s figure was drawn, shoulders straight and hips slightly pushed to one side. The lines of the sweater went on like a tent overtop, hiding the hips and figure. The armpits stayed fitted, but the sleeves were long and loose, folded at the hands with the indication for a button to hold it in place. The collar was a swiping line of the pencil over the left shoulder, and she added the thin line of an exposed collar bone. As for colors, she held the pencil to the side and lightly shaded it in pale blue, and colored the leggings in black. There were a couple options for colors though: burgundy, speckled black, midnight blue, even speckled gray. She also had a bolt of cream-colored wool that had been worked somehow to be exceptionally fuzzy.

Putting the design to the side, she pulled out several bolts of wool, and cut a variety of sizes of panels. Each one was pinned to its mate right off the board, to keep herself from mixing up the sizes. She ended with the fuzzy cream, and paused to run her fingers over it before setting it aside. If it hung well on the mannequin, it may be worthy of the top spot in the display case.

Moving backwards through the pile of pinned sweaters, she held each in all of her six hands to loop the zig zag stitches through ambidextrously. As her fingers grew accustomed to the simultaneous movement, her left hand began to speed up and in under a bell, she had eight sweaters nearly done. The collars, cuffs, and bottom were all hemmed with straight stitches, and each sleeve was folded up three finger widths, three times. Under each sleeve, she attached a short length of hemmed cotton, no more than six inches long by one inch wide, of a color complementary to the respective sweater. She attached it on the inside with an easy straight stitch and, for the moment, left it to dangle out of the folded sleeve.

Digging in her accessories box, she pulled out eight good sized buttons of varying colors. On each sweater, she attached the button on the upper outside of each sleeve, overtop of the straight stitch from the cotton piece inside. Doing a quick measurement with her fingers, she marked the size of a buttonhole at the end of each piece of cotton. Starting with a burgundy sweater with a black piece of cotton, she snipped out a slit and began her ring of blanket stitches around the hole, looping the needle through carefully and with her dominant right hand only, to make sure the stitches came out even. She absolutely despised making buttonholes, so after several breaks to get up and stretch, she had all eight buttonholes finally done.

Her stomach interrupted her thoughts to growl loudly, and she sighed heavily. Picking up each sweater in turn, she inspected it for any loose threads or flaws, snipping off this or that stray thread. When she had a couple stacks of sweaters neatly folded across her desk, she flung on her cloak and began a swift trip out for a late lunch.

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[Rosela]

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Her stomach full of bread and warm stew, Rosela returned to the shop satisfied and looking forward to finishing up her day’s work. She had two ideas she wanted to get on the shelves, making the prospect of putting together gloves slim before the end of the day. It wasn’t a terribly concerning thought, as she could always work on those during the day. First would be cloaks, to use up some of the large amount of fur she bought in anticipation of the season, and next would be an idea she’d had for an alternative to scarves for the men.

Opting for the easier of the two, she swept off her cloak and moved to the rack with the furs. She wanted one for women and one for men at the moment. Cloaks were one thing she’d made a large supply of in anticipation of the cold weather, but she could only get so much fur at a time, meaning she couldn’t rack up her inventory all at once like she did other things.

She didn’t have much of the pure white fur the Stained Pelt had apparently gotten a large cache of, but she did have a variety of browns, with a lot of a particular pale brown. Biting a thumb, she returned to her worktable and pulled out a sheet of paper. The men’s would be easy, as ‘clever’ cloaks, ones where she thought she was being clever and creating a design on the back, didn’t sell well with the men. Women seemed the like them though, so she needed to figure out what to do with the back of it.

The large amount of paler fur would be used for the entirety of the men’s cloak, and the primary fur of the women’s cloak, and she had plenty of variety in the rest of the furs she had. Starting by drawing the standard trapezoid on her page, she fluttered the pale brown pencil over the majority of the space, leaving the center empty. Taking a dark brown pencil, she drew off to the side sets of shapes: a trio of triangles, a long rectangle, another trio of circles, and a crescent moon. Right off, she discarded the circles and the rectangle, indicating her thoughts with a small ‘X’ over each set. That left the triangles and the crescent moon, each idea doable, and each possible to look just as good. The crescent moon drew her naturally, as she saw her Akajia mark in it, and she wondered if there were any gnosis marks involving triangles. Not willing to go out into the cold to look it up at the library, she settled on the crescent moon. With the devotion to Akajia in the city, it would surely sell well. As a tangent, she made a mental note to look up what gods the Konti worshiped and see if their marks could be incorporated into clothing.

She didn’t need to make notes to see what she wanted in the men’s cloak, it just had to be warm, sturdy, and preferably a little padded in the shoulders to increase the breadth. Moving back to the fur rack, she estimated in her head the amount of the darker pieces of the pale fur she’d need for the men’s cloak, slinging each piece over her left arms. When she was piled high, she heaved it back to her desk and let it spill over, nearly knocking her accessory basket onto the floor. Righting it, she began the slow task of sorting, piecing together her cloak like a puzzle, so that the variations in the fur meshed well while keeping all the naps pointing down.

Clearing off the other side of her desk, she began the slow process of flipping the cloak-in-making over, one pelt at a time. Once that was done, she took out her razor, and began cutting. Cutting fur was arduous, as she took extra care to only cut the pelt and not the pile underneath. When she finally had a well-organized puzzle of pieces, she picked up the first two pieces and began to sew. It would indeed be an Akalak sized cloak, so she didn’t want to pin it all together and have to deal with the whole mess of it for the duration of sewing. So long as she didn’t lose her place, one piece at a time would suffice.

Using one of her thicker needles and the waxed thread, she began looping slow, small, tight whipstitches along the seam between the pelts. Pausing between almost every stitch to clear the fur out of the thread, it took almost two solid bells to get all the pieces together. Stitch after stitch came together: out, cross, in, clear the fur, cross again. Out, cross, in, clear the fur…

Her legs were sweating under the weight of the cloak and her own wool dress by the time it was done, and she gladly heaved it over a rack to wait for the next part. Taking the measurements from the fur top, she cut out a length of dark gray wool for the lining, and an extra piece that would go under the shoulders as padding. A double row of tight backstitches attached the lining to the pelt side of the fur, with the extra padding included at the top. Also stitched into the top was a thick cord underneath the top seam for actually tying the cloak on. She’d wanted to find a cord that matched the dark gray of the lining, but the best she had was a black one. It worked though, and she hung it up in the empty space on the fur rack until she could take it out.

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[Rosela]

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Rosela had underestimated the time the cloak would take, and had to sadly shelve her women’s cloak idea until the next day with the gloves. She didn’t like to experiment with new ideas while watching the open shop, so her last project for the day had to take precedence.

She’d wanted badly to create some article of clothing that functioned as a scarf, but didn’t have the vulnerabilities of one. As Leo Varniak had pointed out to her nearly a year ago, her scarves were never popular with the men because they could easily be used against them in battle. A loose trail of scarf could be grabbed and down the wearer would go. She’d made more than enough turtlenecks that a man who wanted only his neck warm could have it, but she needed something that had the versatility of a scarf without the pitfalls, something that could be thrown over armor, or under a cloak, or simply worn out and about in the city.

Pencil in hand, she doodled a man’s head, neck, and then shoulders, erasing part of the thin neck to add the many ‘traps’. The overarching answer to her problem was clear – she needed something that wrapped in a circle around the neck, so the dangerous loose ends were not a problem. Idea still not fully formed, she drew a floating oval around the head at mouth-level.

The circle needed to be loose enough to go easily over the head, but not so loose as to flop up into the wearer’s eyes. Perhaps it could have buttons to close it around the face? Twirling her pencil for a moment, she scrapped the idea. Buttons could be undone if grabbed the right way and if the cloth didn’t come free, the wearer would be in the same position as if he’d been wearing a scarf. At its heart, the idea seemed to be as simple as it could get. A circle of cloth that went around the neck as a scarf would.

Although, that alone seemed too simple, too unstable. Pencil moving slowly, she drew out the folds of the circle around the sketched face and neck, making the fabric thick and heavy with large folds. Scarves at least had the advantage of being able to warm the collar area if tied correctly. With this, they’d be limited to the neck and lower face. As a thought, she drew an arced line across the collar area, extending halfway out to the shoulder. It would make the circled more of a tube, she thought, but if sewn correctly, it should settle loosely, but only be removable if cut or pulled over the head.

Pulling out a pale tan wool, she spread it out on the cutting board and guessed at the measurements by loosely wrapping the measuring tape around her own face, neck, and shoulders. It wouldn’t be a big seller for fashion, but it would look good if color-matched correctly, and if she could get the Kuvay’nas to test them out… Maybe she’d give one to Taskel as a gift. Or even better, Riaris. Kavala would see it on him, and maybe that could be her in with the horse riders… First things first though, she had to actually make one.

Cutting quickly, she didn’t want to bother with finesse on the prototype, but still wanted something she could demonstrate to a customer if asked. She considered attempting to keep it all one piece of fabric, but it’d be difficult to adjust for size that way. By separating out the bib that would go over the collar, she could size that and the loose neck part independently. She threaded a needle with her cheap linen thread and ran tight, small whip stitches up the back of the neck tube, then the back of the collar, and finally along the seam connecting the two. She’d have to serge the edges to keep them from fraying, and that would take enough time in itself.

Serging took a while, as she wound the needle in and around the edges of the fabric. Serging on anything took time, but it was a valuable precaution to take. When she moved to the top of the neck tube, she instead decided to make a small hem instead, hoping the extra support would keep it over the face if placed there. Backstitches went through easily, and the whole thing seemed almost too easy.

It was dark enough outside that she felt comfortable going to the front to try it on in front of the mirror. No one passed by her display window, and she felt like a burglar creeping along the back rows, wool clutched in hand. Satisfied no one would see her, she turned to the mirror and slipped the wool over her head, pulling her hair out over it. It was still warm from her hands, and through the darkness in the mirror, she could see that it covered her chin and mouth nicely. If she were wearing her cloak, she imagined she’d look like a wanderer from the snowy Sea of Grass, and she reached up to perch the front hem over her nose. It stayed, and her face began to sweat from the heat of her own breath. Overall, she could consider her little experiment a success.

Pulling it off, she cast a careful eye back outside as she smoothed her hair back. She should have started with black, something to match her current outfit better. In any case, she needed to name the thing so she could easily market it. Circle-scarf? Man-scarf? Marf? Shuddering at the last, she folded it and put it to the side of her work desk. She'd think of something, but in the meantime, her stomach was making a fuss of informing her it was dinner time. She could finish up her ideas tomorrow.

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[Gossamer]

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Character: Rosela

Experience: Planning +5, Drawing +5, Fashion Design +5, Sewing +5

Lore:
Fashion Design: Paying Careful Attention To Detail
Sewing: Placing Stay Stitches To Keep Cuts From Fraying
Sewing: Attaching Buttons With Button Stitch
Sewing: Crafting Buttonholes
Sewing: Making Cloaks
Sewing: Making Sweaters
Self-Awareness: I Hate Sewing Sweaters
Sewing: Neck Tubes
Fashion Design: Inventing Neck Tubes

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Additional Note: Cute Boxcode. I love that you use the word deign. More people need to use it. This was a pretty clearcut thread. Let me know if I missed anything.