I am watching a 20 year old video on San Francisco and earthquakes.

The amount of infastructure and effort California spends on earthquake safety is impressive.

Watching the "look how vulnerable we are!" segments and it's been topic after topic that has been addressed. The old Bay Bridge is gone, apartment buildings have been retrofitted. Vulnerable gas lines gone.

There are other things that worry me as an engineer in this space, but it is so nice see just how much we've accomplished in 20 years.

Oh, and fuck that British guy. He's taking the lack of major earthquakes in Europe as a sign of superiority. As if London never burned or bombed. Lisbon was never hit by a tsunamis, Naples isn't facing the risk of being another Pompeii. Cities get built for economic reasons, not disaster avoidance. I read his book and for someone so fascinated with earthquakes he really doesn't understand them.

https://youtu.be/4uXe3hvk6Yc?is=kJo_TdUGZB3hTQGU

Yes, but what about second breakfast?

#CatsOfMastodon

I've been playing around with Tambour embroidery again. Working out my design and building up my tambour skills.

I was lucky last time I tried, I realize now. This has been an absolute fight, unlike the last time I tried tambour.

Thread quality matters. Oooh does it matter.

My first attempt here was using Mettler. Try as I might it kept snagging and twisting. I kept loosing the bead because the loop kept snaging.

Saw a video that recommended button hole twist, so I tried the cotton Coats and Clark's I had on hand. It was too fat for the # 70 size needles I was using.

So I broke out the Guttermann poly. And suddenly, the stitching was a dream. No snags, no twisting, no fighting for the hook to let go. Just easy loops without tension problems.

Finally could develop an easy rhythm!

#sewing #embroidery #tambour #BeadWork

Realizing I have 3 weeks to make a Victorian bodice.

Eeep! Better get to patterning!

Holy crap, I just mind melded with a dress maker who lived and worked 150 years ago!

I was really struggling getting the proportions of the pleats right. Just looked like hot garbage. Adding the swags made things just look worse and uneven. Nothing worked.

I took the skirt off the dress form and added the lace swag just by measurements. Every 30 inches. Put 4 equal marks (CF, CSF, CSB, CB) on the waistband, and pinned the skirt to marks, aligning the swags to the waist marks.

And then every goddamn pleat almost folded itself. Even the little weird one center side front I've been over thinking.

I mean, the pleats are still a bit of a hot mess, but a hot mess that can be tamed.

So much of period design is actually "eh, this will work."

Magic I tell you. Magic. Divide by 3 and add pins.

#sewing #HistoricalCostuming

Small repair to kiddo's jeans.

#VisibleMending #sewing