HELLO FELLOW SHORT COSPLAYER!!! Would It Be Too Much Trouble To Ask What Shoe Lifts You Use And/or Expand

HELLO FELLOW SHORT COSPLAYER!!! Would it be too much trouble to ask what shoe lifts you use and/or expand on your hidden heel process? Thank you!

This is stuff I’ve posted to my FACEBOOK PAGE before, but I’ll share it on here for you!

1. Use polyfill fiber to fill in the giant gap for heels, and hand sew on a bias-stripe of fabric to your boot cover so you can hide just how much extra height you’re packing.

2. Buy shoe lifts! (Can be called ‘heightening inserts’ or ‘shoe lifts’ or ‘shoe inserts’) You can get them from Ebay for $10-$20. I LOVE THESE THINGS. I started using them in 2009 and they work wonders. Especially if you want the slimming and heightening effect of heels but you don’t want footwear with a spike or platform heel (i.e. for female->male cosplay). 

A helpful list of models for anatomy and other drawing references (x)

Key: (nsfw) Nudity | (£) Not Free

Female Models 

MariaAmanda - Fantasy and fairy themed stock, mostly full body

Faestock -  Expressions, portraits and poses, many with dresses

RobynRose - 360 angle lighting and pose sets, including expressions

Mirish - Futuristic and action inspired poses, all full body

MiraNox - Gothic inspired model including pin-up poses

ImperialStarlet - Poses with props including weapons 

PrincessRowena (£) - Various poses with a fuller figured model

Liancar-art - Fantasy and medieval inspired poses

Male Models

BODYSTOCKS (nsfw) - Basic semi-nude athletic torso references 

BirdsistersStock - Various everyday poses and portraits

Mousiestock - A small collection of back anatomy references 

Justmeina (nsfw) - Nude anatomy reference portraits

Null-Entity - Different poses based on scenarios 

Anyman82 - Military and vintage themed stock

Both/Other Models

SenshiStock - Huge collection of various action and everyday poses 

Pyjamacake - Standard poses good for character bases

PhelanDavison - Futuristic and high-tech gear with action poses 

Mjranum-stock (nsfw) - Classical nude portraits, and also action poses

Auroradreams - Many poses with dresses, and others such as children

MajesticStock - A large amount of poses with different body types

Animals

HOTNStock - Mammals including large felines and canines

LuDa-Stock - Equestrian and domestic animals 

FurLined - Large and domestic felines 

EternalOcean - Mostly wolves along with other various animals  

Landkeks - All kinds of animals from a zoo

EdgedFeather - Close-ups of a wide range of birds

Other

Burtn - Natural landscapes and scenery 

ProREF (£) - Urban and rural places such as abandoned buildings

Clz - Skulls and other bones

Please remember to follow the stock owners rules, happy drawing!

[pixiv] [part 2]

Another album of prompts : 

You swore you’d never tell, you swore you’d never tell.

No one kills us anymore.

But you get scared when we’re alone, like I might suck your blood.

Here’s my dress to try on, baby, let me be your man.

Cross your heart and hope to die / White or black, it’s still a lie

Love me sweetly and completely / Come and sit beside me, ‘cause you know I need you near.

All that I want is for you to come to ruin.

Soon you’ll find that if you try to save her / It will renews her anger - you will never win.

You were walking faster than I could run / I was walking in the shade, and you, the sun.

Well, it’s a mystery to me how you keep on slippin’ in my mind / And it’s downright dirty that this ol’ wound won’t heal with time.

Well, maybe I am not what you thought / But don’t worry, you are not what I thought you were either.

I take home pretty things that I like, and, baby, you are so fine.

You are absurd / You say the cutest things I’ve ever heard / I don’t think I can take another word / Or my head might explode

Tutorial: How (and Why!) to Sew a French Seam for Garb

I’m working on the eternally-promised French seam tunic tutorial. After literally YEARS of me tinkering with it, it’s almost ready, and I’m excited to help you finally sew your badass, bombproof tunics. Right as I was proofreading it, though, my husband turned to me and said, “wait, you did explain how to SEW a French seam, right?” Well… uh…

Yeah, let’s do that now.

What are French seams, anyway?

French seams are one kind of “seam finish.” Seam finishes are just sewing techniques we use to prevent your fabric’s edges from unraveling. A cut edge might fray or unravel in the wash, sometimes eating into the stitches at the seam and weakening the seam. That is bad news, so we always want to prevent it!

Some seam finishes also reinforce your seams, because they involve stitching the seam multiple times. This makes garments made with these finishes really sturdy. 

With a French seam, each seam is finished as you go. The “raw” (cut) edge of the fabric gets hidden inside a fold, which is stitched again to enclose it permanently. This makes the seams look very clean and professional, even on the inside of the garment. French seams take more time and human handling to sew than a basic serged/overlocked seam finish, so they often show up on more expensive garments. You could, theoretically, sew a shoddy garment with French seams, but when this seam finish is used, you know that the manufacturer was at least trying to make something high-quality.

But Ilsa, someone told me flat-felled seams are strongest!

Fair enough! They have a point: French seams are traditionally used on light, fray-prone fabrics, like with delicate silk tops. In comparison, flat-felled (sometimes “run and fell”) seams are the seams you see on the legs of jeans, stitched down with that contrasting yellow thread. They’re great for garments that get beat up, because they’re really strong.

But machine-sewn flat-felled seams are a bad choice for medieval costuming, because they put a lot more visible machine stitching on the outside of your garment. If you’re in a living history group with strict standards, or if you’re selling medieval garb for the reenactment market, you should minimize visible machine stitching. French seams are a great compromise: they reinforce the seam, but they’re only visible from the inside. 

Sew a French seam right, and the fabric will wear out before the seam rips. In eight years of using them, I’ve never torn a French seam open.

Let’s Sew Our First French Seam!

There are three basic steps to French seams. If you normally sew with a 5/8″ seam allowance, you shouldn’t have to alter your pattern to use French seams. The first “pass” is sewn using a 3/8″ seam allowance, which is trimmed down to 1/8.” This is folded over, then second pass is sewn with a 1/4″ (2/8″) allowance. This adds up to 5/8.”

Alternately, you may sew many of the “first passes” with a serger or overlocker, which will trim your seam allowance for you as you go. I use this method exclusively these days. Using the serger means you won’t be able to get into some corners, but it will speed up assembly. (Sergers stitch faster than most home sewing machines, and they will trim your seam allowances for you, which will save you a lengthy and laborious step.) If you’re looking for your first serger, I highly recommend the Brother 1034D. It’s incredibly sturdy for an affordable machine. 

Now, before we start sewing, a tip: don’t skimp on the ironing. If you don’t iron as you go, your French seams will be much harder to sew, and they’ll look worse when you’re done.

Step #1 is to sew the first pass from the “right” side, trim, and press. You’ll first sew the seam with wrong sides together (ie, right side out) with 3/8” seam allowance. (This will feel weird, because the seam will be on the “outside” of the tunic, but this seam will get folded away and hidden during the next step.) 

If you can’t consistently sew a 3/8” seam, try placing a line of masking tape on your machine 3/8″ away from your needle, or get a magnetic seam guide to help you stay on target.

Trim this seam down to 1/8″, making sure to cut away any stray ‘whiskers’ of thread. Pinking shears are really useful, here, because they will keep this edge from unraveling before you get to the next step. I use these Fiskars pinking shears. You can often get them a little cheaper if you can buy them on sale at JoAnn Fabrics when you have a “20% off your total purchase” coupon to stack on top of the sale discount.

You don’t need to press the seam allowance open– it’s tiny, now, so that would be madness– but you should iron the “good” side of the seam. This makes folding in the next step easier.

Step #2 is to fold over the first seam and press. From the wrong side, you’ll fold the seam over so the fold is encasing the first seam. Press this with your iron to make it lie flat. If you’re sewing with linen, you’ll want to use a high heat and a lot of steam. 

Step #3 is to sew the second pass from the “wrong” side, press, and inspect. With right sides together (ie, still from the strong side), sew seam at at 1/4”, or maybe a hair more. This is probably about the width of your presser foot, so you can use that as a guide. You really don’t need to pin this seam before you sew it. I just iron it after folding it in step #2, and sew following my presser foot.

Press the finished seam open from the “right” side. It should look just like a normal seam from the outside. If you can see any whiskers or bits of raw edge poking out of the seam, trim the whisker and go back to the start of step #3 and sew with a slightly wider seam allowance to enclose that bit. From wrong side, press the finished seam to one side. Since the seam finishes on French seams can be a little stiff, try to make sure you always press your French seams so they’re “pointing” in the same direction– the “open” side should point the same way at the top and at the bottom of the seam.  And yay, you’re finished! Now you know how to sew a basic French seam. The tricky part is figuring out which order to sew things in when you’re building an entire garment out of French seams. But that, as they say, is a different story– and a different tutorial, coming soon. :)

Care Related Starters

“Are you okay?”

“Let me lift that for you.”

“Do you want me to rub your shoulders?”

“How about a foot rub?”

“I’ll run you a bath.”

“Don’t get up. I’ll get that.”

“Do you want me to make breakfast?”

“Dinner is my treat.”

“Let me help.”

“I’ll get the bandages.”

“Don’t move while I wrap it.”

“I will do it. You rest.”

“Do you want coffee or tea?”

“It is okay. I’ll feed you.”

“Take this. It will make you feel better.”

“Do you need medicine?”

“I’ll call the doctor.”

“Lean on me.”

“It will heal. All wounds do.”

“I’m here for you.”

“Thank you for this.”

“Could you get that for me?”

“I’m exhausted. Would you make dinner?”

“My back is aching. Will you rub it?”

“I can walk, really.”

“It does not hurt that bad. Don’t worry.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“I feel much better.”

“I can get up.”

“Please, don’t fuss over me.”