v i t r i o l

@vitriol

Tattooer, Garden Goblin, Big Fan of Big Wooden Boats. Amateur Sewist, Professional Ne’er-do-well. RVA & beyond.

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v i t r i o l@vitriol· 2d

Very pleased with how tidy these welt pockets are coming out. Welt pockets are a little bit fiddly to begin with, but these were extra tricky because I can’t pin or baste ANYTHING that ends up visible on the outside of the garment - this silk taffeta shows every single needle scar 😓😓

A photo of a very crisp handsewn welt pocket, worked in a lovely greenish gold silk taffeta. The only visible stitching is two neat rows of tiny backstitches on the short ends of the welt.

Another shot of the welt pocket, this time being held slightly open so you can see the bright yellow linen pocket bag secured by a cute little hidden row of spaced backstitches worked in silk thread.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 3d

But it DOES make me feel a little less hopeless & a little more in control of the materials I wear on my own body. It’s brought me a lot of community, collaboration, and friendship in the process. And in light of… y’know… ~everything~, that’s worth something to me, and maybe to you too.

A frumpled-looking woman with curly red hair sitting behind a vintage sewing machine, she’s absolutely drowning in hot pink stretch velvet

A group of friends hanging out on a patio, dyeing a bunch of fabric and old clothes together to give them new life

A groupings of 6 handmade garments, all in similar shades of deep red, hanging in a row on a curtain rod.

A heavily tattooed woman wearing an all-red handmade ensemble featuring big statement bell sleeves and a laced-up bodice, posing in front of a large photo backdrop that reads “SEW YOUR HEART OUT”

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 3d

And while it’s not approachable for everyone and certainly NOT a ~cost-saving solution~, I sew a lot of my own clothes. And for that I make as much as possible out of repurposed and reclaimed materials, which are often higher quality than brand new fabric would be anyway.

An overhead shot of some pattern-drafting in progress, with various rulers and tools scattered about. Janet Arnold’s indispensable “Patterns of Fashion,” either volume 1 or 6, is laid open on the floor.

A close-up of a jumble of hand-stitched seams on an 18th century-style shift, made out of an old bedsheet.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 3d

With that historical context in mind but applied to a modern lifestyle, I try to: - buy minimal new (read: shitty) clothing - repair as much as possible - buy secondhand when I can - support small makers and “slow fashion” - focus on adjustable pieces that will fit my body even when it changes

An overhead shot of a green handmade outfit, bodice and skirt. Both pieces have lacing panels that make them fully adjustable.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 4d

Hand-worked buttonholes are kinda like pancakes in that the first few are always gonna suck, so I did a few practice runs on these open-and-closed worked buttonholes today to get a feel for how these fabrics will behave, and decide between two different thread colors.

A closeup of a small patch of greenish gold silk taffeta with an open-and-closed worked buttonhole stitched into it by hand. The buttonhole is worked in two different colors of thread, so that I could get a solid visual for which color I like best.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 5d

I wasn’t feeling great today, so I set myself up on the couch with some tedious but simple, mostly mindless stitching. I did what felt like 18 miles of tiny rolled hem on a silk stock/neckcloth to replace a sheer voile one that I made just a tiny bit too small, I basted, & I made many buttons.

Two black triangular neckcloths, also sometimes called stocks. The top one is made of a sheer ramie voile and is juuuust a bit smaller than the bottom one made of a smooth, drapey silk.

A close-up of the tiny, painstakingly hand-stitched rolled hem on the black silk neckcloth.

A closeup of a greenish-gold silk taffeta basted to some brown heavy canvas with long stitches. Sitting on top of it are 8 beautiful little fabric-covered buttons made of the same silk.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 6d

This project has two pointed pockets with an additional hidden tiny button flap that’ll be applied beneath, and I’m also doing some pointed mariner’s cuffs. So… a lotta flaps.

Another closeup of the gorgeous greenish gold silk taffeta lining stitched down to the flaps. The texture contrast between the satin-finish changeable taffeta and the plush dark navy wool broadcloth is really satisfying.

An overhead shot of the flaps again, this time including the tiny blue silk and linen interior pocket flaps. All the flaps are now fully lined.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 6d

Today I worked on preparing my flaps 😎 I’d already turned the edges of my wool outer fabric & stitched it down to a heavy canvas interfacing, so today I stitched the silk taffeta linings in. I like to do a careful little hemstitch through all the layers that does double duty as a topstitch too :)

A very close-up photo of the corners of four pocket flaps made of a navy blue wool broadcloth lined in a greenish-gold silk taffeta. In this photo you can see the tiny little hemstitches that catch the turned edge of the silk and go all the way through to the wool, forming a neat little row of tiny topstitching on the outside of the flap while securing the lining at the same time.

A wider shot of the flaps in progress, showing the ugly brown stiff canvas interfacing inside, as well as the cut pieces of silk lining, and a completed lined flap.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 8d

Oh yeah. That’s the stuff.

A close-up photo of a sewing project in progress. In this photo you can see a piece of really lovely changeable greenish gold silk taffeta, stitched to a piece of medium-weight off-white linen with a long neat row of backstitches done by hand in a sage green 30-weight silk thread. The thread isn’t a perfect color match to the silk, but it’s about as close as you can get to matching a color that changes so much in different light.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 9d

I regret to inform you all that I am back on my bullshit* *undertaking extremely labor-intensive handsewing projects in a futile effort to keep the Horrors at bay

A close-up photo of a sewing project in progress. Two handmade green buttons - one a light olive changeable silk fabric-covered button and the other a more ornate thread-wrapped button in a dark olive silk buttonhole twist - are sitting on a piece of medium-weight off-white linen. A row of eyelets worked by hand is on the edge of the linen.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 27d

Another delightful cockchafer fact: There was a very popular type of trim used on 18th-century garments that modern costumers call “fly fringe,” but original sources, especially French, often referred to it as “sourcils de hanneton” — “cockchafer beetle’s eyebrows”

A close-up photo of 18th century passementerie. This photo shows a woven band with looped gimp braid, and two prominent fluffs of “fly fringe” made of knotted silk fibers. The fluffy fringe looks a LOT like its namesake, cockchafer beetle eyebrows.

The photo is watermarked “Lady’s Repository Museum”

v i t r i o l@vitriol· 29d

pinched a nerve in my neck so horribly that I’m fully immobilized today Sofas are now battlefields

A photo of a small black dog in a fluffy pink bed perched upon a leather sofa. It is the middle of the day, but the TV in the background is showing the iconic opening card for Peter Weir’s 2003 masterpiece film “Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World.”

Title card reads: “APRIL - 1805
NAPOLEON IS MASTER OF EUROPE
ONLY THE BRITISH FLEET STANDS BEFORE HIM
OCEANS ARE NOW BATTLEFIELDS”

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Jun 29

I’ve pulled 9lbs of blackberries since Friday, send help

A photo of a sweaty, frazzled-looking woman with frizzy red hair wearing a mosquito net jacket. She’s fully surrounded by (luckily) thornless blackberry canes, and holding a big bowl full of ripe berries she’s picked. She looks somewhat less than enthused with her haul and more than a little bit overwhelmed by the berry bounty.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Jun 27

She’s not even a little bit sorry

A photo of a smallish, short-legged black dog with a big barrel chest laying on her back on a blanket, an extremely goofy grin on her face

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Jun 21

Gazela sailing past Old Point Comfort on Friday!! Not my photo, dug it up from a photog named Brian Smith on fb

A photo by photographer Brian Smith of the barquentine ‘Gazela Primeiro’ out of Philadelphia. She’s an old wooden tall ship that was built as a commercial fishing vessel in 1901, and now operates as a museum ship. In this photo she’s conspicuously flying a big rainbow pride flag off her mainmast while sailing past Old Point Comfort at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia as part of the Sail250 event’s ‘Parade of Sail.’

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Jun 17

Today I prepped the sleeves for setting into the bodice, and all the agonizing I did over cutting my fabric really paid off with some very pleasing pattern matching on my sleeve seams 😌

A photo of the in-progress sleeves of an 18th century gown. The sleeves are a dark brown cotton with mustard yellow stripes and a white linen lining. At bottom left you can see a sleeve that has had 3 out of 4 layers (2 lining, 2 outer fabric) hand-stitched together with neat backstitches. And at top right, a complete sleeve with the final outer fabric layer folded over and topstitched down to the rest with tiny spaced backstitches. On the finished sleeve you can see that the stripes line up in a VERY satisfying way.

An extreme close-up to show off the hand stitching work. You can see a neat line of backstitches as a construction seam, and some dainty spaced backstitches as topstitching on the finished seam. You can tell from how even and straight it all is that the person doing the sewing is highly neurotic about precision, and while that can be helpful in hand sewing it probably does her very few favors in real life.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Jun 15

I also got to see sloop Luna today, which has the most precious little carvings of moon phases and dogwood flowers 🥹🥹

A photo of sloop Luna, a reproduction 18th-century coastal trading sloop. She’s moored in Yorktown, VA currently and the Godspeed is visible at another slip behind her.

A closer photo of Luna’s stern, with ornamental carvings of moon phases and botanical elements.

An even closer photo of Luna’s decorative woodwork, showing the dogwood flower and waning crescent moon in crisp white paint on a black background. She’s looking sharp!

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Jun 14

The two genders:

A photo of two boats moored at a concrete pier. On the right is a replica of the Godspeed, a square-rigged 17th century merchant vessel that transported some of the first European colonialist settlers to Jamestown in 1607. On the left is a squat, grey amphibious US Navy vessel, LCAC-83, with gigantic fans on the stern like some kind of overgrown swamp airboat.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Jun 12

Pleating 132” of skirts into 20” of bodice is not for the faint of heart 😵‍💫

A close-up photo of a hand-stitched 18th century gown in progress. The gown is a dark chocolate brown cotton with mustard yellow stripes and checkered stripes. This photo shows the skirts in the process of being pleated into the bodice, with an eye-watering number of teeny tiny little pleats.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Jun 7

I’m 5 weeks into an 8-week workshop to learn how to stitch an entire 18th-century gown by hand and it is juuuuust now starting to resemble a gown 😬 but for now, some details:

A close-up photo of the interior of an in-progress 18th-century gown. This photo shows an interior lacing placket with hand-stitched boning channels and eyelets. It is made of an off-white medium weight linen and stitched with heavy linen thread into the matching lining of the gown. You can also see just a bit of the exterior fabric, which is a lovely deep chocolate brown with mustard yellow stripes, hem-stitched to the lining with brown silk thread.

Another close-up photo of the interior of the gown in progress, this time showing an inside view of where the back pleats of the gown are stitched all the way through the lining with dark brown silk thread.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· May 26

This is the ideal knight’s body. You might not like it, but this is what peak dragonslaying performance looks like.

a split image. The left side is a photo of a VERY disheveled looking artist with long, messily braided red hair, wearing her schlubbiest pajamas and a shirt with a train on it, striking a kinda weird pose in her living room perched up on the coffee table.

The right side is an in-progress sketch of a knight in plate armor, in a suspiciously similar pose. The knight looks much less disheveled.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· May 24

it’s too late. I’ve already depicted you as the crummy, stretched-out, fraying mass-produced pocket tie and myself as the elegant, color-matched, luxurious hand-woven pocket tie.

An 18th-century style pocket in a printed “chintz” patterned cotton in shades of burgundy, blue, green, and off-white. It has a long black piece of cotton twill tape for the tie, but that tape is past its prime and is all stretched out, knotted, and looks like it’s seen better days.

The same pocket, but now it has a lovely matching hand-woven tie with a pretty repeating pattern in the same burgundy, green, and off-white colors of the pocket fabric.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· May 24

Anyway, here’s a very long bit of tape that I wove just fine without a box loom, but I did grumble about it the whole time. the crappy storebought twill tape on my 18c pocket was all stretched out so I figured it was upgrade time. But it’s very annoying to backstrap weave anything this long!!

A long and narrow hand-woven band with a repeating pattern in burgundy, olive green, and off-white. It’s photographed in a casual pile, laying on top of an 18th century-style pocket made of a printed “chintz” style block printed cotton in the same colors as the band.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· May 3

Procrastinating on another project that’s at a frustrating point so uhhhhh let’s turn some shapes and some sheets into a dressing gown

An overhead shot of a workspace, clearly the floor since a patterned rug is visible in the background. Rulers, gridded pattern paper, a tiny paper model, and Janet Arnold’s “Patterns of Fashion 6” are all scattered around.

A heavily patterned dark green floral draped robe, just pinned together for shape, is on a dress form in a well-lit room with antique furniture in the background.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Apr 27

Fitting a mockup for 18th century clothes means you’re hanging out in your house in old-timey underwear a lot

A selfie of a heavily tattooed redhaired woman with disheveled-looking curly hair. She’s sitting in a chair in what used to be her dining room but is now clearly just the sewing room. In one hand she’s holding a muslin mockup for an 18th-century bodice, and she’s wearing a linen shift, purple linen stays, a bum roll, and a red silk petticoat along with her very modern noise-cancelling headphones.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Apr 26

Went to fancy high tea at the fanciest hotel in town with my fancy friends today

A heavily tattooed redhaired woman stands on a large ornate carpeted staircase in a fancy old hotel. She’s wearing a black and pink floral printed silk dress over large hip panniers, with purple silk stays and a vaguely 18th-century hairdo, holding a black hand fan like some kind of goth Rococo fever dream

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Apr 20

Had to get some additional hair embiggening from my partner in costume crimes to really sell Jareth with the Haireth. No it is not a wig or extensions that’s all my own hair 😵‍💫 Yes I was detangling it for over an hour last night lmao

The same heavily tattooed redhaired woman dressed as David Bowie sitting in the back of an open hatchback car while her friend helps her tease up her hair even bigger. It’s so much hair it takes up half the frame on its own.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Apr 20

RVA Ren Faire day 2 started out 49° and raining, then the most beautiful afternoon you could imagine - perfect day to channel my best Bowie

a heavily tattooed woman with absolutely ridiculous amounts of curly red hair teased to high heaven. She’s dressed up like David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King from Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth,” in a puffy white shirt, handmade silk velvet underbust corset, and extremely tight tan breeches with a screen-accurate Bowie Bulge. You can just see the tops of her thigh-high black boots. She’s holding up a clear crystal ball, and she’s done a fairly good recreation of Bowie’s iconic makeup from the film.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Apr 18

It was a good outfit and I sewed all of it myself, shame I could only wear it to sit on the ground for about 2 hours in our shop’s booth hiding from the curséd sun 🫠

A heavily tattooed redheaded woman in a handmade imp outfit poses in the bright, sunny ren faire parking lot. Little does she know that she’ll only look this cute for about the next 56 seconds before the heat starts to punish her for her hubris.

v i t r i o l@vitriol· Apr 18

Before the ren faire in record-breaking 93° heat —> After the ren faire in record-breaking 93° heat