Actually it’s been proven that our brain restricts our muscles unconsciously due to the fact that our muscles are powerful enough to rip themselves from our bones by tearing ligaments and the like if they ever contracted at full strength. Sources I’ve seen say roughly only a third of your true muscle strength is usable at any one time no matter how hard you exert yourself.
There have been reports of women lifting cars to save children and people lifting half-ton chunks of rock (it was only an inch or two in the report I saw, but it freed him from being tumbled off of a rock face by letting it slide over him while he lifted).
The human body is more amazing than most people have come to learn yet.
“Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art developed by African slaves in Brazil, and basically Africans wanted to disguise their martial arts and training as a dance, and I think Capoeira is one of the most beautiful things that has ever been created evolve from oppression.”
When hemming super sheer and delicate fabrics, I am always reminded of that quote from Futurama, “When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.”
I learned this technique from Vicky, one of my frequent co-workers on shows, who is honestly far too modest considering all of the amazing costumes she has made over the years. (She doesn’t really have social media etc.) I forget the exact reason it came up, but she said it was a favorite technique she would use on delicate dresses she made for Coleen Atwood films. The key is adding machine paper (Like from an adding or cash register machine) a nice roll of almost computer-paper weight paper, nothing fancy like the shiny chemical reactant kind. This method is a little time consuming, but with practice you can get amazingly clean hems that are 1/8” – 1/16 on even the most difficult of fabrics.
For this tutorial I documented sewing the skirt of my Evelyn Cosplay, because the skirt is one continuous piece of fabric (about 5 yards) I really wanted the hem to be as clean as possible, and this technique is perfect for that. The Top two photos were Taken by Eric Anderson, or my finished costume at the Exposition Rose Gardens in Los Angeles.
Step 1 – Lay your fabric/hem edge on a flat surface, like a big table or the floor. It is important to let the fabric sit as you want it to be hemmed. So if its bias and you want the hem stretched out/ to ripple, stretch the fabric gently. If you want it natural – lying relaxed and so on. pin the adding machine paper under the hem, keeping the desired hem tension. On curved areas tear and angle the paper. Basically you are using the paper to “block out” the desired hem once sewn.
Step 2 – Stitch about 1/2” from your cut edge, as shown. (I had a 1/2” Seam allowance on my pattern) Once it’s all stitched to the paper, take out your pins and go to the iron. Using the paper as an anchor, use the iron to press the fabric on the stitch line so the seam allowance folds over onto itself. You want a clean sharpe fold. Remove the paper gently. I find it easiest to tear one side free, taking advantage of the stitch perforations. The second side will fall away much easier; any lingering little bits can be gently wiggled loose with a pin.
Step 3 – Stitch a second line of stitching next to the first/now the folded edge. If you stitch 1/8” your finished hem will be close to 1/8”, 1/16 will be 1/16” etc. I find I get a nicer result if I *very* gently pull the fabric taunt while sewing this second line. Using very small scissors (I have a curved pair I like for this) trim off the seam allowance as close to the second line of stitching as you can. Press.
Step 4 – Folding the hem one more time on the second stitch line (or as close as you can get it) stitch through all layers. Again, I find I get a nicer result if I *very* gently pull the fabric taunt while sewing. Trim off your thread tails, press it again and Viola! Done.
Skill: Shows off the blacksmiths massive horse cock. In a time before modern machinery some crazy Germans and Swiss hammered beyond natural human limit. They probably did it as a meme then realised it was actually useful as a weapon. Sharpening a wavy blade would have been a nightmare.
Functional: Good for duelling sword vs sword. A traditional sword allows you to slide off an enemies blade if your swords clash, because the blade is straight. The waves in a flamberg blade creates vibrations which hurts the opponents hands, that doesn’t sound like much but it gives you an advantage. Very useful for parrying since the enemies sword will strike, then the blade gets stuck on your wavy blade or they pull away from the impact shock. Either way you will have an opening to attack. Also the waves cut much deeper similar to a serrated knife. If you got cut once by this blade, you would not be able to stitch your wound shut, you are pretty much sliced bread.
Aesthetic: Someone challenges you to a duel, while they unsheathe their boring longsword, you unwrap your wiggly sword. They immediately apologize and run because you are rich enough to afford a wiggly sword and probably have multiple wenches giving you ankle parchments.
Because kicking butt and taking names can happen in any attire.
This is so very interesting! And for some reason, the first thing I thought when I saw the link to the article was that this was something @theoldwalkingsong would find interesting.
there aren’t words for how thrilled I am you thought of me!!!
THIS IS THE BEST DOCUMENT IN ALL OF HISTORY. Basically, it has a script in it that has a “Post to AO3″ option and it will go in and fill in ALL the HTML you need – italics, bold, paragraph breaks, you name it!
It has directions in it for how to use it, but it’s real simple. You just always chose “Make a Copy” when you start writing to make a new document that you can then re-name. Change the language to American English (or whatever language you use) and type away. Then right before you post, click the button, get all the code in there, copy, paste, AND POST.
It is literally so, so glorious and I want to tell everyone.
(Also, the AO3 Cool FAQ page has some other cool stuff too!)
REBLOG TO SAVE A LIFE
I use this ALL THE TIME, it is seriously the best thing ever. I just keep a copy in my GDocs folder and c/p fic text into it.
“if a half elf and a half elf had a kid would the kid be a full elf or a quarter elf” -something I wrote down urgently last night, because yes, arithmetic is “exactly” how Fantasy Genetics works, or at least it does at 4am
…Did you want an actual answer, because I have an actual answer.
Site Title 