I made a little wooly bear caterpillar. I was inspired by The Closet Historian's moth brooch video to learn turkey stitch, and I tried brushing it with a wire brush, which really fluffed it up a lot more. I had to trim it a little bit more after the brushing.
All the materials were from my stash, and I didn't time it but it took quite a few hours. I wish I'd used a thinner fabric because this felted coat wool was a bit tough to sew through, and didn't want to bend into a rounded caterpillar shape.
I'm quite happy with it, it turned out so cute! It's a bit bigger than a real one.
It's just regular 6 strand cotton embroidery floss! I used the full 6 strands, since for this stitch you want it to be really well filled in.
If I make another one I'll document it more thoroughly, but I did get a few more pictures than what I put in the first image. (Sorry for making you scroll up and down a lot if you're trying to follow this in oder! I'll hopefully make a blog post someday, though I am very very behind on blogspot...) I started by tracing my pin backing out on a scrap of wool and drawing a long oval shape around it with 3 sections.
Then I filled it all in with turkey stitch, which is pretty easy. I looked at the diagrams in an old needlework book I have, but there are plenty of written and video tutorials out there on the internet. It turns out it's best to go around the outside first and then fill it in, or else your edges turn out kinda wonky.
I cut the loops, trimmed it a lot, and brushed it very thoroughly with a cheap little wire brush I got at the hardware store. You've got to part the threads and do it section by section to really get at them and separate all the fibres. After that I had to trim it a bit more.
I cut the edge down to about 4mm, and clipped the corners out as indicated by the dashed lines here, but didn't get a picture of that step.
Even with all that clipped away it was really hard forcing the ends into shape, and I went over the whole thing with whipstitches 3 times. I wish I'd used a thinner fabric (but still one that's a bit rough and doesn't fray easily) and I also wish I'd used black fabric, even though barely any of the beige shows through anywhere.
I cut out a tiny strip of thin black leather in the same shape as the exposed belly portion, and carefully marked and cut little slits in it to put the 2 raised bits of the pin back through. Making sure the leather bit would be positioned correctly, I sewed on the pin back (Having marked the location with pins, since pencil doesn't really work on something so small and lumpy).
Then I sewed on a pair of little glass beads, and put the pin back through the 2 slits in the leather and whipstitched it down.
Body horror is weird when you know a lot disabled people because some times people say body horror and it the most deep wrong dread scary things and some times people say body horror and it will be a normal human with the body type of my friend alex who has marfans and the walking pattern of my friend kahurangi who has cerebral palsy and the hands fingers of my friend marama who has a congenital limb difference and bad arthritis
When I was 8 years old my friend in my special ed class at school was diagnosed with brain cancer. She was 6 years old. She moved when she could with this slow drag shuffle because she couldn't really pick her limbs up. She lost control of her face and eyes and hated not being able to pick what she was looking at. She became skinny and shrivelled and wasted at the same time as she became bloated and swollen and uneven . I watched her lose the ability to walk and then to crawl and I watched her lose the ability to feed her self and then to un curl her hands at all. Toward the end she stopped speaking even though it was one of the ability she had left because she didn't have any thing she wanted to say any more. toward the end she looked scared all the time I remember it. She died 5 months after being diagnosed at age 7 . At her tangihanga I remember her mum breaking down and falling to hands and knees and then curling up into a ball face down crying on the harakeke mat in front of the coffin. It was the first time And only time I have ever seen an adult cry like that. It's been nine years there is a memorial stone with her name and a butterfly carving on it at the local park in the footpath. I remember how she walked and moved. I watch a horror movie and I see her
That fuckin picture of that guy at agraveyard holdin like, a cup or smt, with a mothman sized moth with him, both staring directly at the camera is somehow the funniest image but I haven’t been able to find it in months
to those who want to help transgender people in Russia, please consider donating to centre-t; a bill has recently been passed that forbids medical transition and will have extreme consequences on quality of life that is already steadily declining
op of this life is a pro-life and violent transphobe, their blog doesnt look like it at first but searching "trans" on their blog is full of disgusting, hateful content. don't reblog this and block/filter op
one if my favorite gifs right now the blankest eyes ive ever seen the lights are on but no ones home. and the other thing like grooming its snout but i don't think its even aware of what its doing. i dont think either of them know anything or know that theyre alive
if you’re like. 14 and trans on tumblr rn and getting ur first anon hate from terfs. word of advice. stop responding to that shit. theyre only gonna send more, it’s only gonna make you spiral even if you put on a strong face. report + block messages as soon as they come in, don’t let them sit in your inbox it’s gonna make you feel like shit. turn off anon for a few days, block anyone suspicious in your notes liberally for a little while. repeat as needed. don’t give them the time of day. it sucks, but like. i dont know any trans person on the internet with any following who hasn’t gotten some disgusting messages. just. be safe yknow
so many young teens feel the need to have a snappy comeback, to explain you could never be cishet bc you’re actually t4t!! or whatever but like. just. don’t say any of that. they love that shit, they eat it up. do what u can to bore them into stopping. and sometimes they dont stop, and that sucks too but like. you do not want to get in public arguments with people who can hurt you more than you think they can, its not cowardly to delete discourse posts and shit if you feel like you can’t handle the notifications anymore. like just. you may not be able to completly prevent this stuff but take a few steps if you can, it will at least lower your chances
