• Placeholder • Sewing

[Elyna]

9th Cylus 717

The shop was lit by a large fire and a candle on every stationary surface. Elyna, dressed in her usual combination of leggings and a long-sleeved tunic, had then rolled those sleeves to the elbow, as she stood, measuring tape in hand.
Bored, Emily lounged behind her. The blonde woman had stretched out her legs on a low chaise lounge and bounced Elsie in her lap. The baby giggled and gurgled, trying to make a grab at the woman’s pale hair, or tempting earrings.
“You’re not going to get me, you’re not going to get me,” Emily teased, she lent forward to bump noses with the babe before with drawing with a grin as Elsie lurched, throwing herself forward in a determined attempt. “Ahah!” Emily laughed, “still not going to get me.”
Elyna looked over her shoulder before eyeing up the woman who stood before her, patiently balanced atop a stool.
“You wanted a full ball gown?” Elyna asked in mild disbelief. She was too tired to argue. Emily had begged her to help yet another sister, Lucy, in trying to meet the demand of customers, eager to attend the forthcoming ball.
“Yes,” the woman before her was petite. Even stood on the stool she barely reached Elyna’s own diminutive height.
“Alright,” Elyna nodded, Lucy had insisted that the customer was always right. Personally, the skyrider thought that a full gown would swamp the smaller woman…but who was she to argue? Lucy was moving around the back of the shop, tape flashing in the candlelight as she measured another customer.
Elyna supposed it was time to get to work. She wrapped the tape around Meredith’s tiny waist. Then her hips, bust, shoulders. Noting down the measurements on a scrap of parchment, before tucking the pencil back behind her ear. Here, she was simply Ely. She’d been introduced to Lucy as Ely and it was as ‘Ely’ that she was determined to stay. This way, she suspected the older woman would be more inclined to give her instructions without worrying about her noble status. The early start and busy shop, was also the perfect distraction to the disaster of the previous day.

350 words

[Elyna]

Elyna took care to measure all of the lengths of the young woman’s body as well. Across her shoulders, shoulder to wrist, to elbow. From chin to the centre of her chest and then from her collarbone to foot. Finally, she had a small diagram which looked no more than a fleshed-out stick figure, which she added all of the numbers too. Her head heart with the numbers, and she was forced to re-measure the overall length a few times, determined to make the dress perfect. The skyrider wouldn’t be attending the ball, but she would be doomed before allowing someone wear an imperfect creation of her own hands.
With the technical details finalised, Elyna studied the customer. A brunette with pale skin, a distant relation to the houses of Andaris and Venora respectively called Racheal.
“Alright,” Elyna set her hands on her hips and studied her again, “a full ball-gown. What kind of neck-line would you like?” Personally, with the woman’s slender frame the noble woman would have recommended something that hung from the shoulders and dipped beneath her breasts, but then it would have been a softer dress and not strictly the desired ball-gown. Elyna itched to reach for softer fabrics, satins or a beautiful rich velvet that would act like a second skin and move like water. Still, she held her tongue. A ball gown would need a stiffer material, at least for the corsetry and the underskirts.
Racheal demonstrated a sweet-heart neckline, without straps and the noblewoman worried about the ability of the dress to remain upright. Still, she would make it work. She nodded, thoughtful. This was going to be a complicated dress, and it was going to take some making.
“And the colour?”
“Gold,” Racheal announced with a smile and Elyna felt her heart sink. The customer was always right, although a yellow would only serve to highlight the blotchy nature of the woman’s beautiful and pale skin.
“As you wish,” the skyrider agreed and added the notes to her diagram. She hated the colour and the ostentatious nature, but it wasn’t her dress. Elyna only had to sew it, she never had to wear it. Not that she would be able to fit the dress, Racheal though diminutive was still taller than she was, with a slender frame. Even before her pregnancy with Elsie, Elyna would never have fit her measurements for clothes.

750 Words

[Elyna]

It was easier to sew in her parents’ house, besides Malcolm was away and it unsettled their daughter to move too often between Andaris and the house on the hill. Elsie was asleep in the room she had been born in, and Elyna was free to use the room her Mother used to sew in. Walls lit with candles allowed her to work late. First, she spread parchment taken from the shop over the floor and knelt over it. The floorboards creaked beneath her as she sketched out the pattern of skirts. To add some interest, she intended to rough the outer skirt in layers, having selected a pale gold satin. The layers would allow the dress to reflect more light as it moved. However, the additional stitching required was going to take time. Time that she might not have.
Her sleeves were rolled up. She knelt on the floor and kept the movements of the pencil sweeping on the paper, then with the marks made for tabs, joins and hemming lines. Standing up, she studied the drawing before kneeling once more, checking the size of the pattern against the measurements she’d made. Tape measure held taut against the parchment. Finally satisfied that the pattern was correct, she started to cut. Piling up the templates in a neat stack, checking that the pattern of the corset was laid out neatly. Complimenting panels that would sit flush to one another. She’d need to obtain some boning to keep them rigid. Rachael had insisted on a full corset, though with such a tiny waist could have made the most of a sleeker finish. Though the Skyrider hadn’t argued and wasn’t about the start.

1031 Words

[Elyna]

With the paper template prepared, she laid it out in sections, checking that the right pieces would slot together. Finally, she laid it out on a soft yellow linen and started pinning the panels down. The young woman hummed quietly to herself, all the night time noises of the mansion sinking into her awareness. There was the shuffle of footsteps, the night guards and the maids at their cleaning. How many times as a teenager had she needed to sneak past the staff in the Burhan household? The young woman smiled at the memory. She’d been so eager to move out and into the barracks, the place that had been her home for many arcs, before Malcolm. Before Malcolm had asked her to move in with him… until having Elsie, Elyna could never have imagined a scenario where she was willing to return to the family home. Yet Elsie spent so much time in her grandparents care, much to Malcolm’s silent disapproval. How else could the young woman manage though? With Malcolm and herself often called away, their baby needed someone to love her and there was no denying Caelan and Pavoo’s devotion.
Her thoughts had drifted as she slid the pins between the fabric and her carefully constructed pattern. It took the best part of a break to successfully prepare the material. Linen was cheaper than the stiffened satin that would be used, for the final layer. Elyna hoped that these pieces of the dress could work as a mock-up to get an overall sense of the feeling and ensure that she’d gotten the sizes right. Hopefully, if there was no major disaster and she hadn’t completely misjudged, then the fabric could be recycled into a lining for the dress.

1322 Words

[Elyna]

After the pinning was complete, the skyrider needed to stretch out. She walked through the corridors to a large kitchen and found herself a drink of milk. Her neck and backed ached, so she rolled her shoulders during the return, sipping the cool liquid. The pinned material she started to cut, setting those pieces aside in another neat pile. The pins were collected and the mock-up dress laid out in is dissembled parts. Elyna took great care in collecting all the pins, pushing them back into a wedge of felt to stop them rolling away or vanishing beneath the floorboards.
Next, she tasked herself with pinning the pieces of the skirt together, ready to sew. The stitches in the mock-up were long and loose, really only useful to bring the fabric together. This complete she was able to hang the assembled skirt around the hips of the dress-making mannequin. The breaks of the night wore on, and it was yawning that she managed to pin together the pieces of the corset and attach that to the mannequin as well. It was a large amount of work and she flopped down, dropping into the large, soft chair in the room, staring at the mock-up. It would work, the dress would be fine. Next would be cutting out the stiff satin to pattern and assembling the dress, along with a lining. She would need to pick up from netting from the dress-shop, it order to create the stiffened poofiness.
A good job so far, and still only a few trials left to complete the project. Her fingers felt stiff from the minute actions, wrists and knees hurting and she sank further into the chair. Just a break of rest, and then she’d start laying out the pattern again, and draw it onto the fabric with chalk. Just a few bits…the skyrider’s eyes closed and she woke the next morning, curled up on the chair with a blanket thrown over her chest. A pair of green eyes looked up from her knee and Elsie grinned, showing new teeth as she stood, gripping the chair for support.
“Good morning, terror.”

1678 words

[Malcolm]

Elyna

Knowledge:
Business Management: The customer is always right
Writing: Scrape paper is good for note taking
Sewing: Taking a person's measurements
Sewing: Following a pattern
Sewing: A ballgown
Sewing: working with light fabrics like satin
Sewing: Sweetheart neckline
Mathematics: Using a tape measure to measure parts of a person
Elsie: Unsettled my constant change
Malcolm: Protests with silence
Endurance: Repetitive movements with a needle toughen the fingers

Loot: n.a
Injuries: n.a
Fame: n.a
Magic: n.a
Devotion: n.a

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: n.a
Structure: 5/5

Comment: Hey Pix, a good job thread, I don't know why you stress so much, I found it enjoyable to read. I only saw one error and that was your usual lent instead of leant. Lent is to lend and leant is to lean. If you think I missed anything let me know. Enjoy the rewards.