NE Ohio- probably the local ice cream stands (there's one place that does honey ice cream) and eastern European food like pierogi... Like you can find pierogi elsewhere, but I'm told Southern Ohio doesn't have them, which is tragic. We had paprikash in the school cafeteria growing up, too.

All three are good choices! God's War is both extremely strange far future scifi and extremely currently relevant imho. Grace Curtis is best known for floating hotel, but her other stuff does some really interesting things with genre (spacemen crashed on earth that's intensely hostile?)

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Bethany Jacobs- these burning stars
The butcher of the forest by premee Mohammed
Emily McCosh- under the earth, over the sky
Charlotte Bond- the fireborn blade
Ava Reid - juniper and thorn
Kameron Hurley - God's War
Arkady Martine - A Memory called empire
Grace Curtis - floating hotel

I've not read this one of hers, but it's on the tbr list. I do recommend checking out some of her other stuff, if you've not already because it's fantastic. Steampunk zombie apocalypse, anyone??

Fashion fabrics club, harts fabrics, firecracker fabrics, etc. There's a ton of good options online or try searching fabric stores near me

Oh that is weird! I wonder if it wasn't "real" chocolate or something? It would certainly explain why it doesn't behave as expected.

I've got a fairly large gong daobei for my gongfu setup and I don't think it detracts from it. The only reason you might not want to use it are snobs, but if you didn't tell them what it is, will they really know?

You may still be able to fix it depending on why it's splitting. But it usually involves adding some fat or liquid in, which might not result in the consistency you want.

Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue the series. I'm not much of a contemporary romance reader or cozy book person. Part of that is how subjective *cozy* is though.

You might enjoy Paybacks a Witch by Lana Harper. Got a lovely wlw romance forming around revenge on an ex in a town brimming with magic and charm.

Thank you!

If you're in the states, wawak is good for that sort of thing. I don't think they have the items bundled into a lot, but that just means you can get exactly what you want.

Almost done, but finishing the front waistband is not a late night activity. It's pinned in place and ready to sew. Then all that's left is hemming. I may also press the pleats so they're more crisp. All in all, very nice pattern and huge pockets!!
#garmentsewing

Forgot Alt text -
Left one shows two arches on the pants fronts for the pocket entries stacked one on top of the other in a dark denim

Right one shows the pocket arches with the pocket bag backing in and the pleats on each side of the front basted in.

Pockets and pleats are done. Honestly the pockets are the fiddliest bits on this pattern, unless I follow her tutorial for the elasticated waist. Her version is excessively complicated, but I can see it gives a really nice finish, so it's not been ruled out.
#starlightpalazzo
#garmentsewing

Maternal grandfather did machining or something for NASA and had several small side businesses including a photo lab grandma helped with

Paternal grandfather started off in trucking or something, eventually got a degree and started a business in trucking safety/education. Grandma stayed home

So much of what Reynolds writes feels like a noir to me, so I'm sure he'll make it work.

I've made another pair previously in an equally inadvisable fabric and they're super comfy, so these will just be extra comfy.

A big pants pattern piece on the soft white backside of a piece of terry backed denim and a scrap showing the front side of the dark denim.

I'm occasionally terrible at following recommended fabrics and this might be one of those times. I've got a lighter weight terry backed denim that I'm thinking about making the starlight palazzo pants. At the very least they'll be dramatic? And probably comfy? 🪡

Michael's might... Their sewing section does tend to be a bit limited. If they don't, wawak does and they have really good shipping and very reasonable prices.

If you don't already have a tracing wheel and chalk paper, this is the project to get them. They're so good for marking darts like this. It's generally also recommended to sew off the edge of the dart and then knot the thread instead of backstitching.

Cheap fabric is essential for mockups and as a beginner! Swanson's fabrics is also really good for second hand supplies.

Vintage thread can be prone to breakage, so it's not recommended for machine use. I get a lot of my notions from wawak and they have really solid options

The horses and dogs are all the very best boys.

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CW/TW: racism, fantasy violence and some pretty grievous injury, animal death (horses on page, dog off-pageish), insanity, mentions of attempted suicide

4/4

unfold slowly and very deliberately as we learn more about the princess's disappearance and a certain mercenary's past. And despite the terrible things hanging over them all, there are these occasional really lovely moments that make it all worth it.

Potential spoilers below

3/

The gist is a very capable, if mischievous princess of a small isolated kingdom goes missing on the eve of her betrothal and everyone turns out to find her, but all is not as it seems.

It's not your typical princess in distress story, which is really nice. The different types of magic/witchery
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The cover of janny wursts' to ride hell's chasm. It's white with red letters and a fire breathing bird-dragon thing.

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Despite asking for happy books, I finished this over the weekend... It's not particularly happy although it does have a remarkably good ending. I definitely cried while reading it. It's very, very good and has a bit of a mystery/twist to it, so I won't say much more and spoil something
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I love browsing harts fabrics, they've got a wonderful selection of indie patterns for a variety of styles.

And sometimes you've just gotta do the things that interest you even if they're above your skill level!

Have you tried charm patterns? They've got at least one vintage style robe pattern that's meant for a sheer fabric iirc. Folkwear may also have something as they do traditional clothing styles as well as vintage European styles.

That's probably a good starting spot, too! And you might be able to find a video walking you through a particular style, too.

There absolutely are! YouTube is a blessing, but there's a ton of books out there on making and mending by hand. And you can do anything you'd do with a machine by hand, so the possibilities are endless.
But for a starting point, maybe Bernadette Banner's make, sew, and mend?