Solo Fine Threading XV

[Willis Efram]

3 Spring 526

Heading by the Mercantile for supplies and work, Willis headed inside the familiar building while giving a smile and a wave to Juli. Juli for her part responded with a nod as she explained something to a visitor, and Willis waited patiently for a few chimes before she was free.

Once the visitor finished and left with their purchases Willis headed over to the table Juli stood behind and grinned at her.

"Busy as usual Juli? Just coming by for some supplies and to see if you had any work for me. I'm running a bit low on twine for stitching."

Juli for her part smiled at the familiar face, pausing for a moment as she seemed to mentally run through a list of things in her head before responding after reaching under the table in front of her and rooting aroound. "Hmm.... Yeah we have plenty of that. I can get you a spool. As for work, let me see..." Having finally found what she was looking for Juli looked through several pieces of paper before finding the right one and handing it to Willis. "Could you make two pairs of trousers to fit these dimensions. I'll go get the materials you'll need. And also..." Rooting around near one of the walls Juli fished out a sack, which from past experience Willis assumed was full of damaged items that Willis was to repair. "Also have some stuff needing fixing here. You can look through it while I collect what you'll need."

Willis smiled and nodded at Juli's question, leading to the shopkeeper moving on quickly with the assumption Willis would do the requested task. Then he checked more closely the bit of paper with some directions on it as she collected some things. From the dimensions Willis could see the trousers were for a male, decent height for a human but likely not an Akalak or other larger race. A bit oddly dimension-ed in the legs, he could tell, which would make a premade pair not fit well based on height. Stocky legs that needed to be a bit wider in some spots but without the legs being as long as normal for such a width. Going off the width a normal pair would be too long, or going off the length they would be too narrow.

Willis nodded and read back over the note again, beginning in his mind to picture a pair of trousers that would fit the item he was to make. A bit wider here... Some extra room for a curve here... Belt loops, so a belt could be added after.... As he finished up the basics of his mental work Juli returned, now carrying both the cloth sack from before and a pile of items he would need. Leather for the pants which was more than what he had on hand for patches, twine which he was short on, and some oil for waterproofing his work.

"Thank you Juli, that should be fine. As for the repairs, as usual I will see what I can do, but I make no promises. Anything too far gone or beyond me I'll return. I'll probably finish the new trousers first though. See you later."

Passing off a few coins that were simply the expenses involved in making and selling his wares for work, Willis nodded and smiled at the shopkeeper before heading back out. All the while Efram once more grumbled in his head about him not getting the chance to ask her if she wanted to bear his child which at this point was a regular ending to their visits.

WC: 604

[Willis Efram]

Once Willis had collected all of the things he would need to work and had his task for this days work in hand the Akontak headed to the commons to begin. Taking that familiar trail from the Mercantile to the commons Willis let his mind wander as he thought more on his work. In particular he was thinking on belt loops, how big they should be, how thick of a belt would need to fit through it, and other related things to his planned design.

By the time he arrived there he was still planning this portion out, and mindlessly waved at his work neighbors who had already set up. A man fixing a fishing net, another ,another making a shirt out of the local fabric often worn in town, and someone else silently whittling away at some wood while listening to the other two talk, these were said neighbors.

Willis for his part got right to work after greeting everyone, and began going through his things. He had his tools in one pack. A pile of leather in the other. Some freshly acquired twine used for threading his leather... And pulling out some parchment and chalk Willis had something to work on his designs on. Lastly Willis had the scrap of paper with the dimensions of the person on it, which would inform his final item. With all of that out Willis had what he needed to work, but still the Akontak took one more step before cutting one line of leather or chalking one mark. Namely Willis looked down at the simple pants he wore. While not leather trousers as he was making, he still felt this would be a good starting point for his work.

With this in mind Willis began considering his own clothing. Looking down he started at the legs, basically two long tubes of cloth, Each side of each leg had stitching, clearly where the two sides of the leg were connected. These stayed more or less the same until they reached near the hips, where they began to widen on either side. On the inner side both met, forming the crotch, while on the outer sides they formed the sides of the legs. Above that they widened and then narrowed until the reached the belt line and top of the pants. This was one large opening out of which the torso stuck.

Looking them over closely and critically Willis could see the clearest points of reinforcement required. The ends of each pants leg, and the top hole for the torso, would all likely wear, or so Willis reasoned. The top would also have a belt, and so some reinforcement he reasoned could be embedded in this area along with the belt loops. The bottoms of each leg would be a bit trickier, but at a minimum he could fold the fabric to make it more durable for use.

Looking it over again, Willis could see some wear on his pants as he stood and examined himself. In his case the seat of his pants were a bit worn out, likely from sitting or bending. With that in mind the knees also, he reasoned, would wear out. With all of that in mind Willis had a rough measure of the shape of a pair of trousers, and where the key areas to reinforce were. With those ideas in mind Willis felt he was ready to begin mapping out the piece he would make.

WC: 579

[Willis Efram]

Taking out a scrap piece of hide, Willis began drawing with his chalk. Rather than a full sized piece, Willis instead drew out a scaled down version of the pants he would make which he could expand. However to bear in mind the size and dimensions Willis wrote out the rough length of each part as he went. This part was a bit easier, because he already had the dimensions of the person who would be wearing the pants. With that in mind Willis had to do some math, which while simple was math all the same, by comparing against his own pants and himself.

Writing out and marking out a number, only to write out another, Willis slowly worked his way through it. If his own pants leg was 10, but he was nine, then he needed to add.... An extra one ninth to the persons measurements. Since they were 8 in the legs, he added... 8/9... So 8 and 8/9 total for the pants leg. From there Willis carried on, measuring out and calculating each part one after another simply enough. The gap between the belt and the start of the hip. The length of the leg. The width of the leg. The width of the torso whole. Each part Willis worked on one by one, comparing to known numbers and turning them into the new ones for his final product, while he drew out a simple sized down copy of it. Arcing a crotch here. Letting the leg expand here as it neared the top and expanded to the waist. Willis slowly drew these out until finally he had a fully functioning if sized down chalk copy of his own pants with numbers referencing the needed dimensions.

Having gotten that far Willis made a copy of this work, cleaner and without all the edits, a second pair with just the drawing of the pants and final numbers on another scratch piece of hide. Once all of this was checked over and done to his satisfaction Willis felt he was done with that part of the planning phase, and so moved on to the next final planning step before actually creating his piece.

Sectioning his basic design into piece which he would cut out, Willis began finally chalking out marks on actual leather pieces he would cut out and form. He did this by referencing his designs shape and length, and sketching them out by using a measuring tape to confirm their sizes and length based on the numbers he had calculated earlier. Each side of the leg was one cut of leather, which would be fitted and sown together later. There was also another piece for the seat of the pants and sides leading upward, and another for the crotch and the opposite sides leading upward. And finally all on one piece numerous smaller pieces that would form the belt loops.With all of that drawn out and copied Willis had his design ready, his math done, and his leather ready to be cut out. Before he did this though Willis began making some small adjustments to his drawn chalk, checking the numbers a second time and making some small edits here and there. Rubbing some out. Redrawing, and checking again. Only once the Akontak was fully satisfied and had checked each number and shape against his design did Willis feel he was ready to move on to actually cutting something.

WC: 576

[Willis Efram]

With all of his designs prepared and his chalked in cutting marks added to the leather pieces he would be using to make the pair of trousers, Willis finally began the permanent step of actually cutting things. As usual he started with a smaller and more precise blade, simply scoring a shallow cut on the leather along his marked paths. Tracing the blade up, down, around, over, he slowly scored a thin cut on the leather. Each piece needed to be started in this way, something Willis knew from experience, as it would make the later deeper cuts easier and more precise than just starting off by hacking things with a larger blade. Willis did not doubt that there would still be some trimming needing doing, particularly since he tended to ere on the side of being a bit too big and trimming down later, but still he had learned this led to better and more precise work.

Each piece was prepared like this in turn, across five large pieces of leather. First was the leg pieces, which formed the longest part of his work, a twinned pair which he slowly scored with a shallow cut along the chalked on marks. From there was the crotch and seat of the trousers, each of which he slowly moved the blade along and scored a starting cut against. Lastly was the smaller pieces that formed the belt loops, which would attach to the top of the crotch piece and seat piece. Once all of these pieces felt his blade and each one by one were started with a shallow cut, Willis set this smaller blade aside and took out a larger blade for deeper work.

Using that starter line he had scored in the leather as a place to guide his work and to find easier purchase, Willis began cutting out the actual pieces in bulk. This step took about as long as the first one of scoring a shallow cut, simply because it required more effort and force to cut all the way through the leather like this. Sometimes he had to return to a piece and cut again to make the cut all the way through, while other times he managed to get through in one strong stroke.

He traced the scored line slowly, up one leg of the trouser and then around the top, before tracing down his cutting along the other side and finishing with the bottom. He then mirrored this effort on the other leg, up one side, across the top, cutting down the other side, and then across the bottom. The crotch and seat pieces however took longer than the legs, despite being smaller overall in size. This, Willis realized, was because the legs were more or less a straight line with a gentle slope, while the seat and crotch portions were almost all turns and curves. Working his way along the crotch piece Willis had to turn the leather much more to get at it right, and to try to cut the leather as cleanly as possible. Still while cutting along the line he had marked he did end up cutting up the surrounding bits of leather.

This meant, Willis reasoned, that he would likely need to use it as waste material, strips of leather or cording which did not need to be uniform or leg and which some minor cuts would not overly affect. With this in mind Willis kept at his work, slowly cutting out the bulkier pieces of leather and nearing the first main point of completion along his first days work on this project.

WC: 603

[Willis Efram]

After all of his prep work Willis found his actual work going well. And while it took some time, soon enough Willis had managed to cut out all of the larger pieces of the leather hides into the forms he desired. At this point his next step was small adjustments, and then preparing the holes to stitch all of the parts together.

Once more turning to one of his smaller blades, Willis began making those smaller adjustments. Laying them out flat, the Akontak carefully checked the cuts he had made against his original design and the chalked marks he had made. Earlier he had erred on the side of caution, which meant cutting too big rather than too small, but this left him with some overly large pieces even if only a bit too large. Going through each item one by one, Willis slowly began trimming. A bit here. A bit there. A curve out of form. Another curve a bit to much to form. This part of his work was simple trimming, and while not hard did take careful precision and a keen eye for the desired end product Willis was making.

It was during this step that Willis also smoothed, polished, and adjusted the ends of each piece. Not wanting a rough or hacked at appearance, Willis also trimmed slightly and recut the edges of the pieces to fix this aspect of them. As with before he circled each piece, stopping occasionally to compare to his design specifications he had made earlier. Oddly enough, Willis found, it was actually the smallest pieces that needed the most of this work. The two leg pieces were mostly uniform, and other than a bit of trimming on some curves here and there and a badly cut edge in one spot, they did not need much more. The crotch and seat of the pants needed a bit more, and Willis took his blade and slowly moved each piece into their desired final shape and form.

Each curve for instance needed fixing, and each half had to be formed in such a way so that when bent and matched against its pair- the opposite front or back piece- it would fit just right. This meant another step to process, bending and matching and checking each piece as it would appear in the final product. Once it was in this form the two sides that would be knitted together had to be compared and checked, not just against themselves like with the legs of the piece but also against each other. This meant another series of cuts and adjustments, taking them apart and putting them together and repeating this while making a small cut here.. Or there... Or in another spot... And so on until finally Willis felt the two pieces matched each other and the ends of the leg pieces where they would meet.

From there it was down to the belt loops, which actually took the longest time to trim. This was because they were nothing but curves, and because they were small and so extra work was needed to get them to the right size. This meant more cutting and moving things, until in the end Willis was done with them all. With this done Willis was nearing the direct cutting part of his work, only needing to punch out the numerous holes that would be used to knit the pieces together.

WC: 571