Completed Keeping Warm

[Naiya]

50th Day of Fall, 514 AV

"Rue, the matron of the Moontear pavilion needs repairs for her cloak, you have time to fix it for her today, don't you?" The disembodied voice drifted, slightly muffled through the hanging cloth that separated them. The cloak had more than one hole, and they came more often than not from being too close to a family sparring practice, so the question itself wasn't entirely unexpected, but her timing couldn't have been worse.

Rue was hovering, half dressed as she processed the words of her father's wife. She had intended to visit with Khida today, and hoped that perhaps Shahar would be there as well. Her lack of quick response was enough to spur Reiana into action.

"That boy isn't seeing you today," She swept back the cloth barrier to find Rue tying the fastening on her new pants, "So I'm sure you have time. I'll leave it here for you." She moved into the room, draping the cloak across the small chest of clothing. She was out past the drape again before she spoke, her words drifting the fabric once more. "Oh and I wouldn't wear that if I were you, the boys want to do some weapons practice today."

Just like that her plans had changed entirely. Frustration tempered her movement, and she shoved her feet through the legs of her old, more worn breeches, fuming at how quickly her entire day had been ruined.

In her anger, and her haste, she shoved her foot through the knee of the pants, the sound of the tear too late reaching her ears to keep her from ripping the hole wider as the rest of her leg followed.

She would have cursed if the thought of such words leaving her lips wasn't repulsive. Now she had twice the work to do.

Only half dressed, she sat back on her bed roll, draping the blanket across her legs. She pulled her bad of sewing supplies to her side, digging out a needle and some thread. She paused, choosing a color that matched, but also adding a thread of sparkling bronze to the string she would put through her needle. The second layer of string would strengthen the patching of the knee. It would also make the sewn line across the knee special, not a thoughtless correction, but making it better in the repair.

Well, at least, that was what the potters in the city did. Adding gold leaf to their glue when they repaired a broken vessel. It would work with her clothing just as well. Or so she hoped.

She twisted the two strings together, creating a thinner tip to thread through the eye of the needle. Her first attempt gave her one string through, the other bunched up outside the needle's head. She pulled the strings back, twisting the tips together once again. She slid them both home this time, smoothly through the eye. Pleased, she moved to pull the string through the other end, but her movement pulled the strings loose.

"Ugh." She groaned, this was supposed to be simple, what kind of seamstress couldn't thread a needle? She retwisted the threads, catching the trailing ends in her mouth to wet the ends and hopefully make it easier to get enough thread through the eye. Not to mention the spit would make them cling together better, allowing her to press the thread further through the eye. This time maybe she wouldn't mess things up.

She did thread the needle, successfully this time, and measured a length twice the size of the hole she was repairing. A quick cut with a scissor had the strings free of the spools, and she got down to work.

The thread she pulled halfway through, finding both ends of the string in one hand, she let the needle to drop into the middle of the lengths. The Four loose ends of string were wrapped around two fingers, the crease between her fingers forming a nice gap to tuck the end of the strings through. Pulling the loose ends up and away from her fingers slid the strings off her fingers, and made a loop that she wiggled up towards the end of the strings. Then she pulled tight, careful to keep the loop high, until she had a neat little knot just inside the edge of the strings.

She slid her hand along the string until she found the needle, checking that she had it centered in the strings. She was ready to start, pulling the torn pants closer to examine the extent of the damage.

Really, it was an easy fix, the wearing of the fabric making it soft, leaving the line to rip along the weave of the fabric rather than against it. Really it was the best scenario.

Nearly forgetting to turn the garment inside out, she had to pause, needle carefully placed between her teeth while she turned the leg so the seams faced outwards. That would keep the knots inside the fabric, not visible to others.

All prepared now, she grasped the needle once more, lining it up about a quarter inch past the actual beginning of the tear. The extra length of the correction would give the mending more strength. Though the whole torn fabric, she just made small loops with the string, tightly packed to keep the appearance neat, since there was no repairing to be done there. The hole required a bit more work, she had to keep the pant leg just right to keep the edges together, her needle pinching one side of the cloth to the other across the gap.

Down the needle went through the close edge of the cloth, blind, only the silver needle tip to guide her placement as she came back up through the other edge of the fabric. This was more work, it still had to fall neatly, in as straight of a line as she could manage. Matching the line of previous stitches in where they met on the outside edge of the fabric. Each set of stitches received a long pull, shortening the slack in the strings so that they pulled together the edges of the tear, holding them in place with the next stitch.

The stitched bridged the gap, forming a slightly raised line across the knee, ending neatly just a quarter inch past the actual hole on the far side. The threads tied off with a double loop knot, the first she had learned to close a line of stitches.

She cut the thread, pulling her needle free with only a short length of sting to spear. Trash now, it wouldn't serve any future purpose, it was too short. Storing the needle back with the spools of thread, she turned the pants back right side out, finding the hem was larger than usual with the second thread used, but raised unabashed. I line of stitches that shimmered slightly, not the embarrassed hem of someone who couldn't afford new clothing, but a repair done to well loved clothing.

That would get her through. Especially if she were just to go back to working, not out to see her... well she didn't have a word for him. Suitor was appropriate, she supposed, but entirely insufficient to describe him. It didn't matter. He wouldn't care if she wore patched, worn, clothing. If it had use, it was just what he wanted, and so she couldn't despair about a single hole, already patched.

Unfortunately that wasn't even the end of things, her successful repair the first of many ahead for the day.

[Naiya]

It took Rue a long while to find all the holes in the hem of the cloak, and longer still to decide what to do about them. Sewing them all up was of course an option. The cloak wouldn't necessarily survive the patching though, with the size and number of holes, it was likely to make the hem crooked.

Cutting the length of the damaged fabric off would solve the problem too, but would leave the cloak oddly short. Though altogether better looking that an attempt to patch all the problems in the cloth.

Her next thought was to sew a length of cloth to the bottom of the cloak and let that serve as the bottom hem of the cloak, but the cloth the other girls had was not of a similar color or fabric.

Momentarily stumped, Rue lay back on the floor and imagined the many things she would rather be doing than sitting at home fixing someone else's cloak.

First she thought of Wildfire, his coat glossy from being groomed before a ride. The yvas forgotten as they rode through the grasses. By her side a second mildly less familiar horse, Akaidras. Scarred, but strong the dark bay horse was almost as handsome as Wildfire. What really interested her, though, was his rider. Shahar. Handsome, strong, and wild as the grasses they lived in. He was kind too, gentle, but stern when the situation called for it.

He was as skilled a rider as any other Drykas, thundering through the grasses, paying little heed to the glossy mane of his strider as they thundered past all sorts of game in the Sea of Grass.

"Oh!" Rue sat up with a start. A solution in mind for the problem before her. Fur trim on the cloak would solve all the problems she had noted so far.

"Does anyone have a few lengths of dark fur?"

[Naiya]

Fur was not necessarily a rarity in her house, especially considering the options to trade their wool for other pelts. The real problem was finding enough fur for the job, whether it was matching, or just similar enough.

When she had managed that, with some help from her family, the process of fixing it to the slightly mangled hem of the cloak was just a matter of repairing the holes in the base material and then covering them with the fur.

It was a job rather easily explained, but more complicated to accomplish.

Choosing a thread was important in this venture. She had already made the mistake of hastily threading a needle and hoping for the best once before. It was not a mistake she would make twice. The thickness of a thread was more than a measure of strength. A fine spun cloth would show jagged holes where an overly thick thread had been forced through, or even just from a needle gauge that was too large.

So she had learned to judge a fabric as well as the job at hand. For this particular project the cloak was a heavily woven affair meant, of course, to keep the wearer warm in the chill of the cold seasons, so it was not the cloth she needed worry for. The job was of a similar situation. A medium gauge thread was best for repairing the holes, pinching together fabric was not a heavy duty job. While a fine thread might work too, though it would not hold as well on the hem, where a misplaced foot might tear at the stitches and break the fragile connections.

No instead she would have a medium thread for a medium job. It was perhaps a quarter bell's work to address the holes. A quick, hooking stitch that simply pulled the edges of the hole together and kept them there by virtue of the strength within the thread. Though the number of stitches would also add strength to the hold of the repair, she didn't feel the need to be overly careful in this fix. The hem of a cloak, while sometimes trod on, would not be rubbed, dragged, or fussed at in other such ways. Hopefully that meant that the medium strength of the thread and the assumed strength of the stitches would suffice. If not, she would just repair the cloak again, but she felt relatively sure that she would be fine in this.

[Naiya]

Tacking on the fur was a task that required a more deliberate approach. Animal hide wasn't exactly light weight. In fact, it was rather heavy. It would require a much thicker thread, and probably a larger gauge needle.

Rue made the appropriate switch, finding a needle just a few sizes smaller than a canvas needle such as would be used on mending a tear in the pavilion wall. She didn't have canvas gauge thread, but that probably would not have been right for the job anyway, she instead used a double length of thick gauge thread.

Then there was the matter of actually attaching the fur. It's weight would need a strong support along the top, or it would sag and pull loose from the cloth. As an added chore, she would need to add extra stitching through the middle of the fur to keep it from billowing and catching the cold air. Finally she needed to attach the base of the fur to the base of the hem so that it could not be stepped on separate from the hem of the cloak and be pulled off.

She considered a few different sizes for the trim, and then decided that she would just cover the holes, not go any higher, so there would be about three inches of fur at the hem of the cloak. There was enough to tuck the bottom under then, so she could add the illusion of a continuing fur lining inside the cloak.

The matter of actually attaching the fur was not so difficult. Really just time consuming. A hemming stitch tied the two fabrics together, holding the fur to the cloth. She lined her stitches just inside of the upper edge of the fabric, close enough that it would not gap, but not so close as to muss the smooth fall of the fur on the edge.

Despite the fact that this had not been her plan for the day, there was a sense of relaxation tied to the task of sewing. The job was simple, and allowed her mind to wander while her hands worked, the worst that could come from her wandering mind was a stick with the needle or a misaligned stitch, not things to inspire fear.

It was perhaps a bell later that she began sewing down the middle of the fur, tacking it on with barely visible from the front stitches, although occasionally there was one that showed a bit longer than she really wanted. This was quicker, requiring less stitching to keep the material from billowing oddly. It took perhaps half of the time of the original hem.

The final stitches around the base were through and through. Little dashes of thread showed through both sides of the fur, but were better suited to keeping the hem closed and in place. This again took perhaps a bell to complete, her final product a rather rough estimation of a fur trimmed cloak. It was fine enough to give to her father's wife though, she expected a cloak without holes, and certainly that was what she got.

[Naiya]

She shook the fabric out, gauging the look of the completed work. The fur was lighter than the cloth, giving the entire cloak a darker heu by merit of being near. Almost appearing newly dyed, if not for the faded high traffic areas like the elbows of the sleeves, and low down the back of the cloak, where it had been sat on many a time.

The dark fur of the bear that had given it's hide to the cause of the city was speckled, not all the same color, but flowing in silky patches of dark and medium colors, likely added camouflage from it's predictors, making the hem look as though it billowed even in stillness.

The length looked right, although the hem fell higher in the front than in the back, it wasn't too different, though, and on a cloak, really, it would hardly be noticeable.

In fact, you couldn't tell at all that it had been riddled with holes when she had received it, the stitches to repair them had been completely covered. The patterning of the hide had covered the longer threads that had shone through the front, although a few were still apparent.

She plucked at the hide around those stitches, loosening the hairs flattened by the string, it seemed to help to a small degree.

It would surely please the Moontears, the work having been her best efforts despite the sudden request and the interruption from her day. She smoothed the hide once more, and folded the cloak up, similarly to how one folded a cloak to sit on when there were not enough cushions, and went to present the work to her father's wife. She would take it back to her friend, and whether or not coin exchanged hands, Rue wouldn't know. She was done with the project, her payment would come later, if at all, in the form or praise, perhaps, and a visit from the Moontears to the pavilion that hired Rue to work for them. That was what she hoped for.

[Rufio]

G R A D E

xp

Sewing +4
Planning +2
Organization +1


lores


Sewing: Adding a second layer of thread for strength
Pottery: Potters sometimes repair broken pottery with gold glue
Borrowing techniques from other crafts
Sewing: Suck thread ends to make threading a needle easier
Sewing: Turn garments inside-out to hide knot-work
Sewing: When a garment is beyond repair
Creative solutions may strike in a daydream
Sewing: Matching thread thickness & needle gauge to cloth density
Sewing: Hooking stitch
Planning: Considering garment use before working on it
Sewing: Adding a fur trim to a heavy winter cloak

If you feel I missed anything shoot me a PM.
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