teapotrabbit.bsky.social
I'm tired all the time. Huge geek. Frequently talking about sewing, fountain pens, gardening, and tea. She/her
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Thank you!
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I want to try this recipe again, and proof it less the first time. I also want to try the Just One Cookbook recipe, which is much more detailed.
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Bread is done! It came out a little short and I overbaked it slightly due to paranoia, whoops. I’m increasingly sure I overproofed it during the first rise, as this can apparently cause a coarse crumb - which this bread has. However, none of this has stopped more than half a loaf from vanishing ;)
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Okay, I think I just used loaf pans that were too large. It’s looking good in the oven!
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Hmmmm. Bread did great on its first proofing but hasn’t done much during the second rise. 😬
Guess I’ll let it go for a little longer and just hope.
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Ours is a wedding present so I am very sentimentally attached to it, but if I ever have to replace it I want one of the ones where the head is stationary and the bowl lifts up and locks in place.
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Eeeek!
I barely ever knead bread in mine because I tried once and it scared me 😂 the milk bread dough was very soft, so it worked better.
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And now we hope my mixer survives all this kneading 🤣
I have the home Kitchenaid where the top part lifts up. It does everything great except for kneading bread, where it sometimes struggles 😅
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Your frustrations are entirely valid. The way Covid was (and still is) handled is so infuriating.
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I have that open in a tab to read! It looks like a very interesting article.
It’s a real shame to see the big companies go this way. They’ve been around SO long, they’re a part of our history.
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Arrgghhhh I’m so sorry. Do you have good masks? I have extra N95s, I wish I could shove them through my phone to you 😭
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There are a lot of indie pattern companies out there, but as you say - they’re much harder to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Have you heard of Pattern Review? It’s a website that might be useful for finding new pattern companies. They have extensive forums.
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And if Closet Core (or someone else) can’t buy those tissue printers mentioned in the clips above? That’s gonna suck.
Because you can walk into a lot of indie fabric shops & buy Closet Core & other indie patterns, but that may change if they can’t print them. Going back to PDF only would hurt.
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From my admittedly skewed perspective, there’s still a thriving home sewing community, but it’s moved away from the Big 4.
However, just like with Joann’s, there’s value in accessibility. You can’t walk into a big-name craft store and pick up indie patterns. You have to know how to find them.
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I don’t know if anyone is tracking sewing pattern sales across indie and Big 4 markets, but it would be interesting to see those numbers.
I still buy patterns frequently, but almost entirely indie or true vintage (not the Big 4 indie reproductions, which have been re-drafted. Boooo)
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And to their credit, the Big 4 did listen and fix their ease problem, as well as finding new, trendy designers to partner with.
Unfortunately, they (Vogue in particular) also lost a lot of the high fashion designers they used to partner with, which disappointed advanced users.
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And out of this frustration, many indie pattern companies were born. There was a lot of janky pattern drafting and iffy grading, but they were responsive to customers and people were excited.
The problem is that they’re still nowhere near as accessible as the Big 4 patterns.
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I once made a test-fit of a pencil skirt from Vogue patterns (which were supposed to be better!) that should have fit near-skintight. Instead I was able to pinch out something like 4” from the hips and 6” from the waist. It was completely unwearable. Good thing I hadn’t cut into my good fabric!
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What is ease, you ask? It’s the extra space in clothes that makes them wearable. Yoga pants have negative ease: they’re smaller than the body so they fit skintight. A button down shirt shirt, meanwhile, might have 3-4 inches of ease: the circumference is 3-4” than the body so that it fits.
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Flash back 15-20 years. There is growing interest in home sewing. The sewing blogosphere is in full swing. The Big 4 patterns are NOTORIOUS for being unfashionable, using outdated construction techniques, and having waaaay too much ease.
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Noooo 😂
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I haven’t had milk bread in probably years at this point 😭 the kids love the brioche from one of our many local bakeries but brioche doesn’t have the same texture as milk bread.
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I shall report back from the milk bread mines! 🫡
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Also the bunnies in Cinnabunny make milk bread. I want to eat milk bread so badly 😂
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I’ve been eyeing milk bread recipes for years but 1. It’s daunting and 2. I used to be able to buy milk bread at all the Asian grocery stores nearby. But now I’m not living in the South Bay and there aren’t Asian bakeries at hand and I want fluffy milk bread for egg salad sandwiches.
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And you would be FULLY JUSTIFIED.
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Oh lord o_O
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One doesn’t want to hear one’s repair people sighing… it’s too easy to imagine them sighing over terrible things they have discovered 😂