She/her. Art, sewing, people, history, science, human rights, sustainability & nature fan, serial perfectionist. Anachronistic goth, gray ace gay, cat mom. Chronically ill, disabled, ND. Traditional media artist, dressmaker, crafter, photographer. Alt text enthusiast. Fuck AI!
Profile pic: Photo portrait of white woman wearing a ginger wig in a Victorian do, with round rose gold glasses and a white high neck blouse, pale blue eyes and kind gaze. Header: Green pine needles with water droplets.
I'm very bad at going through my follow requests, which have become a monstrous heap, deeply unmanageable. Far too many to easily scroll to the end of! Just a whole mess. Please do leave a follow request but don't be surprised if it takes months for me to get around to it, I do want to actually check your profile!
If you've been a follower or a mutual of mine before but underwent instance moving or something, feel free to say something directly to me when I don't notice right away. Thank you!
Hi, I'm Sini Tuulia from sort of Northern Finland. I'm deeply into a million different things (undiagnosed #ADHD) but I mostly post about my traditional media art, sewing (both costume and everyday) and cats. I'm gray asexual, gay, vegan, chronically ill and disabled.
I have a partial degree in #dressmaking & #tailoring, a media studies degree with emphasis on #photography and years of hobbyist passion for anthropology, biology, biodiversity, conservation, engineering, history, historical fashion, languages, literature, sci-fi, space, sustainability... And like 20 more. I love green things, vast things, things of the deep, things with fur, feather or scales, and the morbidly beautiful and cute. Run on sentences. Oxford commas. Postcards, fountain pens and letter writing. Trains.
The boys, Shelf Edition. I adopted them as teenagers from a family who had to let them go, thinking "Surely three cats is not much more than two cats?" and was not prepared for these cats specifically. 😂 They have the energy of four kittens and regrettably the intelligence but not the wisdom of a two year old human child.
The twins, Pörri & Musti, are 6 months younger than Karvinen, who is unrelated.
These are a bit older. I used to visit local botanical gardens with a camera in tow and admire all the tiny details. I tried to take photos with emphasis on color, shape and mood while just enjoying a stroll.
Mum was over and accidentally stepped on his tail and he has thus lost all faith that humans will always and forever be able to impeccably dodge him whenever he's underfoot.
If you could live in any of these, which would you live in?
Assume it would be accessible and having whatever you needed to actually be able to live there day to day, from money to helping hands to the proper wardrobe to magic lifts!
I'm very bad at going through my follow requests, which have become a monstrous heap, deeply unmanageable. Far too many to easily scroll to the end of! Just a whole mess. Please do leave a follow request but don't be surprised if it takes months for me to get around to it, I do want to actually check your profile!
If you've been a follower or a mutual of mine before but underwent instance moving or something, feel free to say something directly to me when I don't notice right away. Thank you!
@meena@glitch.social Yes! The smell is either mildew and/or bacteria, both of which thrive on the wet human matter left on the textiles and the fibres themselves. Depending on how long it's been and how much has grown, you might be able to get away with putting it to air out and dry in bright sunlight: UV radiation kills a lot of microbes and ozone breaks apart the organic compounds that produce the smell.
If it's been a while or the laundry has been left wet and smelly enough times for it to permeate the seams etc., the simplest option is to wash it very hot - 60C and up, preferably 70C. (140F to 158F) These temps kill most microbial life. Though bacteria starts going at lower temperatures mildew, mould, yeasts take hotter. The detergent washes the broken down organic compounds away.
If it can't be washed hot, there's always acid or alkaline/base! Soaking it in a white vinegar solution (a cup per bucket) or with soda or borax (half a cup in a bucket? Somebody else might know). I just use vinegar since it's technically safe to eat. 😄 You can also just pour two cups of table vinegar in the washing machine and wash it all cold if you don't want to mess around with a bucket or the sink. And then wash it another time with normal temperature and detergent.
@meena@glitch.social (Oh, worth mentioning: sometimes the dyes of clothing will run if you give them the acid/alkali soak. Table salt or sea salt (not the mineral kind that is better for heart health) fixes it back on again, so it doesn't continue fading. I've met this issue exactly once all my life, but there we are.)
Using fabric softener will make cotton feel clammy and greasy, and give it a mildewy smell. Fabric conditioning helps with staticky plastic fibres but isn't necessary for natural fibres! Just wash without. Never put it on towels, it stops their absorption powers. You can use a little bit of vinegar instead of fabric softener, it will have a mild smell when wet, dries odourless.
Line drying is less wear on clothes than dryer but live your life if you have no place to dry them!
Bedding needs to be washed super hot occasionally! Towels, too!
If your shirts smell terrible because you've been sweating into them, soak them in the sink with a cup of vinegar in room temperature water, rinse, wash normally. This kills a lot of mildew and helps break apart organic residue.
Liquid laundry detergent is silly! Just get detergent in powder form, you're spared the plastic bottles and no heavy liquids are ferried around. Soap nuts are great if you're allergic to everything but soap nuts. They're not even nuts and are compostable!
A lot of the washing instructions are LIES. You can literally boil 100% cotton and it's fine! You'd be amazed how much dry clean only is not! Polyester and cotton will be just dandy in 60 Celsius - the manufacturers play it safe because some dyes fade in hotter temps. Cheaply made clothes may shrink, but if it's stinky, take the risk!
More granular data: There are some garment making processes that can be automated most or all the way through, like knitwear and socks, but most will still be finished, assembled and/or packed by hand. Crochet is always human work. Wool is pretty good to wear and when certified and from a good source, can be pretty sustainable if you wear it until it stops existing. This can take decades. Yarn can be recycled, mending is great! There are fabric recycling initiatives, but the best option is to not buy it if you don't need it. Secondhand is more expensive than it used to be, but you can find older, better quality garments than the crap of today!
Your periodical reminder that all clothing is hand made by humans, usually underpaid! Polyester doesn't breathe and sheds microplastics when manufactured, worn and washed! Cotton farming takes immense amounts of water and pesticides! Viscose can be made from recycled fibres & waste cellulose, but it's a fairly toxic process! Linen is more ecological to grow but expensive!
More granular data: There are some garment making processes that can be automated most or all the way through, like knitwear and socks, but most will still be finished, assembled and/or packed by hand. Crochet is always human work. Wool is pretty good to wear and when certified and from a good source, can be pretty sustainable if you wear it until it stops existing. This can take decades. Yarn can be recycled, mending is great! There are fabric recycling initiatives, but the best option is to not buy it if you don't need it. Secondhand is more expensive than it used to be, but you can find older, better quality garments than the crap of today!
Your periodical reminder that all clothing is hand made by humans, usually underpaid! Polyester doesn't breathe and sheds microplastics when manufactured, worn and washed! Cotton farming takes immense amounts of water and pesticides! Viscose can be made from recycled fibres & waste cellulose, but it's a fairly toxic process! Linen is more ecological to grow but expensive!
Sini Tuulia
