Everything Changed When the Fire Nation Attacked

When I was six, I hated Halloween because it was so scary. I went to a K-8 school, so the eighth graders would take delight and freaking out the littler kids with their creepy masks and gory props. I'm sure my tendency to jump at everything made me a gratifying target of pranks.

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But then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked I became a costume geek and science teacher. Now, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because of the costuming opportunities, and seeing as I'm responsible for teaching teenagers to use Bunsen burners properly, few things surprise me anymore. I didn't get to dress up last year (possibly because of the phenomenon of regression to the mean, and the previous year I had two Halloween parties to go to), so this year when the administration announced that teachers could dress up, I got super excited. Now, this announcement was made about 48 hours before Halloween (and right after my all-day marathon pants-sewing session), and while I certainly have plenty of finished costumes to choose from, I had already planned on doing a fireball demo in my chem class, and most of my costumes have too many swooshy pieces, especially around the sleeve area, for me to do the demo safely. So I started mentally reviewing my costume wardrobe, and had almost settled on either Alice or a hobbit as the safest options, when it suddenly occurred to me that I've always loved the Fire Nation costumes on Avatar: The Last Airbender. And what could possibly be better than doing fireballs while dressed as a firebender?!

Thankfully, I had already planned on (and cut and prepped) making By Hand London's Anna dress from a red sheet for Red October, so having a deadline (well, I guess I already had a deadline with it being oh, the end of October) really lit a fire under me (pun intended) and I found myself sewing frantically in order to have it done by Thursday morning. You guys, all that hype about how awesome this dress is is no joke -- I didn't make ANY adjustments and it is just as flattering as it looks in everyone else's blog photos! I cut out the size recommended for my measurements, and for once I didn't have to take out 2-4 inches of ease, which is what happens when I use the Big 4 patterns. The only thing I would change for next time is to put darts in the back neckline, which a lot of people seem to do, since I have a bit of gaping back there. But the waist looks amazing, the skirt's gentle flare is perfect, and I am totally itching to make this up as a maxi or with long sleeves.

Not the best shot, and the wearing-a-shirt-underneath makes it sit a little funny, but you get the idea. I thought the sticky-out-y kimono cap sleeve was an excellent imitation of the wide shoulder armor that Azula wears.
(Apologies for the crappy bathroom mirror shots...how is it that I didn't get any good photos of my best costume yet?)

To get the firebender look, I layered it over a black long-sleeved tee and my Aladdin pants, tied on a random square of black knit fabric around my waist, and put on my most obnoxiously large gold jewelry, belt, and black boots. Most students couldn't quite place who I was supposed to be, but the few who got it loved it. The best moment, though, was when I revealed why I was dressed as a firebender:

Is that...?

Yes it is! It's real fire! No special FX!

All of these are fuzzy screencaps from videos shot on phones in a weirdly-lit classroom, hence the blurriness.

Then they all got to try "firebending" for themselves...over and over again. You know it's a good demo when the kids want to miss lunch to repeat it.

This was a photo collage that one of my students made. Some kids got more into the posing than others. 

If you're wondering how the firebending actually works, it's just methane gas bubbled into a dishwashing detergent and glycerin solution. The detergent makes the bubbles that you can scoop up in your hand, and the glycerin keeps the bubbles stable so that they don't pop right away. The gas is flammable, but if you wet your hand and arm thoroughly, the high specific heat of water protects your arm from the heat. The only thing I had to be careful of was making sure kids didn't scoop up too many bubbles, and that they kept the flames far away from their hair!


Summary:
Fabric: Half of a 100% cotton king-size flat sheet, thrifted.
Notions: Seam binding, a 22" zipper
Hours: Eight, but I still want to go back and sew up the slits.
Will you make it again? Yes, yes, yes! I love fast and easy this dress is, and the pleats "opening up like flowers over your boobies" is a lovely design feature.
Total cost: $3
Final thoughts: It's not the most technically challenging or overtly impressive costume, but I love it because it just fit so well with what we were doing that day in class. I would love to get better pictures of me "firebending" while wearing the costume, but it was really for the kids. And of course, Mr. Cation thought it was pretty hot too. Haha get it? get it? He thought my firebending outfit was hot. His words, not mine :)

Besides sewing up the slits, I'm thinking of adding black lace trim to the dress so that it's not so plain. I've got a nice wide black Venise lace trim, but I'm not really sure where to put it. Thoughts?

[ETA: One of my kids sent me a video!]

Saturday School Strikes Again!

Some people spend their Friday evenings going out and being social* and having a life; I spend my Friday night scanning and studying my textiles class notes. Now that we're past all the natural fibers and on to the man-made materials, I find myself intrigued by all the possibilities of polymer science. Oh to be a high school senior applying to college again! I would totally rethink things. In the meantime (and in the absence of a viable professional student career option), I'll have to content myself with this class.

There was much more about lyocell, but I didn't illustrate it. Lyocell, or Tencel (TM), is actually so similar to rayon that the FTC didn't even recognize it as a separate fiber until the 1990s. According to our prof, due to things about patents, it's only been manufactured by one company in the US, which makes it very expensive, but the patent should be expiring soon, so hopefully we can look for cheaper lyocell soon? The sample she showed us really were wonderfully soft and buttery! The part I appreciated most, though, was that lyocell is made in an environmentally friendly manner, where the extrusion process is done in an enclosed system, meaning less pollutants in the environment, plus ease of reclaiming the chemicals for reuse. StephC of 3hourspast.com wrote about it last year, so you can check out her blurb for more information about sewing with it. 

I've seen bamboo rayon camis at Walmart (of all places!) and they definitely feel lovely, but haven't seen much in plain fabric form. [EDIT: News flash! If you haven't seen Amy's blog post about sewing with bamboo rayon jersey, go check it out! It looks deliciously soft in her pictures.]

I think my favorite doodle is the "scavenger in the wash" one. I've definitely experienced this with my formerly white nylon slips, which are now a dingy gray after being washed with our dark blue towels too many times. Fortunately for a past project of mine, this quality means that nylon is also the only artificial fiber that can be successfully tea-dyed, due to its unique chemical structure. Nylon is also known as polyamide, i.e. a hydrocarbon chain that has a bunch of amide functional groups hanging off of it. Amide groups are basic, while tea is acidic, which means that the tea molecules will bond nicely to the nylon in an acid-base neutralization reaction. For more information, take a look at Dharma Trading's helpful page about acid dyes.  

I know a lot of seamstresses are natural-fiber snobs, but honestly, I'm not one of them. Polyester has come a long way since the leisure suits of the 70s, and our prof showed us some very nice ones that beautifully mimic a number of natural fibers. Due to advances in fiber spinning/extrusion, it's possible to actually make breathable synthetic fabrics by manipulating the dope solution and the fiber cross-sections.  

Acrylic sweaters are the norm at places like Ross, while wool and cashmere are more of a Nordstrom price range. Since California really doesn't get much of a winter, I'm okay with that. Just make sure not to over-iron your acrylic, or else it'll get all flat and limp. 

I'd never heard of modacrylic or olefin, so I was on the edge of my seat for this part of the lecture! I know, I know, some people get excited about Thor 2 coming out (oh wait, that's me too), but I get excited about learning new things! I was especially pleased to be able to put a name to olefin, since I've encountered it in so many places (those priority mail bags! those couch underside covers! those onion net bags!) but never knew what it was. Also, it's totally obvious that I have no idea what snowboarding gear looks like. 

I had no idea how they made those metallic strips that one finds in cheap Halloween costumes, but now I know! 

We also talked about viscose/HWM rayon and acetate/triacetate, but I didn't illustrate those bits because I was in a sleepy pocket and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. Ah, the realities of a three-hour long night class at the end of a long workday! But hey, if my mom could do it, so can I.

*Even if I were to go out and socialize, it would probably end up being like this or this.

I Am A Boss

I'm not normally one to crow over my own achievements (what with being a self-effacing Asian-American and all...oh but wait, I put my life up on teh interwebs, so maybe not), but this is too awesome not to share. Besides, where else would I find people who would be equally excited about being an official fiber geek, if not in the sewing blogosphere?

To use a Barney Stinson-ism: WHAT UP.  I have no shame in being the Hermione Granger of my textiles class. Allow me a moment to bask in the glory of having the high score on our first midterm. Gosh, I love being a student again and getting praised for reaching concrete, quantifiable milestones. I have to admit to being slightly peeved at myself for missing those two points, though, because then I would've had a perfect score...what can I say, I'm a classic overachiever.

[Also, for those of you who wanted to know what textbook we're using, it's up there at the top: Textiles by Sara J. Kadolph, and my prof prefers the 10th edition since the information is arranged better, and the charts aren't white text on a red background (who thought that would be a good idea?!??!). ]

Oh wait, you're here to learn more about fibers with the help of cats, and not to see some smug celebration of meaningless academic achievement that has no bearing on the truly important things in life, like world peace and neutering/spaying your pets? Well, never let it be said that I wasn't an acquiescent blogger; I present qualities of man-made fabrics, as helpfully illustrated by more cats:

Lyocell, rayon, and bamboo are pretty much the exceptions to every statement about synthetics, since they are regenerated cellulosics. This means that they start out as actual cellulose (from spruce, hemlock, or bamboo pulp), and by the time they are extruded and dried, they once again have the structure of the cellulose polymer, so they still breathe like cotton and linen. However, the chemicals used to dissolve the cellulose to make the liquid solution result in a weaker fiber than natural cellulosics. 

Classic synthetic polymers like polyester and nylon lack the bulky functional groups of natural polymers, meaning that the fibers are very smooth and can pack together tightly, and it also leaves no options for hydrogen bonding with water. The former quality means that you can get very tightly woven cloth that is water-resistant and shiny, and the latter quality means that it has poor absorbency and is harder to dye. You know how oil and water don't mix? We call oils hydrophobic molecules, and guess what -- hydrophobic molecules love each other, which is why when you get an oil stain on a poly or nylon garment, you can pretty much assume it will never wash out. Similarly, if you wash a cotton garment with an oil stain with a non-stained poly garment, the oil may wash out of the cotton and then glom onto the poly.

Also, I never used to pre-wash/pre-shrink my synthetic yardage since I knew it was supposed to be dimensionally stable, but our prof pointed out that even though the fiber itself resists shrinkage, the way it is woven into fabric may still be dimensionally unstable, so it's best to pre-wash even the synthetic fabrics. 

Anyway, I promise I've done some real sewing, too, and not just studying and doodling in my notes. Stay tuned for one of my favorite (non-geeky) sheet dresses yet!

This is Walnut sitting on the dishwasher, staying tuned for those shrimp tails that he can see being peeled.
Look at all that gloriously non-synthetic fluff! Sometimes he doesn't even look real. 

All About Man-Made Fabrics, Now in Cartoon Form!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday School, except it's on a Friday! This week in textiles class we learned about the manufacture of man-made fabrics, both transitional (cellulose-based, but processed, e.g. rayon) and synthetic (the more stereotypical artificial fibers, like polyester and nylon). Maybe you already know about how they squirt dope (that's really what they call it!) through shower heads (that's not what they call them, but that's what they look like to me), but I bet you've never seen the properties of man-made fibers illustrated with the help of cats! Seriously, adding doodles to my notes is the only way I'm going to stay awake through a 3+ hour night class at the end of a long workday.

Man-made fibers get generic names from the Federal Trade Commission based on whether they exhibit significantly different chemical composition with specific performance characteristics. So spandex is the generic term (like tissue), but Lycra is the trade name (like Kleenex). Depending on whether the source is natural (cellulose-based, like rayon) or not (plastic-based, like polyester), the liquid solution, aka dope, is prepared indifferent ways (Step 1). The dope then gets pumped through the shower-head-thingy, or spinneret, into long filament fibers that can be thousands of meters long (Step 2). Lastly, the fibers are solidified (Step 3), and some will also be stretched so that the fibers are all lined up nicely (Step 4). 

Parent fibers, are like version 1.0...no mods to the chemical solution, generic round (and therefore hideously shiny and dirt magnifying) cross-section. Second generation fibers can have improvements (it's like when Squirtle evolves into Wartortle), whether through adding things to the chemical make-up (dyes, delusterants to get a more refined shine) or changing the extrusion rate or modding the fiber afterward. That's when polyesters moved away from the hideous stuff of the 70s and more toward the high-quality fabrics used now to make poly-taffeta that's nearly indistinguishable from real silk. The third generation fibers have even cooler mods (Blastoise!), such as when biconstituent fibers combine two different kinds of dope with different properties. For example, flame-retardant fabrics can contain a suspension of flame-retardant fibers in a matrix of softer, cottony-feeling fiber, thereby making a fabric that feels nice to wear, but won't go up in flames. Our prof likened it to chocolate chips suspended in Jello.

I think I might be the only one in the class who wants to protest each time the professor says "...but I won't go into more detail about the science of it." When going over the study guide for the midterm, I asked how much detail she wanted us to know about what causes wrinkling in cotton, and all she wants is for us to be able to say that cotton fibers don't have good resilience. The science teacher in me is all !?!A@?$& BUT THAT DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXPLAIN ANYTHING, but I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't a science class, and most people in the room aren't science-types...

Would anyone actually be interested in a little video blurb on wrinkling and fiber chemistry? I'm thinking of making one because I just think it's so cool!

Walnut demonstrates the stretching process...but I don't think he got any stronger as a result. 

A Smidgen of Saturday School

Gosh, I'd forgotten how much I absolutely LOVE learning. We had our second textiles class a couple days ago and I'm just eating up all the information; I've already read waaaay ahead in our textbook because it's so fascinating, not to mention doing extra research on the details that the textbook doesn't include.

We've been learning about the different categories of natural textiles: cellulosic fibers (plant-based, like cotton and linen) and protein fibers (animal-based, like wool and silk). I find it so interesting how the chemical structure of these macromolecules can affect all the fabric qualities that I already know about from sewing, like strength, abrasion resistance, elasticity, resilience, and lustre. I'm just sad that our professor isn't actually a chemistry person, because I want to know more about the stuff that she and our textbook just gloss over, like the polymers' side chain interactions and the importance of hydrogen bonding! I really think that if I were to redo my undergrad, I'd want to change my major from bio/psych to fiber science. Doesn't this blurb from Cornell sound so fascinating? Oh, whoops, excuse me, my nerd is showing.

Because I don't have any sewing to show, I thought I'd share my notes from class instead:

In order to keep from being bored in class (like most teachers, I'm a terrible student -- easily bored and distracted and always thinking about how I could teach something better), I ended up illustrating my notes. Actually, when I was bored in undergrad, I used to take notes in Elvish (i.e. transliterating by using the Quenya alphabet), but that ended up being a problem when I tried to look back at my notes a few years later, but had forgotten my Elvish.

We talked about how the orientation of the fibrils can affect the strength, elasticity, and wickability of various fibers. Also, wool requires a combination of water, heat, and agitation to compact the amorphous fibers (hence the tendency of wool sweaters to shrink in the wash)...so if you were to soak a sheep, get it very warm, and then roll it around a lot, its coat would shrink? 

Besides talking about where cellulosic fibers can originate on a plant, we also talked about their general properties. Natural cellulosic fibers wrinkle easily, are denser than protein fibers, absorb moisture readily (which means they're comfortable in hot weather and conduct electricity well, so less static cling, but can also be susceptible to mildew), have poor elasticity so high-stress area tend to stretch out (think knees and butts), have decent UV resistance, and burn quickly. They are moth-resistant but can attract silverfish, especially when heavily starched. 

We also discussed the process of making linen from flax -- it's pretty intense! Even today, there's no decent "quick" substitute for retting, which means linen will probably stay a luxury fiber. 

If you're interested in following along with me in my studies, these websites do a decent job of teaching the same information that I've been learning about cellulosic fibers. What say you, am I a nerd or am I a nerd? Would you ever want to learn about the chemistry of fibers? I'm already brainstorming about how I can add in a unit of fiber science for my chem class after the AP exam is over...