A couple of weeks ago I bought a great pair of shorts from a charity shop, then wore them for the first time and immediately realised why someone donated them in the first place.
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Also it's 2026, women want pockets enough to make them ourselves FFS. Clothing companies take note
Also somewhere in the replies a man asked me what a needle threader was and I explained and now I feel like tracking down the library guy, waving my phone in his face and going "Look at that! You see how easy it is to take a genuine interest in something sewing related and ask a question in a perfectly normal way about it! LOOK HOW EASY IT IS NOT TO BE A CREEP!"
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A couple of weeks ago I bought a great pair of shorts from a charity shop, then wore them for the first time and immediately realised why someone donated them in the first place.
1/🧵
When I added dark-out lining to my curtains 3 years ago in Oxfordshire, I borrowed a sewing machine from a local costume business. I was amazed they wanted no money.
I love my curtains.
I learned to sew by watching my grandma.
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@afewbugs Oh, weird. There would have been some pocket if they hadn't been embroidered through the pocket lining.
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The only part of the experience that wasn't great was when a man interrupted me in the middle of the first pocket and asked me to teach him how to use a sewing machine, which is the sort of thing that unfortunately happens all too frequently while Being A Woman In Public. I waved the threading instruction sheet at him, told him he was in a library and suggested he get a book, told him to look for YouTube videos and suggested he ask any older female relatives he might have because there was a good chance they might know. He responded by asking if I would come back next Saturday and he would pay me to teach him.
5/🧵
@afewbugs Love your flo mask! So pretty!
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@TimWardCam like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Threaders-Plastic-Needles-Machines-Clothing/dp/B0BBZXDK6L/ Basically a diamond shaped bit of stiff wire you can put through the eye of the needle then have a much larger hole to put the thread through, then use it to pull the thread through the needle. They save so much faffing about
@afewbugs @TimWardCam
Thanks for the info.I have seen them before, but never understood them. Now, I do.
You rock!
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So I cut some slits in the existing useless pockets and made some new ones.
4/🧵
@afewbugs So cool!! Nice work
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So I cut some slits in the existing useless pockets and made some new ones.
4/🧵
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I decided it would be easier to sew the new pockets to the existing ones by hand, so this is my accountability thread to make sure I actually do that before it gets too cold to wear them. But yes, Exeter Library's sewing machine service: highly recommended. Creepy men: do not recommend.
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A couple of weeks ago I bought a great pair of shorts from a charity shop, then wore them for the first time and immediately realised why someone donated them in the first place.
1/🧵
@afewbugs Argh, the fake tiny pockets!
I have done similar pocket surgery on jeans, and while it sucks that we have to make our own pockets, it's so satisfying when they're done.
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@afewbugs Love your flo mask! So pretty!
@ConnyChiwa thank you! The front just snaps off so is very easy to paint - I sprayed it with primer and used acrylic paint pens
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@Betty @jgrg @NilaJones came up with a plausible explanation in another branch of this thread https://zeroes.ca/@NilaJones/116665018097227860
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@afewbugs Also, yes, an alarming number of men are creepy. It's hard to believe the scale of it until you start experiencing it.
On men being creepy: No need to belief, the data proofs it. https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/women-are-not-safe-around-men
And on a more happy note: great work on the pockets! I never got into sewing (or knitting) as the learning curve has always felt quite steep to me.
But looks like one of those things that is both useful and very satisfying.
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@ConnyChiwa thank you! The front just snaps off so is very easy to paint - I sprayed it with primer and used acrylic paint pens
@afewbugs Great job! I've seen decorated ones before but yours is particularly nice.
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@Su_G yes he looked to be in his fifties or sixties, which was ample time on this planet to have done a bit of research if he genuinely wanted to learn to sew rather than, say, spotting a target woman on her own and spontaneously developing an interest in whatever she was doing to give him an excuse to hassle her
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Also it's 2026, women want pockets enough to make them ourselves FFS. Clothing companies take note
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@afewbugs Argh, the fake tiny pockets!
I have done similar pocket surgery on jeans, and while it sucks that we have to make our own pockets, it's so satisfying when they're done.
@Gulleko @afewbugs
It seems to be an institutional bias / misogyny! Why wouldn't women (all of them inc trans) want regular sized pockets?
Is it so, they have to carry things & as such have to be "helped" w doors etc?
Or is it so, that because they are carrying things they're then "vulnerable" to predators?
Good Krap almighty! Do we really need a campaign to fix an issue that should not fucking exist? Whats wrong w the clothing mnfrs?
This form of misogyny is contemptuous. -
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@Gulleko @afewbugs
It seems to be an institutional bias / misogyny! Why wouldn't women (all of them inc trans) want regular sized pockets?
Is it so, they have to carry things & as such have to be "helped" w doors etc?
Or is it so, that because they are carrying things they're then "vulnerable" to predators?
Good Krap almighty! Do we really need a campaign to fix an issue that should not fucking exist? Whats wrong w the clothing mnfrs?
This form of misogyny is contemptuous.@Sine_Nomine If I remember correctly, I think the original culprit was the purse becoming fashionable. Women don't need pockets, they have purses!
And then the fashion industry has just stayed in that mindset because of patriarchy bullshit.Plus smaller pockets means less fabric used, which means they can save money on fabric, and fast fashion will gladly cut every corner to save a few pennies per garment.
