sjar Chapter 129 Clothes Completed
Chapter 129 Clothes Completed
After lunch, Shen Wu started sewing clothes again. She only had some unfinished work to do. After lunch and washing the pots and bowls, she sat at the door and started to continue the unfinished parts.
Gu Zhou was also busy weaving a mattress. There was only a little bit left, and he wanted to finish it as soon as possible and wait until the sun came out to take it out and dry it before using it.
In less than half an hour, Shen Wu had finished sewing all the seams of the clothes. In order to be able to stuff the cattails in, she left a special opening so that she could stuff the cattails in from a space three fingers wide.
After finishing this, she stood up, walked around Gu Zhou, and went to the room on the right to find the cattails that had been dried in the sun before. The cloth bag was covered with traces of mending, and Shen Wu was about to go out with it.
The little brother and Gu Wei were playing happily on the bed. No one knew what the child had learned, but he was crawling very fast. Gu Wei was looking after the little brother nervously, fearing that he would accidentally fall to the ground.
Shen Wu glanced at the two children and felt a little worried, but there was no light in the room and he would not be able to see clearly if he was doing any work.
In the main room, she could see that the space in the room was being used by Gu Zhou to weave a mattress, so she gave up the idea of sitting nearby.
Shen Wu brought the cloth bag to the doorside, and then pulled it inwards for fear that the rain outside would splash on it and get it wet.
She untied the bundle of cloth and planned to use her fist as the unit of measurement. She had to stuff at least seven or eight balls of compacted cattail hair into a horizontal strip in the front.
Shen Wu spread the clothes on his knees, first found the front edge and pulled it into a small opening, then grabbed a handful of cattail hairs from the cloth bag and rolled them tightly in his hands.
It was my first time and I had no experience. A large bunch of cattail hair in my hand was pressed down into a small ball, much smaller than the palm of my hand.
Shen Wu was afraid that if he put too little, it would not keep him warm, so he stuffed cattail hair into his hands and pressed them down desperately until a cattail ball formed in his palms.
This is what meets her standards.
She rubbed the cattail ball in her palm a little, rolled it into a long strip like dough, and stuffed it into the middle of the clothes little by little along the opened edge.
It was her first time doing this and she had no experience. When she found that it was too thick to be inserted, she simply pressed it in. Anyway, she would have to sew it up in the end, so she didn't have to worry about the seams being stretched.
After a lot of shoveling, she finally managed to stuff a large ball of cattail hair in. To see the effect, Shen Wu immediately made another ball, rubbed it a little, and then stuffed it in.
At this time, she was stuffing the bottom layer of the right front piece, which was considered the right half of the garment because it was a double-breasted style.
She stopped only after she had stuffed three large balls in, took out the needle awl from the shoe opening, held the needle tip and used the end of the wooden stick to hit the hem of the clothes that had been stuffed with cattails.
The cattails were stuffed in a ball, and because they were light and soft, they spread out in the sewn channel with a slight pat.
Shen Wu looked at the obviously bulging hem and felt so happy!
The effect is similar to the cotton lining she makes at home.
At first she wasn't sure if it was really useful. She just saw on the Internet that ancient people used cattails and reeds as the lining of their clothes to keep warm. She didn't expect it might really be useful.
At that time, she was just surfing the Internet and saw a question asking how ancient people kept warm in winter.
The answers below are a mess, ranging from all kinds of wild fantasies to honest answers.
I just remember one reply that went something like this: "In ancient times, some people used oil paper, some added cattail and reed hair into clothes, and some were even more ruthless, putting willow catkins into clothes (ps: willow catkins do not keep warm). Later, cotton was introduced to China, and people used cotton to keep warm, but the rich used silk, while the poor usually used oil paper and cattail and reeds."
From then on, she remembered how ancient people kept warm.
She tried it and took out the fur inside. She hadn't planned to wash the inner layer in the first place, otherwise why would she leave the plug in the mouth.
After cleaning the inside, she followed the previous seam and made another one about ten centimeters away from the previous one.
The finished product she produced with this method was similar to the animated image of a Michelin tire. As she was doing it, Shen Wu couldn't help laughing out loud.
"Do you need help?" Gu Zhou had finished knitting and was still sewing and rolling up the knitted mattress.
"You can?" Shen Wu was quite curious.
Gu Zhou leaned the mattress against the wall and walked over to look at the marks she had sewn: "Yes."
It is indeed slow to do it alone, so Shen Wu handed the finished clothes in his hand over without much thought: "I have finished the rest, just follow me to sew straight lines parallel to each other."
Gu Zhou pulled over a stool and sat next to her, carefully examining the clothes she had sewed. He had indeed never seen such a thing before: "Double-layered? Doesn't it waste cloth?" No wonder she bought so much cloth.
Shen Wu took a ball of cattail hair and stuffed it in to demonstrate to him: "Stuff it in like this from here. Make sure to leave a gap, otherwise it won't fit in."
"Why didn't you plug the one you made earlier?" Gu Zhou was a little puzzled.
Shen Wu told him his thoughts: "This dress should have an underwear inside, the kind that is worn next to the skin, and a few warm and dirt-proof ones outside. This dress is the middle layer. In this way, even if the clothes are dirty, we only need to change and wash the underwear and outer clothes next to the skin. I am not sure how to keep the cattail hair fluffy after washing, and clothes dry very slowly in winter, so basically we need to wash them less often."
Gu Zhou understood what she meant before she said half of her words. He took the almost unfinished product and looked at it over and over again: "So this is why you bought so much cloth. It is indeed more troublesome, but it will save a lot of clothes."
The shirt Shen Wu made was almost two sizes larger than his. It would take a long time to make it for a family of three, so she had to make the shirt first and then worry about the pants. Anyway, she could just make an elastic and loose version, sew circles of Michelin tires on it, wash and dry it, and then stuff cattail hair inside.
"The clothes you make are very unique in style and very convenient," Gu Zhou praised unexpectedly.
"I thought you weren't wearing any?" Shen Wu asked, feeling a little embarrassed.
"I'll wear it inside. It's too conspicuous if I wear it outside. Although the color is dark, I'm afraid it will get dirty." Gu Zhou rolled up the sleeves at her wrists to reveal the inner layer of clothes she made.
"I'll put it on too," Shen Wu said as he rolled up his sleeves to show him.
It has been raining these days, and the cool air blowing into the house with the wind makes it a bit cold. As an old lady, she feels a bit embarrassed to live with these children. There are no quilts to use when it is cold at night, so she wears the clothes she made as warm clothes.
At this point, Shen Wu suddenly remembered that he had planned to make underwear for his two children and himself. The cloth he bought was close-fitting and could be made into underwear. After the rainy day was over, he would be busy selling buns again, so he might as well prepare to cut underwear today.
She planned to make two square ones for Gu Zhou, and triangular ones for Gu Wei and herself, but they needed to have a special structure so that they would have nothing to cushion their menstrual period.