The Fable Of Pretty Close To Every Single Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic Setting Ever

Once upon a time there was a person who watched movies and TV and played games and read books. This person had lovely things and a good Society to live in, and Rules about how to live, but they didn't appreciate that- no, sir, not one bit! They whined about things they didn't like and were ungrateful for everything around them unless it was exactly what they wanted.

And then one day a Very Bad Thing happened, and Society collapsed and all the Rules went away. And the whiny ungrateful brat of a person found out that Rules were there for a Reason, and that Reason was because the world was full of Bad People and Awful Things, and without those Rules the Bad People and Awful Things would happen to them, all the time, every day of their lives. And they would happen to other people, too, although most of the other people probably didn't matter very much to the person who watched movies and TV. But Bad Things would happen! All the time!

So the person who watched TV and movies and read books had to fight a whole bunch and do all kinds of hard things and spend most of their time fighting, and they got good at it, and they were rewarded for it, and they were happy for a while but then the next day they had to get up and do it again and it was like that every single day of the rest of their lives. They couldn't say, 'I was a hero and I finished doing all the things and now the world is awesome again and I can rest'. No, they had to keep struggling very hard every single day because all the Bad People and all the Bad Things were out there and the person who watched TV and movies didn't have Society and Rules to protect them any more! They had to do it all themselves, forever!

So really even though it looks kind of awesome to think about how you'd handle yourself in a post-apocalytic setting where Society is gone and you're completely free to make your own way, it would totally suck, and you shouldn't want that, so just be grateful for what you have, you brat.

This fable brought to you by hearing a friend wonder plaintively why all the post-apocalyptic movies, Netflix shows, video games, etc. that they had ever watched basically showed society collapsing and the violent bad cannibal redneck raider hick hunter spike-wearing edgelords having their way with the world, instead of clusters of people rebuilding and looking after one another. It occurred to me this morning that it felt very similar to the unspoken Fable Of The Runaway Kid. Given that I can think of maybe two stories since the dawn of the printing press in which the kid ran away from home and decided not to go back and it turned out to be the right choice, and those stories are The Deed of Paksenarrion and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, pretty much all of the other stories of runaway kids I can think of boil down to 'once there was an ungrateful brat who didn't appreciate their parents, and they ran away from home, and they realized they didn't like it and they either lived out the rest of their brief awful lives in misery or went home and were grateful for their parents who were right all along, so appreciate your parents, you brat'.

So I finished a shirt!

( Four images behind cut. )

Pattern is York, from Seamwork.com. Sleeves were altered to full length because I intend to wear this in a mosquito intensive area- yes, I should have altered the neckline for more cover, I'll just add a silk scarf or something. Fabric is off-white cotton double gauze from Sewing Studio.com, in Oregon. Bias tape was made from Kona Snow cotton by Robert Kaufman; I got it on Etsy. Thread is polyester Gutermann Mara 100 all-purpose Tex 30 thread, color #111, from WAWAK.

The goal here was to make a long sleeved shirt from a light enough fabric that I could wear it outside for birdwatching and minimize successful mosquito attacks. Like I said, I should've altered the pattern neckline, but I didn't think of that. I'll either figure out something to wear under it or put on a very light silk scarf to handle the remaining skin exposure. I lengthened the sleeves, but left the cuffs the same size as usual; a little extra hand cover is not a terrible problem in this situation.

The back has a keyhole opening and ties together with the extra bias tape I used to bind the neckline. The sleeve cuffs were my introduction to the concept of a Hong Kong finish; I assumed, based on the York instructions, that I was supposed to bind all the seam allowance layers together and then press and topstitch that into place.

I will have to wear a more skin-colored undergarment when I wear this out in public. The brighter the light, the more becomes visible through the gauze. I'll deal, if it means less skin exposed to mosquito bites.