Lightweight Fabric & Clothing Options ('cause it's summer!)

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Zombilicious
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Lightweight Fabric & Clothing Options ('cause it's summer!)

Post by Zombilicious »

I see a lot of wool, which makes sense -- we have sheep and things. I also see rimeveil, which is cooler than wool, but it's the middle of summer and fairly hot so thematically and in-character I think most NPCs (and PCs) would want something more lightweight. So I have a list of potential lightweight medieval-level fabrics that could work out! (This won't include things like hemp, because we have thornleaf and barkcloth already!)
  • Linen - We do have this listed in materials, and there are some items made from this, but I haven't seen an opportunity to make it. Linen is created through the flax plant, which is grown in temperate regions. Actually making linen is a long process that involves ripping up the entire plant, threshing and winnowing, and then "retting" (or dissolving) the outer layers of the plant to get to the flax fibers in the bast. Then you separate the woody stalk from the rest, heckle the fibers (with a heckling comb) and weave it. This would have to be cut down on, obviously, otherwise people might get bored or never make it but I think that it's a great plant to include because flax can also be used to make paper, twine and rope!
  • Cotton - I'm not sure if cotton exists in-game yet, and it admittedly doesn't grow well in the cold, but it's fairly easy to process once growing. You grow it, you pick it, you separate it from its seeds, and then weave it into threads, which get woven into cloth. This could also be calico instead of cotton, which is plain-woven and looks a bit less finished than what we know cotton to be, or muslin which is very thin and drapey and that's why it commonly gets used these days as patterning but could be used as very lightweight clothing.
It'd also be really nice if we could make chest-wraps, foot-wraps, hand-wraps, etc instead of just gloves and shirts and shoes. Blouses and dresses don't suit everyone, after all (looking at you, lady druids who don't like clothes) and the people yell at us in the bathhouse if we try to steal their stuff.
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Avedri
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Re: Lightweight Fabric & Clothing Options ('cause it's summer!)

Post by Avedri »

I *too* would love more fabric/tailoring stuff.

Rimeveil however seems to be the in-game cotton equivalent and it only grows in winter. A few characters have a stock of it though if you are looking to use that.
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Zombilicious
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Re: Lightweight Fabric & Clothing Options ('cause it's summer!)

Post by Zombilicious »

Cotton's also listed in HELP MATERIALS, as a separate fabric, though rimeveil does seem to be the most lightweight option I can find in-game currently. Also, Lexx pointed out that having options like buckskin would be great too, so we could add things that aren't really leather but are very soft and made from animal skins.
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Lexx416
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Re: Lightweight Fabric & Clothing Options ('cause it's summer!)

Post by Lexx416 »

I'm not sure if it's possible for leatherworking and tailoring to use the same materials, but buckskin would be a great pretty lightweight material to use to make clothes and shoes out of for both tailors and leatherworkers, for sure. Buckskin is treated a little differently than leather in terms of how it's made and could perhaps be a recipe shared with both Skinning and leatherworking, which results in a more supple and pliable, less rigid, and more soft material that would not offer much in the way of warmth or protection. I believe the process to make buckskin is called "brain tanning", and involves eventually smoking the material to dry it out without making it stiff, but still allowing it to be weather resistant.

edited to add: It'd be nice if we could make breechcloths as well.
"You hear the Woses, the Wild Men of the Woods... Remnants of an older time they be, living few and secretly, wild and wary as beasts."
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