3.1.26
I went to the mall with my brother today. Apparently there was a huge fight in the food court yesterday, but it was still crowded AF. Unsurprising for a Sunday... I don't go to the mall very often since I only care for a small selection of stores, most notably Miniso and Barnes & Nobles. My B&N sucks nuts and the manga section is 99% isekai slop, and the 'mature' section is very slim, but they atleast have Calico Critters... I wasn't allowed to have Calico Critters as a kid (they were too expensive), but now that I have adult money I can continue to window-shop for them. I walked around for a bit, but I only ended up buying 2 blind boxes at Miniso. The Kewpie Baby figure boxes have me in a chokehold! I have 10 of them, two of which are duplicates, but they're so damn cute!!! I'm mostly immune to blind-box propaganda surprisingly, I avoid them if there's even one prize that I don't like. Hot Topic and Spencers are two stores I typically visit (Unsurprisingly), but they were boring.. The unfortunate thing about liking a lot of "obscure" (for lack of better word?) genres is that Hot Topic becomes very mundane. The band tee selection plus whatever other shit they sell nowadays. The jewelry is meh, almost always too expensive to be worth it. Some of the My Little Pony stuff is cute however, but I don't need any jewelry. That's the crafters curse: "Why buy it for 15 dollars when I can make it with my 30+ dollars tools and supplies?" I do more supply hoarding than actual crafting, but it comes in handy sometimes!
I haven't gotten to go out in a while (life has been busy, car battery died, my mom's car feels funny to drive), and even though I quite hate the mall, it was nice to get outside. And get new toys. I didn't get a picture of my outfit, oops! Maybe next 'outing' blog post will include photos. I have miserably little phone storage right now, anyways..
2.27.2026
I've gotten a few questions about these, and I decided to make a tutorial. You will need to know the X-Base stitch to make this. I saw KandiToyBox made Fluffy covers with a double stitch, but I wanted to experiment with a modified X-Base version. ^.^ Rewritten with better method! Now this can work as fluffies covers or a leg garter!
Final Product example
Supplies: You will need a thick, nonstretchy string/cord (I used T-shirt Jersey), stretchy string (I don't recommend fishing line or stretch magic because it needs to stretch, & stretch magic isn't durable), pony beads, and optionally accent beads and a lighter. I hope this is obvious, but do not use a thin stretchy string as the lace-up string because it will cheese-wire your legs, and won't hold.
1. Cut your stretchy string. I cut about a wingspan amount because you'll need a lot.
2. Add your beads to the string in a 1-3-1 pattern until the BEADED section can wrap almost completely around underneath your knee. Make sure you have one accent bead on each end. Leave about a ~2 inch gap so you can lace it up later. I did 49 beads total, but this depends on your leg size.
3. Pull your string tight, and tie a thick knot on each end to prevent the beads from slipping out. I got impatient and frustrated and used two tiny pony beads to keep the knot from slipping out, and it was easier to keep it taut.
4. Thread your string through your closest accent bead, then start adding beads. Add 5 beads to your string then go through the next accent bead. This is the same as the regular x-base stitch pattern until you get to the other end.
5. After getting to the other end, follow the arrow from the image above. Thread back up into the spike until you get to the peak/accent bead, and repeat step 4. This will get you to one full X. This is how tall I make mine, but you can make it taller if you like.
6. Once you get to the end, add on beads in a 2-1-3 pattern. Two of your base color, one accent, and three of your base color again. This will make the corner stitch into a full X. Don't worry, we get to the other side soon.
7. To start closing it up, add three if your base color beads inbetween each peak. This is the standard X-base stitch again.
8. Repeat step 6, but in reverse. Add your beads in a 3-1-2 pattern and thread it down in the middle bead of the X and tie.
9. You finished the base! Now to add the thread to tie it around your leg. I used t-shirt jersey because that's what I have on hand, but you can use ribbon, yarn, etc. Thread it into the top corner beads, and the bottom corner beads. Kind of like threading shoelaces. I used the tail of a comb to shove the jersey through the beads. Adding a corset back makes this easy to adjust, and customizeable!
10. If you want to add 3D spikes to it, it's the exact same as a 3D X-base cuff. If you want to add the dangling threads like my example, thread a scrap of your thicker string through the bottom accent bead, add beads, and tie the bottom. Make sure your knot is thick enough so the beads can't fall through. You can also add beads to the tie-back strings, but be aware that these click-clack when you walk lol. You can also add pom-poms inbetween the gaps of the X'es to add dimension and color, but I ran out.
And that's how it's done! If you need clarification or make this, please send it my way! I would love to see it. ^.^