vintagesimstress

Wooden Shack Override

Just a tiny thing I made for my own game. This wooden shack (a world edit item) is actually a really cool and versatile BG piece, but shines bright like a diamond in the night - too bright even if it was a modern house, let alone anything historical. Now that I learned how to edit light maps (no rocket science tbh 😅), I decided to fix this problem, so that I could use it freely in all the settings. Oh, and it lost the chimney in the process. Looked a bit too modern as well. How does all the smoke escape the shack now, you ask? No idea. Luckily, its The Sims, so we don't have to worry about it ;)

It's an override, i.e. a default replacement. If you used the og shack anywhere in your saves, this is how it's going to look now. Like if it had soft candlelight inside, no alien experiments.

Find best by typing VS in the search bar. Or in decoration (misc).

Here it is once again, with a side view and no reshade:

Just a teeny tiny thing, but it makes a big difference. Just look how out of place this shack used to look before. My eyes!

Wooden House (World deco object)

Hi everyone!

I've been on a converting spree in the past days and it looks like finally I can start sharing some of those objects I made for my own save. The first one is a beautiful (yet EXTREMELY low poly) wooden house, found on Sketchfab, originally made by PilotPirx (check the original HERE). Looks kinda Slavic imho, but only if you take a close look; seen from far away it can for sure fit in a variety of settings. Perfect as hood deco if you're using TOOL and Blowtorch! (Especially considering the polycount. I'm serious, this thing has as many polys as a bowl of fruit).

I barely had to make any adjustments: I think the only upgrade necessary was adding bump and light maps. Yes, you read that correctly: the windows light up in the night, in a 'soft candlelight' sort of way! A hundred thanks to Ingeli for introducing me to this particular kind of magic 💖

Base game compatible. Find best by typing 'VS' in the search bar.

One swatch only because that wooden shack I used as a base refuses to let me add more. Also, I'm feeling lazy. Making as much stuff as possible in the shortest time possible currently has priority ;)

And that's it. There's more to come and I'll probably keep posting random vaguely-iron-age'y conversions in the next days, so if that's your thing, stay tuned!

Dagda's Cauldron (conversion)

We're supposed to get hit by a heatwave tomorrow, so I'm trying to quickly wrap up some old WIPs before yet another forced TS4 break. This beauty comes from Sketchfab, where it was posted by a user named Dragonjojo - you can preview the original in here! I lowered the polycount and converted it to TS4.

• found under sculptures (or by typing 'VS' in the search bar)
• only one swatch, sorry! I just couldn't think what could possibly look better than this (also, it uses a very high res texture, so new swatches would probably totally bloat the package)
• polycount, despite intense decimating, still quite high: ca. 10K
• can be viewed/admired, just like any other sculpture

No idea how big the Gunderstrup cauldron is, but this one reaches more or less to sims' waist:

(As you can see, proper lighting makes all the details pop!)
(Also, that was still a beta version. The final one does cast a shadow, like a good cauldron should ;) )

Deco only. If anyone wants to edit it so that it'd work as a spellcaster's cauldron, please go ahead! I can't do it myself, as I don't own RoM.

Thank you to the original creator for this beautiful piece! ❤❤❤

Enjoy :)

1850: Night at the Opera (in collaboration with The Royal Thornolia Chronicles)

After my months-long Celtic spree, the time has come to briefly return to my old era of interest...

May I present to you a small 1850s set, made together with amazing Ali, the author of @theroyalthornoliachronicles! We're both so excited to finally share it with you all 💗 Make sure to check Ali's post for her half of the collaboration - practically necessary if you want your mid-Victorian gentlemen to be properly dressed for the evening!

While Ali dealt with the men, I focused - surprise surprise - on the ladies. And made two evening dresses, both inspired by the same fashion plate from ca. 1850:

If you follow Ali's story, you probably remember that a certain mademoiselle Eleanor Valery wore the dress on the right to an opera event. The dress on the left also made a short appearance, as it (or rather: its beta version) was worn by my simself Cecile, who was kindly invited to participate in the evening as well (no, that's not my real name. I just asked my husband to give me a random female French name, and that was the first thing he came up with ;)). And so both dresses are named after those characters: Eleanor and Cecile.

Both come in 29 swatches and I swear all of those colour combos come straight from mid-Victorian fashion plates - even if Ali claimed some of them remind her of 1980s Barbies ;)

• polycount: ca. 17K for Eleanor (that's HIGH my friends, you have been warned. Believe me or not, it's mostly the fault of all those tiny deco flowers) and 7,5 for Cecile
• Base Game compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod). Both dresses come also in non-HQ versions, if that's what you'd prefer. Pick only one each!
• Cecile uses glass shader for lace transparency = won’t work properly in laptop mode
• all LODs
• custom thumbnails, bump and specular maps, lots of satin shine
• tagged as everyday and formal
• found under long dress subcategory
• colour tagged
• disallowed for random
• PDNs included if anyone wants to make recolours. You don’t need them for the mesh to work.

You might notice that they vary slightly in style, and that's because I put an insane amount of work into texturing Cecile, as somehow I couldn't get it to look any satisfactory with my usual methods. I love the result, but the whole process was so convoluted that I'm not even sure if I could still retrace all the steps, let alone redo Eleanor in the same style. So we're left with this small discrepancy between both dresses. Hope you don't mind!

And now, once again, jump over to The Royal Thornolia Chronicles for the other half of the goodies :)

BG Tunic (& Pants) for Infants Recoloured

I don't care much for infant clothing, considering it takes them only a couple of days to age up into toddlers, but even during those 5 or so days they still have to wear something. Lately I was looking at the available in-game options, trying to find anything which could pass for my Celtic sims if I squinted a little, and found this tunic + leggings combo. It would be perfect, actually (what screams 'Celts' more than a tunic???) - if only there was a single swatch without rainbows, guitars, cutesy cats and whatever else EA put on them! So I quickly decided to make some more era-appropriate recolours.

Comes in 3 packages: the default (my Iron Age palette), Sokea's plaids and a selection of Trillyke's plaids. Because I've read somewhere that British Celts loved chequered patterns. Altogether over 90 swatches. All files come either in a standard (hq) or lq version - pick only one per package!

Let me know if there are any problems and (hopefully) enjoy!

Sifix' Ximena Dress Edit & Recolour

The moment I saw this gorgeous gown I knew I had to try to remake it in more Iron-Age-y style. It was just too perfect! And so - here it is. With a shortened hem, covered décolletage and non-gathered, slightly trumpety sleeves.

Recoloured in all 40 swatches of my Iron Age palette. Polycount: ca. 9K. Disabled for random, tagged in the right categories, custom specular and bump maps.

There are two files: the default, hq one, and a non-hq version for those of you who prefer it. Choose only one.

Big thank you to the amazing Sifix for her beautiful creations and generous TOU!

Victorian robes for infants - long and short version

The outfit which was originally intended as a default replacement for babies/newborns, then (after Nifty Knitting made the og plan impossible) converted for toddlers, now brought back (almost) to it's original form!

Just as the toddler version, it comes in 2 lengths: almost floor-length, as seen in the preview picture, and a shorter one - let's say, knee-length. Same 10 swatches as back then.

Please keep in mind that as originally it was supposed to be a default replacement, keeping the polycount low had a higher priority than making the outfit extra pretty. Therefore, it's of a lower quality than my usual pieces, at least in my own eyes. Maybe one day, if time allows, I'll make a fancier version too. You know, with lace, frills and all that Victorian stuff... But for now we have this simple yet universal infant gown.

Tagged as everyday, sleep and hot weather, unisex. Custom thumbnails. Disabled for random. Polycount: ca. 4-4,5K.

Comes with some imperfections, unfortunately, because it's extremely hard (at least for me) to imitate infant movements/poses in Blender and make sure the outfit looks perfect all the time. Those creatures are WIGGLY! Still, I think I managed to get to the point when both versions look ok most of the time.

Hope you like them, enjoy :)

Sifix' Sansa Dress Edit & Recolour

Every time I look at Sifix' creations I cry a little bit inside, as they're all so beautiful and yet completely not suited for any of my gameplays - be it Victorian or Iron Age. Last time it happened I got determined to find at least a couple of meshes which maaaaaybe could work if I tweaked them just a bit here and there, and dyed them in era-appropriate colours... And indeed, I did find some! Here comes the first of those pieces: my edit and recolour of Sifix' gorgeous Sansa dress. Hopefully it won't be the last one :)

What has changed:

• higher hemline - because floor-length dresses/skirts might look splendid trailing on stone castle floors, but are not best suited to living in simple huts and jumping through mud on a daily basis;
• a simple leather belt instead of that wide, ornamental thingy the og dress had;
• a bit wider sleeves, to give it a more casual, less tailored look;
• some small weights adjustments (a.k.a. my almost vain attempts to get rid of a stubborn spike appearing in the neckline)

Comes in all the 40 colours of my Iron Age palette. I tried making chequered versions too, but they didn't look good; I'd have to change half of the uv map, which means I'd have to bake the 3d layer myself instead of using the one already provided, and that's probably my least favourite part of cc-making, so all in all... Just no. No plaids this time.

Comes in 2 versions: HQ (-mod-compatible) or not. Download just one.

As I edited the mesh, it's obviously included. You don't need the og dress for it to work. But you probably already have it anyway ;)

Makes for a nice outfit for colder days, especially with proper accessories (all by simverses).

Hope you like it. Enjoy!

Simalicious' Melina Dress Recolour

Despite being called 'Egiptian', this recolour of this dress by Simalicious has always been one of my favourite outfits to use in my GBSC save. The only problem I had with it was that it came in so few colours...! And so, after some time - and especially after I developed my Iron Age palette - I decided to fix this problem and make my own recolours.

Being just a recolour and not my own creation, this dress requires Simalicious' original to work. Once again, you can grab it HERE.

Comes in 3 variations:

• 40 solid swatches in my Iron Age palette (a.k.a. the file named just 'recolour')
• 23 swatches in Sokea's Plaid Pattern Pack;
• 36 swatches selected from Trillyke's Ultimate Plaids collection (the o.g. collection includes 55 patterns, but I deleted those which I deemed too modern-looking)

Moreover, each file comes in 2 versions. The default ones are HQ mod compatible; the ones with 'NonHQ' at the end aren't, but they are significantly smaller, so you might prefer them if you have an oldish computer or little free disc space. Download only one version per package! (i.e. either HQ or not)

Hope you like it, enjoy :)

PS. Keep in mind that as it's not my mesh, I can't edit it in any way. I've noticed that the dress is misbehaving a bit in lod3 (when you zoom out aaaaaall the way) - alas, there's nothing I can do about it without violating the creator's tou.

Iron Age Colour Palette

Based on some Internet research and certain photos I took in the ancient village of Biskupin some... 16 years ago? 17? My my, time flies... I created a colour palette to use for my Iron Age creations/recolours. 'Iron Age' in a very broad sense - you could as well call it 'natural dyes palette', so you can safely use it also for many later eras.

Includes 40 colours.

Apart from pigments you could get using plants native to Europe (where the GBSC, obviously, takes place, so this was my reference point) I included also some which are a bit more exotic, but I felt like richer people would still have a chance to obtain them by trade. I mean here mostly dyer's madder, which afaik grows only in warmer climates. What I didn't include are dyes coming from very faraway places. So if you've already noticed the striking absence of indigo and wondered what happened to it, that's your answer.

Below you can find three attachments:

• a .txt palette file for my fellow Paint.net users - you can just paste it into Dokuments\paint.net App Files\Palettes
• an .aco file for those of you who use Photoshop (BIG shoutout to Peebsplays who just went ahead and made it for me from hex codes in the txt file 😭 Thank you!) - though I'm afraid you have to research yourself where to put it, as I don't even have Photoshop 🙃
• a .pdf file with some completely unnecessary info, just in case you're interested in where those colours come from. Here a little side note: in some cases you can get WAY more colours from a certain ingredient than I listed, but because I already had similar ones on the list, I skipped them. Take apple trees, for example: I remember seeing so many yellows and greens in that 'dyeing with apples' post, but as I already had them in the palette, the only apple shades included are pinkish or brownish.

Oh, and I feel like I should add a disclaimer: as in reality I've never dyed anything, let alone with natural dyes, it totally might be that I made some mistakes. Don't quote me on this in your PhD thesis ;)

Please tag me if you use it, I'd be excited to see it!

Fish on a Stick Override

Just a silly thing I made for my own game, and campfire-related again (I warned you!). Because if your sims' diet consists mostly of roasted fish, and if you take lots of screenshots, including pretty close-ups, sooner or later you're bound to notice that the original fish on a stick looks rather... Well...

...let's call it not ideal.

So I made an override to make the fish look more like a real fish. The texture is much bigger, but the mesh is even lower poly than the original (because I deleted all those tiny fins), so it shouldn't have much slowing-down impact on your games.

And that's it. Put it in your mods folder and enjoy a fish which doesn't look so out of place in your pretty setting :)

Bon appétit!

Mirai's Medieval Activities Add-On

Would you like to make your game a bit harder? Constantly worry that your sims might starve themselves to death? Or just add another touch of realism? If yes, look no further! Those add-ons are guaranteed to turn your TS4 into a survival simulator and give you a decent amount of frustration and stress :P

Here come two little add-ons for MiraiM's Medieval Activities mod. In case you haven't heard of it: it adds a new option under 'Travel' cellphone menu, called - you guessed it - Medieval Activities, which lets your sims pick from a list of rabbithole... well... medieval(ish) activities. While most of them are indeed distinctly medieval, some can be used also in other eras - especially the first one, which makes your sim go to the woods and collect logs. Your sim returns from this rabbithole activity with a bunch of logs in their inventory (plus a tense moodlet and tragic hygiene stats), which can later be sold for a decent amount of money. Unless... You download add-ons which make those logs necessary for using certain objects.

I fell in love with this mod the moment I found it, but was a bit disappointed to see the logs being (optionally) required only for otg stoves and fireplaces - both of which I'm not allowed to use in the iron age. I tried asking the creator if she could make an add-on for campfires as well, only to realise that the last post on her page was written half a year ago, not even by her, and it states that she's in a very bad health condition... And so, after overcoming the initial 'feeling like a total insensitive idiot' phase, I decided to give it a go myself.

There are two add-ons: one combined for campfires, bonfires and grills, and another one for the woodworking table. As for the amount of logs required, I totally made those numbers up, trying to adhere to some basic logic and Mirai's og stove & fireplace requirements:

• lighting a campfire: 3 logs
• lighting a bonfire: 5 logs (cause bonfires are bigger, right? And the fire seems to last much longer)
• adding a log: 1 log
• grilling anything: 2 logs
• woodworking: requirements vary depending on the size of the craftable; anywhere from 1 log (knifeblock) to 5 logs (bathtub, table)

All has been tested in game, of course, especially the campfire, and oh boy, let me just tell you: this combined with the off the grid and simple living challenges makes every simday a fight for survival. Which sounds pretty darn accurate for pre/protohistorical times, so... Hurray?

Anyway. Have, ehmmm... fun with it and... ehmmm... enjoy.

ABSOLUTELY, 100% requires Mirai's original mod to work. Don't put it in your mods folder if you don't have her Medieval Activities!

A hundred thanks to Mirai for creating such a cool mod in the first place. Sending you all my love and best wishes <3

***

Altered resources (aka potential conflicts): 

• recipe tuning files for all the woodworking craftables
• campfire_AddLog (102352)
• campfire_Light (101940)
• grill_StartCrafting (35026)
• grill_StartCrafting_RequiredIngredients (261962)
• herbalism_BrewPotion_Grill (103875)
• bonfire_light (121477)
• bonfire_add_fuel (121485)

Campfire - Simple Living fix

First things first: let's fix a bug which makes playing in the Iron Age... Well, maybe not impossible, but very tricky.

Have you ever tried to use a campfire with the Simple Living challenge on? You know, the one which makes it so that you need all the necessary ingredients to be able to cook (came with Cottage Living, I guess)? I hadn't, for a long time. And then I have. And realised, to my greatest surprise, that when the challenge is on the only thing I can roast over a campfire are marshmallows. No hot dogs. No beetles. No fish, even though I most certainly just caught some and had them in my inventory. Huh?

My confusion just grew when I did some searching in S4S and discovered that EA made a separate interaction extra for this scenario: using a campfire while the Simple Living challenge is active. I tried moving some stuff around, but to no avail. After some 3 days of trying out different things and failing miserably (I'm modding level 2 or 3, at best...), I threw my arms in the air in despair and screamed internally: 'I give up; it makes zero sense! It's precisely the same interaction, only the lot trait is whitelisted instead of blacklisted! It should work, but those stupid options won't appear! Like if they weren't even connected to the campfire or something...'

And then it clicked.

Yeah. They weren't connected.

Well, now they are.

Put my fix in your mods folder and enjoy living simply with your freshly caught fish or beetles, or self-prepared hot dogs made of bread and meat (substitute)!

I used this opportunity to also disable the option to roast marshmallows when the challenge is on, because for real, there's nothing simple about marshmallows. The ingredients you'd need to make them yourself don't even exist in the game afaik.

Enjoy and lmk if anything doesn't work as intended!

Outdoor Retreat (and Cottage Living? maybe?) required

Guess who's back (...kind of...?)

Hello everyone!

It's been 1,5 years. Wow, how the time flies!

You might have seen me lurking around on other simmers' tumblrs/patreons, writing a comment or two every now and then, but only now I feel like the time has come for me to return to my own space.

Here's a couple of announcements to get things re-started. I bet you're all busy, so I'll try to keep it short!

1) Private matters: A massive thank you to everyone who wrote me while I was gone ❤ There was quite a lot of you and I'm afraid I can't reply to each of those messages individually, but just so that you know: I've read them, they made me smile and I'm very grateful for all your kind words. I'm doing perfectly fine, and so is my little daughter. She's a beautiful and fascinating creature, learning new things all the time, and so unexpectedly that it really feels like if she was a sim levelling up and unblocking new interactions ^^

2) My CC: I still have very little free time and zero chance of going back to my old cc-making habits. That being said, in the past weeks/months I made a couple of teeny tiny things which I'd like to share with you, and also when I'm done with them I might make something new once in a while. Please keep your expectations low though! None of those things are Victorian; the majority (I guess?) aren't even clothes but mod add-ons, bug fixes, bb recolours - stuff like that. Still, someone might find them useful, so why not share?

3) For some more context, in case you care: my Victorian save got to the point of being quite paralysing (i.e. I wouldn't proceed unless everyone was dressed perfectly, living in perfect surroundings, reflecting not only their times, but also status and personality - and that perfect point turned out to be rather unattainable. Surprise surprise), and I really wanted to have some TS4 fun, so I started the Great British Sim Challenge. From the very beginning. Iron Age. At first I was determined not to make any cc for it and just roll with whatever I'd find, like any normal player, but you know how it goes XD So that's what pretty much everything I'm making is related to those days. Iron Age. Especially campfire. Why does everything I make have to do with the darned campfire...?

The challenge is super fun, btw. I mean, for me. My poor sims would probably disagree.

4) Curseforge: I know many creators have by now moved to that new, EA-curated cc platform, and I've been thinking about doing it myself - even created an account - but in the end, for a number of reasons, decided against it. One of the main ones is that learning to use that platform and uploading there all my creations, old and new, would require quite a lot of time, which I simply don't have. If I have the choice between actually playing the game and having some fun, creating new cc I could share and uploading old stuff on yet another site... well, I guess it's clear which point has the lowest priority. So: nothing will change. Just as before, I'll be posting new things on my Patreon and simblr (linking to the Patreon page); everything will be free ofc, no early access either; and I'll keep constantly updating my downloads page, so that you could easily get an overview of everything I've ever made.

That's all folks! Have a nice day/evening and talk to you soon 😊

Emma collab: 1815 ball gown

This post has been scheduled. I'm still very much on hiatus :]

Surprise!

We interrupt the hiatus to bring you part 1 of the Emma Collaboration Pack: a set of regency items - mostly pretty dresses - by Peebs, Bats from Westeros and yours truly. Make sure to check Peebs' and Bats' sites for their parts of the collab - you won't regret it! Trust me, both of them put way more work into it than me ;-). 

My contribution is just this one, but - if I might say so myself - quite pretty ball gown. Comes in 33 swatches: the one known from the movie and 32 recolours in Peebs' personal palette.

• polycount: ca. 5K for LOD0
• Base Game compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod)
• uses glass shader for transparency = won't work properly in laptop mode
• all LODs
• custom thumbnail, bump and specular maps, lots of satin shine
• tagged as everyday and formal
• found under long dress subcategory
• colour tagged
• disallowed for random
• PDN and PSD for recolours included - you don’t need them for the mesh to work.

Many thanks to Peebs and Bats for giving me an opportunity to be a part of this collaboration! It was very interesting - though challenging - to make an item from a decade I'd never touched before, and it turned out to be a very motivating and inspiring experience. If only I had time to put all this newfound inspiration to use ^^.

I hope you'll like the gown - and once again, run and check Peebs' and Bats' posts for more goodies!

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

Resources for (aspiring) CC creators

Hi everyone!

Just popping in to share some of my basic CC making resources with you. By 'resources' I mean simple meshes in era-appropriate shapes, but without any specific details. That means you can (relatively) easy remake them into whatever you want. Just a bit of knife here and there, some texturing, maybe some uv map adjustments and you're done!

Way easier than making a whole dress from scratch or editing any of my published gowns, which are usually already cut in hundreds of weird places...

The coolest thing about those bases: they're all ready to be used in game. Weight painting? Done! Vertex painting? Done as well! Uv-1? But of course! Unless you make some big changes to the mesh, you won't have to bother with those annoying things at all.

All are meant to be imported over the base game chemise. That's important. Don't try to use anything else as a clone or things may go wrong. Either the mesh won't import into S4S or it might explode in game. Type 'chemise' into S4S search bar when you look for your clone and choose this one.

You might need to triangulate some (all?) of those dresses when you're done! Just press A to select all and then ctrl+T. I usually do it only in the very end (...or not at all if I forget...), because I find squares/quads much easier to work with. They can cause some problems in game though, so don't be me: don't forget this step!

And if you find out they come with some problems after all... Well, I can only say I'm sorry, but probably I won't have time to fix them 😬. They should work fine though - I've been using them myself for months and double-checked them right now, so hopefully they're all good!

Hope you'll find them useful and make tons of beautiful dresses with them 😊. Good luck!

~Vintage

Going on hiatus

In case it wasn't clear enough from my last post being a farewell gift, here's the proper announcement: for reasons explained in THIS post, I'm going on a hiatus. There will be no new content coming from me; I'll also be unavailable for instant messaging or tumblr asks. If you're currently my patron, this is the perfect moment to cancel your pledge!

I'd like to use this opportunity to thank you all for all the support you've shown me during past 2 years. Thank you to everyone who commented on my posts, liked them or shared them with others - you made it all feel very rewarding and worth the (not-so-) occasional struggle.

Thank you to all the people who supported me financially in the meantime. No matter how big or small your pledge was, whether you were my patron over months or made a one time pledge, I've always felt incredibly grateful for it, and every 'You've got a new patron' message made me smile in disbelief. In case you're wondering what I did with that money... Well, I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm spending the majority of my time now knitting for my baby girl, and so far everything I needed for it (knitting can be expensive when you're just starting and need a bazzilion of needles in different shapes and sizes!) I bought with my Patreon earnings. So basically, you're dressing my baby in pretty, hand-made clothes :)

Thank you to all the lovely people I've met through the Sims of History Discord. I've met some truly amazing human beings in there, had a couple of very inspiring conversations and learned A LOT about fashion history. Tbh I'm a very unfashionable person irl and have never had any interest in modern day fashion, so I find it very funny how good I became at telling apart different decades / eras of fashion development. That's like... The last skill I'd have ever thought of acquiring - but here it is, unexpectedly. It's been some journey and you all made it feel like an amazing adventure!

Thank you to my few rl friends and family members who knew about my undercover content creator activities. Thank you for all your patience when I was spamming you with pictures of my wips and for your constant positive feedback. I'm sorry if at any point I bored you to death - I swear I didn't mean to.

And most of all: from the bottom of my heart, huge thank you to my husband, who was my constant companion and biggest source of support during those 2 years. He's been the silent hero of my blog, involved in almost everything I ever made for it. From simply getting excited about my projects, through looking through swatches and helping me choose the best ones for preview pictures, to reading my Blender tutorials (even though he's never even used Blender...) - a part of him is in everything I ever posted. And the man doesn't even play The Sims! I don't know what I did to deserve this kind of relationship, but I'm extremely grateful for it all. I know you'll read this post, just like every other thing I've ever written, so, once again... Thank you <3

I hope it's not the last you hear of me. Till then, have a blessed life everyone!

Farewell & 5000+ followers gift: 1890s dresses for girls

Hello everyone!

It took me some time, but it's finally here. The one thing I've always been saying that I want to make and yet I constantly kept postponing it: 1890s dresses for girls! As in my whole 'career' I made only one such dress, and a long time ago, I thought it's be nice to create a mini-set this time - you know, as a small goodbye gift. To fill the gap and give your little sims some more options to choose from :).

All 3 pieces are variations of the same mesh (common features: round neckline and a belt), but somehow I have a feeling that they ended up looking quite different from each other. At least I hope so!

Dress no. 1 comes in 51 plaited patterns. From bright and summery through toned down to solemn and gothy; from posh through ordinary to almost drab. Very universal imho. Here's a small selection of the swatches - but keep in mind it's not even 1/3 of them all:

Dress no. 2 is probably the most elegant, with some satin-like shine. Comes in 27 swatches:

The belt in dress no. 1 is by default black, in dress no. 2 - white. However, you can also download a belt overlay (one for both dresses), found under tights. Above you can see some of the overlay swatches in action!

Dress no. 3 is technically not a dress, but a blouse and skirt combo. It comes in 23 basic swatches: with white blouse and different skirt colours.  I made another overlay though, this time for the blouse, which comes in 20 swatches. You can mix and match however you want. Once again, found under tights.

• polycounts: no. 1 and 2 - around 7K, no. 3 - almost 10K (watch out, this may be high for some people! It's all those teeny tiny ruffles...)
• Base Game compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod)
• all LODs
• custom thumbnails, bump and specular maps, some shine here and there
• found under long and short dress subcategory (dress no. 3 only under short)
• colour tagged
• dress no. 1 and 3 use glass shader / transparency - won't work properly in laptop mode!
• PDNs and PSDs for recolours (only for the basic packages, no overlays) included - you don’t need them for the meshes to work.

Known problems: some ruffles clipping in case of dress no. 3 in certain positions, but I think most of the time it looks good enough to give it a pass. Let me know if you notice anything else.

Hope you'll like it, enjoy!

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

Quick update

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still here. The piece I promised for June got delayed a bit, but it will be released eventually, don't worry! I could publish it already now, but I thought it'd be cool to make something special for the big farewell - like... A set? A mini-set? Even if it's just 2 pieces, it's still something extra... I don't want to make any huge promises, as it all depends on so many factors - my work, motivation, weather, health - but I'll still publish something, that you can be sure of. More than one thing. I just need a bit more time!

Oh, and of course, as always, everything will be free to everyone from day one, no changes here :)

Thank you! <3

It’s been over a month since my big announcement post and I’m super late with this, but I just wanted to say... THANK YOU.

Thank you everyone who hearted that post, who sent best wishes for me and the  little one, who got excited with me, who wrote me such lovely comments. Thank you for all the love and understanding, for the support, for... I don’t even know what to say. I honestly didn’t expect this. You are all wonderful people and deserve all the best in your lives ❤❤❤

Special big fat thank you to all the new patrons - to say I’m shocked would be an understatement! Guys, you got it all wrong, you were supposed to cancel your pledges, not make new ones 😜

Just to give you a short update: we’re both still doing perfectly fine. The little one got super active in the meantime - feels like she’s slowly running out of space, as sometimes she keeps kicking and pushing like crazy. Good that the summer is finally here, as my only pregnancy clothes are summer dresses, and I already don’t fit in anything else! And I’m still dedicating the vast majority of my free time to nifty knitting 😊

As far as my CC is concerned, I have some bad news though: just like last year, my gaming PC kind of died. Or, to be more precise: it won’t turn on. I’m not overly concerned about it at the moment, as it got too hot to mesh anyway, and I hope I’ll once again manage to fix it when it gets a bit cooler - but if not... Welp, my  creator’s hiatus will have to start earlier than expected 😐. There’s still lots of June left though, so let's not lose hope!

Love you to the moon and back! Have a lovely day everyone 💗💗💗

1896 puffy spring dress

Hi everyone!

The moment I saw this beautiful dress from May 1896 I knew that as soon as May arrives, I'll have to make it. I feel like I still didn't do those sleeves justice - they are too extra to replicate them properly! Still, I think those are the biggest sleeves I've ever seen on a TS4 outfit, so mission at least partially accomplished.

I started off with striped swatches, per original picture, but got bored with them quickly and switched to floral patterns instead. Therefore, watch out: the dress comes in two standalone, separate packages! I had to split them, as both designs needed slightly different uv maps to look any good. Keep that in mind if you want to recolour!

The striped package comes in 13 swatches, the patterned one - in 20:

Also, the colours of the stripes have been chosen especially to go well with Ruffle hat by Acanthus Sims and 1890s hat by Sims from the Past. The patterns are just me having fun with pretty stuff ;). I guess most of them come from Annett's page?

• polycount: ca. 7K for LOD0
• Base Game compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod - I highly advise using it, especially for the patterned version!)
• all LODs
• custom thumbnail, bump and specular maps, shine on (almost) everything
• tagged as everyday and hot weather
• found under long dress subcategory
• colour tagged
• allowed for random
• PDNs and PSDs for recolours included - you don’t need them for the mesh to work

Known problems: stripes can become blurry in game, depending on the camera angle and distance. I have no idea why it's happening - patterns don't come with this problem and they use exactly the same mesh (and only slightly edited uv map). I guess TS4 hates stripes in general? I had it happen to me already with some earlier pieces, with some border deco stripes. Other than that, nothing!

I hope this dress will help your sims enjoy the warmer days in style :). Enjoy!

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

Baby, baby, baby ooooh (a.k.a. a very personal announcement)

Hello everyone!

I think the time has come to share some big news with you all.

Remember how I hinted a couple of times at some mysterious 'health problems' preventing me from meshing? At staring at the screen making me nauseous? How I disappeared in January and February, and mentioned while answering some tumblr asks that I might have to stop creating content altogether? Well, at last I'm ready to stop talking in riddles and just spill the beans. And the truth is very simple: I'm pregnant. Finishing the 2nd trimester, to be precise.

I'm extremely sorry to all the lovely people who were worried about me, thinking something really dangerous might be going on. I didn't want to write anything sooner, because, you know - anything can happen, especially in the early pregnancy stages, and I didn't want to jinx it. By now I feel like I should be on the safe side; technically speaking, I can't miscarry anymore, the baby can only be born prematurely, and with all the possibilities of modern medicine doctors shooooould already be capable of saving it if shit happened. And with every passing day I'm feeling more and more confident that everything will be fine till the very end.

That's all very happy news for me - but I'm afraid not so happy for everyone who enjoys my content. I guess you can all see where it's going, right?

I'm not 100% sure what will happen in the next months - I've never been pregnant before (and even if I had, every pregnancy is different, so it still wouldn't give me much), so I have zero idea how I'll feel and how it will affect my life. I can only tell you what I think will happen. I promised once to release at least one piece of cc per month, and I plan to keep this promise in May and June. However, from July on I'll go on a hiatus - and for an indefinite time. As we all know, I'm chaotic and unpredictable, so I might still spontaneously feel like making a bathing suit in July or sth - but August, and even more the following months, are absolutely out of the question.

I will not be closing my Patreon, for the simple reason that I think it's one of the best ways to share packages - and anyway, all my content is already here, and the thought of moving it all elsewhere isn't very tempting :P. But I'll be gone. From July or August on there will be no new releases. Please keep it in mind! Any pledges you make from that time on will be considered only baby shower gifts ;).

Of course, I will notify you again when the hiatus starts. Expect a short reminder in summer.

...will I come back? That is the biggest question of them all. If I were to give you an honest answer right now, then I'd say: probably not. It's a mix of different things: my incapability to stay excited about one topic for longer than 1,5-2 years, my rapidly waning interest in TS4, my wish to take a step away from virtual reality and to dedicate myself to more analog activities, a bunch of other, new hobbies which right now feel way more tempting, and most of all: my determination to be the best mom possible and to give the baby as much attention as I can. I just can't picture myself meshing instead of spending that time with my girl, or making rl stuff for my girl, or even watching my girl sleep. Just nope. I don't know, maybe in a year I'll feel very differently about it, but now that child is seriously the only thing on my mind. Anything else is just a nuisance ^^.

And now excuse me, I have some nifty knitting to do in here :D.

PS. Just in case, please be so lovely and don't share pieces of good advice with me, will you? I've already got more than enough of those ;). Thanks!

1848 velvet dress

04.05.2021 edit: added an add-on with different colours of the buttons, found under tights. It's not necessary, but might come in handy if you didn't like the original colour combos!

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Happy birthday @theroyalthornoliachronicles!

This dress is dedicated to my friend Ali who's probably not having the time of her life right now - as some of you might have heard, she accidentally deleted her blog, losing a story that she'd been working on for a year. She's back though, planning to repost everything, and I'm excited to finally read her story from the beginning! Especially when she intends to even rewrite some parts... Anyway: I was planning to make another birthday gift, something more relevant to the future chapters (I might have had a little glimpse behind the scenes ;) ), but in this situation it felt like it'd be just cruel. So, I quickly skimmed through my inspo folders in search of something more universal, and found this beautiful velvet dress that I'd been thinking of making already for some time. When if not now?

As you can see in the inspo picture, the original dress had a lace collar. I skipped it for now as any attempts to make one in a quick and easy way failed, so I decided I'd rather make a collar accessory which you could use with a bunch of dresses. Btw: click HERE and help me decide which style I should go for! Right now it looks like compatibility with laptop mode is more important than polycount, which is bad news for me, as it means really meshing the damn thing... I'll try it, but try is the keyword in that sentence ;).

Back to the dress though. Comes in 25 swatches. Personally I'm a fan of the jewel colours, but I added some pastel options too because why not:

• polycount: ca. 9K for LOD0
• Base Game compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod)
• all LODs
• custom thumbnail, bump and specular maps, satin texture, no extra shine
• tagged as everyday and party
• found under long dress subcategory
• colour tagged
• disallowed for random
• PDN for recolours included - you don’t need it for the mesh to work. Let me know if you’d rather have the PSD file! (Also, it has a bazzillion layers, esp. when it comes to the lace cuffs, sorryyyyy)

The only problem I spotted is that the buttons can get a bit deformed on some body types & in some positions, but you have to really pay special attention to notice it. So I hope it's still ok. Let me know if you notice anything else!

Hope you'll like it, enjoy :)

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

1895 AF silk visiting/walking dress

Hello everyone!

Here comes a little late Easter gift for you: a shiny 1895 dress for your vintage sims. The inspo picture shows the model in nature, so I assume it means it was supposed to be worn outside, as a walking/promenade dress. It comes from an 1895-97 collection - pinning it down exactly as 1895 is just my poorly educated guess, as I had to settle for something. I'm so glad I can finally move on from winter to spring pieces! Even though the nature seems a bit confused as to what season it's supposed to be - we had a blizzard over here today, no kidding...

The dress comes in 24 swatches:

• polycount: ca. 7K for LOD0
• Base Game compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod)
• all LODs
• custom thumbnail, bump and specular maps, shine & satin texture on everything
• tagged as everyday, party and hot weather
• found under long dress subcategory
• colour tagged
• allowed for random
• PDN and PSD for recolours included - you don’t need them for the mesh to work

I can't believe it's only the second mid-1890s dress I made - the first one being my very first piece ever. The lack of dresses with huge puffs was precisely the reason why I learned to mesh in the first place, and it took me almost 2 years to finally go back to that original motivation!

Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do :). And of course, let me know if you notice any problems!

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

1890 'hornet' dress

Hi everyone!

Here comes another dress for your sims, inspired by a fashion plate from the very first day of 1890. To distinguish it from the previous one, I call this one 'the hornet dress'. Guess why ;)

Comes in 26 swatches - mostly rather darkish, as the original was designed for winter:

• polycount: ca. 7K
• Base Game compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod)
• all LODs
• custom thumbnail, bump and specular maps, shine (& satin texture) on the stripes
• tagged as everyday and party
• found under long dress subcategory
• colour tagged
• disallowed for random
• PDN for recolours included - you don’t need it for the mesh to work. Let me know if you’d rather have the PSD file!

Known problems: the stripes going across the chest get a bit deformed when you change the breast size. The further from the default you go, the weirder they look. I did my best to make them cooperate and there's been some improvement, but it's still not ideal. Sorry for this!

I hope you'll like it, enjoy!

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

1890s hat for big and small girls

Hello everyone!

The lack of vintage hats is sad, but the total lack of Victorian hats for non-adults is just depressing. I don't know about you, but I have literally one hat for girls in my game which kiiind of works - but it's pretty weird that every single girl in my save wears it. And as lately I feel rather like creating simple stuff which doesn't require much work (like, you know... stuff without weights problems...), I thought it's a perfect opportunity to try to do something about it.

The hat I made isn't necessarily representative of 1890s; I saw it only in one fashion plate and the predominant type looks very different... But I found this one cuter, so I went for it nevertheless. Deal with me :P

Comes in 26 swatches: 24 in different colours (the usual palette) and 2 with straw hat texture. I feel lazy today and didn't take preview pictures, sorry! Trust me, they're all there.

Also, I know that the flower looks super artificial - but I thought it doesn't matter, as in the picture it clearly is artificial, made of some folded material. It's just a deco piece imitating a flower, not a real flower, so I hope you won't mind!

• polycount: ca. 2K
• Base Game compatible
• hat slider compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod)
• all LODs
• custom thumbnail, bump and specular maps, no shine
• tagged as everyday and warm weather
• found under brim subcategory
• colour tagged
• disallowed for random
• PDN for recolours included - you don’t need it for the mesh to work. Let me know if you’d rather have the PSD file!

Let me know if you notice any problems and enjoy!

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

1799 AF winter outfit

Vintage Winterwear Collection pt. 18

Hello everyone!

Those of you who follow me on tumblr might have heard that I'm struggling with some personal stuff right now, but I still wanted to keep my promise of making at least one piece of cc per month. It was close, but somehow I managed to do it. So, here it is! A new outfit for your sims, released still in February :).

Just to make things clear: this is a one time excursion to XVIII century, not me switching to another era. I simply needed a dress from around that time and couldn't find any, so I decided to make one myself. It was an interesting experience, but I don't think I'll go that far back again any time soon.

The outfit comes in 15 swatches:

• polycount: ca. 6K
• Base Game compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod)
• all LODs
• custom thumbnail, bump and specular maps, shine (& satin texture) on the dress
• tagged as everyday and cold weather
• found under long dress and outerwear subcategories
• colour tagged
• disallowed for random
• PDN and PSD for recolours included - you don’t need them for the mesh to work

No problems spotted, but please let me know if you notice any.

Hope you'll like it, enjoy!

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

1890s working girl mini-set

Hello everyone!

One of my biggest pet-peeves when watching others play the decades challenge (please don't hate me for it, I swear it's more of a 'sigh, again' than 'lmao you moron, what are you even doing') is when people put their 1890s sims in clearly Edwardian clothes, because 'it looks simpler'. Lately I was contemplating this phenomenon and suddenly realised - duh, but how are they supposed to dress them in real 1890s clothes if there's close to zero working class outfits for that decade? They're right, almost everything available looks too fancy for simple workers!

And so I rushed to pinterest, gathered some inspo and made this teeny tiny set. It clearly belongs to 1890s and has all the typical features of the 1890s high fashion, just... A little bit toned down. So the skirt has a similar shape (in fact it's the same skirt I used for my last coat), but it's slightly narrower and shorter; the blouses have puffs, but not as huge and stiff as in more expensive outfits. And there's an apron too. Nothing screams 'working class' as well as a good old apron.

Just a small note: please remember that 'working class' is a very broad term, so it's not like everyone who had to work for a living would be dressing like this! European farmers would probably wear regional folk outfits; maids would wear hand-downs from their houseladies; women working in offices would most probably dress very similarly to the upper classes, just not as fancy (my absolute favourite for office girls is THIS amazing dress by Elfdor - half of my save wears it ;)). My set is most heavily inspired by Scottish fisherwomen - you can see them amongst other inspo pictures in THIS post.

OK, enough blabbing, here's the important stuff.

The set consists of:

- a woollen skirt in 3 lengths, each in 10 colours (the shortest one can also work for teens, and not only the working class ones!) :

- an overlay apron, working with all 3 skirts, in different colours, found under tights (see the main picture);

- 2 very similar blouses, but with a bit different puffs. Each in 9 colours. Found under blouses or bottom-ups:

The task of taking swatches' previews for all those items at once turned out to be too much for my sanity, so you just have to believe me this time: the swatches are there. All in rather washed out colours. Work quite well with each other.

Cross-compatible with Linzlu's 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' set (if you use my blouse & Linzlu's skirt, there'll be a small gap in between them - but it's really small, you'd have to look really closely).

Hope you'll like this mini-set, enjoy!

PS. It might be that I'll turn silent for a while. I'm not feeling too well lately and currently the very thought of doing anything Sims-related makes me want to vomit - and sadly that's not a figure of speech, I'm literally fighting nausea. I hope it goes away soon, as that's obviously not how I want to feel about a game I used to love, but for the time being - I need a break. I hope you understand <3

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

1898 puffy winter coat

Vintage Winterwear Collection pt. 17

Hi everyone! (And hello dear new patrons! I'm horrible at patreon communication, but I just wanted to let you know that I see you, I appreciate you and I'm always very grateful for your support, no matter how big or small :) )

So... I made a new thing. Another winter coat, this time based on a fashion plate from 1898. To be honest, I'm surprised to see such big puffs on such a late coat - they were the thing some 2 years earlier and by 1898 should be completely passe, even if the fashion plate comes only from the very first days of the year...! Looks like some Parisian designer was desperate not to let the trend die ;)

Comes in 15 swatches. There's also an add-on: overlay for the ribbon, in 13 colours, found under tights.

• polycount: ca. 9K (= higher than usually, because big skirt, big sleeves, big collar)
• Base Game compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod)
• all LODs
• custom thumbnail, bump and specular maps, no shine
• tagged as everyday and cold weather
• found under outerwear subcategory
• colour tagged
• disallowed for random
• if you want to recolour, you can either use the white swatch or the pure white layer + normal map without fur, uploaded separately (check below). You don't need those 2 'for recolours' files for the coat to work in your game

No problems spotted, but please let me know if you notice any!

Hope you'll like it, enjoy :)

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

1890 elegant dress

Happy New Year everyone!

Best 2021 wishes to you all! For sure you've already heard enough wishes of health and safety, so I'll go for something else instead: to quote ABBA, may we all have our hopes, our will to try, because if we don't we might as well lay down and die. Let's all do our best to stay sane in our safe new world!

And here's a little gift to help you celebrate the fact that 2020 is finally over: an early 1890, rather elegant dress for your sims ladies. Perfect if you're just starting the decades challenge. I hope you'll like it!

Comes in 29 swatches, the last one in greyish white, so it can be used for recolours. It also has an accessory overlay for stripes (2x gold, 2x grey, white and black), found under leggings.

• polycount: ca. 6K
• Base Game compatible
• HQ mod compatible (pictures taken with the mod)
• all LODs
• custom thumbnail, bump and specular maps, some shine
• tagged as everyday and party
• found under long dress subcategory
• colour tagged
• allowed for random

No problems spotted, but ofc please let me know if you notice anything.

Hope you'll like it, enjoy!

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!