textileowl

Ummm...Happy New Year?

So it's been roughly three months here in the real world, and I've been busy enough to think about posting and never getting around to it.

Here's what happened in no sense of order or importance.

The holidays went relatively smoothly. Yay for little drama.

January was a blur. Jeff and I got sick from the passed around colds and such at Madrigal. Halfway through recovering, I went to DC for work for 12 days which was hell. We were understaffed and there for twelve days. But it meant I paid off my credit card!

In the meantime, Jeff was so sick he was out of work for a week and had a CT scan. We now know the root cause of all his sinus issues: a deviated septum and a growth that mostly likely was caused by allergies. He goes to a ENT on Thursday so we will have more information shortly.

Erzuli's mass from September never really went away and was in fact growing, so back to the vet last week where we received confirmation of what we feared in the fall. It's a mast cell tumor which while surgery and chemo is recommended, the vets can only guess at about 18 months of extended life. It will be much easier on all of us to simply wait out the time we have. She doesn't appear to be in pain and continues to be her normal reclusive and grumpy self, so until this changes, we continue life as usual.

Dentist appointment this week was just for cleaning and nothing else! Well, they put in for a nightguard but I've been told I have the molars of a 50 year old from all the grinding and having the headaches go away would be nice. We're just waiting to hear back from the insurance company.

Projects upcoming include:
        Finishing the 1780's gown - gather skirt, sleeves and edge finishes
        Mock-up of Jeff's pants
        Mock-up of my stripey zouave pants
        Designs for sister's wedding dress (our gift to her - wedding is in Jan)
        Design/Mock-up my dress for skylarks wedding - will be used to test out a back design for wedding dress
        Possibly pattern jumps and gown for Hidden Dirk - still waiting for measurements and confirmation
        Finish knitting fingerless gloves - would be awesome to at least finish one of the two by March...

The larger versions and the rest of the photos can be seen following that link. I'm pretty happy with them, even though they may not fit as perfectly as they could. I'm currently working on losing weight slowly but surely and would like them to fit for more than a couple of months. So hence the wide lacing.

As I was working on this I did discover why front lacing doesn't work for the late eighteenth century silhouette, or at least on my body. Front lacing squishes everything up and kinda sideways, while back lacing cups everything up and together without too much separation.

Also discovered that my right hip is slightly higher than the left, just enough to cause the point just above the place where the tabs split to pinch at the hipbone. That may also change as I continue to work out and lose some flesh there.

I meant to get measurements while in the stays but got distracted... Next time. I have the neckline to hem on the shift and then I will be done with that as well.

This weekend actually looks like it is going to be relatively quiet, other than Jeff working on Saturday which is fairly normal. His gf is home for the holiday which means I might actually see him for most of the weekend. So I'm going to try and be productive rather than a lump. No going back to sleep when Jeff leaves for work this weekend!

Figure out Saturday dinner- there's broccoli and loads of meat to choose from.
Make shift for 1780's
Take pictures of stays, on and off body
start patterning Anglaise - get to mock-up on bodice?
sketches of "current season" custom gowns for HDM
post pictures
create next weeks dinner/grocery list ( i hear there are now soy versions of whipped cream!)
clean the apartment
laundry - put away last weeks
create fitted bottom sheets out of top sheets
design cabinet to go under cutting table

It looks like a lot, and I probably won't get all of it done but the goal is to get most of it done. Hopefully it happens!

And then when I open this window, I feel like very little is actually worth posting. Anyway, work and life continue apace.

Work has slowed considerably since October, I've been catching up on repairs and keeping track of local costumes than anything else. It's made work less hectic, but there may be a big wrench thrown in beginning in January. I'll have more news on that once I have more news.

I finished the 1780's stays in November, they look fantastic and I need photos but I also need a shift before photos. It shouldn't take long but I worked on a small pillow commission and I started a new knitting project. So I've been distracted a little.

There is a mid-January event in Jackson that we might try to go to, so I'm trying to figure out if I can get the Anglaise patterned and sewn by then to wear. I lack any sort of drive for sewing at the moment, maybe a deadline could help with that. I would also like to have some sketches of custom pieces I could create for Hidden Dirk ready for that event as well but again there isn't a whole lot of outside pressure forcing me to do it. If I want this to work out I really need some sort of business plan or concept with which someone can hold me accountable. Hmm... I need to think about this some more and see what comes of it. All of it is so fuzzy and undefined that I find it difficult to put down into words.

- Erzuli doesn't have cancer, but the vet doesn't have any other information other than keep an eye on her and bring her in to get the stitches out in about a week

- It's well and truly fall, nights in the high forties, days anywhere from high fifties to the seventies. I've dug out my sweatshirts and have noticed that I am woefully out of long sleeve t-shirts for layering....

- Now that the gloves are finished I've been working on a blackwork design for a biscornue to use as a pin cushion for what will eventually be a small somewhat period sewing kit.

- The 1780's stays are slowly progressing. I have a working pattern finally and am currently waiting for the fabric to arrive to color match the thread. I'm going to use a combination of 1/4" plastic boning and split reed caning. We'll see how it works.

Is it July yet??

*sigh* Not that July looks like it's turning out to be any less busy than June has become. My awesome group of friends decided sometime during the end of the year last year to put together a dance and music show for a local community theatre. The choreographer of the group has been working with the theatre almost since its inception and the director asked her to "create" a show. And Create we did, much to the surprise of the director. Nearly all of the music was written in house, and all of the choreography. The show goes up next Thursday runs to Saturday and again the next week. I dance in three of the pieces and am glad to, my body may be cranky with me because it is so out of shape but even in the last couple of weeks of four day a week practices I can tell it doesn't hurt as badly as it used to though I'm still dying and out of breath by the end of the last piece.

In those weeks was Marcon, which was a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of very awesome people, put faces to lj names, and a possible dress commission that I'll talk about in a minute. I am still surprised, given how busy I've been that I managed to make the dress I posted the picture of. I'm not sure how I managed it, given I can barely get any writing done this week.

Now dress commission! Eee!! I've ordered swatches and am scaring my delivery guys at work by waiting for them but none have shown up yet. I have a contract to write up, which is most of what I need to do but need Jeff to active beta while I'm working on it. And since we don't get home until after 10 due to rehearsals most nights, and I haven't been able to work on it at work, the contract has been sitting there waiting for me to poke at it and make it cohesive. My deadline for the dress is the end of August, so I have some time, but I want to get everything hammered out quickly due to the excitement and am failing that because of the show schedule. Boo. The commission is fairly straight forward, it'll be finding the right colors and then the patterning that will be the difficult parts though not difficult in the scale of things I can do, just in the project.

In other news, the cats are still clingy, the apartment is a mess and with the messy break-up of Jeff's girlfriend last month he's not been sleeping well and neither have I.

DSC_0068, originally uploaded by Fold In Progress.

Here is the orange and pink fluffy dress that has been on the list for about a year. Done and finished.

I discovered today, after several month of sewing virtually nothing, that I can make a new accessory in under three hours. The blue and brown dress is (finally!) having it's debut at U-Ren this Saturday. I made it two years ago and have worn it to the Ohio Renaissance Festival once, if I recall correctly. Any way, the original stomacher for the gown doesn't fit the gap that is now required to fit correctly, so today I made a new one. It looks ok, I played with a cording techique that I've wanted to do for a while and it makes me want to play some more with the effect I can get with it.

Making the stomacher was a good use of the time alone without being stressful and reminded me that yes, having time to myself means having the table and sewing machine to myself as well!

Now to use that time to read Feed by Mira Grant and possibly scare myself silly. I haven't decided ( I'm about 120 pages in ) how scary the book actually is yet, but the world that is built is certainly one that has me rethinking things that I thought I would never reconsider...like which pets I would want around in the next 30 years.

We have too much stuff. And it's partly my fault. In the continued effort of organizing our apartment and trying to make a one bedroom flat store the same amount that the two bedroom townhouse with basement did, I concede that having the loveseat and the futon in the living room takes up too much space. The loveseat needs to go, it's a unitasker for all that it is comfortable and sits high. I complain that the futon is too low to move from, but mostly I'm lazy and need to be more flexible. We need the space that the futon currently lives in to have a place for the sewing machine, or at least for storage. Maybe move the desk that the TV is on over there and find something not as bulky for the tv and media equipment? Or is the desk too high to comfortably sew on? The serger could go on the typewriter shelf!! This bears more discussion with Jeff once he sees this. Hmm, maybe the tv could go back on the little table and the treadle could become the side table ....or vice versa with the treadle as the tv stand....

We need to go through the fabric, cull and organize. Or at least ponder projects to use the fabric we have. I had the brief thought of using the box of samples in a quilt or something similar. ( This is your fault,

skylark913 ! You and your invasive quilting habits!) It would knock out a bunch of them rather quickly. Boxes need to be aquired that fit the shelving and can hold quantities of fabric. The current underbed boxes we have don't fit well at all. And the cats will fur everything up if we don't box it up. All I can find on fabric storage is usually geared towards small quantities of fabric, quilters and the like or of unlimited space to store bulk fabric. We don't have the space for rolls of fabric, not and make it easily accessible. It'll take some playing and actual determination to do make things organized. It's been hard having the energy to work on it, but I'm going to try and change that.

In other organizing news, we got the bookshelves up in the living room, the kitchen shelves up and in there we also put up metal shelving, like what people usually put in their closets, in between the two cabinets we have. They overhang the sink and now our drying dishes can drip into the sink and not clutter up the countertop! It has been a delight to have that space back, although I don't know quite what to do with it yet. The bookshelves still need some sorting, maybe a couple of shallower shelves for the paper backs.

It's looking like the budding relationship that was developing over the fall is a bust, at least for me. She's fallen hard for Jeff and out of interest with me. So much so, that she isn't even speaking to me. I'm apparently obnoxious and disliked, having been compared to a tv ( noisy, distracting and interfering) so much so that even trying to like me for Jeff's sake is not worth it. Talk about making a girl feel unloved. By the time I am willing to make any relationship work with her, she's given up and deemed it too hard. I guess we'll see how this works out eventually, Jeff still hopes something will work but he's also fallen pretty hard for her, even through the smoke and mirrors she puts up so that what we see of her is hid away so much even he is unsure of her feelings toward him.

In the workplace, I'll have been working here for a year on Friday. Which is awesome, I'm relatively secure in my position here and as long as this year continue better than last, I hope to continue working here for a long time. My review is tomorrow, I'm kinda excited and yet scared to see what the bosses are going to say. It's routine enough that I can prepare for the catastrophes that happen every once in a while, but not too stressful or boring. We're still planning on moving the office by April, but we haven't found a place yet that really fits. March is gearing up to be pretty busy, there are a couple of large events that happen all in the third weekend which will make logistics hilariously scary to deal with. Half of our office will be away and the world is bound to explode that weekend.

I'm seriously considering subscribing to Your Wardrobe Unlock'd . I been perusing it today while waiting for UPS and Fedex to bring me the 3 costumes that are still out for the week, and I have found so many things that would make the $10 a month worth it a million times over.

I don't really have a decent grasp of what my finances are at the moment, though which means I'll have to wait until I can check all the expenses over either Saturday morning before Bud's graduation party or Sunday at some point. I did order a new battery for my laptop so by Tuesday I should have a more functioning computer that doesn't shut off every time you try to move it, otherwise I would have probably smashed it to bits in frustration when it does it next and then have to go out and buy a new computer. This would be on top of the second set of school loans that are coming out of grace this month, and the fact that we bought a lovely new sewing machine on a decent chunk of credit which we will now be spending most of the summer paying off.

There will be pictures of that beauty at some point, Jeff and I have both broken it in by sewing something on it. Jeff currently working on some new garb and myself finishing up the promised cloak for my littlest brother whose birthday is next week.

My granny blanket is lying in a pile of pieces now that I've manage to pick apart the seams. It's getting three new panels, new stuffing and yarn so hopefully it should be as good as new by the end of the weekend. I wish I could sew it up tomorrow at work, I really dislike leaving it in pieces.

So, tomorrow is U-ren! It should be fun and not nearly as wet as the past two years. My sewing has been finished for two weeks and I really just want to go home and start packing up our food in our brand new Tiffin from Fifth Ave Gallery and Framing. It will be nice to just play and watch the performances without worrying about how things are going. We helped out with a crisis already this week, retrieving new shields when a purchased one proved to be unworthy.

Next on the sewing project list are two relatively small projects.

My homemade quilt from my great-grandma Granny has seen quite a few years, having recieved it for Christmas 1992, I believe. Yes, it had to be, Bud got one as well and he was just a baby. All of us cousins recieved them that year. Well, there is a particular cotton flannel plaid that she used that deteriorated faster than the others and now I have gaping holes in my favorite couch throw. I have a flannel to replace the panels that have torn. It requires taking apart the entire quilt, putting in the new panels, adding new batting and ties and then stitching it all up again. For as easy as it ishould be, it's still quite scary to go ahead and rip into my quilt. I'll have pictures of the before and after up when I've actually worked up the nerve to do so, maybe next Saturday.

My littlest brother (he'll be 10!) declared he wanted a black cloak with red stripes the first year he came to faire. That was four years ago. I've bought the black twill and skull flannel lining and red trim (bias tape for the edges) and I even have relatively recent measurements- though judging from new photos, he's gotten taller Again!. This, again, should be easypeasy. I just haven't had time to work on it until now. I should have it ready for his birthday in June, which means I need it ready for Bud's graduation party, which is the end of May and will probably be the next time I'm going home other than next Monday.

After those are finished, I currently have 3 more in-depth projects.

Late 18th century zone front polonaise. It's blue linen with printed flowers, not really period but it's beautiful, with cream petticoats. I need stays for it, as the new Effigy styled ones aren't round enough to fake the shape. I ordered <i> Corsets and Crinolines</i> for $35 off of the used books at Amazon, so that should show up on Monday or Tuesday and I can start figuring out what is really different between the two shapes. I can't see the difference in photos so I'm going to have to take the flat pattens for both and compare them. Also, I'm currently working on a pocket embroidery in crewel. It's my design based in Art Nouveau, terribly period I know but it's been so much fun and I'm not even done with all the greens in it.!

Jeff and I would like to go to Bristol Renaissance Festival this year. It's a beautiful faire and we've wanted to go for years. Of course, I want to wear Penelope's garb. Unfortunately, I am not the same shape I was three years ago. So the blue velvet is getting a remake. I'll have pictures of the redesign up when I can connect my phone to the computer. It's going to suck to pull it apart but hopefully I wil be much happier with it in the end.

The third project is currently very nebulous. I'm thinking bustle era, but haven't done much more than look at pretty pictures. This will be a from scratch project as I don't have any Victorian undergarments or anything. So yay! I'm rather excited about it as well.

Therefore, the graduate school thing is currently pushed back at least a year.

$1100/month school loan payments is way too much to spend hoping I can get a fantastic job (+70,000) in fashion and not burn out within the first few years.

Having hashed out the numbers with Jeff's parents, who were fabulous and - while difficult - know money and the economy much better than I do.

So what to do for now?

Work at Mascot - so far I enjoy it and am keeping the flubs down to a minimum.
Work at David's part time when possible - they pay more per hour and it's a good side job even if only for a couple of hours

Research grad school some more.
- Email UNC and find out what was wanting, what I could improve and what they want to see if I apply again
- Look into more schools

Theatre work when/if possible

Develop a couple of research and sewing complete outfit projects to build portfolio.
This should include undergarments, headgear, and accessories

- linen 1780's gown
- medieval?
-regency?
- victorian
- something 1900's?
-menswear
- opinions, suggestions?

We've also discussed moving to a cheaper apartment to help save money and try to get our debt controlled. Jeff's parents have offered a one bedroom they own, which they've been having trouble renting out. It's a good bet we'll take it and most likely on a reduced rate. It would mean moving, but we have been anticipating that all year and it also gives us a chance to really plan out how we want the space to work, to organize and ditch things that have been taking up space - metaphorically and physically.

So here is where we'll stay for a while. We need to try and be more social, get out and enjoy Columbus while we can.

Would anyone like to help??

Pictures of my latest two commissions are up at my Flicker site. Here for

demonqueen666 's medieval madrigal gown, and here for the modernized corset.

There were challenges with both, though relatively minor. The woman who commissioned the corset is very straight through the torso and hip, so I played with seam placement and fabric choice to give an illusion of curve. It worked as well as it could, though I think adding a gathered skirt would increase the illusion around the hips.

I'm currently working on two projects for myself. One is a tailored jacket in striped blue wool with a shibori dyed silk lining. I need to do a bit of research first but hopefully it will be done in time to go with me to UNC for my interview and portfolio review at the end of March. The other is new faire garb which will be revealed in due course.

I wrote about getting a new job last week, right? Ok, so it was a one line post. I've been working for a week at the new place and it's going well so far. I'm the costume and shipping manager for a local character staffing and logisitics agency. I keep track of all the costumes in our fleet for our clients, process and schedule costume requests, and make sure the costumes get to where they need to be when the customer wants them to get there.

So far I've dealt with mix-ups concerning dates of events, requests that were verbal and therefore I had no record of the request - when the costume should have been there yesterday, and the inner workings of a company that only a few months ago had a fairly substantial turnover in its employees.

Right now I'm working about 30 hours a week, which is plenty of time to deal with paperwork, phone calls and things like laundry. But there is the good possibility that I'll get bumped up to full-time in a couple of months. Also, I get the opportunity to make even more money by helping out at events where our talent is needed! I'm doing one this Saturday at a local high school from 9 - 1, just enough time to make it worth it and still be able to work on other projects.

<edit> OOh! It's apparently Pancake Day at the high school! Yum!

Pyr and I have been trying to be more social lately, a year off was plenty. So far we've been out and seen Coraline with a friend and to last night's Gaelic Storm concert at the Newport. Both were fabulous. Coraline was just on the edge of creepy kid's movie, the design was fabulous but the plot was on the level of an eight year old, very obvious and easy to follow. I'll need to read the book and see if it is as childish as the movie. I find it hard to believe it would be, having been written by Neil Gaiman. The Gaelic Storm concert was fantastic, they have such a great stage presence and I'm really glad they mix instrumentals in with the lyrical songs. They really show off the entire band's talent with the multitude of instruments they play. I wish they had opened up thebalcony so there was more seating, it would have made my back and legs less tired as well as being able to see a little better. For some reason, tall and stocky guys feel the need to stand in front of people who they could clearly see over.

Umm, let see what else is new? My application with SCAD is currently in review, I am working on my portfolio for UNC - it's harder because the format is completely different and I actually have to present it to a group so it needs to be very cohesive and easy for a bad presenter like me to show off. I'm also more nervous about UNC. From what I've seen of the program I think it will be a much better fit than Savannah, so I have to try that much harder to be accepted.

I finished up two important things this week so far and it's only Wednesday! I posted earlier my finished statement of intent for Savannah. It looks good... I really wish I had my essay skills from high school back, they have gone downhill since then. I also finished up a sewing commission for

demonqueen666 , who seemed extremely excited by her pretty medieval gown. Now I just have to get pictures of it for my Theatre costuming portfolio, and maybe the Savannah one, I'm not sure. I've got quite a bit that will already be going into the Savannah one and it needs to be fairly cohesive. I worked a lot on getting scans and photos ready for this today, lots of time in Photoshop. Most can be seen here in various sets.

I would much rather take a nap than go to work....but I really need the money lately. I still have to pay for madrigal tickets, boning, and another official transcript as I misunderstood how many UNC wanted.

Thankfully, tomorrow I have off, so I can get done some of the sewing I need to work on.

Things to do in next ~~two~~ couple of days

Decide what twenty things go in my portfolio for Saturday
Arrange portfolio
Fill sweater and jacket flats with color
Cut up duct tape corset and pattern
Pattern demonqueen666 's medieval gowns
Sketch up said gowns in possible color combos
Re-download trial version of Painter - lots of fun, no practice
Welt buttonholes for coat
Re-cut collar for coat
Belt for coat

Ugh, I don't want to go into work today, but since I'm down to one job that pays crap....gotta make money. I'm working quite a bit but it doesn't quite make things meet.

I do have two commissions in the works though, which should help. My step-mom wants a corset for photo shoots, so she came over yesterday and I ductaped her and have figured out a nice shape for her. A guildian wants me to make her Madrigal and Faire garb, we've talked a bit but nothing too finalized. It's close to the end of the quarter so she is busy, I don't really expect a whole lot of action there until after finals.

My pink wool and leather coat now is pretty much finished....well I have the lining together and the outside together. I still need buttons, to make the buttonholes ( welted leather buttonholes!!), recuct the collar and finish that, add some padding to fill out the sleeves and back (leather is heavy !!), add the "belt" to hid the wonky waist seam and a few more things.... Okay so it's not quite finished. At some point it may be.

I have a portfolio session next Saturday.... I've scanned some things but other than that not a whole lot has been done for that. I have a week, right?

This weekend was pretty nice...minus the weather and things that make peope feel icky. I've a midterm on Wednesday and one on Thursday as well...Whee! Plus, have to start working on a research paper. Something to do with gender roles or something similar in one of the plays I've read for the class. Shouldn't be too difficult as it's only four pages and well, it's not a hard subject really. So far, I've not had many issues with Math 104 but Psych...am going to need to study before the midterm on Wed cause the quiz on Friday was not as good as I had thought. Stupid phrasing.

Work tomorrow and gilmore girls! That always makes things better, hanging out with friends and discussing a show that I've watched since my freshman year of high school. Plus the clothes on that show are just yummy....could I have Rory's designer for Christmas? Please?

Have to get a chemise done and a bodice repaired for Sunday as we are headed to ORen. I might get done before Saturday...

Things for mom to bring on Wed, and reminder for me to email said list.
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Lamp

Window Fan- 43" wide and preferably the type that has two fans with options on in/out motion

Farscape videos and DVDs- need to find my Chiana again

Buttonholer -as there is a Singer person now close to where I am and they can show me how to work it on my machine which it SWEARS it can be used on, plus I've found several other people who've said the same thing.

Sewing Machine manual

Shelves or something if she found them....she hasn't said anything about them so I'm going to think she didn't

Other sewing machine if the Singer person can't fix my machine quickly...it runs but loses the needle thread on the run around the bobbin part and usually makes for a very irritating moment because it isn't terribly predictable. Will probably require a new part and ordering part as the machine is forty five years old. But I love it and would rather it work than give up on it.

Talk to her about Iggy....need to be able to set him up properly as he would be a wonderfully content iguana if we could do that. Requires $$. Slowly work up to tropical conditions in his cage once moved...first step- climbing room.

Measure said iguana cage...to design climbing things

Rent and bills....as I've not had any income in a month and a half and my next paycheck isn't until the end of the month...

Ok...now going back to working on garb as I want to wear it tomorrow for the Involvement fair.

Current Mood: drained

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Proof of finished stays

Things to do this weekend

I really need to get into the habit of posting more.

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Marcon on Saturday

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I just pulled apart a memory....

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so 45,000 times 3 years of graduate school = hella lot of money.

Finished work and daily life

Closer and closer

Note to Self

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January 2012

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