So I am moving again

Gypsies don't complain about moving ... right?

So if life goes well I will be officially moved to the Salem area in the next few weeks.  This means several things.

1. I may actually be able to have all of my sewing supplies in one place! I have so much of them in storage and I've just kind of been stressed not being able to do a proper inventory and goal list for trying to create this business.

2. I will have a place that is not the corner of my bedroom to sew in. It will be the corner of our spare room/ library but still; being able to actually get away from a sewing project at the end of the day is helpful in unwinding.

3. There are more actual jobs here and public transit. I might actually be able to stop failing utterly at being a contributing member of society.

4. I will be within reasonable distance of game again! Yay new characters and costuming and seeing my friends again. I have to learn an entirely new game because they changed systems while I was gone but I am most of the way through a new character concept ... and by concept I mean costume design.

On the other hand, I am so tired of moving! I haven't managed to stay in one place for more than a year since I was 18. This actually kind of bothers me. I haven't  had a place that I really call "home" since then. I mean yeah I am always welcome in my parents house but I've already left it a few times and I'm not really that heavily nostalgic of a person. I love my family but living together drives us all crazy. We all love each other but in a very "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" way.

So costuming stuff is temporarily on hold until I am settled in and have everything together and sorted out.  I hope to be up and running again as soon as possible.

Why I am too blunt for my own good

I'm not a garb snark I swear! I hate garb snarks because they made my early years of eventing pure torture especially when I was stupid enough to ask for their advice once when I was learning to sew and they teased me so badly about a mistake I made on a friend's shirt that I completely swore off sewing for several years after that.

That being said I don't snark on people's garb to their faces or just because it isn't period. If it fits the aesthetic and they are having fun and are comfortable I just make mental notes about what I would change. But when we were at Shrewsbery Faire this last weekend Riley asked if I had seen a girl's dress and before my mental filter could turn on I blurted out "Tell me you don't mean that slouchy purple poly(ester) one" There was a lady in front of us who turned around to agree that it was a good description of the dress but I still felt really bad. Riley was just trying to point out that the dress had an amazing cut. If it were in pretty much any natural fabric he would be right. It was a very simple princess seamed gown very lord of the rings movie style (Yes I am aware those were not period but for the casual costumer; who cares they are cute!) It was laced rather cutely up the front and back and was a good color for the girl but the fabric was just clingy hot mess that was already quite obviously sweaty and uncomfortable.(It was only 11:30 and the forecast was just going to get hotter) On a rather thin but healthy girl it was terribly unflattering because she was slouching and it gave her the illusion of being far pudgier than she was all because the farbic was wrong.

So there's my confession. I totally garb snarked at a ren faire. I do feel bad,
I am used to the standards of the SCA and I honestly am glad that the girl never heard me. I need to remember that not every event is like the SCA events I went to when I was younger ( I wasn't old enough to realize that the people I was camping with were the pickiest of re-enactors that are not the norm for eventing.) I also just personally don't ever want to let myself get into a habit of being that rude.

Business Cards!

Well my last two events for the season are this weekend and next weekend and working on garb for them has me thinking that since I have time this winter to work on some of my designs before next eventing season, hopefully I can come up with something that makes people ask where I got it. When this happens I want to have awesome business cards ready.
So since I am waiting for my laundry to dry in the dryer that eats time (minimum two or three runs through for any load to dry) I played around with some ideas and created these beauties. What do you think?

Blasted Machine! (and in progress photos)

Well my Singer Tradition 2250 has officially kicked the bucket. Nothing I do is fixing the thread bunching and I have done everything in the singer troubleshooting guide for it. I even called their customer service and they told me that the only way that would happen was if my presser foot was up. I have read reviews of the machine from amateurs and professionals and have finally come to the conclusion that this is not operator error. So mom and I will attempt to figure out how to thread the vintage 1960ish (can't for the life of me find the model's history with the numbers on the machine.) Kenmore Zigzag DeLuxe. (Actually she just did it's just weird to me because newer machines don't have nearly as many pieces to thread through.) We got it for $30 at a thrift shop and it's amazing I just pretty much have to relearn machine sewing.

In the mean time I have been hand stitching trim onto a vest for my boyfriend for the Ren Faire next weekend and am rather happy with how it's going so I decided to share some photos with you. It is a really nice faux suede I picked up and extra wide bias in a really nice emerald green. I will be adding some gold trim to it before the pirate festival so he can be a truly gaudy gypsy. (He likes being showy) Although there is an up side of my sewing machine being broken.I am getting a lot better at hand sewing.


A hand sewn seam that I don't feel like hiding yay!!!



Very pretty suede, almost can't tell it's faux leather. Hopefully Riley will like it.