I think I bit the inside of my lip in my sleep last night.  It hurts, and worse, it's annoying!

Last night after work, Tommy and I bought the lining for his coat.  I swear, that man is IMPOSSIBLE to fabric shop with!  It took us about 45 minutes, but we finally settled on a mottled maroon cotton.  With the middle-value blue on the outside, it's going to be a very dramatic looking coat when it flares open!  It's not going to be done for a bit, though.  Damn job, getting in the way of my sewing!  I think I'm just going to keep sewing until I get everything done, even if it takes me until next season.  Then there will be no mad rush next year! 

Yeah, right.

Today's sewing-at-work project is ripping apart an old chemise so I can fix it.  I love the cut and I love the fabric, I'm just not thrilled with the drawstring.  It could use a bit of bleach, though; I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where the vivid purple stains on the part that's inside my bodice came from!

Even though it's been washed since last worn, it still smells like Faire.  Well, it smells like sweat, leather, and sunscreen, which would be Faire.

Need to do a little shopping this week:

Rum!

Sunscreen

Pre-moistened face wipes

I'm sure I'm missing something else vital, but cannot think of what.  Anyone know?

Looking over old LJ entries, it seems to be that April 7th is my traditional day of, "Holy shite, I've got a metric butt-tonne of sewing to do before faire opens this weekend, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" and/or swearing

This year will be no different.  At current count I have one shirt (started) to finish, two pirate coats, two chemises and one chemise to repair.  I will probably only get the shirt and one pirate coat done by this weekend.

I am so far behind that I'm bringing bits of my sewing to work.  Today I packed up all the fabric and pattern pieces for one of the coats, and took advantage of all the space in the lobby to lay it out and cut.  Tomorrow I may do the same with the other coat, or, bring in the chemise I need to fix and the shirt I need to grommet.

WHY do I do this every year?  WHY don't I just start sewing for faire in January!?!

On the up-side, this will get me five pieces closer to my ideal Faire wardrobe, which means less sewing in the future.  *goes to look at her ideal wardrobe list and smiles*

I already have nine pieces of garb that are on my dream garb list.  I'm working on six more.  Five more will eventually be purchased, 'cause I'm not making them!  And I have a number still to make that aren't in process.  Plus then a shite-tonne of garb to get rid of that I don't want any more.

The end result I'm hoping for is a garb collection full of pieces I adore as opposed to merely tolerate, that all look good together, that all look good on me, and can cover pretty much any situation, be it weather, theme or terrain.

Yes, I am an ambition girl, why do you ask?

I cut out my new shirt last night and started zig-zagging the edges of all the pieces.  Holey crap!  This fabric doesn't seem to comprehend that it's supposed to be fabric!  The second I cut it, it started to unweave, and zig-zagging the edges isn't really helping much.  I have to make the stitches pretty deep into the fabric, or it just does more damage than good.  Nikki was very right.  French seams, or maybe flat felled seams are going to be the only way to keep this baby together.  Either that or Fray Check the whole damn thing, and that would be very uncomfortable.  I'm thinking flat felled will look best.

At the Playhouse on a Saturday, for once.  It's a three show call day, so it's going to be pretty busy all day.  But, I actually get my lunch hour today, so I'm going to take my lunch and book down to Piedmont Park and get out of doors for a bit, today!  It's beautiful out.  Wish it were Faire; this would be perfect weather.

 

 

I am starting to lose my enchantment with fabric shopping. WHY does my fabric store not even stock the basics: broadcloth, twill, gauze and linen and a variety of colors?

I met Tommy at the fabric store after work last night, for our date night outing. With the exception of a miracle find of blue cotton gauze, for less than $3/yd, (not what we were there looking for, but I bought it anyway since it's perfect for chemises) we found diddly and squat that pleased us for pirate coat fabric. At one point, Tommy was considering just some basic cotton but couldn't decide between two colors. I told him which I liked best, but that it was possibly just because it was closest in color to his old coat and I was used to seeing him in it. So, he went off to ask one of the little old ladies employed there for their unbiased opinion while I dug up some muslin for interlining (I also found some nice black cotton sateen for the lining of my coat, so it wasn't a total waste.)

Did Tommy find a nice elderly lady, who works at the fabric store to support her quilting habit, to ask which color he looked better in? No. He found some redneck, toothless, wanna-be-queen who immediately traipsed over to me. Despite his obvious lack of knowledge about history, historical costuming, pirates or the practical considerations needed for Faire costuming (i.e. breathability, durability, washability, how it looks when all covered in dust, etc.), he proceeded to lecture me about how people in that time period "wore their wealth" so they all wore fabric as dark as they could find. And how if you're going to do something, do it right, even if you're using cheap fabric. And design this, and Ben Franklin that, and all this other crap that for the most part, truly was crap.

I managed to refrain from throttling the little bastard, but I was HIGHLY offended by his assumption that I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I've been a stitcher for 16 years. I've been sewing garb for 10. Have I made mistakes? Sure, tons. Do I know everything or am I an expert? No, of course not. I'm a skilled amateur, and I learn more from every piece I do. But, I have been doing this for ten years, and I don't need someone who has never even been to a Renaissance Festival lecturing me on how to make my garb look good!

The end result of this little lecture was that Tommy and I decided not to purchase fabric we weren't thrilled with. We bought the muslin, gauze and sateen and left the coat fabric. Then we went to this online fabric store and ordered some nice linen, instead. (As a side note, why does the linen section of the fabric store only contain polyester?)

And I think I will not be returning to that fabric store. The selection sucks donkey balls. And Tommy just wanted an opinion on fabric color. I did not need an aimless (and in may respects incorrect) lecture on proper garb construction from someone who wouldn't know a corded bodice, or good tights if they bit him on the nose!

The leaves are sprouting much more quickly than the flowers did. It's sort of interesting.

Last night was my first night of freedom from the show.  Did I kick back and relax, vegging in front of the TV?  Ha!  What a silly concept!  I busted ass on a few projects I've been needing to get to work on. 
As soon as I got home, I scattered grass seed over the bare sections of the property in hopes of stopping some of the nasty soil erosion we've got going on.  For some unknown reason, where the grass isn't high as my head, there's no grass at all. 
Then I re-potted a particularly prickly house plant, that was in dire need of some fresh space. 
After I swept the dirt and dead leaves, from that adventure, off the porch, I dug out Tommy's and my pirate hats and went after them with the suede restore.  This proved to be a particularly obnoxious chore, as I had to tape off all the trim before hitting them with the spray.  I like the pretty blue on my hat, and I have no desire to see it turn black! 
Tommy had just finished dinner at that point, so I took a break to eat and we watched a TiVo'd episode of Firefly.  Damn that's a good show!  Why didn't I have the time to watch it when it was actually on!?
After dinner I hied myself off to the studio to iron Lindsay's fabric and cut out the pieces for her chemise.
I thought about ironing my own fabric, but decided that since Tommy and I are going fabric shopping tonight for date night that I'd be better off reading our patterns so nothing sneaks up on me that could have been fixed in the fabric buying stage!  It's ambitious, but I have firm plans to have Lindsay's shirt, my shirt and both coats constructed (though probably not trimmed and decorated) by the time we leave for Disney in 12 days.  Yup, I am so back to sewing, with a vengeance!
Speaking of sewing, I am the worst person in the world about buying thread.  Either I think I have the right color at home, and don't, or I buy a spool, only to find I already have three at home!  So I got clever today.  I took a picture of my thread, so I'll know exactly what I have and what I need when I get to the store!

And, of course, today's progression of spring picture.  Those leaves are popping out like mad!  In a few days I'll probably lose my silhouette style since the leaves will be thcik enough to block the light from the sky!