sempstress

Help?

2008-03-31T02:49:34Z

Hey, there, everyone over in Brit-land -- is there any way by train or other publicly available transport to get from Plymouth to Cardiff? (I ask because my mommy is going to England with her friend in May, so there will be two slighty confused middle-aged american women wandering about trying to figure out where Dr. Who/Torchwood is filmed..... No, wait, actually, they want to see every garden ever planted in England.)

Anyway, I'd appreciate any help or suggestions because my mother honestly seems to think that reciting the tube schedule to me at breakfast is somehow going to help. Trust me, it's not.

sempstress.org downtime

2008-03-28T01:05:51Z

So it seems that my webhost is going to be doing some sort of server migration thinger starting at midnight on friday (eastern time, I believe). Sempstress.org will be down for 24-48 hours. The last time I had a webhost do any major work it turned out to be quite traumatic (the accidentally deleted all my files and, quite mysteriously, the backups as well), but these folks assure me that they have already made full backups of everything and moved those to safety, so it should be ok. I think. I hope.

drag queens and masks

2008-02-04T03:59:51Z

So I got a call through a friend of a boss about a theater in IN (near my sweetie) that needed someone to help stitch for La Cage aux Follies. And then I spent a week in the theater basement, working in the costume shop, while nursing the worst headcold I have had in years. At this point, I'm worried that I'll start sneezing every time I see drag queens for the rest of my life. (And I think I have retinal burn from all the sequins.....) But trannie-a-thon is over, and I get to catch up on sleep now.

I put up a gallery of leather masks. I started making them back around halloween. You know, like you do.

My cold and I are going back to sleep now.

Site update

2007-10-24T04:38:10Z

I made a Big Pink Dress. Pictures are now online for your costume p0rn entertainment.

In other news, I'm the last person in north america to figure out how to put a link into an LJ post. *sigh* And I used to be a techie?!

Gallery updates

2007-01-11T18:15:09Z

I finally put some new pictures on line. They're pictures of the yarn I've been spinning lately, which I realize is probably less exciting to most than the costume pics I keep promising from the summer. But, like, I've been making a lot of yarn in the last two weeks.... I'm trying to switch from being a stress eater to a stress spinster, which is mostly working to nix my habit of snacking on flourescent-orange-cheeze-crack-puffs late at night. (While I don't respect my body enough to stop, I do respect my fiber enough. Ain't that a hoot?)

I swear I am still working on costume gallery pages from the summer. It was a rather disorganized summer, so I'm having to track down pictures and crappity-crap like that.

Anyway, for the fiber-holics out there, pics are online at: http://www.sempstress.org/gallery/crafts/yarns/index.shtml

Ikea, please save my hiney....

2006-10-28T00:27:51Z

The school finally sent me my financial aid. After paying off my mechanic (timing belt and water pump -- big suck, but better to do it before they actually break), I have about a 200$ budget remaining. I'm really, really hoping to revamp my sewing setup. The shelving system I bought to sew/store sewing stuff on has a small little issue. Apparently, it wasn't designed to be used with machines that vibrate -- the whole thing starts to move with the machine. NOT GOOD. So right now, to sew I have to take a 6' folding table out of the closet, set it up in the middle of a 9' area, and try to live around it until things are done. And, seriously, y'all know how seamstresses are about finishing projects and cleaning up, right? Right. The current setup is Not Working(tm). So tomorrow, I am going to try to get a sewing work area (that's a desk with shelves), a computer desk, and a darn lot of boxes, and sacrifice my hanging fabric storage, which I dearly love because I have no concept of "object permanance", fold up everything that is not a currently working project, redo my shelving, assemble and/or move furniture, and try to put my room back together so I can do two major sewing projects and a fashion trend board on sunday. Does that sound overly optimistic? Beyond the fact that the last bit is totally doomed to failure, I'm really hoping.... I guess if nothing else, I'm going to be providing the cats with many more surfaces to lie upon. That's always a worthy cause.

Anyway, this is going to require the blessing of the swedish god Ikea, and a good lot of help from Dominic. We've never tried putting together furniture together before. Hopefully, this will not be one of those stupid things that makes two people rethink their relationship.

hatehatehatehatehatehateSCREAMINGHATE

2006-10-02T03:12:17Z

Fashion design is the biggest screaming trainwreck of deliberately created drama and disorganization masquerading as a major in the entire history of EVER. Gawd.

Oh, and in case anyone ever wondered, the worst thing about being a returning adult student is that you have to go to school with children. Stupid, immature, worthless children that you will be forced to work in groups with. Children whose philosophy on group labor seems to be, "Maybe someone will work on it so we don't all fail, but like, I have other stuff to do." Snotty, egotistical children act like they genuinely believe that the divine itself is watching them avidly, taking notes, just in case the universe needs a little redesign.

YAY!!!!

2006-09-05T18:30:49Z

Faire is over, and I can have my life back! Well, at least until my teachers decide that I shouldn't have a life, and fill it with homework. *sigh* But that entirely hasn't happened yet. :)

College of DuPage made the truly lamentable decision to start the week before Labor Day this year, even though we have Labor Day off. So my two monday teachers gave up big projects, ostensible to keep us off the streets and out of trouble over the holiday. I kept wanting to raise my hand and say, "Teacher, I have Faire... May I be excused from this?" But I figured the answer would be no....

One of the classes I'm in this semester is a draping class. (Yeah, I know, but it's required and I am kinda curious about how you're *supposed* to do these things). Anyway, I've finally screwed up the courage to uncorset Janey (my dress form) and check to see how far different my middle has gotten from hers in the last 8 or so years.... *cringe* The good news is, from the waist up, things have stayed reasonably the same. Below that.... Um, let's just say it's a good thing I'm dating a 'brutha from da hood' (his words, not mine). I have to start letting the cover out at the waist and come up with an extra 5-6" by the lower hip. Ok, I don't really like the implications of that, but there are two good reasons to think it's not as grim as it sounds: First, I suspect I never actually checked the fit below the high hip on the form because, seriously, I bought it for 'bethan costuming. Hips are irrelevant under that muck supported skirt and padded pleat. Actually, I was a little sloppy about checking the fit on the form cover in general. It was close enough, and then I threw a corset on it. But more important than that, my sweetie still says that I have a better ass than J-Lo. I love that man. Bones are for the dog, indeed. ;)

NOTICE: sempstress.org will be down for several days

2006-08-22T14:48:16Z

I am going to transfer the site to a different host. The current host has taken issue with my gallery directory. I will try to have a new host before the end of the day, but it will take several days for the transfer to proliferate out across the internet.

Apologies for the inconvenience. Please point any fingers directly at eHostSource.com, as their tech support is an incompetant tit.

Clearly, I don't feel like doing anything useful....

2006-08-22T01:10:32Z

I'm totally stymied by everything I could (or should) be doing right now.

After two wonderful days in Costumer Candyland with Sarah and Bess and Edmond and everyone else at Bristol, I'm totally enthused about jumping headlong back into total elizabethan research whoredom and I have a strong desire to drop everything and start a detailed journal of me trying to follow the directions (Ha! Me? Follow directions?) from the Tudor Tailor book. Unfortunately, I have to finish a fairy costume before this sunday when the Friends of Faire "Fantasy Folk" costume contest runs. I'm organizing (Ha! again... Me? Organize?) the thing, so I feel like I ought to dress like I know something about the topic. The costume is also the project for the Bridal Couture class I took over the summer, and I have to finish it. My teacher was cool enough to let me do a costume for the class, but I ended up asking for an incomplete so that I could finish the wedding gown I was being paid for. Irony, there....

The felting and silk paper books I ordered from Amazon, to use in my textile surface design class arrived over the weekend, and I totally want to play with everything in them. Unfortunately, the class has been cancelled due to lack of enrollment. Darn these teenage students who won't take anything that's not necessary for graduation.

All the yummy rovings I ordered from Winderwood Farms' ebay store arrived today, and I desperately want to haul out my spindle. Pity about the fairy costume, all the work that still needs to be done to put the Fashion Department rooms back together before classes start, and the classes that start on thursday. :(

And can anyone recommend a good mac client for LJ? Or tell me how to link to other LJers? And why in the world does LJ have moodicons for "quixotic" but not for "stymied" or "thwarted"?

@$*&%! Web host

2006-08-22T00:49:58Z

Sempstress.org is down, and handing out 403 errors. I've mailed my host, but it's been more than 37 seconds and they haven't responded. What's happened to the good old days of sys admins who could fire back something snippy in no time flat?

I still have an LJ account?

2006-08-21T05:07:21Z

Sunsagun..... Who knew? Well, ok, Sarah and Jen and Bess all knew, and I just promised Sarah and Bess that I'd figure out my password and do something with the account. And since I love my Sarah and my Bess, I did. But I think now I'm going to sleep.

At some point, I'll figure out how to read other people's journals, and just what all names everyone I know goes by on here. Be patient; everyone here is about three years ahead of me.