Tag: costuming

costume side quest

Last weekend I went drank from the firehose, renewed some friendships, and took a hit to my ego. First the good stuff:

The costume conference was my first costuming event in six years and one I desperately needed. Due to both The Book* and covid I’ve not made anything in an age and needed this spark to make me want to make things again.

Being around other people as interested and excited as I am about the subject matter helped too. I lurve me a good online conference, but there’s something about sharing interests and projects face to face that gets lost on Zoom. I renewed friendships and made new ones with a variety of intelligent, creative, and inspired people who get why the correct sort of thread and the right tools for the job matter.

There’s also something about the tactile aspect. To my pleased surprise, most of the conference was hands-on creation, which is great because I learn best by doing. Also, not to malign writing, but between it and my day job I spend a lot of time pushing pixels around. It’s nice to get the physical feedback and a material object I can refer to and use.

Speaking of which…

This was a historic costuming conference so most of the sewing was by hand, and the classes included a variety of small or otherwise hard-to-see things: sewing dark on dark, a needle lace sampler a couple of inches wide, embellishing round button blanks smaller than the end of my thumb, and gold thread so delicate I was afraid of breaking it.

close up shot of felt hat blank and velvet hat brim in progress
Choosing black velvet for my pleated hat was possibly not the best choice.

Between lack of practice and declining eyesight, these projects were as frustrating as they were interesting. I kept losing my grip on pins and needles and spent half of these sessions with my glasses off just to see what I was doing.

I’ve hand sewn since I was a teenager. I assumed I was good at it and always would be. Turns out my skill is not as permanent as I thought it was.

I can re-learn hand sewing – bright light, magnification, and practice, practice practice! Still, discovering I’m not as good as I thought was a bit of a slap to the face.

On another upside though, I finally figured out what to do with my author’s Instagram! I don’t have any research trips coming up but I do have some sewing projects planned so I’ll be updating that more often.

*Re: The Book: I’ve devoted most of my writing time to book reviews and short stories over the past few months, but I’m getting back on the Fool’s Gold wagon. For the first time since winter I can stand to look at it and make the continuity tweaks I’ve been avoiding. More news forthcoming.

 

 

 

giving up one thing to get another

I used to be a costumer.

Let me back up. I am a costumer. My love of costume and fashion goes way back, and I started sewing in high school as a means of getting EXACTLY the outfit I imagined. Over the years I’ve turned my hand to everything from modern patterns to science fiction and historical costume, the latter especially a wonderful outlet for my restless need to research.

Fitted Gown
English fitted gown, ca 16th c.
partlet
Elizabethan partlet with blackwork embroidery

I not only enjoy sewing but do it well: I can draft my own patterns and alter existing ones; I’m comfortable dyeing, hand sewing, and even the odd bit of embroidery. Given that my day job has me moving pixels around a screen 40 hours a week it’s a refreshing change to work with something physical.

So you have some idea how big a deal it is for me to set it aside.

Farscape duster
Duster from tv show “Farscape”
Doublet
Sleeveless doublet with trim, ca. 16th c.

Once I got serious about The Book ™ I realized I’d have to stop sewing. Fact: there are only 24 hours in a day. Eight of those I must sleep (and I really must; one of the cruel tricks of being over 35 is that I can’t function on 5 hours a night anymore); another 8 I must work to keep a roof over my head. ~Two days a week I fence and giving it up isn’t an option because I get cranky if I don’t exercise regularly. I also have husband, family, and friends who I enjoy spending time with. Something had to give.

My coach once gave me a valuable piece of advice: you give up one thing to get another. He meant this in the context of fencing: if you go on the offense you give up defense; if you defend one side you automatically leave another open. There is no one perfect act that gives you EVERYTHING, and I’ve found that this holds true for other aspects of my life.

Once the first draft is complete I’ll reward myself with a sewing project even if it’s just garment dyeing or a quick and dirty commercial pattern. Until then all creative energies must go towards the book.

This will be even more true for the next 6 weeks as the HNS conference folks finally got their requirements for cold reads/critiques to me. I need 10 more-or-less finished pages by May 31 to send to my mentor, so even the “pouring sand into the sandbox” of first drafting will be taking a back seat.

Wish me luck.