So long, 2017
I am so, so glad that 2017 is done. It is by far the biggest trash can of a year that I've ever had, and I just want to set it on fire and never think about it again. The only good thing that came out of it was my new job, but otherwise it's been an almost unending stream of family issues (mostly problems with my mother), financial stress, mental breakdowns, house hunting failures, and crying. So much crying.
I haven't even had the energy to pay attention to or care about external world-scale shittiness, I have enough of that at home, thank you very much.
My mother actually said to me "You've had a pretty great year!" -_- No, Mom, that's your other daughter. She had the good year. I had my own personal dumpster fire.
I did a costume wrap-up on my blog, and reading back over it I think I sound pretty bitter about this year, probably too much for what's meant to be a fairly fluffy blog. I was feeling pretty sour when I wrote it, but I wanted to just publish it and get it done. Ugh.
On the bright side, my parents have been in a pretty good mood all through the Christmas/New Year holidays. Drunkenness was at a tolerable level, and didn't devolve into name-calling, yelling, or fighting, so that's a win for the end of the year. I think part of it was because Mom "gave me permission" to wait until after the holidays to continue house hunting, so she wasn't all up in my face about moving out.
I even got good presents this year! After many years of trying, my family finally paid attention to my Amazon wish list and bought me a few of the books I'd been wanting. My sister bought me Charlotte shoe buckles, and I think she's finally realizing what a shoe buckle obsession I have, because she's giving them to me for every holiday now. XD She also got us tickets to see Disney's Fantasia in concert, so she's definitely A+ #1 gift-giver. I also didn't have to suffer the "I think this is what you should be wearing!" clothing gifts this year, so that's an extra win.
Anyway, I had 10 days off, and intended to do a fair bit of sewing for February, but only managed a fraction of what I needed to get done. I did manage to get the transitional bustle into the realm of "serviceable", but the rufflebutt petticoat I made to go over it gave me all sorts of problems and ate up 4 entire days of sewing, and I mean 8+ hour days. I ended up having to try and finagle an extra gore out of what little fabric I had left, so part of the fabric pattern is horizontal while the rest is vertical. At least it's a very subtle pattern and it's not really noticeable. Having that crinoline with the bustle definitely adds a new level of weird, and it's oddly more challenging than I expected. It definitely eats way more fabric than just a lobstertail bustle.
The second petticoat was cut so it would have a small train, but the rufflebutt petticoat added an extra 5 inches (!!!) of floof to the back, so there is no train. C'est la vie. These gowns are going to be absolutely gigantic.
I had a moment of panic about how much I still had to get done, since I haven't really done anything for my actual gowns yet, so after tossing and turning one night, I decided to nix the pink gown for the evening and do something else. I still want to make that gown this year, but with just about a month to go and really only having weekends to get stuff done, there's no way I could cobble it together in time and be happy with it. I hunted for another fashion plate to copy and found a teal and aqua dress I liked, but then I realized I'd have to order the teal velvet and I don't have time to wait for something to come in the mail. So, plan C is to use the turquoise George fabric that I bought for my Regency dress, and finagle something out of that. I have some silver taffeta in the storage unit that I can use with it, and it will go pretty well with the silver embroidery on the George, so now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with it. There's only 5 yards of the turquoise, so I have to make it count.
I haven't even had the energy to pay attention to or care about external world-scale shittiness, I have enough of that at home, thank you very much.
My mother actually said to me "You've had a pretty great year!" -_- No, Mom, that's your other daughter. She had the good year. I had my own personal dumpster fire.
I did a costume wrap-up on my blog, and reading back over it I think I sound pretty bitter about this year, probably too much for what's meant to be a fairly fluffy blog. I was feeling pretty sour when I wrote it, but I wanted to just publish it and get it done. Ugh.
On the bright side, my parents have been in a pretty good mood all through the Christmas/New Year holidays. Drunkenness was at a tolerable level, and didn't devolve into name-calling, yelling, or fighting, so that's a win for the end of the year. I think part of it was because Mom "gave me permission" to wait until after the holidays to continue house hunting, so she wasn't all up in my face about moving out.
I even got good presents this year! After many years of trying, my family finally paid attention to my Amazon wish list and bought me a few of the books I'd been wanting. My sister bought me Charlotte shoe buckles, and I think she's finally realizing what a shoe buckle obsession I have, because she's giving them to me for every holiday now. XD She also got us tickets to see Disney's Fantasia in concert, so she's definitely A+ #1 gift-giver. I also didn't have to suffer the "I think this is what you should be wearing!" clothing gifts this year, so that's an extra win.
Anyway, I had 10 days off, and intended to do a fair bit of sewing for February, but only managed a fraction of what I needed to get done. I did manage to get the transitional bustle into the realm of "serviceable", but the rufflebutt petticoat I made to go over it gave me all sorts of problems and ate up 4 entire days of sewing, and I mean 8+ hour days. I ended up having to try and finagle an extra gore out of what little fabric I had left, so part of the fabric pattern is horizontal while the rest is vertical. At least it's a very subtle pattern and it's not really noticeable. Having that crinoline with the bustle definitely adds a new level of weird, and it's oddly more challenging than I expected. It definitely eats way more fabric than just a lobstertail bustle.
The second petticoat was cut so it would have a small train, but the rufflebutt petticoat added an extra 5 inches (!!!) of floof to the back, so there is no train. C'est la vie. These gowns are going to be absolutely gigantic.
I had a moment of panic about how much I still had to get done, since I haven't really done anything for my actual gowns yet, so after tossing and turning one night, I decided to nix the pink gown for the evening and do something else. I still want to make that gown this year, but with just about a month to go and really only having weekends to get stuff done, there's no way I could cobble it together in time and be happy with it. I hunted for another fashion plate to copy and found a teal and aqua dress I liked, but then I realized I'd have to order the teal velvet and I don't have time to wait for something to come in the mail. So, plan C is to use the turquoise George fabric that I bought for my Regency dress, and finagle something out of that. I have some silver taffeta in the storage unit that I can use with it, and it will go pretty well with the silver embroidery on the George, so now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with it. There's only 5 yards of the turquoise, so I have to make it count.