New growth.
Hello all. It's been a while, and a lot has changed. I've held back on posting for a while; I kept telling myself that I'd catch you all up on my life sooner or later, that I'd let you in on the radical changes going on in my life soon enough. Well, that never happened, but tonight's a new beginning, and so here I am.
You know how you avoid thinking about decisions for a while, and how they end up making themselves up for you in the meantime? You peek in on them and look, they're all resolved and sitting in a neat line, looking at you and saying, "Where've you been? We not only decided ourselves for you, but we've made you a new To-Do list!"
Well, I've had one of those. The product of it?
From today forward, I'm going to make my living by sewing. It hit me when I was completing a commission tonight - Elisa called me asking for rat hammocks, and an hour and a half later I was uploading the photos of the pair of them to my Etsy account. And it hit me - I'd never thought about making rat hammocks before, but by god, I can do it, and do it with more personality and just as much quality as the ones that Elisa could have bought online.
On the bus today, I ran into a friend from my knitting circle, and ended up giving her my email and my Etsy addresses, so she can send me pics of her Corgi and I can make her a plushie in the dog's likeness.
I was talking to friends about the breadth of my sewing and whether i should split my shop into separate parts; and that I don't want to, I LIKE it being eclectic, it shows that I'm a jack of all trades sewingwise, and I'm proud of that.
I thought about looking at the tailoring that was done on my suit cuffs to bring them up, and looking at how BEAUTIFUL it is, and how the sight of it (and the knowledge that yesterday, they were this long; now, they're this long!) stirs something deep in me, and it also sparks this passionate and fierce I WILL LEARN HOW TO DO THAT in me, but it's a quiet fierce, a steadydetermined fierce.
Sorcha reminded me I have business sense, drive, smarts to know what's realistic goals. And a few days ago she mentioned that I could make a killing on cloaks at the PGH renfaire at the end of the summer, and I looked up booth protocol and rates and it's reasonable, very reasonable, and I caught myself already planning out profit percentages versus materials costs.
I saw the artist alley booths at Tekkoshocon and realised I'm more skilled than 60% of the fabriccrafts persons there.
I think about my plans for clothes for my dolls. For wedding and birthday gifts for my friends, and what medium that they always bubble up as in my mind.
I think about my terror at ending up just like my parents, which hasn't abated even though I accomplished a bachelor's which they didn't.
I think about my calendar on my fridge, which has green X's on days when I sew, blue and purple for when I spend and make money, and pink for writing. Current month: ~16 green, 2 pink.
And my sudden regret that I spent money on dolls, because that means my security cushion for ifwhen this doesn't work out is smaller - and then anger at that regret, fierce love for my doll Sparrow, and disgust at myself for expecting the worst -
Remembering the elation that I felt when Eden and I made the wings, and the elation that returned as we planned the next pairs, plural, during her visit two weeks ago -
The pride I feel when I wear the Red Dorothy dress -
The look on my neighbor Sharon's face last night when she zipped me into my Black Dorothy dress: "You look so hot honey! You made this?!?!"
And I know I have to make up my mind and throw my lot in, NO TAKEBACKS, to make this work.
So I do. I make up my mind now, and y'all please help hold me to it. From now on, I sew.
nightengale.org
This weekend: Portfolio pics of the Bunny wedding dress, the El dress, Red Dorothy, Black Dorothy,
R.D. Cape, and the Eden Butterfly dress just for kicks. Monday when I get back, finishing the orange frog (well, except the yarn?) and work on the website, hopefully. If not, at least the WP blog. Commission talk on Elisa's 40's dress in the evening. Tuesday, supply run for Mr Fufu stuffed bunny terrycloth, Elisafabric, cloak #1 and #2 fabrics, Eden skirtdenim (black/pink - remember pink gutermannX2), and Gen's Kid/Shin-Kid linen body fabric IF I don't have enough left over from the wedding stuffs. Which means I gotta draft the body pattern on Monday. Awesome. (Also laundry XD) Wednesday... Hm. Wonder if I could get going on the Green Shirt Of Stretchy Doom And Hiatus. Would be a good challenge. Oh, thread. Gotta make sure to have the right color thread for Fufu, Elisadress, and also the cloaks. And go hunting for my old cloak pattern on Monday night.
Ho'hyeah. This is gonna fuckin' rock. :D
You know how you avoid thinking about decisions for a while, and how they end up making themselves up for you in the meantime? You peek in on them and look, they're all resolved and sitting in a neat line, looking at you and saying, "Where've you been? We not only decided ourselves for you, but we've made you a new To-Do list!"
Well, I've had one of those. The product of it?
From today forward, I'm going to make my living by sewing. It hit me when I was completing a commission tonight - Elisa called me asking for rat hammocks, and an hour and a half later I was uploading the photos of the pair of them to my Etsy account. And it hit me - I'd never thought about making rat hammocks before, but by god, I can do it, and do it with more personality and just as much quality as the ones that Elisa could have bought online.
On the bus today, I ran into a friend from my knitting circle, and ended up giving her my email and my Etsy addresses, so she can send me pics of her Corgi and I can make her a plushie in the dog's likeness.
I was talking to friends about the breadth of my sewing and whether i should split my shop into separate parts; and that I don't want to, I LIKE it being eclectic, it shows that I'm a jack of all trades sewingwise, and I'm proud of that.
I thought about looking at the tailoring that was done on my suit cuffs to bring them up, and looking at how BEAUTIFUL it is, and how the sight of it (and the knowledge that yesterday, they were this long; now, they're this long!) stirs something deep in me, and it also sparks this passionate and fierce I WILL LEARN HOW TO DO THAT in me, but it's a quiet fierce, a steadydetermined fierce.
Sorcha reminded me I have business sense, drive, smarts to know what's realistic goals. And a few days ago she mentioned that I could make a killing on cloaks at the PGH renfaire at the end of the summer, and I looked up booth protocol and rates and it's reasonable, very reasonable, and I caught myself already planning out profit percentages versus materials costs.
I saw the artist alley booths at Tekkoshocon and realised I'm more skilled than 60% of the fabriccrafts persons there.
I think about my plans for clothes for my dolls. For wedding and birthday gifts for my friends, and what medium that they always bubble up as in my mind.
I think about my terror at ending up just like my parents, which hasn't abated even though I accomplished a bachelor's which they didn't.
I think about my calendar on my fridge, which has green X's on days when I sew, blue and purple for when I spend and make money, and pink for writing. Current month: ~16 green, 2 pink.
And my sudden regret that I spent money on dolls, because that means my security cushion for ifwhen this doesn't work out is smaller - and then anger at that regret, fierce love for my doll Sparrow, and disgust at myself for expecting the worst -
Remembering the elation that I felt when Eden and I made the wings, and the elation that returned as we planned the next pairs, plural, during her visit two weeks ago -
The pride I feel when I wear the Red Dorothy dress -
The look on my neighbor Sharon's face last night when she zipped me into my Black Dorothy dress: "You look so hot honey! You made this?!?!"
And I know I have to make up my mind and throw my lot in, NO TAKEBACKS, to make this work.
So I do. I make up my mind now, and y'all please help hold me to it. From now on, I sew.
nightengale.org
This weekend: Portfolio pics of the Bunny wedding dress, the El dress, Red Dorothy, Black Dorothy,
R.D. Cape, and the Eden Butterfly dress just for kicks. Monday when I get back, finishing the orange frog (well, except the yarn?) and work on the website, hopefully. If not, at least the WP blog. Commission talk on Elisa's 40's dress in the evening. Tuesday, supply run for Mr Fufu stuffed bunny terrycloth, Elisafabric, cloak #1 and #2 fabrics, Eden skirtdenim (black/pink - remember pink gutermannX2), and Gen's Kid/Shin-Kid linen body fabric IF I don't have enough left over from the wedding stuffs. Which means I gotta draft the body pattern on Monday. Awesome. (Also laundry XD) Wednesday... Hm. Wonder if I could get going on the Green Shirt Of Stretchy Doom And Hiatus. Would be a good challenge. Oh, thread. Gotta make sure to have the right color thread for Fufu, Elisadress, and also the cloaks. And go hunting for my old cloak pattern on Monday night.
Ho'hyeah. This is gonna fuckin' rock. :D