As the Spinning Wheel Turns, or My So-Called 18th Century Life
I am the geekiest of geeks.
Not the nerdiest of nerds, which sounds better and which I originally wrote. But I am enough of a geek to know that there is a big difference between a geek and a nerd (for your information, a nerd is someone who is overly interested in academics, particularly math and computer science, while a geek is overly interested in some particular obscure topic, not necessarily intellectual. Although I am intellectual. I just happen to suck at math. See? Not a nerd.)
ANYWAY.
There is a definite sense of ULTIMATE to a geek niche. We don't go half-assed. This is why Trekkies learn to speak Klingon, which is useless in the real world, and why rennies learn to make chain maille, which is...useless outside of renaissance fairs. And in my case, this, of course, culminates in being able to make things by hand. Because history geeks know that sewing machines weren't used until the 1850s. Natch.
I already got this quite a bit from Justin this spring, as evidenced by me producing a waistcoat that didn't fall apart within minutes of him putting it on:
But hey, I'm a chick. Much as I want a steampunk waistcoat, I also want a dress, maybe.
Which is why in a couple of weeks I'm doing an all-weekend gown-making workshop! This makes me ridiculously happy as up to now I've just been winging it! O joy, O rapture!
Basically there is this society called the Ladies of Refined Taste (which rather makes me think that they must all be over 60, but apparently not) who are involved with the reenactors in the area, and they have this thing called the Hive, which is a series of lectures and workshops that happen every year, usually in the early spring so that people can get ready for Battle Road. And apparently their gown-in-a-weekend thing was so popular that they're doing it again! So off I go to Concord to learn to do things the right way. This is also really good because part of it is learning a technique called en fourreau, which is sort of hard to explain, but means that the whole back of the dress is one piece.
Not only is this how most dresses were made, but I will also eventually need to know how to do this for one of my dream projects:
(this would be much more epic if she didn't have SO MUCH HAIR, but you get the point)
Once I get this done, I will have an entire article of clothing for myself made entirely be hand, which will be extremely useful if I ever do reenacting for real and have to meet accuracy guidelines and stuff.
Oh, and I will feel like a pretty, pretty princess.
Not the nerdiest of nerds, which sounds better and which I originally wrote. But I am enough of a geek to know that there is a big difference between a geek and a nerd (for your information, a nerd is someone who is overly interested in academics, particularly math and computer science, while a geek is overly interested in some particular obscure topic, not necessarily intellectual. Although I am intellectual. I just happen to suck at math. See? Not a nerd.)
ANYWAY.
There is a definite sense of ULTIMATE to a geek niche. We don't go half-assed. This is why Trekkies learn to speak Klingon, which is useless in the real world, and why rennies learn to make chain maille, which is...useless outside of renaissance fairs. And in my case, this, of course, culminates in being able to make things by hand. Because history geeks know that sewing machines weren't used until the 1850s. Natch.
I already got this quite a bit from Justin this spring, as evidenced by me producing a waistcoat that didn't fall apart within minutes of him putting it on:
But hey, I'm a chick. Much as I want a steampunk waistcoat, I also want a dress, maybe.
Which is why in a couple of weeks I'm doing an all-weekend gown-making workshop! This makes me ridiculously happy as up to now I've just been winging it! O joy, O rapture!
Basically there is this society called the Ladies of Refined Taste (which rather makes me think that they must all be over 60, but apparently not) who are involved with the reenactors in the area, and they have this thing called the Hive, which is a series of lectures and workshops that happen every year, usually in the early spring so that people can get ready for Battle Road. And apparently their gown-in-a-weekend thing was so popular that they're doing it again! So off I go to Concord to learn to do things the right way. This is also really good because part of it is learning a technique called en fourreau, which is sort of hard to explain, but means that the whole back of the dress is one piece.
Not only is this how most dresses were made, but I will also eventually need to know how to do this for one of my dream projects:
(this would be much more epic if she didn't have SO MUCH HAIR, but you get the point)
Once I get this done, I will have an entire article of clothing for myself made entirely be hand, which will be extremely useful if I ever do reenacting for real and have to meet accuracy guidelines and stuff.
Oh, and I will feel like a pretty, pretty princess.