Ok, the site is up and running. still pretty rudimentary, but it's there.  www.freewebs.com/clothesbykate/

After much prompting and a few not so gentle prods from family, I'm going for it. I am presenting myself as a seamstress for hire.  I will be working to set up a site to profile what I've done, but in the meantime, I will be taking commisions  for garb.  If you are interested, please contact me at rianas_mom@yahoo.com. I will also be posting more photos of work already completed. Thanks in advance for hearing me out.

Sitting here after two awesome weekends at faire, I can't belive it'll be a whole month till we can go back. The first weekend, I went with my SIL (Moe) and friend Michelle. Just the girls. I felt kinda guilty, but it was so nice to be free for a whole weekend. Last weekend, The WHOLE family went and we camped at this really nice camp ground on bear creek road right off 35. It was so nice to hang out with everyone and even have a bit of time to reconnect a bit. MY husband had his very first faire experience and walked away better for it. At first, he went to humor me, but on the drive home, he was already getting excited for our next weekend up there and talking about next year. My two year old had a good time too, although I'm sure she could have done with more sleep. she was pretty crabby that whole weekend. So, all in all a good time was had by all and I can't wait to go back.

I realized as I re-read my last few posts, that The Dress(yes it's a capital thing) has not been introduced. Let me start by mentioning, most of the techniques used were new to me, and those that weren't new were kind of rusty. It also turned out to be one giant cross your fingers experiment too. In my blog before last I mentioned that I wanted to make a new bodice because I didn't care for the others I had made. I used Drea Leed's corset generator and bodice instructions, and changed it from a front opening to a back opening. Well, the muslin turned out well and didn't need too many tweaks, so I cut the fashion fabric and lining and put it together. The bodice was left unboned since it was meant to be worn with a corset, so it went really fast. After that, I added hook and eyes for closure and put it on my dummy to add the trim.

After the trim was added, it just seemed to be missing something, like it was a half finished project instead of a finished bodice. It needed a skirt. So I bought more material and, in all my spare time, made a cartridge pleated, front split skirt. That I then hand sewed on(yes I really am an idiot).

Then a few days later, I decided the shoulders looked too plain, so I made tabs for them and hand sewed those on too. THEN, I tried the whole thing on with the underskirt and decided it hung too limply, even though I was going for a narrower middle class sillouette, so I made a farthingale to go with it. So now my new bodice has become a new gown and to be completely honest, I don't know if I'll wear the darn thing, especially if the weather is too warm. This is texas after all and I have surprisingly little desire to experience fainting. So it may all turn out to be the most expensive experiment ever, but I hope the weather will cooperate. I'd really like to wear it. But that is the saga of The Dress so far. It's probably far from done though. I'll keep you updated and more pictures to come.

Today is my birthday. I'm 24 years old and yet, it seems that I'm stranding still. Who knew. Something tells me today will be an introspective day.