and now, a word from the sewing room
Jul. 26th, 2006 09:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serindeObvious: Boy howdy, am I behind on my sewing. I've gotten most of the repair work done I needed to do, and I'm confident I can finish the reversible gamurra sleeves and 2 chemoose before I leave for Pennsic, but it's seeming likely I'll have to bid tearful farewell to the thought of a new dress.
On Saturday, Greta (that's Mistress Muriel de Chimay to you) asked if I wanted to be her student, with an option to apprentice at the end of a year. This...sort of blindsided me and sort of didn't, as I've had an intuition over the last few months that Beth has been working this angle, but I was still a bit gobstopped when the words were actually in the air.
The student part: Yes, obviously, duhr, full speed ahead. Greta's Laurel is for 14th c. attire, and Lord knows I am ready, willing, and eager to soak up everything she has to throw at me on that topic. (I daresay I'll continue to get most of my technical training, the fitting and stitchery skills and whatnot, more locally from Beth and Kasia.) What I need to have a long hard think about over the next year is the apprenticeship question. I have the definite sense that apprenticeship, among her people, is a serious commitment to Going For Your Laurel (the analogy in my head is "going for your PhD"), and I need to work out if I am in a place where I a) desire to and b) am able to make such a commitment--to not be an eternal grad student, so to speak.
I think we're a pretty good personality fit. The others dubbed her Sweatshop Greta, because on sewing weekends, she's always the one who's pitchforking people away from the beach/movies/food/whatever and getting them back to work; and I'm very much in tune with that ("goddammit, I came here to SEW"). We both care about doing it right. I have feelings of inadequacy about living up to her expectations, but on the other hand, I usually feel that way... Swimming with the big fish as I do, I always feel like I'm tagging along (in a clothing sense), and that I'm not operating at the same level when I see the fantastic things that the Legion of Apprentices come up with. Which is why I was double-plus gobstoppered when I showed up on Saturday and Greta & Beth, in unison, ordered me to put my new hood in the A&S display. o_O See, to me, this was something anyone could have done. Greta had fitted the pattern for me some five years ago. When I was organizing my fabric, it was Beth who suggested the grey wool would make a good hood, and...Briony I think?...who said the linen would make a good lining. All I did was cut it out and stitch it, and mostly by machine at that. I don't feel like I exhibited any particular ability with this creation, see? Same thing with my green wool cotehardie: I get huge amounts of compliments on it, including someone who told me it was a Maunche-level dress, but I feel like I am cheating for taking credit. Beth fitted it on me, and though I cut it out & stitched it (including five million frigging buttonholes), she did the hard part of attaching the lining to the body. Now, Kasia points out that it's awful damn hard to fit yourself, so it's not as if all the costuming Laurels are creating their clothes in a vaccum; but still.
Finally, I'm terrified of teaching classes, which is something I know will be required of me. --Which means I need to go right the hell out and do it. Contrary stubbornness is occasionally a virtue.
In other sewing frustration news: last time I was home Mom gave me a shirt/skort set she bought at her skinniest but never wore. I hate skorts but liked the outfit otherwise, so took it with the intention of cutting loose the crotch bit and turning it into a skirt. This I have accomplished at last (not a hard job, just hadn't got the round tuit)... only to find that, though the skirt fits, the top does not. I could starve myself to a skeleton and it would still not fit over my tits. Goddammit.
On Saturday, Greta (that's Mistress Muriel de Chimay to you) asked if I wanted to be her student, with an option to apprentice at the end of a year. This...sort of blindsided me and sort of didn't, as I've had an intuition over the last few months that Beth has been working this angle, but I was still a bit gobstopped when the words were actually in the air.
The student part: Yes, obviously, duhr, full speed ahead. Greta's Laurel is for 14th c. attire, and Lord knows I am ready, willing, and eager to soak up everything she has to throw at me on that topic. (I daresay I'll continue to get most of my technical training, the fitting and stitchery skills and whatnot, more locally from Beth and Kasia.) What I need to have a long hard think about over the next year is the apprenticeship question. I have the definite sense that apprenticeship, among her people, is a serious commitment to Going For Your Laurel (the analogy in my head is "going for your PhD"), and I need to work out if I am in a place where I a) desire to and b) am able to make such a commitment--to not be an eternal grad student, so to speak.
I think we're a pretty good personality fit. The others dubbed her Sweatshop Greta, because on sewing weekends, she's always the one who's pitchforking people away from the beach/movies/food/whatever and getting them back to work; and I'm very much in tune with that ("goddammit, I came here to SEW"). We both care about doing it right. I have feelings of inadequacy about living up to her expectations, but on the other hand, I usually feel that way... Swimming with the big fish as I do, I always feel like I'm tagging along (in a clothing sense), and that I'm not operating at the same level when I see the fantastic things that the Legion of Apprentices come up with. Which is why I was double-plus gobstoppered when I showed up on Saturday and Greta & Beth, in unison, ordered me to put my new hood in the A&S display. o_O See, to me, this was something anyone could have done. Greta had fitted the pattern for me some five years ago. When I was organizing my fabric, it was Beth who suggested the grey wool would make a good hood, and...Briony I think?...who said the linen would make a good lining. All I did was cut it out and stitch it, and mostly by machine at that. I don't feel like I exhibited any particular ability with this creation, see? Same thing with my green wool cotehardie: I get huge amounts of compliments on it, including someone who told me it was a Maunche-level dress, but I feel like I am cheating for taking credit. Beth fitted it on me, and though I cut it out & stitched it (including five million frigging buttonholes), she did the hard part of attaching the lining to the body. Now, Kasia points out that it's awful damn hard to fit yourself, so it's not as if all the costuming Laurels are creating their clothes in a vaccum; but still.
Finally, I'm terrified of teaching classes, which is something I know will be required of me. --Which means I need to go right the hell out and do it. Contrary stubbornness is occasionally a virtue.
In other sewing frustration news: last time I was home Mom gave me a shirt/skort set she bought at her skinniest but never wore. I hate skorts but liked the outfit otherwise, so took it with the intention of cutting loose the crotch bit and turning it into a skirt. This I have accomplished at last (not a hard job, just hadn't got the round tuit)... only to find that, though the skirt fits, the top does not. I could starve myself to a skeleton and it would still not fit over my tits. Goddammit.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-26 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-26 05:54 pm (UTC)Congratulations on the offer, and I hope the decision making process is not too agonizing.
Finally, re: the top, clothing swap?