Bloggers Award

The lovely Anneliese of The Young Sewphisticate has nominated me for a Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award; thank you very much! I don't always "do" these awards that ask you to write out some Q&As, but I do appreciate the ones you've all ever given me in comments! (Hooray! I'm inspiring! I'm still tickled by this.)

Although - they do always require you to nominate X more blogs, and I feel a bit like I'm perpetuating a chain letter. So as per usual, I'm just going to answer the questions, and that'll have to be good enough. :)

Why did you begin blogging?

I started a costume journal on a different platform about ten years ago, because many of the Big-Name Costumers I read were on there, and there was a great costuming community. When Blogger came out, I thought it would be a good place for me to have a slightly more professional costume portfolio (but only slightly!), apart from my daily "I sewed a seam"! Plus it's a way to keep in touch, as a considerable part of the costuming community has moved to a blogging style.

Who or what sparked your interest in costuming?

I originally started looking around at costume sites because my high school madrigal choir dressed up to compete at the Renaissance Faire (at which we used to place regularly, thankyouverymuch), and I thought everything in the costume closet was ugly! Not that what I made was much better...but I was lucky enough to stumble onto The Tudor Costume Page, with instructions for making an outfit for Kentwell, so I completely bypassed the Simplicity Horror Phase! Completely by accident, but I've been interested in accurate costume (or, you know...relatively!) ever since.

What do you find more exciting: the designing or the sewing process for your costumes?

 Designing. And I find that more exciting than actually wearing, too...which is why I have such a pile of UFOs! I very rarely actually do any sketching, unless there are troublesome seam-lines; it's all in my head. I mentally sew every single seam in my head before I do so in reality, which also contributes to that pile...once I've finished it in my head I don't always feel the drive to complete it in reality!

What is your all-time favorite period drama?

If we're talking film? (If it's book...I couldn't choose, don't make me! So many books I love that I've never seen a satisfactory adaptation of!) Pride and Prejudice. Yes, that one. Yes, it's a common answer. There's a reason! It's wonderfully costumed, well-adapted from the text, overall well-cast, and it devotes enough time to plot development to satisfy me. Yes, every novel adaptation should be approximately six hours long, haha. Oh, and it's funny. I find Austen novels to be quite humorous, and not all adaptations translate that well to the screen. (Tangentially, while assigning Austen heroines to our group, a friend told me I'm Mr Bennet. I am surprisingly ok with this.)

If you could travel anywhere in the world for a week (all expenses paid), where would you go?

It's another tired old answer, but I'd love to see the British Isles! I'm poor so I've never been there...I'm a great fan of classic Brit Lit so I want to see all the places I've read about! A week might not be enough time, though...can I have a fortnight instead? ;)

If you could have a conversation with anyone from the past, who would you choose & what would you ask them?

Oh goodness, really? "The past" is a lot of time to choose from! Picking a bit randomly, I'd love to have Eleanor of Aquitaine tell me stories of her life!

Which do you prefer more: mornings or evenings?  Why?

Evenings. I like being awake in the mornings, too...but that requires actually getting up in the mornings, which I like much, much less. I don't really know why I function better getting up and staying up late, but I do! I'm not allowed to cut fabric past midnight, though...

What accomplishment(s) in the past year made you the proudest?

Are we talking sewing? I've decided we are. It's probably that I managed to meet a deadline, finish the Gainsborough Princesse natural form dress, and submit it to YWU's competition! I absolutely hate putting my costumes out there to be judged; I'm a very harsh judge of my own work and I always imagine others are too! It went over rather well, though I doubt I'll enter again.

What do you hope to accomplish this year?

 Sewing again! Short-term (that is, by the end of November) I want to make a few new things for Gettysburg; longer-term, that is, next calendar year, I want to go back to Katherine Parr and finish her. The gown's in pieces, but I still have a lot of accessories to put together!

What is on your sewing wish list?

Someday I'd like to make a recreation of Mme de Pompadour's "coronation portrait" gown, done as accurately as I can, from the inside out. I've had the taffeta for it since a nice taffeta was $16/yd (and that was a lot for me at the time!) but not the skill...in the past couple of years I've started to think I could do it justice, but it'll probably take another ten years to collect the rest of the supplies!