Yes boys and girls, I decided to take the week off since A) I had the leave; B) I got permission; and C) I desperately need new garb, especially for Pennsic.
Of course, I decided to go for the GFD since I had had it fitted a year ago at Mathilde's. And of course, that was more than 20 lbs ago, so refitting the whole damn thing has been an adventure.
I am still not 100% happy with it, but it looks pretty damn good considering that it is my first attempt at a GFD. It has taken a lot of taking in and taking out to the original pattern in order to compensate for the changes of my body due to all my bodybuilding, which has moved everything to different places. And the fact that my girls don't match on account of the fakey one doesn't help one bit.
Plus reading the instructions before putting the gores would have helped as well, but I digress ....
(Instructions? We don't need no stinking instructions! Oh, wait!)
Anyway, I do hope to have this gown ready for Pennsic. I am using the last of the really nice lightweight wool from the old, now defunct online Denver Fabrics. (The site still exists, but it is now owned by Fashion Fabrics Club, which cannot hold a candle to the original DF.) It will be pretty. (Or so I hope.)
Man, I miss Denver Fabrics.
And speaking of fabrics, one of the things that I did this week was to join a girls' road trip to JoMar in Philly, along with
simone, greta_k and akgnome. It was all sorts of fun, we had Philly cheese steaks, got visited by the ghost of Jerry Falwell (which triggered the dreaded Falwell Effect), got lost, ended up in New Jersey (see Falwell Effect), got to watch the guys from the Salvation Army do Xmas in July, and scored some really nifty wool at great prices at JoMar. I took some nifty pictures even. We must do this again!Among the bargains, I got some lovely thisle blue, lightweight wool for
psalite, who wanted us to bring her some for a nice houppelande. I, for my part, got some nice red gabbie for a petticoat; an absolutely gorgeous black wool to make a coat for ballistabob; and two pieces of herrigbone wool that I just could not resist when I discovered that they were on sale for $3.00 a yard. I am still not sure what I am going to do with the latter, but I will find out soon enough. But the one who got the best bargains was the Greta. Five and a half yards of yummy wool for a buck a yard. It was definitely her lucky day.Last but not least, Psalite and I went fireworks hunting last Saturday. It's just not the 4th of July without fireworks. We had also taken the class on how to shoot them, so there we went, camera and tripod in hand, to conquer the bloody things.
Of course, it would have helped if I had read the manual to my Nikon D-90 and learned how to program it so I could set it correctly. (Manuals? We don't need no stinking manuals! Oh, wait!)
Note to self: A Nikon does not work like a Canon and the buttons and settings are placed in different places and do different things.
Sigh.
We also discovered that having a flashlight when shooting at night is a very good idea. It would have been great if we actually had one, since we could not see the settings in the camera. (Guess what is residing in my bag now?)
At any rate, I did take some nice pictures, but not as nice as they would have been if I had read the actual manual and done the right thing. Here are some of the pics.
We are going back this Saturday for the revenge. The city of Alexandria is celebrating its anniversary, and there will be a fireworks show.
This time, I am pre-setting my camera, dammit!
Because this time, it's personal!
Be afraid. Be very afraid ...
