Cinch!

is it warm enough for this! The water was actually warm! WARM! It's Scotland for goodness sake!

Many years ago i used to post on a Tolkien forum. I joined when it was small, but as the films were announced it grew and grew like Alice into a very large community. I was shy, read more than I post - as I still do today on LJ and various other forums I've frequented - but I made some good friends there, had some laughs and inexplicably picked up some enemies too.

There was a woman who posted there. She was intelligent, articulate and amusing. She hailed from New Jersey and claimed a rather affluent lifestyle and background. She was one of these forum members who accumulate a following like worker bees around their queen. She could be kind and generous but she could also be a nasty piece of work.

As time progressed and various sub-forum migrations occurred her posting became more erratic and and temperamental. She was eventually found to be indulging in some rather Machiavellian string-pulling and gossip behind the scenes. She seemed to become more and more deranged and more and more inclined to recruit brainless mugs to do her work for her (I'm afraid I fell foul of her scheming at a very horrible low time of my life, and still feel uncomfortable if I revisit that old forum as she spread such a tissue of lies). Eventually she was banned from the original forum and flounced off in a grade A strop.

Of course she returned, indulging in a stream of alter-egos under which she vehemently denied her identity. I became a dab hand at spotting her, as I could pick out her grammar and writing style a mile off. It's remarkably difficult to hide your identity that way, as we all have our little language quirks that are very recognisable.

This type of sock-puppet behaviour is ok now and then for a giggle, if it's purely transparent and humourous. But when it's done in a sly way it's underhand, deceitful and pathetic. Anyone with a shred of intelligence can spot a fake a mile-off. I'm afraid I have no tolerance for it. That woman I was referring to really put the boot into me when I was further down than I have ever been in my life and since then I've had not one iota of time or sympathy for people behaving in such a childish, stupid and sleekit manner. Yet people insist in attempting these stupid masquerades. Quite sad.

PS -  Sorry Helen, you know the old story inside out - but some community behaviour has brought it to my mind

PPS - Not filtered or friends locked. This is a public post.

Caribbean? Maldives?

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I'm posting this here while I get the chance - as it won't stay like this for long. This way I'll remember what it looks like tidy!
Don't look to closely at my pirate costume! It was the fastest put together outfit I've ever done and it doesn't sit right on the dummy. Tip for quick stays - use fabric with stripes the same width as boning! I might take it apart and redo it actually, I like the fabric.

It seems there's a definite gulf on the corset forums regarding construction and I think the basis is of it is a clash between people who make corsets for themselves and a few friends and those who make them for paying customers.

The first can do what they damn well please. The can make it out of felt and bone it with drinking straws if they want. Cable ties, duck, plastic, drill - whatever floats yer boat.

The second have to fulfill a standard of expectations from a client who is shelling out their hard-earned cash. To reward that with cheapo materials is not on. They're expecting professional materials. They want steel, they want decent fabrics and quite rightly. They correctly expect materials to be used that are purpose made for the job. Not make do and mend, or items adapted from the DIY store. If you bought an expensive pendant would you expect it to be strung on a hardware store chain or be packaged in a margerine tub?

I made this as a sample a while back. I've got a proper one to do in tartan and I wanted to practise. It worked out pretty well. A few things I'll change on the proper one like matching the binding up with the check.
This is tiny though! It was made to a pattern for another customer (whose mock-up I'm still waiting on being returned) it's only 18" closed! Hence the cushion as it won't fit on any dummy.

I tried out my Aldi cheapy dremel last night and it works a treat!
I was finding flat steels a real struggle and this has solved it. I can cut them with no problem with the bolt-cutters, but nipping the corners to round them off and filing them was killing my wrist. I can't be bothered with dipping them, too messy and I'm impatient, so I cover the ends with PTFE tape. That works a treat but means the ends have to be well filed. Not a problem anymore.

Even if this cheapo dremel thing gives up the ghost in a few months, at least I know I can replace it with a 'real' one to do the same job.

I'm a bit worried about this wrist actually. The Carpal Tunnel I could just about handle before. But now I'm getting pains up my forearm and into my elbow. Even carrying shopping is a struggle. Not good (especially with my mums history of athritis). I should go to the doc but I've been putting it off.

I've been terribly lax recently with this journal! Just have been too busy. I'll try to catch up a bit soon - promise :)
In the meantime here's a recent sample. I wanted to make something more bridal. It's heavily inspired by 50's shapes. I want to bring some 40s/50s New Look influences into my work. But all the time I was making it I couldn't stop thinking of ice cream!

It's pale pink and ivory dupion. The lace on the front panel is antique. The pleating at the bustline is backed with a layer of coutil handstitched to the body of the corset and then all backed with the cotton lining.

Quite chuffed with it really :)

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Today I went along to a crafting event in a local pub with a friend, where we made sock-puppets & ate fairy cakes.

Meet Precious....

I then came home and checked my twitter account to find a direct message from Kristen Hersh. Only about something silly & random, but it was unexpected.
Then watched Lark Rise to Candleford and Being Human. The same actor played a policeman in both - only over 100 years apart.
I love Being Human, and that was the end of the series.

Not very happy tonight though, as it's back to work tomorrow after a week off and I haven't got anything like as much done this week as I should have. So I'm feeling a bit panic stricken now!

Cos it's pretty much used up :)

Sample, similar to the last one but with ruffles :)

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I've been buying grommets from Weldens in the US, as I need to get proper 00s for my setter. Went to order some and, no Weldens. They appear to have gone bust. So I'm back on the hunt for someone reasonable, quick and international. That Faire lady seller on ebay seems the most likely so far. Really pisses me off that it's seemingly impossible to get them here. Yeah, could get a new die but that's more expense. Pah!

Does anyone?

I'm hooked. Logging in to find out what Stephen Fry is doing on a daily basis and the results of Philip Schofield's burnt potato cakes is strangely fascinating.

I got the fabric today, it's just beautiful. Very touchable, and much smoother than some I've handled. A grey with black check with a cyan blue overcheck. Couple of official orb logo labels in the package to sew on. And a nice wee handwritten note. I really can't recommend him highly enough.
The pic doesn't show the colour up very well - you can't see the blue properly.

Odd  coincidences at times.

Yesterday I was discussing Harris Tweed as a sideways hijack on a thread of harmanhay 's
Today I bought 2 metres of Harris Tweed on Ebay at a fantastic price.
Tonight, when looking on BBC iPlayer for something else I found a Radio Four piece on Harris Tweed. The weaver I bought the tweed from on Ebay was being interviewed on it.
Turns out he's developing his business independently to avoid some of the issues and politics of the mills and the industry in general at the moment. He's struggling but he's determined. I now feel a bit guilty about the bargain I got from him.
He has a website www.buttoflewistextiles.co.uk

Please, please, please support guys like him. The industry is massively important to the Islands and work is not easy to come by up there. It's something we will lose if we don't support, and it's a wonderful fabric. The mills seem determined to make Harris Tweed as hard to get as possible. By either limiting it to their own clothing production, or pricing at couture level. The weavers just want to make a living wage and see an ancient and rare skill valued and survive into another generation. Sound familiar?

We all rightly get angry at conditions in the Far East and want to be as ethical as possible. Well what could be better than fabric produced entirely on a rural island, from local sheep, at the weaver's own home?

Having thought I'd escaped jury duty all week as the phone line kept telling me to not go it, today I had to go along today.
Of course last night my throat was aching as I've obviously caught Aidy's cold and I woke up feeling lousy. And, just to add to the fun, it was snowing!
So I traipsed along in the snow and sleet (no buses that go that way, to get the subway would involve as much of a detour as just walking it). Hung about outside the court, only to be told the trial was cancelled. They hummed and hawed about keeping us there for the afternoon session then eventually decided there was no point. So we were sent away. No point in going to work as by the time I got there it's be nearly time to go and I feel like shite anyway!

So I'm now in the warm with a cup of tea, a glass of homemade ginger wine (cordial) and the TV. I'll have to wait until this evening before I know if I'm needed tomorrow.

I've been listening with interest to the golly debate on the radio today, and in the press. In the wake of Carol Thatcher's rather stupid comment comparing a tennis player to a gollywog all hell has broken loose. Now the Queen has had to apologise as some golly's were spotted on sale in the Sandringham gift shop.

Now I have to admit a vested interest, I own one of the offending items. As a young child I had a much loved golly. So well loved that it was in such a state my mum decided to wash it. It didn't stand up to the washing and golly disappeared leaving me bereft and heartbroken. Some time later I was raking about in the airing cupboard and found the corpse of golly hidden behind the hot water tank waiting on repairs. All my toddler eyes saw was one dead friend, stuffing coming out and falling to bits. I howled my little eyes out. I have subsequently never let my mum off the hook for this childhood trauma (it's been a family standing joke for 30 years +) until a few years back she spotted one in a gift shop and bought me it.

So does that make me racist? Of course it bloomin well doesn't!

I am thinking of writing to parliament to call for the banning of ginger 'see you jimmy' wigs! Because I find them offensive. Yes, silly, but it is a derogatory stereotype. And, as a blonde can I complain about about Barbie dolls?

People have lost all sense of proportion, and the danger is it pushes people to the opposite extreme in reaction to it.

The Fast and the Furious is on TV, Vin Diesel really does it for me... it's the voice mostly (the body doesn't hurt of course).

We got away an hour and a half early today, which landed us at 5pm, heavy traffic time. So it was a bit pointless really. I stopped at the supermarket to let the worst of the traffic pass then headed home over the Eaglesham moor and up the M77. There was no point going via the M8 as it was apparantly one big car park after a couple of accidents, and I didn't fancy the Cathkin braes road that I normally use. The chosen road is motorway, but quiet and exposed. It wasn't the best as blizzards were hitting it. Slow going but moving, even if you couldn't see the lanes!
There's practically no snow in Glasgow though. Odd to leave 5 inches at work and go home to about 5mm!

I made another batch of ginger wine (cordial) tonight. I still have a cough, so it might help, and it's a good winter warmer :)

I just caught 5 minutes of this on TV! How thick and lacking in self-respect would you have to be to go on a show like this! To actually volunteer to let that silly vacuous trollop tell you how to dress, look, behave and beg to be her 'best friend'. Or basically set yourself up to have the piss ripped out of you, be her lackey, and hang around her like a pathetic wannabe halfwit!

A few of them are a lot better looking than she is too! Ha, I'll bet they don't last long!

I just scored a bundle of pretty nice cotton lace from Ebay. And, some black antique chantilly and some antique Maltese lace. The Maltese lace just so happens to be the very same one as on the pink corset in my avatar so I now have enough of it to be able to use it on another couple of corsets if required :)