Beteena Paradise wrote:
> The problem is not that Fran is harsh... Fran can be whatever she
chooses. It's her life and her kharma.
You are absolutely right. I DO do exactly what I want, whether I want
to be "nice" or not--which is what seems to annoy people like you. This
is why, on this and h-needlework, you’re hoping to make me cringe by the
awful threat of not buying a book. It’s not that I’m not “nice”—your
screaming uncontrollably and to hundreds of people about how much you
dislike someone you’re never met, and with whom you interacted directly
for the first time two weeks ago (see below), baldly lying about “people
leaving lists,” calling names like “bitter woman,” urging me to go away,
and trying to get everyone else to join in on “let’s kick Fran out, we
don’t want her in our little costuming clique!” is hardly “polite.”
Beteena, you already publicly screamed at me in the course of a recent
copyright discussion on the historic needlework list—just because you
disagreed with my views. And already tried all the same tricks of
trying to jerk my chain by threatening not to buy my books, etc., etc.
_Your_ cop out of “If I don’t like someone they should just
automatically go away from wherever I happen to want to be” is not
acceptable.
Mature people get over the idea that there are some people in many
public situations—co-workers, club members, e-list members, even their
relatives--whom they dislike. They learn to live with it. I mean, you
dislike me. So what. Big deal. Who cares.
So, as long as you quit attacking me, and getting your friends to join
in more public or private hate-mail campaigns, I won’t attack you.
So now I’ll make the usual statement to end a flame to try and convince
everyone I didn’t write it at all, or to justify everything I said
earlier, because I was really only interested in costuming all
along—just like several Beteena and several other people on this forum.
Here goes:
Let’s get back to costuming! See, I said it too!
Oh, right, guess I have to come up with a topic now, one to prove that I
really make costumes; since people are always trying to assert that I
really don’t sew, or that I’m not really interested in costuming--with
no evidence to prove either of course, and plenty to the contrary.
Let’s see: Well, what I’ve been doing, in the relatively scant time I
get off staring at a monitor (I can’t sew _all_ day because I have to
work), is I bought some tank dresses off Dharma Trading, which were
extra-long on me because I’m short. I dyed them, put U-shaped
bias-binding casings up each side, and ran a drawstring up each. Voila,
an exact duplicate of an expensive designer “parachute” tank dress I saw
on a website. I’d like to provide links to both, but both have been
taken off the site. Pity, because in California at least, tank dresses
do very well as jumpers this time of year.
Basically, being short has been a real advantage to me recently. The
other thing I’ve been doing, and that anyone can do if they wish, is to
shorten long, full skirts that are too long by “swagging” them. It’s
sort of the same principle as making a tuck, only you don’t sew it down.
I put the skirt on a dress form and figure out where to put the “tuck”
so I get something that looks nicely “swagged,” and of course I also
figure out how deep to make the “tuck.” I sew a row of buttons all
round, towards the bottom of the skirt, about a foot apart, or somewhat
less. Then I sew button loops lower down, which of course go over the
buttons. Of course the loops can be unbuttoned whenever you want the
skirt longer and straighter, giving you two style options. Only since
I’ve been using it as a hemming method, I don’t.
I’ve “parachuted” a couple of skirts to shorten them too, like the tank
dresses above.
The other thing I’ve done, is shorten skirts by pleating them at the
bottom. You can do this at intervals too, to get a “swagged” effect,
only it’s permanent.
I really like doing alterations, and “fixing things up.” It has a
problem-solving aspect that appeals to me. I especially like it when I
can make the garment look better than it did at first, as well as
fitting better.
Fran
Lavolta Press Books on Historic Costuming
http://www.lavoltapress.com
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