It's been one of those weeks. But on Friday we finally managed to cut something out that has been hanging over us...
We wanted some nice wool for a customer, and finally found something that sounded excellent: Scotweb's Barathea in a very dark green.Price OK, colour OK, lovely fabric to work with. So we ordered it... And waited. And on the day we were supposed to see it arrive, they let us know there wasn't as much as we'd ordered! What should they do?
OK, we ask, how much is there?
We'll have to ask the warehouse. That could take a couple of days...
Gentle grinding of teeth. Please let us know ASAP, as this is getting urgent.
Next day they ring us back: 5.30m. Ok, we say, give us an hour and we'll work out if that is enough. We rapidly throw the bits onto 5.30m of calico ripped off the bolt to check the fit. It goes on. Just. And only because this style of doublet means there are lots of tiny bits that we can cram into spaces between the larger bits of things like the Venetians and the lower body and tab pieces... Good. Ring them back and tell them to send it out ASAP as this delay had made it an urgent matter.
It fails to arrive. By this time we are into the snow, and half of England is either gridlocked or hibernating. I email Scotweb to see when they sent our parcel out so I can find out from the carriers where it is and when to expect it.
Oh... The warehouse hasn't sent it yet. FIVE WHOLE DAYS AFTER THEY WERE TOLD THIS WAS URGENT? Because of their delay? Colour me unimpressed. So they sent it out on FRIDAY by next day delivery - in the snow. Saturday: no parcel. Monday, no parcel... But at least this time i had a delivery tracking number and could track it to see where it was: it had left the local depot, but was marked DELAY ON ROUTE. I rang the depot. The lovely lass was ever so good, and rang the driver. He said between 3 and 4pm. And was true to his word: it was here at a quarter to four. The lass at the depot said that while the roads had been cleared, there were areas where 'things had happened' over the weekend, and they were putting a delayed note on all deliveries in the area just in case... It just meant that until the driver was on the way to us from the last delivery, he couldn't tell exactly when he'd be there and it would be later than they usually hoped to get things out to our delivery point.
So by this time Su and I are deep into other folk's projects, and this one that we knew would be complex and would need more time had to be put back into the time shift area where we DIDN'T WANT IT because we wanted plenty of time to do miles of piping and work with complex shapes and odd bits and strange seams...
If you can hear a sort of crunchy sound, it'll be us grinding our teeth! And today I am going to be catching up on stuff that SHOULD have been done before, had we had fabric when we planned to make the projects up... Rather than having three things neatly lined up to do one after the other, we are doing three at once! Farewell, weekend!
Dammit, we had fabric from INDIA and the USA come quicker than this! For the same carriage fee we paid, we get stuff from Hainsworth, James Hare, and Henry Bertrand in under 24 hours! Scotweb have gone on the same list as McCulloch and Wallis: only if there is no-one else on the planet with this fabric. I don't understand how they stay in business when there is so much really good stuff coming out of India, China, and wherever so much faster! And with exemplary customer service, to boot.
Next week is pedal to the metal FTL sewing from morn 'til eve, from eve to dewy dusk - and beyond! Don't expect to hear from me...
- Current Location:Down the frock mine...
- Current Mood:
irritated - Current Music:Music for kicking heads to!
I have been bust Acquiring Stuff(TM) for Empire. It is fun!
( STUFF!Collapse )
- Current Location:Still down the frock mines!
- Current Mood:
satisfied
- Put 8 eyelets into my black bodice
- Put 8 eyelets into my silver bodice
- Make J's linen petticoat
- Complete my black petticoat if possible
- Complete making the panes for the slashed doublet body
- Make slashed suit Venetians.
The black bodice is looking good, and we have a bunch of customer commissions nearing completion... I have a set of collars and cuffs and we have a couple of chemises to complete for one person, plus eyelets to put in her petticoat waistband (jacket also, but the fabric for that hasn't arrived yet: this is what happens when you order hand embroidered fabric from India!). Another person only needs hooks and eyes and then he is complete... There's loads of other stuff we're busy working on, in various stages of completion.
The rest of this week contains Sewing Like The Wind and FTL Pattern Making!
- Current Location:Back in the frock mines...
- Current Mood:
creative
I have got bored with teetering and unstackable cardboard boxes of Christmas decorations slowly falling to bits in the loft. I have ordered vastly expensive boxes for storing Christmas! I can pack the lot up now in boxes that will stack, will contain all my glass baubles without them being crushed or busted when a leaning tower of crimbley crumbles!
I will admit to being enamored of the Really Useful Box company's plastic crates and stuff, and have ordered:
One Christmas Tree box, sans inserts. They do some nifty trays that fit inside this, for holding things like the fairy lights. Our tree is sufficiently bulky that we don't think it'll fit with the inserts, so ordered the one without.
One wrapping paper box with trays to hold cards and the like. Everything we need to wrap up Christmas in one place! I always have spare paper left over that gets used down the line a bit, and have thrown away far too much over the years because it got a bit tatty in storage. Now I can store cards, paper, bows, tags, a pen or two, and some sticky tape all together and ready to roll! Sorted!
Two of these sets. 35lt box with three trays in for larger and smaller baubles. OK, so I do still have the packaging for some of my baubles, but as some are now reasonably venerable, almost verging on Vintage, and the packaging is disintegrating, I feel that I need to replace it with something sensible that I'll never need to replace again. Job jobbed!We do have an awful lot of Christmas decorations. Not all go on the tree in any one year. Recently I have opted for elegant gold decorations, but I need to keep some of the 'archived' stuff for times when it will come in handy, and they do have sentimental value. And it'll also make decluttering the loft and shifting everything out while we do the rebuilding so much easier. If I can afford it, when I fit the storage room in the loft, I'll have some of these crates with a racking system so I can access it all nicely. The flappy-top boxes we have now have been excellent, and good for their price, and what I could afford at the time. But not a terribly long-term solution if I want both the packing density AND ease of access.
And yes, I copied Nel!
Onwards and upwards!
- Current Location:In the conservatory, evicting dust bunnies!
- Current Mood:Organized!
- Current Music:17th C dance music
However, this is not to be in the foreseeable future, so let's just get on with things the best way we can. I live in a cottagey style house which suits a certain amount of STUFF being out and visible if it isn't to look as if I was about to move out or had only just moved in. Not as much as it has, I admit, but some...
Given that the year ahead looks busy, I am turning Elliot's quote on its head:
This is the way the year STARTS!
Not with a whimper but a BANG!
After a pheasant and stuffing sarnie for lunch, and scheduling dinner to happen well after the good doctor has had his turn, I shall get out some of my sewing, I think, and get to work on MY stuff for the coming year!* What with all the tidying and cooking and stuff wrangling, it's a good 48 hours since I sat at a machine, and I want to get the things I want to take away over New Year with me to do hand sewing on ready for the hand sewing.
( It's smaller on the outside...Collapse )
*Time slipped: we watched Men In Black III and I shall do a bit of sewing while dinner cooks!
Rinse and repeat.
On Friday I had three notifications that my pre-ordered book had been sent out. One book arrived. Today the postie brought the other two!
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
It's not a book, it's a London bus!
- Current Location:On top of the North Downs in the rain!
- Current Mood: irritated
- Current Music:Lindisfarne: Nicely Out Of Tune
- Current Mood: relaxed
ravenrigan, no parcel from Goodness Direct...Carrier has come with large box for
ravenrigan from Virgin Wine: probably her new wine-tasting kit that we thught would come tomorrow! Nothing from Goodness Direct...I want my parcel! It should contain Lexia raisins (a bugger to get round here!) and gluten free vegetarian 'suet' for my Christmas puds, plus ground almonds for them and the marzipan, chocolate for coating cakes and ginger chunks...
Bums! I want to Get On with things!
I may just weigh out all the other ingredients for the puds, and start on the Black Bun.
On the list this year:
Dark Christmas Cake: 4
Chocolate Christmas Cake: 4 (one ring, two 6" ones, and a 7" one)
Christmas Puddings: 9 or 10, but mostly small ones
Stollen: probably 4
Black Bun: 2
Buche de Noel: 1
Shortbread: 4 or 5 rounds
Cranberry and orange sauce with red wine : 6 or so jars...
Mincemeat: I may have enough, but need to check.
And I need to bottle the sloe and damson gin from a couple or three years back.
Chocolate coated marzipan balls
Chocolate coated ginger (I will buy this if I can get the good stuff, because it's a skiddle to make it come out without a 'bloom' on the chocolate)
Yesterday I did the first 8 Christmas cakes: four chocolate ones and 4 traditional dark ones.
( Nomnomnom...Collapse )
- Current Location:Slaving away in the kitchen!
- Current Mood:
accomplished - Current Music:Slade: Here it is...
This is the foundation (literally as well as figuratively!) for a much bigger project. Not quite on the scale of the 2010 18th C marathon, but getting that way! There will be at least two gowns to go over the stays.
( But go at once.Collapse )
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