Deciding what to make

[Adriana Rose]

I have ADD to begin with so throw garb making, my endless craft projects and the stock I make for my shop at faire. My house is always in tumoil of projects.

I have a sketch book that is full of ideas that are on the Someday list, but at the mo my garbing is on hold till I get the stuff that i need to do is done *sigh*

[Cilean]

for me sewing is a means to getting garb.

I completely feel the same! I don't like to sew per se, but I like what comes out of the time I sew.  I don't make clothing for myself I only make Garb. I make Garb for my entire family so that we look smashing but and I use the BIG BUT! I do not enjoy the actual sewing.  With this said, I love how my Garb comes out, for is my me this it my Art.  I create poetry but not many see it, it is very personal.  So my Garb is my expression in the world.  When my sons are walking about and someone asks them who made their things and they tell people with pride that I made it. Well it makes my day.  My Garb is so more than just 'costumes' give my vision wings and allow others to see what is inside my brain.

When I began to want to have lovely things, it was after leaving Renaissance Faires behind in California, my family moved to Oregon and at that time there was no Faire in the entire state.   I was SO tired of "Wench" gear, I wanted more.  Being an Interpretor for the Deaf we could only do peasant, and that was never for me.  So being in Oregon gave me the ability to test the waters in sewing....  Something I am sure my hubby would say is not the best thing!!! LOL 

I joined the SCA back in '85, but I had been going to the Renaissance Faires in So Cal since '76, when my family went and fell in love with it.  Even then I wanted the "big bad gowns" not the wenchy stuff.

Anyway, planning? You need to plan, but then I am a planner! I make lists and attempt to carry them out.  I abhor not having enough of a said trim to  finish and outfit, and yes I have abandoned so many pieces because I simply did not have the expertise to finish the gown.   I could not begin a project, without having all of it in 1 place and waiting for me to do, it helps me get to completion!  If I had to wait for more pearls or GOD FORBID trim from someplace that went out of business which did happen a few years ago...I mean what if you had put 10 yards of trim on your outfit and you went out looking for another 2 to finish it off and you could not find it ever? Nope that would not and could not work for me!


So when I find I am being apathetic?   I can't find a reason to get up and sew? I go to my books and online and I check out pictures of recent Faires and the SCA event listings.  When I do this the mood comes over me and/or? I clear up my sewing space and put all the fabrics I want to use next to my chair and then I feel like I need to sew. 

I have Costuming ADD, I don't know anyone who does 1 project at a time. Heck I always have at least 3 on the burners! I get bored and so I do another one until that is boring and over to the 3rd!! What is life without variety?  But all of them have a list and all have the information on what I will be doing with it, and how it will be when it is done, I have a storyboard in a sketch pad with each of my creations.


Cilean

[operafantomet]

for me sewing is a means to getting garb.

I completely feel the same! I don't like to sew per se, but I like what comes out of the time I sew.  I don't make clothing for myself I only make Garb. I make Garb for my entire family so that we look smashing but and I use the BIG BUT! I do not enjoy the actual sewing. 

Yes. Yes! YES! Why don't people understand that? Though I'm making historical garbs doesn't necessarily mean I love to sew... I've tried to explain this so many times, and I always get the feeling people don't believe me. And no matter how many times I've said I HATE making modern clothes, people still ask me about it. Why? If I were seriously into sewing, I would be quilting... or working as a seamstress on fulltime basis... or something.

Glad to see I'm not the only one.

[CenturiesSewing]

I usually have 3 to 5 projects going on at once, which lets me switch off when I am feeling bored with one, at least when I am sewing for myself. But when starting something new it comes down to:

Fabric -what does it want to be
Movie costume - does something I see grab me by the throat and go "Make me!"
Paintings - Also yells make me


From there it gets broken down into:

Do I have the money to make this? (Or is my birthday near so I can ask for fabric)
Do I have the skill, if not will making this teach me these skills that I can apply somewhere later?
Can I pull this look off?
Do I have a deadline for it?
How many hours of research am I going to devote to it?  (I tend to research everything I can about what I want to make, or the place it is from)
Am I going to make a character to go with the outfit? (Useful when I feel like being a playton)
Do I have a pattern already made for it? (I make my own which can get interesting with my body type, store bought patterns do not go down small enough to be a useful starting point)

Then after all that and any patterning I'll start the sewing which tends to go pretty fast. In the mean time I might also go and rework old costumes, add more details, fix things that I have the skill for now that I didn't then and so on and so forth, till I always have something to work on, but very few things are 100% done.

Then if I am sewing for a friend, sketches get made, it is agreed upon and their garb gets done much much faster.