Un-idle Silence...

So I know I've gone silent for the last month-ish. It's not that I haven't been doing stuff- I have. It's just I have been doing so much stuff I haven't really had time for blogging. I teach high school English as my day job. At certain times of the year it tends to overtake my life; May happens to be one of those times.

Our district lets out the first week of June, so I have been busy grading final essays, assessments, prepping final exams, final reviews, verifying grades, dealing with those last minute panicky students and prom dress alterations... My life becomes pretty well consumed by my job. (For the record, I'm not complaining here. I absolutely love what I do. This is just an inherent part of my responsibilities that causes other things I enjoy to be put on the back burner.)

Anyhow, on the job front we are fast closing in on the end of the academic year (insert sigh of relief here- again...I love my job, but man- you ever feel you need a mental health day...week....okay, month?). On the living history front, we are also fast closing in on Days of Napoleon- EEK!

Not only am I attempting a modified tent framework (I'm modding the concepts we have currently to make it  a more girl set up friendly- 6 foot tall man I am not!) but I'm also attempting to create roughly four wardrobes for our group members to be outfitted for the appropriate time period for this event. Sometimes... I think I take on too much. But don't tell anyone else I said that. Seriously.

My HSF challenges have been somewhat put on hold until I get a handle on everything else, but no worries! I have been trying to remember to take pictures as I work on things so that I can post them later. On that note, here's a sneak peak at my latest DON piece:

Eyelets on my new 1812 corset. My all hand sewn original that you saw on
Maybelle has been gifted to my best friend Alix for Days of Napoleon. =)

And yea... that is some machine stitch you see. While my first 1812 corset was entirely hand stitched, I just do not have the time to replicate the process. I'm in survival mode as this point. I need to get everyone at least one set of wearable appropriate clothing. Then I can start supplementing/replacing/remaking everything by hand. This is a whole new era for us, so I'm building from the undergarments out. To compromise between necessity and my own personal standards, I'm not compromising on the construction (i.e.if using the machine means I would have to update the garment construction technique, then I will hand sew instead)  and I will only use the machine on seams that will not be seen by the public (so no hems, top stitching, etc.).

Would I love to have the time to be better than this? Yes. Am I going to stress out and pull all nighter sew-a-thons for the next two weeks? No. Ultimately, will I remake things the in best way I know? Yes. Do I care if some pretentious prig comments on the unseen machine stitching hidden in my petticoat side seam? No.

Okay, honestly ...it will probably make me a little irate. But only because I think as a living history community we need to be better at supporting each other instead of cutting each other down. But that's a story for another day. We've a storm on the way and I have procrastinating grading essays long enough.

I just wanted you to know that I am alive and as verbose as ever. You know, for the four people that actually read this thing. =P

Right. Back to papers.