guenievre

Thing the First: An overdue note that Summer War was *phenomenally* fun. Pics are here, and my favorite is this one.   Although fighting was not *quite* as much fun as handing out cupcakes (for those who wanted the recipe - they're dreadfully simple AND tasty, though don't be shocked when the batter comes out WAY thinner than you think it should).

Thing the Second: Work is finally calming down! I can crawl out of my cave! Whee! (For those I haven't mentioned it to, several of our largest accounts all put out major rfps or otherwise wanted presentations/quotes/etc over the past month - thus the lack of Sapphire Joust and me at canton meetings. Bleh. But yay employment.)

Thing the Third: I've been sewing a lot the past few evenings, with mixed success. My sewing machine Does Not Like gambesons, but I perservered and have all except a few lacing holes done on a new one for Girard - I've never made one before, so yay me. (Though ironically I cut it out and started it before buying *either* of the recent patterns for such, so guess I'll be making another one, maybe for me, later). I'm still trying to decide whether the eyelet plates for my sewing machine are in fact more trouble than they are worth - they do not stay *on* the machine , thus I end up breaking a lot of needles. Not so good for the machine. On the other hand, there are some things I don't believe in doing handwork on. Like fighting garments of almost any sort, esp. ones that are going to get worn All The Time. Esp. not after how long the quilting takes. So...it's an interesting tradeoff. Maybe I should just make G do his own eyelets, but I tend to sew so that he has to do the housework. (Yep, I'm spoiled.)

Thing the Fourth: Speaking of sewing, had a mixed experience with that last night. I ordered kass_rants's sideless surcote pattern when it came out, which I was rather intrigued to find that according to package directions, only took two yards of fabric (60"). I *had* exactly two yards of grey wool leftover from my grey-and-red outfit, which isn't enough (I thought) to make *anything* out of, so I said, hrm, this won't take long, and it'd be lightweight pennsic garb.  The pattern, though... had pros and cons. It was definitely easy to use - with the exception of the cutting layout that didn't work for me -  but I *really* didn't like the results. I *may* have mismeasured my back-length, as the flare of the skirt starts lower than I would put it, and that would certainly distort the whole thing. So there was that problem.. and of course with the minimal fabric used there wasn't enough fullness to the skirts (but I like *really* full skirts - see the red dress with the couch-eating hem, if all my dresses had that much skirt I'd be happy as a clam), but really? I think sideless surcotes just don't work on busty women with minimal hips. So, that said, anyone want a mostly finished grey wool surcote? French seamed, I'll finish the last of the gores before I hand it to you and the hems (on all sides) are up to you. Reconstructing History size G.It's free, the fabric was leftovers anyway and I only spent a couple hours on it. Edit: Jenny called dibs on the surcote, if she doesn't take it I'll repost.

Thing the Fifth: 6 week old kittens are made of fluff and squee and needles. 12 week old kittens are just made of needles. Mine is obsessed with my hair... and crawling up me to GET to said hair. Oww oww oww.  So cute though!

So… I had occasion to buy a lot of fabric - 18 yards - rather quickly last week. And of course the problem with wanting to buy a specific color and type of fabric without waiting for the universe to provide is that you sort of have to take what you can get.

Enter www.fashionfabricsclub.com. Not that I should link to them, because I heartily do NOT recommend them, but anyway. They had what was described on their website as “100% wool, herringbone weave suiting” in an appropriate blue, for a slightly-high but reasonable price. So I ordered it.

It is NOT NOT NOT NOT 100% wool. The burn test sparkled, bubbled, certainly wasn’t self-extinguishing (I almost burned my fingers) and left a crushable black bead. Survey says? Acrylic content, and not insignificant. Or maybe nylon, I’m not good at telling the smell difference, though I don’t think it’s poly as the bead WAS crushable. Certainly not pure burning hair, that’s for sure.  In fact, the people I’ve shown the fabric? Can see it’s not pure wool on sight.Not without looking closely, but STILL.

Perhaps needless to say, I am *pissed*. If you note the date, I do NOT have time to send this fabric back and buy something new, not and have time to sew it.  But as this is not the first time what I ordered and what I received were not the same, I called them.

The customer service girl was nice, and took it straight to the owner. Apparently they pulled the bolt, burn tested it themselves, and had the GALL to say that “worsted wool bubbles”.  Um, whaaa? Worsted’s just a spinning technique, not an excuse for having impure fabrics (unless maybe they just plastic coated all the threads? and at that point, can they REALLY say it’s 100% anything?)

So yeah, should have  known better than to order from them, but here’s hoping the post saves someone else…

So yeah. Don’t buy fabric there.

Mirrored from Erminespot.