Dispatch no. 12 - Updates Podcast

I am afraid of moths though. Number one fear is moths, and im trying to deal with that. Butterflies are mostly ok. Big bugs are animal like so freak me out.

As an Australian, i am always surprised at how others see the bug situation. Having lived there my whole life (except for now living in Dubai), I've never been overwhelmed by the amount of bugs. Sure mosquities and flies are annoying in Summer, but spiders arent always a constant fear most places. Humans taking over their environment has led them to be more in parks and bushes, but normal suburban living was fairly spider free.

(Here's me listening and replying a full week late.) That makes sense about the masc fashion! I verge on "lumber Jill" myself, with more of a nerd flair, which is why I asked. I've always wondered about making myself "men's" style button-down shirts since I don't like a lot of the extra bits and bobs that often get added to "women's" shirts. Absolutely get you on the not interested in men thing, 100% agree, but I do prefer the style on me.

I am an Historical Re-enactor (English War of the Roses) I am honest with the public about not-so-nice bits of the era we portray. It's as much about education as it is entertainment for me and my group. If you decided to put on an historical frock and go take photos, be respectful to the history of the place, and use the pictures to create an honest narrative.

I had a vintage New Hime sewing machine ( hope I’m not repeating myself, it’s always possible). It was cast iron and I just about had a hernia every time I lifted it. Several services could not fix the looping underneath. Totally sucked the joy from sewing. Eventually I paid about £120 in 2004 and bought a very basic Elba, which like Bernina is a Swiss make. I was ridiculously excited after I sewed out that first perfect seam. I graduated to Berninas and eventually gave that Elba to a friend. I hope she enjoyed it as much as I dif

I thought this was a very interesting podcast. You didn't say anything about your writing, so I was wondering if that has been set aside for right now or whether you are doing any writing in between projects? Take Good Care

I can appreciate how much you enjoyed steaming new clothes when you worked at Banana Republic. It reminded me of when I worked for Steinway & Sons selling pianos. Whenever we got a shipment of expensive, new instruments, they’d get unpacked and I loved polishing them (and of course playing.) I don’t mind ironing clothes, either. It’s satisfying to make something look nice. An enjoyable listen, thank you Bianca.

Thank you for filling this boring time with fun things to watch and learn :D

So many ideas and projects to look forward to! And I'm 100% with you on the sewing machine front: 4 or 5 years ago I bought two vintage Singers (1930s and 1951) from a charity shop for less that £20 each and have never looked back.

Costume College could be a place to wear your costumes.

I have a couple of Bernettes. I was having tension issues. Took it fir a service and the sample stitchout that came back with it was perfect. As soon as I started sewing it was all over the place again. It turns out I had the bobbin in upside down. I had the thread coming off the bobbin clockwise. But it should be anti-clockwise. Totally fixed the issue

Lmao. Crunchy/squishy. You are my long-lost twin. You are saying all the things about bugs that I have issues with

Oh god. I lost it when you said meaty body

I’m scared of bugs too. We had some roaches in the house and I completely lost my shit. I got pest control in and much to my relief they weren’t the totally revolting black ones that infest your home, carry disease and freak you out. They were forest roaches. Cousins but totally harmless. They sometimes come in during the summer when it’s very hot There. I’ve shared my life story and feel so much better now

Re: print-at-home international postage: I've done this using pirateship.com. You fill out the customs form online and it prints a combination postage and customs label. My post office has an unmonitored bin for package drop off; I left it in there, spoke to no one, and the parcel made it to Canada. I think should be the same for pickups? You do still have the extra cost and super long delivery times though, so it still might not be practical for the shop.

As a Canadian, I think it’s totally reasonable for you not to do international shipping right now. It’s not worth risking anyone’s safety for. And even when it’s safe to go to the post office for the sake of fashion, 40 minutes seems like way too long to wait to send one parcel. I hope you can find a faster and easier way to do that, and if there isn’t one, I wouldn’t fault you for keeping your shipping domestic even then.

I got into historical costuming and medieval reenactment at the same time, because I needed somewhere to wear the pretty dresses I wanted to sew. I do 12th century costuming in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). There’s a lot of potential for ickiness in reenactment. In my experience, it really depends on how your community approaches the terrible aspects of the time period you’re dealing with. In my self-selecting sample of friends, there is an open and often-stated acknowledgement that the middle ages had a lot of oppression and inequality and illness and general unpleasantness, and we definitely don’t want to live in or bring back those times. But the SCA and other reenactment groups are also an appealing place for people who do like the oppression that happened in those times and want an excuse to act it out. There will always be a struggle between those groups. I’ve seen a lot of work done in the 6 years I have been involved in the SCA to make it clear that white supremacy and homophobia are not welcome in our group, but there is definitely a long way to go. One way that re-enactors can make their activities less icky is to research the experiences of people who were oppressed in their time period. Making bigots uncomfortable by centering the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ people and people of color in history is important. Seeing how often people do that within a reenactment community, and how well it is received, is probably the best test of how toxic that community is. For me, the SCA is a place to meet people who are into historical costuming who I can hang out with while wearing ridiculous pretty dresses. Some of them will even listen to me ranting about the evidence for pleats in 900-year-old art and archaeology. It’s a big enough community that people can usually find their group of like-minded people and do their own things both within and independent of the organization. I know people who I met through the SCA who no longer participate in events, but we have become costuming friends, so we don’t need that formal structure anymore. I don’t show up to organized activities as much as I did when I first got involved, but it’s pretty much the only place where I can meet historical costumers who live near me.

Thanks for answering my question! I totally understand about your Bernina. I think you are right though, it's great that you do have a back up machine, considering sewing is such a huge part of your job.

Thank you so much for sharing your bugs and butterflies with us...it was awesome to have your take on the whole process...my child is LGBTQI+ and I asked if this is something that we could experience together as we have always shared a love of the natural world. We all were listening to your podcast and we are all sitting about The Bluetooth speaker drinking tea and enjoying the moment. So we are off on the hunt for awesome treasures to add to the groaning collection of art and treasures that we don’t need but of course NEED in our home, this is my thank you, unbeknownst to you your art proves that shared moment and memories for my child to carry over for the rest of their life of how art is answer to helping with most if not all of the challenges and adventures that this journey will take us on....Thank you and take care of your wonderful self and your spirit....sending you and Cleo our love and fur cuddles xxx

be well

March is right around the corner my friend!!

loved when you said you had no interest in men’s clothes .. or men for that matter .. ahem. Hahaha

❤️

I can relate hard to loving the design process and the finish... only in terms of writing instead of sewing. (I'm a total beginner at sewing, and also very new here. Hi.) Writing is supposedly my craft of choice in life, but to be perfectly honest, I love the process of building worlds and character concepts a lot more than I like structuring a plot or... well, writing 100k words. I'll DO it, I just... yeah. Not my favorite part. I much prefer the starting process, or the part where people read and (hopefully) like the product. I think somewhere down the line, years ago, I lost the joy of just doing the process, but that's a whole other story. Your side hustle videos really grabbed me, because it seemed you captured the joy of it.