Costume College 2018

Excluding the head cold that has been plaguing me all weekend, and the misery that was Friday night's commute home, this year was a resounding success.

I taught workshops in Chicken Scratch Embroidery, which seemed to go down VERY well with the students; Beginning Blackwork, which I need to expand to include both styles next time; and, most challenging, a lecture on Easy and Accurate Medieval Garb.  That also went very well (I ran out of handouts; I only printed 25, so I just now e-mailed copies to the seven people who put their addresses down), but while Wonderful Husband had templated the Powerpoint presentation last Tuesday night and I spend a couple evenings filling it in, when we tested the laptop on Saturday night, it would not display on our monitors!  Luckily, Sunday afternoon it worked just fine on the college's projector.

I took workshops on Boutis Provencal (basically, cording), Loomed Ribbon Flowers (I finished three in class), Tie-Dye (a scarf, a t-shirt, and a hoodie done and waiting their turns to go through the washing machine), and how to properly manipulate and hand-sew soutache.  Which was the one class that I left going "NOPE."  Because that is waywayway too much work for too little result.  I'll use my vintage sewing machine with its vintage attachments and not care that the soutache is standing up a bit on edge.

I also attended an enlightening lecture on binding corsets either by hand or machine.  I caught bits of other classes - costuming the plus-sized figure, patch pockets, etc - but not too many.  I was caught up in my four student workshops and three teacher classes!  And also hydrating and feeding myself.

I was sufficiently worn down that on Saturday I caught a 20-minute catnap on one of the sofas.  I did not wear any costumes this year, though I saw many that made me salivate.  Next year... next year for sure! :)  I also didn't attend any of the additional activities, as I needed to get home ASAP each day.  I did drop a huge whock of stuff into the Bargain Basement sale, and came back with far less than I donated.  (And at least half of what I bought is ending up on the freebies table at my quilt guild.  But for a total of $10 for two garbage bags full, it rubbed me the wrong way to not grab the quilting fabrics.)

Next year, as I will probably be living out of state by then, I will have a hotel room (which I already discussed and planned for with a roommate).  I want to have some costumes to wear.  When I teach the Blackwork class again, I want to expand it.  That said, the announcement for next year's teaching theme hasn't been announced yet, so who knows what I'll teach.  Beyond that... it's all good.  I enjoyed myself and learned some new skills.

ETA: Huh. Reading the Squeals newsletter from June, apparently my blackwork class was the tenth most-requested limited class.