Tilia's Blog

Yay my new laptop has finally arrived!

After my keyboard on my 4 year old laptop broke down, I decided it was time for a new laptop. I had been planning to buy one next year (if my battery lived that long) anyway. I’m a Dell and Apple user. I have an iMac (which is a desktop in case you’re unaware) for my graphic programs and because Apple is simply such a great operating system. I would have gone for a Mac for my laptop aswell if not for 2 reasons: 1 you can’t use lot of software on a Mac and 2 they are freaking expensive( and I just don’t have that much money to spare right now).

I’ve chosen a small laptop: the Dell Inspiron 13z, which has amazing features I find (and some downsides). This is my 3rd Dell laptop already (second Inspiron). My first one is still used by my mom without problems, which makes me feel secure about the quality of Dell. Luckily my mom doesn’t do much more than browse the internet and check her mails because that laptop is ancient in computer terms.

This is also my first experience with Windows 7 and I must admit I like it so far. I only wish their website was better because information on the new functions is chaotically placed (and not all in view). Without the search function I wouldn’t have found the page with the shortcuts explained. Ideally I would have liked a page have had the shorcuts and the new handmovements together but apparently that was to much asked, or I haven’t found it.

Right now I’m having fun customizing my laptop and discovering all the new stuff of Windows 7. I’m not working on my corset and haven’t worked on it for over a week. I need to go shopping first before I can continue. I need something to perforate holes for the eyelets. I thought it would be together with the Prym eyelets I bought but it wasn’t, so I’ll have to go looking.

You know those days when everything is to much and you get nothing done? So are a lot of my days. Not today though, today I’ve been extremely productive compared to normally. Yippee! In the morning I had my apprenticeship. It was only my second day yet. I do my apprenticeship in a college library, very interesting, this library is specialised in art and architecture. In the afternoon I went to the post office because I had received a note that my corset supplies I ordered were finally here. Then I went to a shop to return an item. I bought bread and had lunch. After that I went to the Colruyt to pick up my new ironing board and I went grocery shopping as well while I was there. Back at home I put salve on Nina’s paws (she hates that!), cleaned up and washed the dishes. Only after all that I allowed myself to work on my corset.

This is the result. The busk is in. It’s the first time ever I’ve done this. The left side I found easy. You had to be neat and accurate but that was all. I had more problems with the holes in the right side. Ouchie my nails getting those nobs trough the holes! I actually cracked on nail.

I’m very happy with the result. The golden busk fits perfectly with the fabric. Next up will be a self-made ‘grommet tape’ for the back.

I have started on my next project while I’m waiting for the busk of my corset to arrive. To go with the corset I’m making a chemise and drawers. Also of Laughing Moon patterns. I plan to make them in black cotton since that will go well with my green corset. Maybe that’s not historically correct, I don’t know, but I’m not to concerned about that for a first Victorian outfit. I rather make it my own than rigidly following Victorian style and rules.

My mom just took my measurements. I already know I have a small upper body and broad hips, but this is just ridiculous. According to their measurements I fall into size 16,18 and 22. That’ll be nice to draw… not! Can you understand why I have difficulties finding clothing that fits?

First of all i want to apologize for strange typo’s; my laptop keyboard is dying on me; Totally not fun; my left shift doesn’t work, so no dots, not questions marks and no capitalized letters (for letters on the right side); my v-key is not working either, i have to copy and paste it; Which i’m to lazy for half the time; i have ordered a new laptop but i don’t know yet when it’ll arrive; ( I’m using a separate keyboard now to type on, it works much better than that damned laptop keyboard)

These are my first two mock-up’s. The first one was to short. On the second one I have made all the necessary changes. After this I made a third mock-up to make sure of the fit.

Keira was very interested in helping me. She played with the fabrics, the pencils, the crayon, … It was all fun until I couldn’t find my pencil anymore. I found it under the couch after a search.

This is how far I am right now and until my busk gets delivered I’m stuck. Unfortunately delivery is taking its time. I’m hoping it will get delivered Monday or Tuesday. The colours in this photo are much closer to the actual colours than in the previous post.

Today I bought the fabrics for my corset at the Zijderoute (in Dutch) in Ghent. This shop offers beautiful, natural, quality fabrics. I went for my favourite colour: green. My camera is really bad at capturing green, it wants to make everything blue. You have to imagine the left fabric being a green/blueish colour, not the blue it shows. And the right fabric is a lot warmer green.

The right fabric will be the fashion layer and is Dupion Silk. I love the texture of wild silk. Pus the silk worms don’t get cooked with wild silk, always a plus. The left fabric is pure cotton but I’ve hardly ever felt cotton that soft. It will be the linen, so if I ever wear it directly against my skin it’ll be super soft. The silk is dry clean only but since it’s for a corset, which usually isn’t meant to get washed, that’s no problem.

I have a bit of a migraine, but if possible I’ll do my last mock-up today so that I can start on the actual corset tomorrow. It’ll be great to finally start on the real thing. I’ve been planning for this corset for months!

Litha’s post (in Dutch) about her antique sewing machine brought me the idea to post about my own sewing machine. I love my sewing machine. I bought it from my own savings. It’s the top of the line of the mechanical Pfaff’s: the Select 4.0. Look how pretty it is:

I have it 2 years now and so far I haven’t gotten any problems with it yet. Pfaff has IDT which is a double transport, it makes that your upper fabric doesn’t slip which is very handy. I like the stitch options and the design. Oh and I just noticed there is a dirty spot on my machine, you can see it on the picture, I’ll have to see what I can do about that. Since I quit sewing class I haven’t done much with my sewing machine, but now I’m working on making a corset and then starting on making period clothing so it’ll be able to prove it’s worth again.

One of my next posts will be about the corset probably. I’ve already done 2 mock-ups and will probably do a third to be sure it fits right. If I’m not lazy I’ll go fabric hunting tomorrow. I already have coutil, so it’s a fashion fabric and a lining I’m looking for. I’m hoping to find a nice green.

Finally I’ve made work of bundling  the blogs I follow under one program: Google Reader. It makes it so much easier!

Google Reader is a software (a feed aggregator) that finds update posts of your subscriptions (trough RSS-feeds). I choose for Google Reader because I’m a Google fan and use many of their features. Other feed aggregators you can find here. It’s a matter of choosing which options fit you best.

Now I have in one window -one tab- every blog I follow. Instead of visiting 38 blogs a day to see if they have updated, Google Reader does the work for me. Which in turn makes it possible for me to follow more blogs, because I don’t loose time.

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Wow long time since I’ve posted on here. I should be ashamed. A lot has happened since September. I doubt I can remember it all and put it in this post.

My first semester of school is over. It’s been hectic. It feels like a big accomplishment that I’ve been able to do it at all. As you know I’m studying to become a librarian. I managed to end my courses and apprenticeship with good grades.  This means that I’ve finished module 2 and most of module 1. This week the next semester starts and I’ll be doing module 3 and 4. There’s only one course of module 3 I won’t be able to do this semester because it’s not taught. I’ll have to catch up on it later on. This semester I’ll have to do another apprenticeship of 80 hours. I’m still looking for a place. For this apprenticeship it has to be in a non-public library.

My car has died on me. Or more correct it decided to have so many problems the costs of fixing it have become to high. I have a new car now. An Opel Corsa (for those in the UK, it’s sold as a Vauxhall) from 2006 with only 11000 km. Luckily my parents helped paying for it or I would have been completely without money reserves now. As a result of owning a Corsa, I see Corsa’s everywhere now. It’s a really popular city  car I’ve noticed!

It’s a new year now and I have  creative plans. More than I’ll most likely be able to realize, but having plans is good right? This year I want to finish my opera gloves, make a corset, make a Victorian outfit and if there is still time after that, make some everyday wear. My gloves are about 20% done I think and I’ve started on the mock-up for the corset. I’ll post in separate posts more about them.

I’m on the Weight Watchers diet since Monday. Over the last year I gained 10 kg. I have red stretch marks on my thighs and hips, and my trousers don’t fit anymore. So definitely time to ring the alarm bell. WW is the diet that helped my mom, so I have confidence it’s a good diet. So far I found it fairly easy to do the diet, I never go hungry. I just have to leave my chocolate, that’s the hardest part.

School has started up, slowly at first but since yesterday all my classes have started. On Thursday’s we have 10 hours of class! I’m away from home for a good 12 hours. As I said yesterday was the first full day and I was mentally exhausted by the time it was over. When I got to my car it had a note from the police saying I’ll receive a parking fine. Which was the last straw, especially since I was warned about the police patrolling often, so I had taken extra care of parking legally. By the time I was home, I was crying and panicking. It’s been a while since I had a panic attack. The tears exhausted me even more and gave me a headache. The headache (pressing against my eyes and sinuses) turned to be so bad that I was up half of the night. And of course the kitty didn’t let me sleep out this morning. Sometimes life is just plain awful…

I’m trying a new method for treating my acne skin: Oil Cleansing Method. I have extremely oily skin -, hair and eyes- and have tried multiple methods for cleaning my skin. When I was 10-15 years old my skin was even worse. I was the kid who’s face resembled one huge sickening zit! My doctor gave my pills then that I only could take in the winter and maximum for 3 months in a row. Those dried my skin out and I had almost no acne thanks to the pills. It was necessary because my skin was scarring to much from the acne, but it was also very unhealthy taking those pills. I’m glad I no longer need them. The last few years I’ve gone to using more organic, natural methods. I’ve used Dr. Hauschka’s products and Weleda.

My new experiment uses oil, just like Dr. Hauschka does. But while Dr. Hauschka uses oil after you’ve cleaned your face to keep your skin from drying out (and producing to much oil to fix this), the oil cleansing method uses the oil as the cleaning product!

http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/

http://www.acne.org/messageboard/OIL-CLEANSING-METHOD-Hi-t141871.html

I’ve tried it out for the first time today and am pleased with the result so far. My skin is soft and elastic. The blackheads aren’t gone, but I guess those and the pimples might leave if I continue to use this method. I didn’t follow the instructions with the wash cloth. That didn’t take up the oil on my face. Instead I cleaned my face with a wash cloth and used soft, circular movements. Then I steamed my face, whereafter I repeated the cleaning with the washcloth.