Entry 2: A Day in the Life of a Lolita Designer

I really need to figure out a good day to publish these - I was thinking the end of the week, but so far I haven't been good at picking a day and sticking with it.

Anyhow, this past week was pretty uneventful, in terms of creating/making new things, fulfilling orders, and that sort of thing. This past week was more about getting organized and my studio prepped and ready for the extraordinary amount of work that'll be entitled, "Fulfilling Eat Your Heart Out Reservations" very soon. Despite what it may look like or seem (since y'know, I kind of run a brand independently), I'm definitely not the organized type - I tend to work in a chaotic environment, as I'm usually more concerned about getting work finished rather than cleaning up after myself and putting things back in their place. So like, when I am preparing for cons, my studio (and most of the house) gets turned upside down in my panic-stricken, create-all-the-things headspace I get into. So I really took the time to go through each area of my studio and reorganize things. I planned for this in advance too - I actually took a trip to Ikea quite a while ago because I knew I would eventually have the time to do this much needed task (which is always a pre-planned, whole day adventure, because the closest Ikea is like ~2 hours away). So that was relieving to finally put all my new totes, bins, jars and things to use organizing this ever-growing collection of fabric (both on bolts and on rolls, not to mention a wall of basket shelves bursting with the stuff), pin backs and alligator clips, samples (I've pretty much run out of closet/hanging space for garments at this point), lace (OMG where did this all come from?! O_O), trims, and scraps (oh god, I bet I could make a quilt to cover my whole apartment building with the amount I have, yet I'm convinced someday I'll put them all to use). Oh, and did I mention I'm still working out of a smallish bedroom? Ha. (Hopefully for not much longer though - more on that when things get more.. finalized! I actually got some really uplifting news today too, so I'm really, really excited for things to come.)

In addition to cleaning/reorganizing my life I also had to continue ordering things for EYHO. Namely, the fabric. So in one of my fb posts about this series I mentioned possibly being able to get the fabric sooner than I typically do (like maybe in 1-2 weeks instead of the typical 3 or so), but I probably spoke too soon. The fabric people have new equipment, so I'm having to get (yes, still waiting on them) samples printed to ensure the colors will still be on par. So that's the only main issue, which I don't think is really an issue at all, I just don't like having to go back on my word and having to wait longer than originally thought. But I'd much rather things look good and be of quality printing than not get the samples and purchase an ungodly amount of fabric with color distortions. But it's this type of stuff that I lose sleep over. I always get so nervous when ordering the massive amount of fabric to fulfill reservations - I'm afraid of things going wrong. I've definitely had fabric printed in the wrong format before (luckily only with smaller orders when I'm making the initial samples), but I'm scared to death of something like that happening with these bigger orders.

This weekend I took a trip out to Dayton to meet and discuss future projects with my friend/makeup artist who pretty much does the makeup for all my shoots/director of the Eat Your Heart Out video, Jessa. Unfortunately, we don't spend much time hanging out in real life, so it was a nice treat to be able to sit down and brainstorm/discuss things in real time. I can't really share what was discussed for obvious reasons, but I can say that we both ended the night being super excited for projects to come and we've got 2 more video projects planned for future collections! (<-- That might sound like a lot (maybe?), but I typically have collections planned out in my head a good 6-9-ish months in advance. For instance at the present, I have 3 releases already planned up until Spring-ish of next year, and then other things sort of brewing in the background for even more in the future.) I ended up spending like the entire day with her, and got back home a little after midnight.

Even though I didn't sew it this past week, I did post about it: the Batty Wednesday OP. Ahhh. This dress! I actually made it back in June for a super sweet friend of mine, and I was so incredibly happy and in love with the way it turned out, I couldn't not add it to the shop. True story: So when I was making this dress back in like June or whatever, I fucked it up. When I make things for friend/people I know, I get incredibly nervous and super weird and second guess everything and always end up making mistakes. And that's exactly what I did. When I was cutting out the pattern for the front (I think?) of the dress, I cut it too short initially, and realized it as soon as I made the cut. Like as soon as the scissors snipped I realized I screwed up. And that's the worst feeling ever. I was already taking longer to get the dress finished than I should've, and I don't own a car, so I had to scramble to find a way to run to the fabric store to buy more fabric (because of course I didn't have any extra on hand at this time). Luckily, my friend/model, Kendyl came to the rescue and chauffeured me across town ❤︎ Also true: I completely forgot that my friend wanted the bat wing details on the back, so I made the whole dress and sent her pictures, and she was all like 'dude wtf where's the wings?! -_-' and then I got to have a second freak out. But at least now I have pictures of the dress both with and without wings which was convenient. And then I got to figure out how to add the appliques without taking the dress apart or sewing through the lining. Which I did, and you'd never be able to tell the wings were the very last thing I added :p

Welcome to my life.