My Musing

Stop before I sew again!

I really and truly need to stop sewing. Apart from hemming pants, and minor mending this ‘hobby’ of mine costs too much and takes up vast amounts of my time.

You may ask yourself, well, smitten kitten, just what do you sew? And really, if it is a hobby, just enjoy doing it, why worry if it takes a bit of time?

Right?

Wrong.

First, I sew anything historical I happen to find myself obsessing about at this moment in time.

I had my dark ages medieval period for a bit, where I had to have everything medieval, from caps to capes, wraps, dresses, belts, and took up harp playing, purchased said harp, bought boots and made embroidered bags, purchased combs and dishes, medieval pavilions (cost of tent alone, $1200.00) card weaving (which I had to learn, source and buy supplies for and do) took up embroidery, finger weaving and tried my hand at dying.. I wish I could justify the amount of Hours spent on research alone, never mind the cost in $$ hard currency buying the products to support this addiction.

The time alone  I have spent scouring the interwebs for elusive bits of information I could have painted a house, or done something productive to better my life. That is on top of the  purchasing of research materials, buying far to $ $ books just to find a picture of a parti coloured 10^th century overdress… and some books in languages I can’t even read,  for the illustrations  alone.

I ended up outfitting myself and my devoted and forgiving husband, my son, and giving more than $200.00 (an under estimate if truth be told) dollars worth of outfits away, often to people with no appreciation for the work that went into it. for example, my once tattoo artist friend got a hand embroidered linen dress, hood and her BF got a lovely tunic and cape. She probably still has them sitting in boxes never even worn. Why I gave them to her, I have no idea. That, and a couple of hand knitted hats and fingerless gloves, free lunches etc, what a SUCKER I was.. anyway, I digress.

We bought wrought iron posts to secure lights on to ensure our encampment looked period, sought and bought  rugs, stools , more musical instruments, (my husband took up the flute) to make the pavilion more homey.  In the end I am embarrassed to say how much we spent, and in denial about the waste of money and time expended.

My husband did keep up with his archery (did I mention the custom made quiver and bracer and period bows?) and I have 3 rubber made tubs of clothes to sell, we sold off the pavilion for half the cost of the purchase and made a couple of friends out of it that I am grateful for, but still wish the $$ cost had not been so high.

 I had told myself NEXT time I obsess over something, anything, no matter how much I want to, I WON’T break the bank on said interest.. the few friends we have made in SCA, never see us at events, we are more their none-SCA-mundane friends. They are good friends; my point is that we sit most SCA events alone, in our lovely, period clothes. Might as well go in bathrobes.

The latest craze is Victorian clothes.

Believe you me that these take a lot more technical skills to sew, lots of materiel and the accruements are pretty pricey.

I need to be talked down from the ledge!

After making myself 3 outfits, with hats, my husband a vest, silk frock coat and the possibility that I might sew again, I need some help. . Logic is not working, nor is the waste of time seeming to impact my decision to sew more. And the cost! Did I mention the cost? A corset I bought online cost $300 alone, and does not even fit right.. a parasol for $60.00 and a pair of boots for only $40.00, a bowler hat for hubby, used, cost us the new price, as our ‘friend’ is more thrifty than us and did not give us any type of discount for buying it used from him. Our wise friend  is thusly much smarter and savvy than we are, and, I assume, less broke.

AND I still need a proper bonnet, a velvet cape or something pretty for walking in, and then there are the shawls I have knit.

Did I mention I knit as well?

I need to stop this huge waste of time and money. If writing this and shaming myself into stopping works, well and good. If not.. I may be hitting my few friends up for a place to sleep once this craze finishes and my husband adds up the cost of my latest obsession while we quickly run out of closet and living space as more of it is devoted to storage of outfits worn once a month, fabric, accessories and other supplies.

It is not that I don’t derive some satisfaction from what I do, it is only that as I begin another historical endevor, I must face the facts that while I enjoy it, it might not be worth the cost. I love to make the stuff, sure, but I am not big on the social events that said outfis are worn to. It seems to me my time would be better spend on something practical. Though what that is I don’t know.