jennylafleur | Entries tagged with rant

And LJ eats another post... didn't notice it was switched was to the new version, hit the wrong button and poof, gone.

This sucks.

Clearly this project was going too well - it's now fighting back. I'm sincerely regretting using this dino fabric - it's is evil, evil stuff. Combine demon fabric with trying to do a bag lining on the foundation bodice and it's been hell.

This ladies and gentlemen is why I am a fabric snob. And why I hate bag linings. And why I don't bother with trying to make the inside of my costumes pretty. You'd think I'd know better by now.

Now I'm trying to figure out a way to get this to work without having to A) Hand sew tons or B.) redo EVERYTHING I've done in the last two days. Grrr...

Well my Française sewing day today did not go as planned. After spending the morning cleaning, organizing and researching myself to a point where I could work on my petit panier I realized that I had neither the ribbon (duh that is what I needed from Walmart!) nor the hoop boning I needed. So I ordered the boning. *sigh*

Then I organized and researched myself to a point where I could start work on my Française (I don't need the pannier to start on the back pleats) when I realized that I hadn’t washed the lining fabric I bought right before Christmas. It's in the wash now. *sigh*

I suppose I could switch tacks and work on my Titanic evening dress toile but I had kind of promised myself that I won't work on it until the Française was well underway. See it's the Titanic I really want to work on (now that I have FINALLY decided what to do) but the Française that I need to wear on Feb 4th. That’s right a robe à la Française in a month. Yeah.

And now I have a headache that I think wants to be a migraine. So I think I'll just give up and play Angry Birds. Maybe if I'm feeling better later I'll stay up and ring in the New Year being productive. Or not.

It took a few more emails (I had to have the specific language "penalty of perjury" under #6 etc ) but the listing is finally down. The shop is still open of course.

I should have known what was coming when the email is "legal@etsy". Lawyers, you gotta love them. *sigh* Clearly Etsy is more concerned with covering their butt than maintaining real quality control on their sellers. I guess I understand the need for all the legalize but as a consumer I'll be far more wary of any seller I don't already know and extremely reluctant to give my money to this company that as an innocent victim made me FEEL stupid and a nuisance.

So if you ever have to report a copyright violation to Etsy email me - I'll let you know what to say and save you my pain... Oh don’t expect any kind of acknowledgement of the complaint or notification that the copyright violation was taken care of – I had to look up the listing to see if it was down.

Anyway, moving on…

ETA:
I did get an acknowledgment (another form letter) from ETSY that my "Allegation of Infringement" was acceptable and that the listing had been taken down... 26 hours after my last email was sent to them and about 16 hours after the listing was gone (I don't know exactly when it was taken down, that is just when I checked). I guess I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just assume they are THAT backlogged with copyright violations. Still they won't be getting an A+ from me for communication.

Just got a form letter from Etsy. Apparently I didn't follow procedure well enough in my official complaint and need to resubmit it. Apparently thoughtfully written email with links for proof and an email for contact information wasn’t enough. They need numbered bullet points and for me to say muliple times that it's my photo and I am me and I've given myself authorization to complain about this.

I have no words.

So now I get to waste some more time on this. Thanks a lot Etsy. And for what? So at best Esty can ban the seller so they can start up another shop so this can all start again. I have to ask myself why am I bothering. I mean I'm offended and upset about someone violating my property but it's not like I'm not losing any money because of her scams or anything. Why am I jumping through stupid hoops and wanting to do the right thing and protect would-be buyers from being scammed? I asked my sister this question (she was lucky enough to call my right after I got the email from Etsy) and her answer? "Because this is the person you want to be."

Good answer.

Okay now I'm starting to get seriously annoyed. The picture is still up. I'm very disappointed with Etsy. Just sent another "report this listing". I really don't want to have to deal with the seller directly - if I do what is to stop her from using my photo again in the future.

I really don't have time to deal with this.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81070559/on-sale-reproduction-civil-war-victorian?ref=v1_other_1

Eeek!

my_stitching just pointed out that seller missmelliescloset on Esty is using one of my photos in a lisiting, of course without permission. So not cool!

What do I do now? Contact Esty or the seller? Esty is a bit confusing...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81070559/on-sale-reproduction-civil-war-victorian?ref=v1_other_1

ETA:
Finally found the Report-This-Listing button so I reported her to Esty. If it's not down in a few hours I'll try contacting her directly I guess. Really she just needs to be banned since she is a repeat offender (she changed her name but it's apparently the same one that used

koshka_the_cat's photo last year).

Have a look around folks and if you see any other familiar photos let the owners know so they can report it. I'm sure I'm not the only one...

And by the way thanks heaps

my_stitching for your eagle-eye!

ETA:
In addition to the Report-This-Listing I just sent a complaint via the Etsy copyright "Designated Agent". Maybe this will get some action?

It was a long hard slog but I in the end I fitted the polonaise to my satisfaction. Thanks so much for your encouragement and advice. You guys are the best!

Dude I am getting to old for projects like this! After 2 days of multiple mock-ups and fittings I was getting nowhere. I dubbed the project the Hydra bodice - every time I would get one area looking good I'd be back to square one with another. It's not as bad as three problems for every one fixed but somehow it's worse that it's the same heads coming back again and again. It was a vicious cycle and I was left feeling stupid and pathetic. By Saturday night I was really in the depths of despair over this dress, questioning everything about my life and generally wanting to crawl into a hole and give up costuming forever. Luckily I have some awesome friends and I’m rather stubborn.

( the whole saga )

The finial mock-ups were then taken apart and a master pattern traced. I’m now in the process of cutting out the bodice. I'm feeling emotional and mentally exhausted from the weekend (sewing + family stuff) but I'm quietly confident I can get this outfit finished before I leave for CosCon on Thursday. I just need to decide what color the hat should be... :>

Seriously LJ needs to get their act together - it was down for me again all day today. According to ljstatus (a site I have been having to check way too often lately):

"We're currently experiencing heavy load. LiveJournal is currently down for most users, but should be back up shortly. Thank you very much for your patience; we know this is frustrating for all of us!(Status Updated: 6:04 pm GMT Tuesday, April 5)"

Seriously a heavy load LJ?!! Denial of Service attacks are one thing but this - so not cool!

This latest series of LJ greyouts have pushed me over the fence about having a blog-not-on-lj so voila - Jennylafleur @ Blogspot (http://chezjennylafleur.blogspot.com)

For now I'll be simply cross-posting my public LJ entries over there. I may put slightly different content on the two blogs from time to time, we'll see. As my favorite LJ will get updated first though. Unless it's down. Again. *grinds teeth*

Dispite a lack of blogging I have made progress with my black & white bustle bodice.

At the moment I'm struggling with the lining (bag lining SUCKS!!!!) which has slowed me down to a slow crawl. I really need to finish sewing today though since the next few days need to be filled with cleaning, shopping, baking and other party/guest prep.

I was quitely confident about finishing up today but with the lining I'm not so sure. Dude there has got to be a better way to do this!

Bag lining - we hates it Precious!!

So life sucks today. I'm not going to go into all of it but it sucks big time. *sigh* Even though I'm not really feeling it at the moment, I know Jesus is totally in control though & this in only a season. I'm just ready for this season to end. Seriously NOW would be a good time.

So one of the sucky things is that my jennylafleur.com domain is completely screwed up. I'm not even going to go into what happened but it's down and will be for at least a month. I'm trying to decide if I should just get another domain (any brillent names suggestions?) or switch everything over to the family domain (chateauwhite) temporarily. I don't know yet… I need to ponder.

These are the days I’m so happy I have LiveJournal – my pics may be down but at least you can find me online if you need to!

I’ll keep you guys up to date on developments…

I think I just screwed my dress. As in I'll have to trash it. I was trying to fix an issue on the bodice and managed to cut the fabric far beyond the seam allowance in a way that is unrepairable.

I want to cry.

Not that I was liking the dress anyway. I kept telling myself it was okay and the fit and other issues didn't really bother me but really you know what - it does. I do have enough fabric to remake the bodice but I was going to save it until I could re-make the bodice better, not for a second half-assed version (which is all I have time for this week). I'm not sure I can deal with this frock anymore at the moment either.

It's moments like this I hate costuming. Why do I do these things to myself!!!!

Well I'm bummed. I got all the channels sewn in my Effigy Stays and ran out of reed about 1/3 of the way into boning it.

I looked up both the Silly Sisters (where my original reed came from) & Reconstructing History and dude the shipping is really high! $8 for the reed, $7 for the shipping. *chokes* I could probably pick up the Silly Sister reed in person (since they are in Fredericksburg) but I suspect that will be a pain and frankly the RH reed is nicer. Also SS has 33.3 yds for $8.50, while RH has 83yds for $8, making RH the better deal. I even thought of having Mom order her stays boning from RH so we could split the shipping but RH has is set up so that one item (any item!) is $7, two items is $12. Three items is $15. So some reed and some steel boning and I'm now paying more in shipping than for my purchases. That just doesn't go down well with me.

I know shipping is expensive and going flat rate priority is easiest for a small business but it just rubs me the wrong way to pay the same amount for shipping as for my item. To make me feel even worse, if I'd known about these shipping prices I could have bought the reed shipping free at either Fort Fred or CosCon!

So now I'm wondering what to do. I can:
1. Break down and pay double thanks to shipping costs for the RH reed.
2. Try to arrange picking up the more expensive reed from Silly Sisters.
3. Ditch the reed and bone with steel. (I'd have to order that too.)
4. Resew all the channels to use cable ties.
5. Take matches to the whole project and drink a very dry martini while watching it burn.

Honestly right now #5 sounds the most appealing but I know I'm just a little emotional at the moment so I'm not going to make a decision tonight. *shakes fist at sky* I knew this project was going along too well.

Well nuts! The silk taffeta from fabrics.com is not what I wanted. It's more of a dupioni than a taffeta, without the sheen, the body and with too many slubs. So I'm sending it back. Hopefully that will be a painless process.

Moo I say - MOO! Now I'm super jealous of all the garment district shopping. Life is so unfair.

Dangit, dangit, DANGIT!! Why are these things always so complicated?

I'm working on my new 1804 stays (my old pair having given out at Costume Con) and having a hard time reconciling the pattern in my files with the finished result of my old stays. I LOVE my old stays - they have served me well in fit, comfort and look - so I don't want to deviate from the old pair at all. Just remake them.

Thing is I've tweaked the stays several times over the years, trimming things here & there and even re-making the back panels at one point when they got too big. Did I transfer those changes to my master pattern? No. Did I take good notes of the changes? No. Is this pattern I have in my file even the finial master pattern? I'm beginning to wonder.

Add to that the fact that I made these stays 6 years ago, before I got into good habits of note taking, master pattern tracing and that it was my first use of a scaled pattern and I had NO idea what I was doing... it's amazing the stays came out so well and lasted so long really. Trying to go back 6 years and figure out my own assumptions and sewing methods (since I didn't write them down) is a logistical nightmare.

I do have the old stays to reference but that almost makes it harder. Thanks to gussets and trying to factor in the stretch of the fabric in 6 years... it's making my head hurt. I have a summer cold right now so that probably won't take much but still... Why does this have to be so dang hard!

*wimpers*

Thanks for your encouragement and kind words to my ranting post on Saturday my dear friends. I needed that.

I allowed myself an LJ rant over the thing but not the following pity party. I persevered with the jacket's bodice toile and refitted it right after I got off the computer. I have to admit as I started to work on it I was crying from the frustration of it all. I've never done that before, usally I throw it across the room and sulk.

It took several tries, lots of taking on and off and tweaking, but I got that sucker re-fitted and looking even better than before (when I thought it was finished). Proof there is a God and He loves me. A lot.

Once that was done I took a break to do some necessary MK work, take a long hot shower and eat the yummy sushi Daddy went out and bought me. I felt much better after all that. So about 8pm, instead of in the morning which had been my intent, I started work again on the sleeves. They went pretty well (thanks in part to the work I'd put in before discovering the bodice was wrong) and the toileing was done by 10:30pm - finally!

The finished results. I will be tweaking the sleeve slightly but no need for another toile. I picked apart half the toile but I was out of tracing interfacing (apparently) to trace my master pattern. So I decided to make it an early night and get the interfacing on my way on home from church the next day. Which I did. :>

My Redingote is continuing to not go well. At all.

I don't know what is wrong with me and it's horribly frustrating. I fix one thing and three more problems show up. It's like that monster in Greek mythogy... whatever the name is... For all my effort so far all I have is a completely unusable set of toiles. To continue I will need to start again from scratch.

So after a finial fitting where I didn't know if I wanted to cry or throw things, I had a long talk with Mom (who was kindly helping with the fitting) and Bridget (via phone) and have decided for the sake of mental health to shelve the project. I just can't deal with it at the moment.

I want to believe I have the ability to do this but apparently I need lots of time to figure it out. I knew this outfit was going to be out of my comfort zone but not this brutal. I can't do it in 3 weeks - is just too much going on with work, family, church and making B something too. The part of me that is stubborn wants to dig my heels in and keep trying but I know if I try I'll only be miserable, unhappy with the results and possibly in a straight jacket at the end of it.

*sigh*

So I spent most of my Easter day going through files & books trying to come up with something else to wear. It took a little time but I now have a slight glimmer of excitement about this stupid event once again. I've decided to make a perriot jacket and matching petticoat along the lines of this:
http://www.chateauwhite.com/jenny/fashion/1790-rev69-cp2.jpg

Not quite "riding attire" but it will pass for a traveling costume. I'm using a lovely avocado green and chocolate brown stripe I had ear-marked for a Spencer. My 18th century need is greater at the moment... pics to come...

I be sick. Moo.

So the only thing I accomplished yesterday was watching movies & saving off pics from the Tasha Tudor auction (thanks to a link from

elegant_musings).

I have too much to do to be sick! *coughsniffsniff*

Note to self:
When doing alterations remember that normal people like a bit more ease than the historically minded ones.

Ah huh.

Well you will all be excited to know that I got notification from Amazon.com that the replacement for my Nineteenth Century Fashion in Detail has been shipped! Yeah, that would be the book I ordered in January with Christmas money, the one that was damaged when I received it.

This is so ridiculous. I was just wondering about this the other day, thinking I needed to go back and check my CC statements to see if they had just returned my money without letting me know or if they still owed me the book before I wrote a very frosty e-mail. It was on my pre-CC list so I would know if I should just replace it in the Marketplace.

I guess that question has been answered.

So the lesson here is that if you ever get a fashion book from Amazon.com that is damaged just ask for your money back and re-order it later. What do you want to bet they have filled an order or two for that book in the past 6 months? *sheesh*

This has really not been a good costumer service week.

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Jenny La Fleur

adventures in costuming

this is why I'm not posting much these days

time to put the boxing gloves on

my not sewing day

Finially

yeah

I'm very dissappointed with Etsy

mayday, mayday!

Baby got Bustle!

so not cool

Bag lining - we hates it Precious!!

suckage

i hate my life

shakes fist at sky

not a good mail day

when you don't write things down

my weekend pt 1: toiles

raises hands in defeat - for now anyway

coughsniffsniff

in alteration world

a bad example of costumer service

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July 2014

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