Old Blog – resurrected

I found my old blog from the last couple months of my first year in college. It’s over 4 years old and the account was never suspended. I’m almost tempted to just delete it, but it reminds me of some really good times I used to have with friends before we became room-mates, then not friends, then sort of friends again years later in an awkward relationship.

It also sort of chronicles my first real relationship, and I guess I sort of stopped blogging in it after we split. Can’t remember if that was the reason specifically….

Thanks Blogger for not deleting it =)

Starting late on Halloween Costumes, eh?

My brother wants to be a pirate for Halloween… go figure. We went out to the Spirit store to check out their stuff and I must admit, everything is really wack, so I decided that I would make him part of his costume. I’m using Simplicity #4923

I’m only making the jacket, though, seeing as how I only have 1 day to do it. I thought I’d be nice and do it last minute because the last time I tried to make him something, it turned out really horribly. I tried to make him some shorts and I measured his waist just fine, he’s only a 34 and they didn’t have that size on the pattern, so I went the next size up. I forgot that even though my brother has a skinny frame, he is still quite bootylicious.

Needless to say, he did not want to sport some nearly-skintight shorts so… that was the end of that. I figured it was time for little sis to try again. And I figure, there’s less room for error with a jacket, right?

I have Tuesday off so I hope this turns out well. On the plus side, my brother is the kind of person who would actually wear a pirate jacket out on a regular basis, he’s just a little funky like that (but then, on the other hand, so am I).

I’ll post a pic of the finished project. For now, it’s bedtime because I have class tomorrow. yay. :-/

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Closing Time… time for you to get out.

Yesterday I took a shift for a co-worker who needed more time for homework. She’s a cool chick and I totally understand about needing time to study, so it was no problem coming in to work, especially since I really need the money. The 4-10 shift really threw me off guard, though.

I regularly work in the mornings, no later than 3:00 because I’d rather get up early to go to work and have my afternoons/evenings free, than sleep in, have a little bit of time for myself and then have to waste my evening/night working… The morning shifts are not so terrible. We get a lot of people who have an agenda and come in there knowing what they want to do, 90% of the morning ladies (I only say ladies because it’s rare that guys come in, and they’re usually just looking for vinyl, speaker fabric, or sport nylon) know how to read a pattern or can guess-timate how much material they need. The store doesn’t start getting super busy until around 1 and it’s an easier time putting stuff back in order…

Evening shifts, on the other hand, are just terrible. Especially before Halloween. And even more especially during one of the BIGGEST sales of the year where virtually everything in the freaking store is 50% off: Fleece, Flannel, Suitings, Clearance/Red-Tag, Home-Dec, you name it. The place gets absolutely trashed. The go-backs at the cutting table are stacked 10-bolts high, you can’t get the fleece back on the racks fast enough before another big pile comes in, rolls of ribbons completely misplaced, abandoned carts everywhere. It’s like a Fabric Armageddon or something.

The clearance section is the worst. Bolts on the floor, fabric unwrapped and flapping in the air conditioned “breeze”, and everything askew and in disarray. Pure madness.

What sucks is that when the store closes, I can’t go home until everything is cleaned up. So the shift may say 4-10, but I could end up staying until 10:30 or 11:00. Wack. Today made me really remember why I don’t work in the evenings…. or stay until the store closes. I think if I can just get out before those doors are locked, I’m all good.

I think the highlight of the night, though, was finding that someone had ripped a page out of the pattern catalog to put their gum in… and they left it on the table, amidst the wreck.

Corporate was right when they titled the sale “Madness”…. that’s just what this is, carnage, pure carnage.

Which reminds me, I need to go get some stuff before the sale is over! =|

Fabric Rant!

…. I work part-time in a fabric store and like it alright, in the quiet mornings, anyway. I love to knit and sew (and craft and paint, etc.) as much as the next person; but by the end of every shift I am ready to throttle most of the customers.

I see the same old quilting/knitting ladies, the same old vinyl or speaker fabric dudes, the same label-illiterates, and the same no-measurement-taking, want-the-cutting-people-to-know-how-big-the-window-is folks week after week. I get so frustrated because it seems like shoppers dog the people at the cutting table like slaves and it’s just not cool at all.

So the following is a list of what fabric and craft shoppers can do to make their shopping experience all the more enjoyable and possibly ease the stress of the good folks assisting you in the store.

Points To Remember While Shopping:

[1] When going to purchase fabric, have all measurements and calculations at the ready (windows, pillows, people). The employees don’t know how big your laundry room window is and you’d probably be offended if we guessed your dress size.

[2] If you have young children, please do not let them run through the store, move merchandise, or scream the entire 30-40 minutes of your visit to the store. It’s understandable if you have an infant, but if you have a toddler, their screaming does not make anyone’s day better. In fact, the employees (and probably some of your fellow shoppers) will want to cause you bodily harm.

[3] Learn to read fabric labels. You will save yourself a lot of time if you can locate the price, the width, the fabric content, and the care instructions.

If you can’t figure it out, ask an employee to teach you how to read the label. It’s that whole “teach a man to fish” thing.

[4] When browsing for your fabric it’s perfectly fine to pick up the bolt, feel the fabric, view the size of the repeat, etc. because if you like it, it will become your fabric. What is not okay is for you to a) bring it all the way back to the cutting table and tell us that you don’t want it (especially when there’s already a big pile of fabric that needs to be put back); or b) leave it on top of the shelf, perpendicular (90 degree angle) to the fabric bolts or put it in a completely different and incorrect place than where you got it from. That makes it hard for other people to find when they actually want to buy it. NOTE: This includes the ribbon section!

[5] For the love of all things crafty, don’t abandon shopping carts in the store, especially if it has store items in it. If you took it from the rack, please go and put it back. I found at least four abandoned carts today, and it’s a small store.

[6] When you are ready to get your fabric cut and you come to the cutting table, if no one is there, don’t bang on the counter, snap, or yell at an employee because that’s just plain rude. Realize that the cutting person is probably helping another customer, re-organizing mixed up merchandise, putting back bolts of fabric, and returning abandoned shopping carts to the front of the store. If we didn’t have anything to do, we’d stand around the table and discuss last night’s episode of Heroes, okay? If you need help, say excuse me, or go up to a nearby employee and ask for help.

[7] While your fabric is being cut, DO NOT TOUCH THE MATERIAL! You may think you are helping, but if I needed your help, I would ask for it. You in fact make the job harder because when the fabric is being lined up and you touch it and move it, it has to be measured again. Do not touch it while it is being cut. Don’t hold it down. Don’t smooth it out. You will mess everything up.

[8] Also, be sure to double-check that the bolt you picked up is in the right section and that if there’s a sale, the fabric you have is included in that sale. Remember point #4 about putting fabric in the wrong place? Yeah, that happens and since there’s probably only 1 or 2 employees keeping up the fabric section at any given time, and probably 10 people browsing for fabric, you can see how they may not work fast enough to put everything back in its rightful place before you pick it up. This is also where point #3 comes in really handy: read the label, make sure it’s the same thing as the sale sign.

[9] One more thing while at the cutting table: put the cell phone away. It’s extremely rude to carry on a conversation while executing any kind of transaction with another human being, be it at the grocery store, the bank, the mall, whatever. It says that you don’t have enough respect for the “lowly” employee to give them your full attention. In a more practical sense, you waste time and will cause more errors because the cutter has to sit and wait for a break in your incessant chattering to figure out how much you want cut, if you’re using a coupon, or if you’re even done. I’ve never seen anyone get an emergency call at the table, so put the phone away and show some respect.

That’s about it, but if everyone could follow these tips while shopping, it would make for a better crafting world. I love to sew, and I just love shopping for stuff when everything is in its place and I can find it.

Help people have better days and the vibes will come back to you for sure.