http://www.galvestonhistory.org/Dickens_Press13.asp

December 5th and 6th 2009 in Galveston. Its a great excuse to get laced in and dressed up! Don't know what to wear? Can you sew? Here are links to various commercially available patterns that will work. Any that don't have a note next to the pattern number are costumes for women. All of these are available at various fabric stores, Hobby Lobby and sometimes Walmart.

Butterick (on sale for $1.99 at Joann's on Oct. 29-31, 2009)

http://www.butterick.com/list/costumes/all.htm

B5265
B5266
B5232
B5008 - Men's shirt
B4952
B4954 The view "C" skirt is really nice and super easy
B4419
B3648 - Men's outfit
B4210 Hats!

Vogue Patterns (are also on super sale Oct 29-31 for $3.99 at Joann's) They don't really do victorian but their Vintage Vogue line is delicious. Some of the hat patterns would work for Dickens.

http://www.voguepatterns.com/list/vintage_vogue/all.htm

Simplicity Patterns

http://www.simplicity.com/c-164-costumes.aspx?pagesize=99999999

2517 Men's coat
2581
2843 Girls
2881
2887 Gone with the Wind dress
2890 Corset and undies
2895 Men's
3644 kid's pattern (pirates work for Dickens too)
3727
4083 Men's
9769 Corset and undies

McCall's Patterns

http://www.mccallpattern.com/list/costumes/all.htm

M5129 Bonnets
M4745 Men's Civil War
M2337 Girls


If you're an experienced costumer, there is always http://www.agelesspatterns.com/
where you can get authentic reproduction patterns. Just beware, they come with the original instructions and are sized for Victorian bodies, not modern ones. You'll need to alter the patterns to fit.

I try to go to Dickens every year. There is useally a discount if you go in costume. Its fun for everyone (kids too!) and there is plenty of shopping and performers to watch.

If you don't sew but still want to play dress up, look for long skirts, lacy long sleeve blouses and hats for ladies. A hat, coat and/or vest and trousers is a good start for men. They don't hold historical accuracy against you so have fun with it.

Ever wanted to model for SINched but were shy to approach us in person? On August 29, 2009 we'll be holding a small model search at Numbers during the monthly Underworld event.

 Come find us. Introduce yourself, fill out a questionare and snap a few test shots with Nocturnal Utopia photography and maybe you'll get that chance.

Requirements:

Must be 18 years of age or older with proof.

Must have reliable transportation.

No previous modeling experience needed.

Open to males, females or whatever gender you choose to portray.

We're looking for people who want to work with us in photoshoots, fashion shows and/or live events. We like confident people, body modifications and interesting personas.

Not really interested in mainstream glamour type models but if you think you have something that might catch our interest, feel free to try out.

Dress to impress! If you have a corset, please wear it. The tighter you can sinch down your waist, the more likely we are to remember your face.

While you're there, don't forget to check out our friends at Weeping Willow Wax Works and The Velvet Rose hair accessories.

www.myspace.com/weepingwillowwaxworks

www.myspace.com/underworldnightclub

www.myspace.com/sinched

www.myspace.com/the.velvetrose

 
At least this school district came to their senses before having to waste a whole lot of money in court.


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http:../../..www...chron...com/..disp/..story...mpl/..ap/..tx/6372353.html Native American student can keep long hair © 2009 The Associated Press April 14, 2009, 1:58AM ........ .. SOMERSET, Texas — A Native American Somerset High School senior — whose parents filed a federal lawsuit saying his right of religious expression was violated when he received an on-campus suspension — can return to class without having to cut his shoulder-..length hair. Jesus Figueroa's long hair had been an issue since last school year, landing him in on-campus suspension a few times. After a battle that included the federal lawsuit, the Somerset Independent School District's Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday night to grant the 17-year-old special dispensation from the district's grooming policy. The policy bans males' hair from touching the collar. "We can make this a maelstrom or we can bring resolution," said board President Omar Pachecano in an online story Monday in the San Antonio Express-News. "We are here as trustees to ameliorate the business of the district, not to cause any harm to anyone in any way, shape, or form." Figueroa is a P'urhépecha Indian who is from Michoacán, Mexico and believes his hair is a gift from the Great Spirit and should be cut only to mourn the death of a loved one. Superintendent Saul Hinojosa Jr. told trustees Monday that Figueroa initially cited freedom of expression as his reason for not cutting his hair. It wasn't until January that he cited religious beliefs, and school officials asked for proof that he was Native American. His parents then filed the lawsuit in which they submitted a statement that they were, indeed, Native American. The judge ordered school officials to allow the student to return to the classroom and sent the case to the district level to be heard by trustees — which Figueroa's parents had not requested. Based on that court document, Hinojosa recommended the board grant the exception. "I feel so good that the school board finally decided to grant me the religious accommodation,.." Figueroa said. "I feel good that they're going to respect me for who I am a native person." Somerset is located 18 miles south of San Antonio.

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 Where do you buy fabric in the greater Houston area? Who has the best deals? Do you know a place I should check out?

I can't stand buying fabric online. I'm one of those people that needs to touch the material as well as see the color. I've ordered fabric online a few times but have been dissapointed every time by the color or texture.

Here are my favorite places to buy in or around Houston:

High Fashion Fabrics  www.highfashionfabrics.com  located at 3101 Louisiana St, Houston Tx 77006   713-528-7299
HFF is the best place to find really beautiful hand beaded and embroidered (very expensive!) fabrics and has a great selection of just about everything else. From cotton prints to hand painted silks as well as fabulous trims, buttons feathers and rhinestones. The customer service there sucks but the fabrics are worth the hassle of tracking down someone to cut for you. I've never tried to get a swatch but I hear that they are very stingy with them so its best if you know what you want.

I have not checked out the High Fashion Home store across the street but it sounds pretty awesome too. High Fashion Fabrics does have a mailing list and they sometimes send out coupons and sales fliers but not very often.

Glick Textiles www.glicktextiles.com  located at 2327 SW Freeway, Houston Tx 77098  713-942-8585
If  I need silk dupioni I go to Glick. $10 a yard for 45 " wide in a huge range of colors. They carry some garment fabrics but mostly home decorator stuff. The prices are good but most of the garment weight fabrics are by the bolt only. Fine with me since I like to stock up on certain often used things. They also have a really good selection of heavy braided and beaded trims (mostly for home dec. uses but I like some of them for wearable stuff). Glick has a mailing list for sales.

Jo-Anns www.joanns.com multiple locations around Houston but I usually go to the store at 3616 Hwy 6, Sugar Land Tx 77478  281-908-8688
Joann's has some really great sales and if you sign up for their mailing list they send out sales fliers with 40% off coupons pretty often. The sales on patterns are excellent (99 cents for Simplicity and Vogues for $3.99). They carry all the basics and have a big quilting section if your into that. They also offer sewing classes but I don't know if they are any good or not.
 I go to Joann's most often since they are closest to where I live. The selection is not very exciting but I can usually find what I need without the sales people bothering me too much. Of course, they are kind of used to seeing me and have figured out that there is really nothing they can help me with.

 I used to shop at Hancock's too but they all shut down in this area. They were pretty similiar to Joann's and carried birdcage netting for hats in a few colors. I bought one of their big pattern drawers when the one in Sugar Land closed down and have stuffed it with patterns and sewing books. I almost had to fight an old lady for it since it was the last one!

I found a listing for a place called Universal Fabric Center  www.universal-fabric.com at 2530 Times Blvd in Houston  713-521-4544 but the review I read says their prices are outrageous and they don't do swatches. I don't know if I'll bother to check them out but you never know.
 

 My son brought home a little gift he had received at school yesterday that I thought was really quite funny. The Boy Scouts of America came and visited the school to try and recruit some new blood. I don't know if they are just to stupid to know what they are doing or if they are trying to move past their bad image but either way, I find the use of rainbow colors in their recruiting badge hilarious.

 


 

Just in case you have been living under a rock and didn't know this.... the BSA is anti-gay. Very, very anti-gay.

I however am not so my son will not be joining. So to the Boy Scouts of America I say:
 


 

 A few weeks ago we adopted two horses. It was actually quite accidental but its turning out to be a good thing.
 One of my old mares died in January and her pasturemate Picnic was lonely. Picnic is old and crippled so she can't stay with the younger horses. Being alone in her own pen makes her fussy and she won't eat so I posted an ad on Craigslist looking for a friend for her. What I had in mind was a mutually beneficial arrangement. I was offereing free pasture board where I would take care of someone else's equally old horse for free as long as they paid for the feed/vet/farrier bills. I figured it would get a response or two and maybe I could find a buddy for her and help someone out who needed a place to keep a retired horse.
 Instead I got about 6 emails in a few hours all offering me free horses. Exactly what I do not need since we already had 6 at the time. I quickly deleted my ad and starting politely declining the offers.
 There was one that I could not though. A woman contacted me because her 65 year old neighbor who was fighting her second round of brain cancer had a 27 year old half arab mare that needed a home. I am a sucker for old mares and especially anything with arabian in it. I always have been and always will be and then to top it off my mom is a cancer survivor so how could I say no?
 I called her and spoke to her about her neighbor's horse and she ended up offering me one of her own horses also. He is a 22 year old ex-racehorse that supposedly had a pretty successful career as a show jumper but stank as a racer. She said he had been rescued after hurricane Katrina after he was found abandoned and starving. Her young daughter rode him english for a while but then decided she wanted to do barrel racing which really isn't the career for a semi-retired older gelding. He sounded like a nice horse and teh picture she sent of him was not bad so we decided sure, why not. He could earn his keep as a lesson horse and so could teh old mare since she was still rideably sound from what I was told.
 The owner of Parker (the 22 year old gelding) and the owner of Lady (the 27 year old mare) came out and met with us and looked at our horses to make sure we would be taking good care of their babies. We agreed to take both of them without so much as a test ride or soundness check by a vet. I didn't even know what Lady looked like until the day she arrived. Normally this is not advised when it comes to getting a horse but I don't always do things the right way.
 Lady turned out to ba a super cute fat little grey mare that so does not look her age. She looks younger then any of the otehr horses we have and has a geat attidude. My son has ridden her a bit and trotted without a saddle for the first time on her. She is a total keeper.
 Parker was quite a surprise. He is a generic looking chestnut thoroughbred gelding with a cribbing problem so bad that his teeth are worn down to nubs. He eats very slowly though so he and Picnic are perfect pasturemates. Yesterday I decided to hop on him and see how he would behave. I'm lazy so I didn't bother with a saddle 'cause how much trouble could a 22 year old horse be really?
 He walked, trotted and cantered quite nicely around the pond and obviously had soem good training at some point in his life. I was pleased with hsi behavior and was about to get down when he started getting a little prancy. I circled him around a bit to calm him down and let him know that bad behavior was not allowed. During our circles he began to collect himself and show some interesting signs. Imagine my surprise when I asked for and got a perfectly executed *piaffe manuver from him. I'm not ashamed to say it, it gave me chills.
I love unwanted horses.
*Piaffe is a high level dressage move where the horse trots in place or nearly in place. Parker did it without any forward movement at all.

 Our son was mentioned in a blog on a fashion website before we were. I think its kinda funny.
http://www.stylelist.com/blog/2009/01/25/federal-judge-decides-whether-a-kindergartner-cuts-awesome-pigta/

 Last night at Numbers was a blast! If you missed it, it was the 10th annual Gothic Beauty Pageant hosted by Underworld. I couldn't say anything before but I was a judge this year so it was extra fun.

 Each Judge had to pick three boys and three girls for the finalists and then the winners were chosen by how much noise the crowd made for them. The girls went first and it was not hard to pick a favorite. Only one this year really put some good effort and thought into her outfit. The lovely Syd Vicious was crowned the winner for the girls and she looked great! The contestants are judges on beauty, poise and their clothing and while she had all three I'm a seamstress so you know I was checking out everyone's stitches.

No pictures yet but here is her myspace www.myspace.com/syd561
She'll be modelling for SINched at some point this year. As a matter of fact now that I think about it, the last three pageant winners have modelled for us. Beautiful Scarlett St. Vitus, oh so spooky Spleen, and now hotty hotness Ren. We dressed Ren for her stepping down as last year's winner. Her new look was a complete change of pace for her and she wore it well. Pictures soon I promise!!!

 The boys were much harder to judge. Nearly every one of them had something fabulous going on and it was difficult to narrow it down to three. Phobia was chosen as the winner and I loved the prosthetic heart sticking out of his chest. It was the My Bloody Valentine Underworld so I found it quite appropriate. I was expecting lots of fake blood with the contestants due to this year's theme but really didn't see much.

Here is Mr Spooky's myspace, www.myspace.com/dougroche (may not be safe for work so be warned!)
He'll be a SINched model too! He is such a character and will wear anything so I couldn't help but recruit him for a project or two. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun playing dress up with him.

 Now that the peageant is over, I've got to get ready for the next event. See you at the Texas Fetish Ball in March! www.myspace.com/texasfetishball

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We got the decision yesterday. I don't think it has quite set in yet but its finally over!

If you live in Texas and use a company other than Reliant Energy as your electricity provider, I want to hear from you! I'm thinking about changing to another company but I don't want to without getting some outside opinions.
 I found plenty of other electricity providers here:
http://www.powertochoose.org/_content/_compare/showoffers.aspx
Most of them offer better rates than Reliant  and there are a few that offer 100% from renewable sources (wind power generally) which is a good selling point for me personally.
I just went with Reliant because they are the ones that installed the power lines at the new place but I think the time has come to shop around. So, who do you use and why? Do you recomend any provider over another?

Have you ever been to my house or have I invited you there before?

Have we worked together before?

Do you know my real name? (not just because you read it in the news articles, because I told you)

Do you know what my normal everyday job is/ where I work?

Most importantly, do I like you?

If I've ever banned you from my presence or tried to kill you with a sharp stick consider yourself ruled out.
;)

If you can answer yes to any or all of these then you could be welcome at my home for New Year's Eve. Its about 45 minutes south of the Sugar Land/Missouri City/Stafford area.
Email me for details or send a friends request to my private profile

www. myspace. com/thestitchwitch13

I promise to let you down easy if I don't think I know you well enough to invite you over. Its an all ages kind of event so there will be the offspring of some of my guests. Keep that in mind if you are a heavy drinker or have a drug problem or an irrational fear of children.


Bring fireworks!

 

Posting this everywhere since many of you have been asking what happened to Spleen.  ;)

Lady Spleen is a wonderful friend and model of ours and we miss her dearly. If you don't know who she is see www.myspace.com/wingedmuse and you'll see why we love her so much.

This is her in our first shoot together with Anthony of 3ird Eye Photography. It was only her second time wearing this corset and she cinched down beautifully.

We met Spleen a few years ago through myspace and she was one of our earliest models. She is an accomplished and talented artist and has recently began selling her handmade jewelry on Etsy.com. I am particularly fond of her eyeball hairclips and this drawing of us she did as a gift:

Oh and I almost forgot, she is a rockstar too!

Spleen left Texas to move to Arkansas after her fiance got a better job offer there. She is engaged and we have never seen her happier even though she is so far away. We keep in touch regularly and still plan on collaborating with her in future projects either by sending corsets to her or setting up shoots whenever she has time to visit Texas.

To date our favorite Spleen project was her 2007 Miss Spooky dress. She came up with the idea and a sketch for us and we had a great time constructing it for her. The fabulously tallented Jessicka (www.myspace.comhellishhair) made an amazing wig to go with the dress and in the end we got this:

Photo by Lithium Picnic

Spleen's dress along with the underpinnings and shoes resides in our living room. She did not have room for it so we keep it displayed on a mannequin until she can take it home with her.

Now we have another great Spleen project to work on. She is getting married next year and we are working on her wedding dress as well as outfitting the groom and bridesmaids. It will be a fantastically spooky affair.