Today's adventure

Today I took an adventure all by myself. I called a theater about an ad they placed in an online resource for volunteer stitching help for their up and coming production of Persuasion by Jane Austin. Well I wasn't sure how much experience they wanted but I'm free and could use the connections working backstage. So I called the number and the girl I talked to was like, Yes we need as much help as you can give. It turns out there are just two of them working on the costumes and they are just running out of time with the alterations they need to finish.

So today I ventured out with my trusty Google Maps print out on the seat next to me and some juice and soft foods to eat if I got hungry. Well it turns out that this theater is in downtown Seattle, specifically right around the Space needle. As I drove down there I was getting closer and closer to it, and I snapped a picture with my phone (I'll upload that later). I parked and walked to the theater and called the one girl to navigate me into the costume shop. I worked from 11 am to 4 pm. I made 5 cravats (men's scarves), put ruffles on 2 shirts, reshaped the collar on two men's shirts, and hemmed up a dress 4 inches. The one girl asked if I wanted to learn Millinery (hat making) so I am going to set a time to go her apartment and learn that from her.

I learned a few tricks and heard tips on starting out in the business from Dean the costume designer (she has 30 years experience in the business). I learn the new hemming stitch called the cross-hand stitch. I also learned that if you want to change color on your machine, instead of having to re-thread the whole thing, snip the thread close to the stool and then tie a square knot with the new thread to the old thread and then run the machine through until the thread either gets close to the needle hole or runs through it. I thought that was a very clever trick. Another thing she mentioned was if the bobbin loads from the front or the back the needle hole will be in the front, if the bobbin loads from the side, the needle hole will be on the side.

I have a long way to go for learning things, but I am getting there, and that's exciting. So I made it all the way downtown and all the way back on my own in the big city. I was pretty proud. I am going back to the costume shop on Monday and Tuesday to help where I can and gain as much information as I can.