ghosts of gymnasiums past

Sundays at fencing club have been intimidating of late.

This is because a group of the Big Scary People - high-rated fencers who move like greased lightning and are six moves ahead of things Ordinary Mortals (meaning me) haven't even thought of yet - have been coming for the past few weeks. There are about 4-6 of them and they show up early, and if I'm there before noon it's either grit my teeth and cycle in or repetitive footwork/target practice until other Mortals show up.

The Big Scary People (BSP) aren't scary socially - as near as I can tell they are all friendly chaps and don't have superiority complexes over their considerable abilities. When I get the nerve to approach they don't refuse to fence with me, even though I don't pose much of a challenge.

It's just that my lizard brain still remembers humiliating high school phys ed, in which "natural athletes" bullied or simply bulldozed over apathetic bookworms like me. The teachers/coaches didn't seem to notice, or if they did, they didn't mind, which in retrospect makes sense, I suppose - what teacher wouldn't rather teach kids who are clearly enthusiastic about and good at the subject matter? The administration was another matter - school athletes got a pass for some of their less savory behavior, perhaps because team sports brought in money, and they were perceived as team players in a way that solitary bookworms were not :P

I need to remember that we are not children at club and I'm not just a bookworm anymore. I did cycle in yesterday and took my knocks and delivered a precious few of my own. There are still a couple who I think we'd be wasting each others time (I'd be little better than a moving target to them, and I can't even see what they're doing), but one of the ways I can improve is to play with the big kids.

silence (except for the sound of scissors)

This weekend I went on a layout/cutting binge.

This is often the most boring, time consuming, and painful (leaning over the table, metal pin-heads digging into my fingers) part of sewing. In addition, any pattern cutout takes over the dining room table so I've got incentive to do it all in one go whenever possible. Just this "go" involved 2 completely unrelated patterns.

First: a Donna Karan dress (the white one on the right). I've been sitting on both the fabric (charcoal grey poly/cotton knit) and pattern for years, and it's been so long since I worked on anything 1) knit or 2) modern that I thought this would make a nice change. Jersey is forgiving and the pattern didn't require many alterations. I cut, marked, and tailor-tacked over the course of an afternoon, and all pieces + directions and notions are in a single bag.

The other was a petticoat for the Regency gown. Several fittings convinced me that it's just too sheer to be worn alone, so I got $1.99/yard cotton broadcloth and cut out the bodice petticoat (scroll down), minus the boning and heavy lining as I already have a corset.

D. also very graciously helped me do the final fitting and hem-marking for the Regency gown itself. For sanity's sake, I'm not going to start either of these new projects until I finish the current one.

But first I'm going to go put the tablecloth back on the dining room table.