The hunt for wild.. whatever, part 4

.. And I swear I won’t bore you to death any more with all this.

So anyway, I went on a wild goose chase to find some clothes I liked, and then when I got home it hit me.

If I did order one I liked in all likelihood it’ll probably not fit in some way or another and I’ll just have to end up altering it to suit my needs.

If I’m going to do that, I might as well just make some coats of my own from scratch.

That’s right. I was out shopping and somehow it totally slipped my mind that I’m a damn good seamstress, and I make some pretty fucking unique stuff.

I mean. Duh Tara. Duh.

Why am I not making day to day clothes? How did this idea somehow escape my mind? Me, taking my unique design sensibilities and applying it to clothes they I could wear anywhere, and would express who I am.

And that Dabuwawa stuff, while very cute, basically had a vintage vibe to it, so I shouldn’t feel guilty about ripping off some of their ideas for my own personal use. Actually I have quite a lot of vintage clothes anyway.

And maybe (especially with my love for Victorian fashion), I can pretty much make some awesome couture stuff that’ll blow away their designs, well, in terms of uniqueness and cuteness.

Because everywhere I went I got compliments on my sense of style. Now wether I could get those same compliments in some interesting outerwear, on say, the street in NYC or Newbury street in Boston, sure.. Hmmm.. That could be a plan.

And those gears in my head started to turn.

Now I’ve always thought about doing the whole fashion line thing, and though I’ve actually had a fashion show, my fashion line went nowhere. Mostly because I put it on the back burner while other things took priority.

Also I’ve heard horror stories about being in the fashion business. But you know, it’s sorta the logical direction of my career, and also a good plan “B” for the inevitable day when I don’t feel like being in front of the camera any more.

People ask me pretty much non stop if I sell my outfits. To which I think they mean my specific outfits. To which that answer is “no”, because they are my babies and being hand made prototypes and one offs, they would tend to not pass basic quality control standards people expect. You know, lots of loose threads, crooked stitching and maybe even some hot glue. Some of my outfits are literally designed just for shoots and little else.

So I would have to come up with a finite collection, and limitations on what I will custom do.

And I was thinking I could branch out a little, maybe limit myself to fetish wear, outerwear, some Victorian steampunk stuff and perhaps even unique bridal wear. I’ve done 3 original wedding dresses and -ahem- you can charge good money for wedding dresses if they’re fantastic.

But anyway, that’ll all take time and I don’t expect overnight success. I figure I would start small and experiment with some non fetish wear for myself first. Then move up the an etsy shop and see wherever that takes me.

But back to those lovely coats I was chasing. Looking at their designs, I could literally own every single one they make. But I’m kinda poor now and can’t spend thousands of dollars on coats, because seriously, I’ll have one of each please.

And even wool fabric is kinda pricey ($20/yard), not to mention I a quick trip to my favorite fabric store did not produce any cool colors i liked.

So I figured, hey, why not buy some cheap thrift/vintage store coats, rip them apart and re engineer them to my own aims? My local Salvation Army store yielded this rather dull brown wool coat. Yeah, it doesn’t look like much, I admit. Sorta shapeless.

Yawn. So last night I put it on my dress form, and just started cutting, sewing in tucks, and making a nip here and adding some really nice faux fur trim (which is just pinned on for now).

And so far I’ve come up with this.

So it’s got that flounce I was shooting for. I’m going to wrap it up and then try few more coats, and occasionally I will post pictures of the fun stuff I’m sewing. Which won’t all be fetish stuff.

I may also end up making a separate tumblr account (one that’s not NFSW) just for my designs, as you know, tumblr and fashion and etsy all go hand in hand.

So I won’t bore you any more with fashion talk, but let me all know how you like my more personal posts. Or should I just stick to the porn pix posts? There’s so much more i want to blog about than just promoting my photosets and website updates…

Tara