What’s New

12/25/16

Happy Christmas to my loyal readers*.  Recent site improvements have been behind the scenes – trying to winnow out all the bot and scraper traffic so I can determine how many human beings actually visit the site on a regular basis. Fortunately, WordPress has some great plug-ins for that. I’ve also added in a couple of back-dated entries in the antique fabrics series. I’ve been on such a kick with those, I didn’t want a first-timer to come to the site and think that’s all I talk about!

*Both of you!

12/17/16

On a bit of a whim, I wrote up Introduction to Fibers: Alpaca, Llama and Vicuña. I’ve also added some more information to Introduction to Fibers: Cotton because damned if I don’t learn something new every day. I had no idea there’s a small-but-growing market in naturally-colored cotton!

And I somehow forgot to update the Fibers Overview page with the entry on ramie which I wrote a while ago, so there’s that, too.

I’m still shopping around for a Word Press theme I like enough to go through the aggravation of installing it and making sure it works with my plug-ins. The current layout ain’t the prettiest, but it works. However, I did find and install a great plug-in for rendering the site mobile-friendly. My previous testing suggested that the site was functional without it, but now it’s not only functional but it looks pretty good – on my Android phone, at least. Let me know if you have issues with it, dear readers.

11/1/16

A bit of unexpectedly good news, which this site helped make happen: I won a scholarship to Costume College 2017. Let me know if you’re going to be there!

10/3/16

As usual, man plans and the gods laugh. The Patreon / webseries campaign is on hold until/unless my household becomes two-income again. In the meantime, I’ve continued adding new entries and soliciting suggestions for same. Onwards!

5/31/16

Added a tip jar because of dire finances. The planning for a Patreon campaign continues apace, but I need to get the word out about the site a bit more. 🙂

5/25/16

With a bit of luck, when July rolls around I’ll launch a Patreon campaign to pay for costs to improve this site – better photographs, some video and a promised minimum regarding output. There’ll be more details when the campaign launches. In the meantime, I’m focused on spreading the word because there’s no point in seeking sponsors if no-one’s visiting, right? Right.

5/12/16

New category! Antique fabrics.

Based on feedback received, I’m building a glossary of antique fabrics to help y’all out when you’re looking through period sources and left wondering just what the heck “cretonne” fabric is. They won’t be as extensively described as the contemporary fabrics, but they’ll hopefully help clear up confusion when you’re browsing a dry goods catalog from the 1880s.