3 months until I graduate

I've been in university for a while. At 22, I'm in my fifth year at Dalhousie University. They call it a victory lap, and I refer to it by that name too, though it feels more like the last struggling jerks of a fish that has been out of the water for too long and is on the verge of dying... Okay, maybe a little too morbid. But sometimes it does feel that way.

I pride myself in being an excellent student. My work is always on time or early, and I put all of my heart into it. Maybe it makes me a loser without a life, but eh, I don't care and neither should anyone else.

I'm going through all of my mental lists of things I need to do before the end of the term, and it doesn't seem like that much. Then I come back to the reality of the day-to-day routine and realize how busy I really am. I'm taking my four final classes, all of which are more or less a giant sewing lab in different areas. In three of them, I get to make clothes for someone else, and luck and a bit of magic made it so that it's all for the same person. I asked one of my friends to be my model for my 19th century tailoring class, and he also happens to be in the 4th year acting class. Now it gets weird. In my fourth year Show class, I'm the cutter for one of the actors, who happens to be my friend who's also my model for tailoring. And since I'm combining my fourth and third year classes, I also get to work on the show in my third year class, where I am my own first-hand, or basically my own minion. It's a confusing and interesting time when I'm trying to sort out what goes where for those two classes. I also refer to myself as cutter Audrey and first-hand Audrey in turn, depending on the day.

Then, my fourth class is aesthetics of historical dress, or Lynn-dom. We are basically reproducing garments from the 1700's in Louisbourg after its foundation in 1713 until the English took over in 1745. I am my ow model in that class, and though it is sometimes (incredibly) painful to sit through, I'm making an effort to change my attitude toward it to enjoy the class. I do love historical reproduction, and I'm doing myself a dis-favour if I'm always in a foul mood going to that class.

I also realized that I always refer to what I'm doing in terms of century. !9th century tailoring, 18th century Lousibourg, and 14th century garments (that's show class, the department is putting on the Decameron).

Throughout all of this class-related excitement, I make it a point to work on my own projects, to bump up my portfolio. To date, I've made my first bodysuit in black burned-out velvet for circus class. Yes, circus class. I needed some sort of physical activity, and circus is just perfect. The hoop is certainly my favourite, since I seem to get lost in the silks. The rope is growing on me, and trapeze is also really fun. No upper body strength makes it an unending challenge, so until I can hold my body up using only my arms, I'll be stuck doing basic stuff.
The bodysuit is basic, a front, a back and two arms. It was my first time dabbling with stretch, and though this isn't the best fabric choice, I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

This weekend, we had the day off on Friday, and I decided to travel to the north of the province to Cape-Breton and to visit the Louisbourg fortress with one of the student societies. I figured that it would be the cheapest way to visit it, and it would be a fun weekend. I've now learned that it doesn't always go according to plan, and instead of a weekend visiting landmarks of Cape-Breton, we spent the entire weekend eating too much food in a chalet. Good job guys. On the bright side, I went snowshoeing for the first time ever, and I had brought two projects to work on during the drive and throughout the weekend.

I'm making some 18th century stockings in silk jersey to go with my 18th century outfit. I decided to handstitch them for fun (I'll embroider them too once I get silk floss) and I got a good chunk of work done on them. It's a very funny-looking pattern, but I'm really happy with the way they look. The next thing I'll be doing after I finish them is making a little pair of shoes look like 18th century mules. The stocking reach up about half-way up my thigh, and they'll be held in place by a peach-coloured ribbon. I left it at school, and that's why I'm using a measuring tape on the picture... You get the idea. It's really nice to work with silk jersey, it's so soft. Did I mention that I looooove silk?

 Another little project I brought with me on the trip is my first pair of mitten. I finished the first one on the drive to Cape-Breton on Friday, and started the 2nd one on Saturday. It's the easiest pattern I could find, and the next logical step after mastering the giant scarf.

Future projects include the 18th century shoes I mentioned, a pair of 18th century pockets, a skirt for a friend of mine, and possibly some new miniature paintings. I only have six full days of class this week, and two days with only one class, thanks to reading break that kicks in next week. Around doing assignments and plucking away at my honours thesis, I think it leaves ample time to work on a number of these. As long as I skip on sleep, but that shouldn't be a problem.