Last weekend was .... interesting.
(Expect many emojis, bold emphasis, exclamation marks and elipses).
First let me start with our costumes. We commissioned a seamstress I found on Ebay to do my husband's medieval merchant class costume about 2 months before JordonCon. We sent her his
purple and black fabric because she said she couldn't find it at her local Joanne's. Then she and I started discussing a costume for me and she said she could make what I wanted for a really good price - that should have been my first warning..... I found the
teal and gold fabric I wanted at Hobby Lobby and she said she had used it before and would purchase it. Over the next couple of weeks we IM'ed on Facebook, discussing the progress (she had Ren Fests and reinactments and weddings.... oye). She never sent any photos, even though I asked for them. The box was shipped with standard $50.00 insurance even though I said I'd pay for extra insurance and what do you suppose happened? It disappeared! After missing with no updates for 4 days my postmaster was not only able to locate it, but had it shipped overnight to me (I love her!). When the costumes arrived, Jeff's looked great, was well made and had no issues. Mine, on the other hand, had a slight problem. It was in the
exact same fabric that my husband's was! For some unfathomable reason, the seamstress thought I had changed my mind and wanted my husband and I to look like twins! (My phrasing, not her's....).
We were three weeks away from JordonCon at this point! And to make matters worse, there was no chemise!
So, she promised to redo the outfit and get it to me by the 10th. The 10th came and went and she hadn't even STARTED on it!
She finally sent it out exactly one week before the con. And while she sent it in the same size box as the first one that had both costumes in it, for some unknown reason she shipped the chemise in a separate envelope. Again - both packages only insured for $50.00!!
I got the box the Saturday before the con, but the chemise disappeared again until Tuesday. I had only looked at the costume to make sure it was the right fabric at this point because I had tried the first one on for fit.
However (you really didn't think this disaster ended so easily, did you?)..... when I pulled out the chemise (a top, not a full gown) there were stains on the front and one one of the sleeves! Several black "scuff" marks and a couple of yellowish-orange spots. So here I am freaking out already and I decide to check my gown. The underskirt, bodice and the detached sleeves look fine. Then I lay out the overskirt to check the underside and there are pinholes from pinpoint size up to the size of the ball on a glass head pin all over the skirt!
There are ones that run down the length of the skirt like she had pulled out the seams and ones that are 1/4 to 1 inch from seams and a few that aren't even near seams! There are two rows right in the middle of the fabric behind the tapesty panels from waistband to hem and another near the seam of one of the fabric panels. I'm no sewer, but even I know that is not acceptable to send to a client! I don't know what the fabric was, but it looked like a manmade silky material - beautiful, but difficult.
I called my husband, tears in my eyes, and he talked me down so that I could IM the seamstress without going ballistic on her. She begs me to let her remake the outfit FOR A THIRD TIME, and Jeff talks me into giving her one more chance so we can have our vow renewal in something other than jeans and teeshirts. She promises, swears and insists that she can get the overskirt and chemise to the hotel on Friday - the day of our vow renewals! She sends the box overnight and I got it around 2pm. She used a different fabric for the overskirt (same tapestry panels because that matched my bodice) which isn't as pretty, but there are no holes in it and the chemise is clean. FINALLY!
Speaking of the hotel ..... We checked into the con hotel, a Marriott just outside the Perimeter of 285 in Atlanta, on Thursday. At 2:30pm the room hadn't been cleaned yet, which was understandable and the person at the front desk said they'd call when the room was ready. We spend some time meeting up with friends as they arrived. At 5:00pm we went up to the front desk to ask about the room and was told "Oh, it's ready. Do you want to check in now?"
We were given a "disabled access" room with 2 full sized beds for some reason. The only thing about the room that was disabled access was the oversized bathroom and the support bars (oh, and the wall button that was supposed to open the door, but since the door opened
into the room entry hall I'm not sure how well that would work - if it did work, which it didn't because I tried it....).
Oh, and I don't know if the sliding glass door to the balcony (4th floor) locked from the inside because I couldn't get it to, so it's a good thing we weren't one of the families with small kids.
Our "closet" was a small standing wardrobe barely taller than I am (and I'm short) with three huge cubby holes and one small hanging section - maybe 1 1/2 feet wide and 4 feet long - where we had to hang our costumes. My skirts draped on the bottom of the wardrobe. Between the stand below the TV (which was mostly wasted cubby space again) and the one nightstand there wern't enough drawers for both Jeff and I so he lived out of his carry-on. Which worked because there was no place to store the carry-ons out of the way other than against a wall. The beds were surprisingly comfortable. The pillows, on the other hand, were little more than air sewn into a fabric case. Since I had to drive back and forth from the house (30 miles) twice, I ended up getting our own pillows as well as my fan since the room thermostat was a bit wonky (had to be set at 70° for it to be cool and then the fan would turn off after 20 minutes even on manual). Did I mention the bathroom was nice and big?
Then there's the piece de resistance. Oh yes - there's more! After the vow renewal (which was great even though it was in the middle of karaoke and I couldn't wear my hoopskirt because the "cotton" overskirt went all staticy on me, and there are photos and a video or two - and my husband totally lost it - hehe) and after we had visited around with friends for a while and enjoyed the congratulations of all
, we went up to the room where the kids were already set for bed (kids meaning my daughter is 21 and Colby is 22). We were getting ready for bed ourselves when my bare foot felt something hard and sharp on the rug. I looked down and found a glass shard about 3/4 of an inch long. I checked my foot and didn't see anything, so I went back to the rug and found 2 more pieces! My daughter mentioned that she found a piece of glass in the bathroom, but just threw it away. By now the heel of my foot is stinging and I have to prop it up on the bed to look at it - blood.
Oh, not gushing, but blood, never the less. And we didn't have any bandaids. Jeff starts looking around the rug (a short pile rug with multiple colors, mind you) and finds a chunk of glass (nearly an inch square) between the wall and the bed the kids are on. Then he sees a couple more big pieces further down the wall and we tell them to stay there, we are going to the front desk. (Oh, and I should state that because the room was in such a disarray - and because I brought 2 of my dolls which makes me overly cautious - I left the "do not disturb" sign on that day so no one had cleaned. Which means we'd been lucky since we checked in the day before.)
Jeff wanted to show the con directors (who are local friends of ours) before going to talk to the staff at the front desk so I sat down on a chair in the lobby, wearing the slippers I'd worn for the ceremony. He found Jennifer and they both went to the desk and the response was "Oh, we're sorry. We'll get someone up there to vaccum right away."
They didn't come over to talk to me or even look at the cut or offer me a bandaid! I guess they didn't care about possibily being sued! (It was a small cut, but it did hurt and I was limping the rest of the weekend.) Jennifer called up to one of the con members and
she came down with a bandaid and antiseptic wipe for me.
Come to find out that we weren't the only ones who had issues with the hotel - including broken glass. I just happened to be lucky enough to cut my foot. There were several groups of 4 that were given rooms with only one king bed, missing window and shower curtains among other things. There were other con related issues, but that's for the directors to work out.
So! How was your weekend?
Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 8:57 pm