Oh dear! This silly girl is at it again...

With her bizarre defence of those very ordinary dresses! I have, as I made MY comments in a public forum, brought her silly repetitions out in to where I found them originally. It would seem that she has no courage to answer us here in public, but this is where I shall answer her as this is where I found her comments, after our Karen found the original comments on a public forum for us.

Prepare for a certain amount of boring repetition, as she seems to have lifted the bulk of her comments from her reply to Karen. Somehow I find that an indication of both laziness and insecurity. The lady doth STILL protest too much. ;)

"Ms. Dicey.

(I'm not a MS - no manuscript, me. I'm a MRS! And real!)

"I am writing to you regarding the trashing thread that was recently on the alt.sewing news group. It seems that your rude comments have caused quite a stir."

Oh good. Who with?

"I am the person that wrote to Veloise, as it was her name that appeared with the comments that you made on Johanna Grace dresses and the other companies that made bridal gowns. I was appalled to read these cruel and venomous attacks on Johanna Grace dresses as well as other companies, no matter who I work for!"

Yawn. You said that before...

"I am a fashion analyst, and do not work for Johanna Grace dresses, I work for another dress company that is a major competitor for Johanna Grace dresses. This is a company that our company truly envies, as it is taking business away from ours."

Direct quote. How about some new words? Oh, and learning to spell and punctuate correctly might help me see you as a writer worth reading.

"While these dresses may not be to your liking, or to others on the board, they are beautifully designed dresses that are couture quality in design and manufacture (we have purchased some to analyze the quality). The people that design and make them are skilled and educated couture sewers, they are not crafter's making quilts and teddy bears. If you had an education in fashion design and fashion history then would understand what this company is about. This however, is all explained on their web site, which you would have understood had you taken the time to read before you trashed them."

I didn't trash - I commented, based on what I saw ON THE WEB SITE. And the quilt and teddy comment is lifted directly from your illiterate missive to Karen, and answered elsewhere.

"The dress Chatham which you trashed, I believe, looks like a traditional sailor dress style from the 50's, "

I made no comments about that one at all. I will now: so, 'traditional' from the 1950... Not original at all then. Did you know that the sailor dress has a longer history than that, going back into the late 1800's, and becoming particularly popular with the Edwardian era in the early twentieth century?

"and the dress Lucinda that you said is in horrible colors, that dress is made of a classic fabric called Black Watch Plaid. Do you know what that is? The other red dress is a Royal Stewart Plaid - these dresses I believe they advertise for the winter holidays dresses and are classics – this also on the web site."

I'm a Scot. I know EXACTLY what tartan is.

'Black Watch' is a rather dull and over used (by folk not entitled to wear it as they have never been in or married to a member of the regiment) web designed in the 18th Century for The Royal Highland Regiment, during the integration of the 'Loyal Scots Clans' (as opposed to the Jacobite rebels and other remnants of military madness from the less accessible parts of Great Britain) after the '15 and and that daftness with Charlie Stewart... You can find the full history of the regiment here:
file:///F:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Kate/My%20Documents/Sewing%20Documents/blackwatch.html
The history is fascinating: the tartan will always be rather dull. It does, however, have the advantage of blending nicely with the scenery when the soldiers are lying in the mud on a battle field. Possibly not as well as yer modern cammo patterns, but certainly better than some of our more garish plaids.

Royal Stewart tartan is the tartan of the royal house of Stewart, and latterly, the personal tartan of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. It is appropriate for all loyal subjects of her majesty to wear her tartan in the same way that I am entitled to wear the tartan of my clan chief.* This doesn't stop it being a rather brash pillar box red.

As one of my queen's loyal subjects I am also properly entitled to wear her tartan. Can you say the same of the poor kids who will be forced into those over-blown, fussy items?

"The reason I wrote to Veloise first is that I could not find your address until now."

That doesn't speak well of your intelligence or familiarity with the workings of newsgroups or the net in general, as it's right there in the open, unmunged, on every single post I make to every newsgroup and forum to which I belong... And has been for about 10 years.

"It was purely in disgust of your snide, cruel, ill mannered and rude comments – which you defend as satire. You went on a discussion board, which goes right on the Internet for the world to see and trashed other people’s hard work, making fun of them and then making it public. Posts like this can be hurtful and insulting to those who make these gowns and dresses, but obviously you do not care about anyone but yourself. It is very low class, and unkind – what I caller trailer trash talk. "

Dear, dear to goodness! Lawks a mussy! Where did I EVER claim to be a satirist? Please point that out, as in a long career as a teacher, writer, and educationist in many fields, I have never, to my knowledge, claimed that! Coo! You mean I did something THAT cleaver without noticing? I must be better than I thought! Now, would you say I was a Horatian satirist or a Juvinalian satirist? (Quote: 'Answers on a postcard, please')**

I commented on a PUBLIC newsgroup because that's where I found the stuff I was commenting on - which is why I have brought this back out into the public domain. I don't send ill-conceived and badly written emails to folk about things I find in the public domain: I make my comments out there in the place I find the material. Hence my answering your comments here.

I don't think I trashed anything: I commented on the design as I found it (and I'm entitled to both hold and express any opinion I like), based on the evidence of the photographs.

"I had the pleasure of looking at your web site and your creations and found it quite amusing. You seem to be quite obsessed with yourself and designs."

I'm glad you were amused. I aim to amuse. I'm not a all obsessed with myself. I find myself quite ordinary, and not worth obsession. I find my various projects absorbing, which is a different matter all together.

MY designs? Hm... I don't think there's anything on my web site that I claim to have designed. Adapted, altered, and added details requested by clients, possibly, but no original designs. Maybe you didn't read the words properly. Perhaps you'd like to point out one of my original designs, since I'm unaware of any.

"Sadly, with all the years you have been making dresses, you have not learned anything about fabric, design, draping, construction and couture sewing. Your skill is marginal and amateurish at best, your seams puckered your hemlines uneven. Your bows are not even made on the bias, your zippers are glaring, your sleeves are unevenly gathered - and well I could go on."

Fortunately, I DO know quite a lot about fabrics and the way they behave. I also know quite a lot about my customers and their budget constraints. As with everything I make, the suitability of a fabric for a particular project is always pointed out in detail to the client. If they then insist on using a less than suitable fabric, then the probably outcome, such as puckered seams on the dreaded poly satin (notorious world wide for this, but popular with budget brides), less than even ease on silk dupion, which is famous for lack of flexibility round curves like sleeve heads on tailored jackets (I'd rather have used a matke or a light weight wool crepe for some of those), and similar potential areas for concern are discussed fully.

There are, I think, only two bows on my whole web site. One is in a velour knit fabric on a hat: no, not bias cut, as I was, in part, constrained by the direction of the pile. The other is a VERY WIDE sash bow on a small (2 YO) sized dress. Again, not bias cut due to the width. There will soon be a third: a straight cut 1" wide bow, with LOOOOONG straight cut tails. The reasons for cutting this one on the straight grain is that as it is dupion, the bride wanted the slubs to go in the same direction as the slubs in the dress itself, and she also wanted the crispness of the fabric preserved. Cutting bows on the bias is fine if you want the stretch and softness that gives, but if you want the crisp, sharp, folded paper edge look, it's no good at all. Years of sewing trials, and knowing the results you want from the fabric you have, and the nature and behaviour of the fabric in different circumstances and with different cuts, allows the choices of technique to be made for the result you want. Slavishly sticking with a single technique in all circumstances is the hallmark of lack of imagination and knowledge.

"The rainbow bridesmaid dress bodice was actually humorous, it looked like a costume."

Um... In case you hadn't noticed, IT WAS SUPPOSED TO! So I take that as a complement. It obviously worked. :D

The bride and I would have loved to work with a slipper satin on that one, or even a nice silk taffeta, but the budget wouldn't run to it, and the cheap and cheerful poly satin we used was £2.50 per metre rather than £30. When you are making for sixteen bridesmaids, that's a big cost consideration. As it was, the whole project, including the Swarovski crystals on the girls tops and on the veil, came to less than £1200, including my time. The bride loved it, her parents thought it was mad but fun, and her husband feels still that it helped turn a natural disaster into a fabulous day.

"It is so hard to understand how you can even show your creations which you so proudly advertise, and then have the gall to make fun of others."

I was asked to. On this discussion group we discuss what we are making: it's the reason for the groups existence - to discuss, comment, express our opinions, and seek advice. As a result of various discussions here and elsewhere I set up some Show & Tell space, and showed the folk who wanted to see what I was up to. I love to see what others are up to, and often go and look at their Show & Tell spaces too. It's fun to see my friends progress and it also gives me ideas for the future.

And it isn't advertising: you want my services, you ask elsewhere. I sell nothing through the web site, in case you hadn't noticed. I put up only the projects the folk here might be interested in, and they change from time to time. There are other projects that no-one here ever gets to see, but if I discuss something here and folk want to see it, then I show it.

I also put up some simple sewing techniques for beginners (the sort of stuff I usually teach to 9-11 YO's) and other information folk here and on other groups and forums ask for and find helpful.

"Let me explain to you what a handmade detail is, it is a hand turned rosette made on the bias. It is a hand set zipper so the stitches don't outline a zipper and it appears to not have a zipper. It is a bias cut binding on the inside of a neckline, then hand sewed so there is no top stitching. It is hem that is sewn by hand so that it is invisible and not showing. It is a piece of silk that is frayed into threads to make a tassel on a sash. These are couture sewing techniques. Now you are informed Kate Dicey.

<Yawn.... > yes, dear, I know and do all that. I've been doing some of it for 42 years. I go back to my dolls clothes roots for that...

Zips... Again, horses for courses. I usually put zips in by machine, and use concealed zips for the invisible look where it is required by the customer. This means the garments are more durable than they would be if all the zips were hand set. I can (and do) hand set zips, but not always because they need to be invisible! Sometimes I do it that way for decorative reasons: the zips on the pink silk things, for example, were hand set, but they were pricked and every stitch had a seed bead on it, so that it made a feature of the bit of the zip that showed. The little girls dresses were also finished this way so that when they discarded the mad sashes (as active children do!), the dresses still looked finished. Hand setting a zip takes a lot more time than machining it, and some customers feel that the results are not worth the extra money.

I am now bored with this whole discussion. Any further harassment of me by email will be reported to your ISP as stalking. I'm off to finish the lovely bronze dupion gown with the skinniest straps in the world for my very tall lass, as that is far more interesting than going any further up a blind ally.

*Except that we have none at present because of some arguments over a hyphenated name... It's a Scottish thing, and almost as insoluble as The Irish Question, though not so bloody.

**Origin unknown
--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!
.

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