...Have Been Costuming For A While When...

1. Your 'people' clothes in your closet are outnumbered by costumes.

   Jane Beckman's Corollary:
   Your characters own more clothes than you do. And you're starting to borrow clothes from them!

2. You look at sewing machines with the drool-factor that young men look at a hot rod sports car.

   Jane Beckman's Corollary:
   You also like sewing toys, like fluting irons.

3. There is at least one shelf in every room that has costume-bits of in-progress or finished pieces.

   Jane Beckman's Corollary:
   What about all those boxes with outfits from the 1980's that you were going to finish, eventually? (Except you changed size...)

4. Your vacation time is measured not so much in traveling but in how many hours can be spent sewing.

   Jane Beckman's Corollary:
   You purposely buy a mini-sewing matchine so you can work on projects while vacationing...

5. Your friend spends the night and walks into your dress form- thus screaming because they think it's someone else. (Yes, this happened to me.)

   Jane Beckman's Corollary:
   Um yeah, but what about that manniquin, who stands in the corner wearing a period outfit? Even more unnerving!

6. Your bureau drawers hold fabric and patterns rather than socks and lingerie.

   Jane Beckman's Corollary:
   My bureau drawers hold stockings and lingerie for my period characters!

7. You've had to sleep on the floor (or the couch) because you used the bed as a work surface.

   Jane Beckman's Corollary:
   Nah, you just curl up with the pieces... It is like sleeping with cats. Hmm, then there's the project that was abandoned because there was always a cat sleeping on it...

8. You're no longer bothered by the funny looks people give you when you're dressed like an elf on the bus.

   Jane Beckman's Corollary:
   Or when you're changing a tire in Victorians. "Yes, I'm a religion. Why?"

9. When you go see a movie, you continually poke your companion (or companions) and whisper, "I *have* to make that costume!" or "That costume is SO cool!"

10. You've eaten Ramen noodles for a month (or more) just to be able to afford the big sale at the local fabric/sewing notions store.

    Jane Beckman's Corollary:
    Eating is for peasants! as a friend used to say.

11. The most expensive piece of furniture you own is your computerized sewing machine. Toni Lay

12. You're in a Brighton, England linen shop and you're holding the doilies and table cloths up to your body. Toni Lay

    Carole Parker's Corollary:
    You do this anywhere you come across tablecloths, doillies, drapes, or other fabric items - garage sales, thrift shops, department stores, ...

13. You've been to England twice and still haven't see Buckingham Palace, Greenwich Observatory, or Stonehenge. But you have been to just about every costume-oriented museum and gallery in the country. Toni Lay

14. When your sewing kit is a 19th Century armoire. Tamara Schirrmacher

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