New Workshop Progress
A quick video on the progress of the new Faire Treasures Workshop location in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Summer 2023 Updates
We’re back from our trip to visit our corset making team, and we have several new corset designs in the works! Getting to visit the Bangkok fabric market was an absolute dream–seeing so many beautiful brocades, more colors of linen than my stateside suppliers ever carry, and rolls upon rolls of cottons that I’d love to make more colors of chemises in. My list of new corset designs with the fabrics we saw ended up being far too large for what we’re able to currently do, so I whittled away until I had a more manageable list.
This autumn, we will be debuting thirteen new corset designs in both our classic and hourglass silhouettes. Since that is a large amount to commit to as a tiny business, we’ll be trying out something new: pre-orders for these new corsets. These pre-orders will begin just before Texas Renaissance Festival begins in October, and last through the end of the festival. I’ll have samples on-hand at our shoppe, Iris Adornments & Corsetry, so you can check out the colors and how the fabrics feel before ordering. All pre-orders placed at TRF will receive free shipping once they arrive, which will happen shortly after the new year of 2024.
These new corsets will include Floral Pastels, Lace Mesh, new colors of Leather, and new Stripe designs!
Come the Spring 2024 festival season, we will have our size runs of many of these new designs available for purchase at our shoppes at Sherwood Forest Faire and Scarborough Renaissance Festival!
In the meantime, Sherwood Celtic Music Festival and Highland Games is only a few weeks away, taking place September 8th & 9th! Come find us only on Saturday September 9th at Iris Adornments & Corsetry, shoppe #120 between the Seven Sisters Stone Circle and the Argosy Stage.
What to do with used Renaissance garb
I’m often enough asked what you can do with costuming that you’ve either outgrown or is a style that you’ve moved away from and want to try something different for the next few years. Fortunately, there are a number of online marketplaces where you can resell your used Renaissance costume pieces, allowing you to recoup some funds to put toward your next set of Ren Faire garb! Or, if you’re looking to get new-to-you pieces that don’t break the bank, opting for used costuming can help stretch your funds while still getting high quality pieces.
Here are some online marketplaces where you can resell or shop for used Renaissance costume pieces:
- Facebook Marketplace and Buy/Sell Groups: Facebook Marketplace is an online marketplace where people can buy and sell items both locally as well as with the option to ship. In addition to Facebook Marketplace, Facebook buy/sell groups are another space where you can list your used Renaissance costume pieces for sale and reach a targeted audience. Every group has its own rules for selling, so make sure to read the group rules and guidelines before posting your item for sale. I’ve included a short list of targeted Buy/Sell Facebook Groups below!
- eBay: eBay is one of the largest online marketplaces in the world, and it can be a great place to sell used Renaissance costume pieces. You have the option to ship, which is most common, but you can also give the option for local pick-ups. eBay charges fees for listing items and taking a percentage of the final sale price.
- Poshmark: Poshmark is a fashion-focused online marketplace where people can sell used clothing, shoes, and accessories. If you have a Renaissance costume piece that’s more on the “fashion” side than the historical side, Poshmark may be a good place to sell it. Poshmark takes a percentage of the final sale price as a fee.
- Mercari: Mercari is a popular online marketplace where people can sell used items. You can list your Renaissance costume pieces for sale on Mercari and reach a large audience. Mercari charges a fee for listing items and takes a percentage of the final sale price.
- Craigslist: Craigslist is another online marketplace where you can sell your used Renaissance costume pieces. You can list your items for sale in your local area and arrange for pick-up or shipping. It’s best used in areas with a larger festival close-by. Craigslist is a free service, but be aware of potential scams and always use caution when dealing with strangers.
Facebook Buy/Sell Groups for Costuming:
TRFF BUY,SELL&TRADE
Fantasy & Ren Garb For Sale
Renaissance, Medieval, SCA & Steampunk Buy & Sell
PIRATE’S BAZAAR BUY SELL TRADE GARB & GEAR
Know of an active FB resell group not listed here? Add it in the comments!
There are many online marketplaces where people can resell their used Renaissance costume pieces. No matter which online platform you choose to sell your used costuming through, be sure to take clear, high quality photos, disclose any defects and wear/tear, and provide accurate measurements to avoid the hassle of potential returns. Whether you choose Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Craigslist, Mercari, or Poshmark, you’ll need to set a fair price for your items to attract potential buyers. With a little effort, you can make some extra cash and help someone else build their perfect Renaissance outfit.
2022–It’s a wrap!
With 2021 being a year of maddening stress while making decisions that would effect the future of Faire Treasures for the foreseeable future with the merge with Scarlett’s Corset, 2022 has been a year of finding a new normal, new schedules, and opening up my workshop to appointments with local customers. I had the first year of juggling selling at two events running at the same time–twice during the course of the year! This past year has included our final season at Sherwood Forest Faire as Iris Adornments & Apothecary and our first season at Texas Renaissance Festival as Iris Adornments & Corsetry. I’ve started transitioning our corset designs to have hip ties to allow for more comfortable corset wear, and have gotten incredibly positive feedback on the new designs. And my husband and I reworked the layout at the TRF shoppe while it was incredibly hot, and I’m not sure I’ve ever sweat that much in my life!
It’s not easy being a small business owner with a ridiculous list of chronic health issues. Add the lingering effects of Covid that I caught at the end of the Autumn season, and my body is cooperating less than I’d like for it to considering my grandiose plans to update the website with new hourglass corsets, outfit listings, and new chemise and skirt colors! Those updates are still in the works, they’re just taking me longer than I would like for them to. I’m not sure I’ll have all of them done before we start into the Spring festival season, but if that happens, then the plan is they’ll happen in the summer months.
Now, there’s the awful reality of the inflation of material costs and travel expenses of 2022. I take pride in keeping my prices from my jewelry to my corsets as reasonable as possible. I’ve seen the trickle effect of slow increases over the years, and made the decision to keep my prices relatively the same because I know what it’s like to live on an incredibly tight budget and have to save for any and all little luxuries. But costs went up drastically, and I now have to do price increases to keep this little business moving forward. Of course, I’ll still keep everything as reasonably priced as I can, and I’ll be adding more clearance and lower cost items. (shhh… it’s a secret, but I’ll be working to bring back the Pre-Loved item section!)
So what does 2023 have in store here at Faire Treasures / Scarlett’s Corset / Iris Adornments & Corsetry? Currently planned, we’ll be at our usual festivals including Sherwood Forest Faire, Scarborough Renaissance Festival, Texas Renaissance Festival, and Steampunk November! My workshop in Arlington, Texas is open for appointments for shopping and corset fittings until I pack up for the Spring festival season. And I’ll be looking into some local weekend events outside of faire seasons to set up a small selection of my wares. I have a few ideas to work on this summer to improve existing designs, as well as dabbling in some prototypes to see if they’ll be something to add to my offerings.
I hope you all had a wonderful end of 2022 holiday season, and that your 2023 is off to an optimistic start!
Summer 2022: OMG it’s hot edition
It’s a write-a-blog-post kinda day for me today. From photo editing, to filling out forms, to deciding on the next colors of fabric to order for the fall, I’m doing everything I can to work from home and not have to leave my house. You see, here in DFW, Texas, the average high temp is about 105F. Last week, while taking orders from my workshop to the post office, I ended up with a touch of heat exhaustion that wore me out for the next day and a half. Yes, that was with my car’s AC going as cool as its poor little heart could churn out. Even after the sun sets, it’s in the 90s well into the night.
My typical June/July routine is to set up my dressform in my backyard, bring new product from the workshop to my home to photograph in front of the hedges, and spent at least a few weeks photographing as much as I can to list online before the Halloween rush hits. Unfortunately, it’s extremely dangerous to do that this year. In previous years, I’d attempted to make indoor photo studio sets that inconveniently blockaded the front door to our house, and then I hated how the pictures turned out anyway. And now, with our household having become a cat colony, I don’t feel comfortable bringing product into a cat-hair-heavy location. So indoor shoots at my home are out.
Which now leaves me with shooting at my workshop if I’m to stay indoors. There are very few good spots in my workshop to take pictures. When I say few, I mean one. I only take corset pictures in that spot. The lighting elsewhere in the place is bad, there’s not enough space to bring in my studio lights, and I’m still working toward having the front area of the workshop as a by-appointment-only shopping space. So I’d prefer not bringing anything extra into there, when I’m desperately trying to remove things that don’t need to be there any longer so I can organize better.
As such, my plans for having beautiful outdoor pictures of coordinated outfits to list here and on Etsy, or to post onto social media, have mostly come to a standstill. Additionally, I’m only making once or twice a week trips to the post office to ship orders out. (And taking an electrolyte drink mostly filled with ice along with me each time!) So while I would normally do up to four post office trips per week to ship your items out as quickly as I can, I now have to contend with my health in the heat. Orders are still being shipped in their 1-3 business day window, but I’m taking fewer trips overall.
So, for now, I’m making plans. Doing the things I can do from home. Redoing my former sewing room into a dedicated home office for me to have separation from my husband’s office space. Hoping the power grid doesn’t go down. So I leave you with a picture of one of our kittens, Little Miss Callie, napping in my computer chair.
Scarlett’s Corset now part of Faire Treasures
I am so incredibly excited to announce that Scarlett’s Corset is now part of Faire Treasures!! For those of you who came by Scarlett’s Corset at Scarborough Renaissance Festival this past season, thank you so much for your support and making us feel so welcomed as the new owners of the shoppe.
Scarlett’s Corset has been bringing high quality silk steel-boned corsetry to the Renaissance costuming and geekery communities for the past seventeen years. Of course, we will continue bringing these beautiful corsets to you! Over the course of the year, I’ll be working closely with the original owner to learn how SC has run, and I will be working toward merging the businesses together.
In the fall, we will be at Texas Renaissance Festival shoppe #44, Scarlett’s Corset. For the 2021 season, expect to only see Scarlett’s Corset items at TRF rather than our Rogue Capes, linen skirts, and hourglass corsets. Keep an eye here on our blog for updates, as well as on our posts to Facebook and Instagram!
February Update
It’s been some time since I’ve made an update, so as I try to get back to some kind of normal again, I thought I’d make a “normie” post. (Still in some of my handmade jewelry though!)
This year has already been hard. I lost a family member to Covid at the end of January, and then, just after the funeral, had to deal with the Texas snowpocalypse that knocked out our power for several days. Thankfully we had little to no damage, but we were lucky. I’m extremely thankful for those who were graciously patient while I could not fulfill orders in my normal fashion since I couldn’t print out shipping labels or go to the post office!
I’m now back in my sewing room, cutting out fabric, prepping new projects, and processing orders like normal. My Etsy shop is still ready to ship items only, while I’m accepting all of my current styles as made to order pieces through my website.
Now, with the pandemic ongoing and other obligations coming up soon, I will not be open at Sherwood Forest Faire this coming season. Iris Adornments & Apothecary will be back at Sherwood for the Sherwood Celtic Festival in September!
I’ll be posting more updates soon, so be sure to keep an eye out for those!
Hello 2021!
Let’s face it, 2020 was a garbage year. Few people will argue that. Every event I would typically sell at in person was shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a health compromised individual, I’m extremely grateful to every event’s organizers for taking the continuing health crisis seriously. While of course this made it extremely difficult on my little business, I want to thank everyone who purchased online during the past year. It was the most successful online sales year I’ve ever experienced!! So THANK YOU!
Now here it is, 2021. It’s a year of potential change for me, with a significant expansion to what I do on the horizon. It isn’t quite a done deal, there are still more approvals to go through, so I’m keeping my lips sealed at the moment. Here in a few months, I should have quite an announcement, and it is KILLING me to not share. And I need to skip to the next paragraph before I change my mind and spill the beans everywhere.
One of the changes that this year is bringing is an update to how my website versus my Etsy shop will run. My husband and I have been working behind the scenes to do upgrades here on FaireTreasures.com but with those upgrades come side effects. Effective immediately, FT.com will only accept orders from North American addresses. If you are outside of North America (I’m looking at you Australia) and you want to purchase, send me a message through the contact form, and I can email you an invoice for your order. Select items will not be available outside of North America, and I will inform you if one of the items you request is one of them. Or, you can place your order for my handmade items through my Etsy shop. Faire Treasures on Etsy will remain open for international orders, aside from locations who have passed restrictive postal regulations.
An announcement I can make at the moment…
My current stock of Alchemy Gothic jewelry has been added to the website! For those who don’t recall, I became an authorized dealer of Alchemy jewelry in 2018. That was an extremely difficult year, as I lost my sister very suddenly in an accident, so online updates weren’t high on my priority list. Today, I’ve added every Alchemy item I currently have available to FT.com! Several of these pieces are last chance items, so don’t dwell on them for too long.
Aside from this, I know I’ve been promising for years to have a properly updated stock of corsetry available here at FT.com. Each and every time I think I’m closer to accomplishing that goal, it falls further and further away from me. (There’s an unfortunate amount of logistics involved in it that my brain likes to ignore.) Currently, I’m in the process of making custom dress forms to photograph the current inventory on. And of course, one of the materials I need to complete those forms is now missing in transit with no estimated delivery date. My current best estimate is late February for corsets to be available here again. I know, I know, I’m going to end up with my foot in my mouth again for saying that if/when it doesn’t happen.
Another item soon to come here at FaireTreasures.com are blouses by Dare to Wear! Made in California, DtW blouses are a great modern option for adding a bit of historical flare into your everyday wardrobe. With beautiful jewel toned fabrics and black lace accents, they’re a great option to wear with skirts and corsetry, or switch it up with jeans and a leather jacket! These blouses are created with an empire waist making them flatting on a wide variety of body types. Watch for an announcement on their availability!
As the pandemic continues, my husband and I are hunkering down in our home here in North Texas. I hope you all had a wonderful safe New Years, and hopefully we’ll get to see y’all at events again soon.
Tartan Overskirt
Back when I was going to school at Amarillo College (2004-2006 range), my Mom and I learned about a little Celtic festival in Amarillo. It didn’t have a lot at the festival, but we found a clan represented there that included last names of our extended family. I bought my first tartan accessory there, a sash in Thompson red. With my family’s general fascination with our heritage, I wanted to have an outfit that reflected some it, and well, I’ve never really liked the look of the other clan tartans we can identify with. So while I found patterns that were inspiration for my Celtic garb, every time I tried to find the Thompson tartan I wanted it was far more than I could afford.
Every now and again I’d search for sources and always come up with the answer that it wasn’t going to happen. But just a couple of weeks ago I searched again, and found an ebay listing for a handmade woman’s kilt in that tartan that was a little small for me, but I had never seen a ready-made women’s kilt in the Thompson tartan. The seller didn’t specify the clan tartan and didn’t know much about it, so I got an amazing deal. I always shy away from altering ready made pieces because I feel like I’ll be wasting a perfectly good thing if I screw it up. I was nervous about taking apart something I considered to be quite precious and putting it back together the way I wanted it. I got it, cleaned it carefully, and last night I reworked it into what I’d wanted for the last decade.
Before altering, the kilt was sized a little small for me and definitely would not be comfortable under a corset like I plan to wear it. After giving it a careful cleaning (soaking in the bathtub with no agitation, rinsing it with the shower-head, and allowing it to drip dry overnight), I started by taking off the buckles, removed its straps, and took the front panels out of the waistband. I didn’t need to pull the whole thing out from the waistband, since I just needed the fronts to be pleated down. The pleats are just about an inch wide, and opened up the front enough to let my linen skirt show underneath. After the buckles were removed, I needed to add on a closure. Thankfully I had one pair of hook and eye pieces left from some of the first Renaissance skirts I’d made. The waistband extends and overlaps the front and now stays on by the hook-and-eye clasp.
I’m excited to wear my new kilt/overskirt to this year’s Sherwood Forest Celtic Gathering outside of Austin, Texas! The gathering will be happening this coming Saturday, September 10.
Moving from Austin to Grand Prairie
I’m sad to say my time in Austin is over for now, and I’ve moved up to Grand Prairie, Texas. Of course one of my priorities is getting my sewing space set up, and it’s coming along nicely! It will still be another few days before I can really work in there to get a friend’s order for her trips to the Texas Renaissance Festival done. With Hallowe’en only a week away, I’m also doing what I can to decorate the house! My specifically Hallowe’en decor is on the minimal side since I’ve been in apartments for the last nine years, though I have a good amount of dark items that will be used as general decorating for the house for everyday.
Once I’m set up again, I’ll be reopening my Etsy Shop for ready to ship items, and afterward will be getting all the made to order items back up once my sewing room is fully functional. (For whatever crazy reason, I didn’t label the box that my thread ended up in. Whoops!) I will do my best to update this little ignored blog of mine again, which shall include a project I’ll be tackling next week! I’ll be building a computer desk for one of my work spaces that includes antique Singer brand treadle sewing machine legs. Just one of those little things that I’ve imagined doing for the last few years, though not until now did I have the space to do it.
As I get back to sorting through boxes (and making a huge mess), I’ll leave y’all with a picture of how my boyfriend proposed to me in August!
