- Well, hello friends.
I am here today with a
very special announcement.
I know a lot of you in
the recent past few weeks
have left me some lovely comments asking
if I would set up a Patreon
and/or other donation service
application type things.
That's so wonderfully kind of you.
I am overwhelmed with the
amount of support both verbal
and projectively financial
that you are so willing
to give to me.
Not that I expect that at all and not
that you should feel
obligated to, please don't,
although your verbal
support is always welcome,
I enjoy that.
Anyway, so I'm just here
with this little video today
to announce the fact that,
yes indeed, I have finally
at long last set up a Patreon account
and so I will just quickly be discussing
what that means, what that doesn't mean.
I don't know if you saw,
but last week I put out a
little post on the community tab
on YouTube.
I don't know how that
gets sent out to people
or who sees that and how,
but a lot of people it seems did see it
and basically that was just me
having sort of an existential crisis
about Patreon things late one night,
wondering if people would sign
up for this sort of thing,
what they would want
from this sort of thing
or if people would just
come after me with knives
and fire as seems to be my perception
of how these things work, but
a lot of people responded.
A lot of people responded
really, really wonderfully
including one very special comment
something about my stitching
together potato skins
that just made my week.
Anyway, it just made me laugh a lot.
So, I thought in honor
of you lovely friends
I would sit here today discussing this,
all of this Patreon
business whilst, of course,
stitching together a little
garment made of potato skins
because I have no shame.
So after spending the week
saving my potato skins,
I decided to cut out the shapes
for a very simple little smock.
It turns out potato
skins are quite delicate
and full of holes.
I actually had quite a
bit of trouble trying
to find enough whole potato
skin space to cut out
the shapes of the smock,
but I ended up with a nice
front in the back piece
and then two sleeve pieces.
I don't have any gores unfortunately,
just because I think
these pieces going to tear
before I manage to get
them stitched together,
but you know what?
In the name of experimentation,
in the name of science we're
gonna make this happen.
The reason why I haven't
set up a Patreon before
or as soon as I started doing YouTube
is because initially I had a lot
of reservations about Patreon.
Obviously I've never done this
from the receiving end of things.
I've only, of course,
been on the other end.
So I had my apprehensions about Patreon
just because I'm very much aware
of the ways that this
can be done incorrectly
and the sort of class
division it can create amongst
an audience which I think
is really distasteful.
I'm very much not a fan of the people
who shout about their Patreon constantly,
and starting to take content
away from the content
that they once offered for free
or holding onto the content for so long
that by the time us
regular folk finally get
to a video you're seeing
comments from two months ago
and everything feels stale.
Anyway, so I had a lot of very
negative feelings about this
and I really don't wanna
create that amongst all
of you lovely people because, obviously,
what I'm passionate about
is the reconstruction
of historical dress and,
as I have discovered,
I also have a very deep
passion for inspiring others
to pursue their passion.
So, whether or not it's historical sewing,
whether or not it's historical knitting
or, I don't know,
whatever else you're into.
I just love making people happy
and making all of this
excitement accessible.
So, the last thing, of
course, I wanted to do
was put up any sort of pay wall to say
but if you want to continue
seeing this content,
then you're going to have to pay
because that doesn't make me feel nice.
I had quite a bit of extra time this year
just in my freelance schedule,
spend my daylight hours doing sewing
and doing video things
and it was so lovely
and so very informative
and educational, I guess,
towards whatever it is
that I'm working towards
in my career, but it's not
something that I ever intended
to have as a career or a job
or to be doing full-time,
and then, of course, cut
to the end of October
and the beginning of November when all
of you lovely people
started to join me here
and I started reading
everybody's really, really,
really wonderful words
and comments telling me
about your own sewing journeys
and all of the projects
that you're up to and
the things that my videos
are teaching you not
just the practical skills
because I don't think my videos are meant
to be teaching practical skills,
but just in terms of a bit of
encouragement and inspiration.
And that just made me so happy.
I love going onto the comment
sections of the videos.
I don't get notified of every comment
and I don't get notified of
any of the replies to comments,
but once in a while I'll
go into the comments
of a video and just read down and look
at the little conversations
you're having with one another
about, oh, does somebody
have a source for this?
Or I'm working on this project
or sharing things with each other
and sharing your personal projects
and that just makes me so happy
that I can bring people
together like that.
Anyway, I've gotten wildly off tangent.
What was I talking about?
Anyway, so it was just so thrilling
to know that I could have this effect
on fellow artists and the thought
of having to scale back significantly
in the New Year was kind of devastating.
Maybe it's a bit selfish,
but the reality is I do
really feel sort of driven
to continue doing this to
whatever capacity I can.
I'm not at all saying
that I'm going to quit
because I'm not, I never was going to.
I'm still going to be doing this.
It's just a matter
of how much time I'm able
to put into these videos
just because, I mean,
the videos alone take
about 30 hours to edit.
Aside from the fact that the hand sewing
of the projects can take anywhere
from 50 to 100 to 200 hours of labor.
It's a lot, but I really enjoy it.
This is what I do with my free time.
Anytime that I just have free I am reading
something about historical dress
or having my little hand
stitching on the train,
and I will always be sewing.
I will never not be sewing I don't think.
It's just a matter of how quickly I'm able
to produce content for this
whole YouTube endeavor thing.
Anyway, that was a very
roundabout way of trying
to say that I came to the
conclusion that perhaps
there's a way that I
could make Patreon work
in a sort of supplementary
way to whatever it is
that I'm going to be
doing in the New Year.
I don't think I'll be going full-time
just because that's an
extraordinary leap of faith
and very hopeful and unreliable.
However, I believe it could very well act
as a more part-time endeavor
that I could block out
of my week or my day saying
this is my part-time job
of doing YouTube things
and this is the time
when I'm going to sit
down and specifically work
on editing on more
sewing than I usually do
whenever it is.
Anyway, so we'll see how this goes.
I have absolutely no idea what sort
of interest there is in this.
I mean, I'm judging all of
this based off of one post
that maybe 10% of people have seen
and maybe a great deal of
people did not agree with,
but just did not vocalize.
So, we'll see how this goes.
This is all very experimental.
Depending on what people
are interested in,
I may shift things around a bit,
shift around the benefits
depending on what people
are enjoying, what people
are not finding so enjoyable
to add things or to
scale them back depending
on my time allotment and
I have absolutely no idea
what sort of scheduling and time things
are going to shift around to end up being.
So, that being said, I think
I came up with the solution
to set up a Patreon but have it be sort of
an entirely separate entity from YouTube.
Obviously it will be there
for people who would just like to support
the YouTube content but the
rewards that I will offer
because I don't feel comfortable
not offering rewards,
I do want to give you
something for your generosity.
I am wildly uncomfortable with the idea
of just taking money for something
that I voluntarily started to do for free
and I will continue to do for free.
It should be well-known
and well-understood
that nothing is changing on the YouTube.
I'm not taking content away,
I am not privatizing content
that once was available.
I will probably be doing some
more personal project process
and personal lifestyle type
vlog things for the Patreon,
but that's not something that I think
I would feel comfortable
uploading to something
so public as YouTube,
so that's not content that
would have been seen otherwise.
So if Patreon is not your jam
or if you can't necessarily afford
to spare the extra couple of dollars
every couple of months,
trust me, I get it.
I'm fully understanding of that.
My videos will still be here
and will still be coming.
Patreon videos, Patreon whatever stuff
is not going to take away from
that YouTube time, I promise.
My initial idea for
Patreon was to set it up
as something entirely separate
from the video content
that I produce and use it to try
and launch a sort of
crafty little community
where we can come together
and find people who sort
of have the same interests
and do the same sort of work
whether it's historical sewing or any sort
of niche interest and
there was quite a bit
of enthusiasm for that in
my little feedback post.
And so that's something I'm sort of trying
to play with a little bit
as well as things like
prints of the renderings
that I do for each project.
I thought it might be fun to do livecasts
or personal Q and As where I
take your project questions
and give my thoughts, advice,
directions for research
or places to look.
I won't pretend to be able
to teach you specifically
how things are done just because
I wouldn't classify myself
as an expert.
I know there are lots of very,
very wonderfully
knowledgeable people out there
and I don't think I'm one of them.
However I can offer you
my undying encouragement
and support and I can
most definitely tell you
if you're looking for sources on research
where to look because that's
something I do very regularly
as part of my actual real person job.
So, I'm thinking there's possibly a way
that we can set up some sort of conference
whether on video or just on voice
where a group of us can get together
and just have a nice little chat,
sit there with our sewing
and just talk about life or whatever it is
that we talk about in sewing circles.
Patreon is linked to
this thing called Discord
which, I don't know,
you've probably heard of it
because I'm always the last person
to hear about any sort
of new social media ever,
but in case you're like me
and you live under a rock,
it's this thing where
basically you can set up
a server I think is what they call it
where you can have a
private group of people
and you can all communicate
via an instant message
sort of chat as well as voice chat.
And so anyone who's on
the Discord at the moment,
if you've got a sewing question
and maybe somebody's there who can log on
and have a chat with you
or you're struggling over
a design for something,
you can write to one another
or you can both hop on the audio
and have a conversation with another.
So that's something I
definitely want to try
and play with a bit more
and I will be experimenting
with that through Patreon.
Essentially it would be my job
to keep you motivated,
to keep you inspired,
to keep you doing this because I know
how easy it is to get very busy
and then think you don't have time
and then you just never get back into it.
I know how that feels.
It's happened a lot to me.
Sometimes you just need that one person,
that one blog post that somebody's written
that just reminds you why
you love to do this thing
and I found that since
I've gotten on Instagram
and talking to other
historical costumey people,
I've just been so wonderfully
motivated all the time
to just keep on doing sewing stuff.
So yeah, I just think this is kind
of an important discovery,
probably not a discovery.
This has been around for ages,
but something that I want to keep alive
within this little crafty world.
Obviously I'm not expecting
anything from anyone necessarily.
You all can live your lives
I will continue to do what I do.
However, I also have a number
of comments from people
saying, "Oh please, I
don't feel comfortable
"with doing a monthly subscription.
"Could you please instead
set up a Co-fi, Ko-fi?"
I think it's supped to be 'coffee' account
which is different from Patreon
in that I think you donate
in increments of three,
so essentially you're
buying a person a coffee
and it's just a one-time thing.
It's not a monthly,
recurring subscription.
The reason I prefer
Patreon is just because
they make it a little
bit easier to give back
in terms of rewards and
benefits and things,
and that makes me feel a
little bit better myself.
So, do whatever you please.
There's no obligation to do any of it,
I'm not going to come up at the end
of every video saying contribute
to my Patreon and donate to my Ko-Fi.
I do very, very much
appreciate your generosity.
If you can, spare a little bit
but, of course, I also appreciate
the company of the people
who can't necessarily do that at present,
so I want to keep the
YouTube space a very sort of
what's it, equal field.
So don't worry about
being constantly peppered
and pressured to give anything.
So yeah, that's, I think, where
I'm standing at the moment.
Well, I'm sitting.
Sewing potato skins at present,
but everything is still in flux.
Things will possibly
still change a little bit.
I will keep you updated in terms
of what my life is doing.
I will, of course, be
doing my ultimate best
to remain here for as much time
as I possibly can
because I really, really,
really have come to enjoy this.
So yes, Patreon is now available.
I'm not expecting this to turn into
a full-time endeavor just because, I mean,
according to the research
that I've been doing,
it takes a lot of people
with a lot of money
in order for that to be a thing,
and I wouldn't expect that.
Yeah, I will be here making
things and sewing things.
I've got a couple of
really, really fun projects
coming up that I'm very,
very excited about.
I have arranged to go back
to Costume College this year, well,
next year 2019 at the end of July.
I'm going to start making my
costumes for that very early.
I know for sure that I'm going
to be a little late Victorian thing.
I know that I'm going to
be doing another historical
to modern dress interpretation and I think
if I have time I'll be doing something,
sort of a whimsical
and vaguely 17 century.
So, that's all very exciting.
Anyway, I'm stitching on the sleeve.
It's just tearing, you probably can't see,
but it's not going very well.
So, I think that's all.
I've addressed all of the important bits.
Yes, thank you very much for listening
to all of this rambling
and sewing of potato skins.
If you're interested in the
Patreon or the Ko-fi things,
then thank you, I very,
very much appreciate
all of your generosity
whether it's financial support
or if it's just very kind words
and your good will and
encouragement, that's cool too.
If you've been following
along with this sequential
aspect of my videos you will know
that I've just finished
this portrait gown project
which I'll link the final part of
if you haven't yet seen it
and I haven't started
anything new at present,
so I probably won't have
another sewing video up
for a little while,
but sewing things are going to resume
in the coming week but in the meanwhile
I think I owe you a little
video on doing my hair.
So, that's to come, I
promise that's to come.
Anyway, thank you for listening,
thank you for being here.
I do very, very much
appreciate all of you,
but I don't like talking in the plural
because, really, there's
just one of you sitting
behind that screen, isn't there?
Maybe two but probably just one.
Anyway, thank you for being here.
I very much appreciate that and I hope
that you will stick
around and that I will get
to see a little bit more of you.
So, yes.
Have a good night and happy sewing.
And with a bit of editing
magic I will show you
the finished version of this potato smock
(laughs)
Bye.
(gentle music)
