For all of you in the US and UK who enjoyed a lovely long weekend, I salute you! I made the decision to devote the bulk of my four days to upgrading/migrating this site over to a new backend, and it was exactly as painful as I was expecting (and it’s not done yet). I’ve been wanting to for quite a few months now, but I just kept putting it off for all sorts of tech headache reasons, and I was right to! It took no less than 3 server moves with my web host to find a server that could support both the old and new platforms simultaneously during the transition period, then a bunch of setting conflicts, frantic forum searching, and then finally data munging all 1,036 posts, over 10,000 images, and a ridiculous amount of tags over in a way that broke the least amount of stuff. Which meant that I didn’t get to the actual appearance of it until late on Sunday, and it still needs a few more days work before I can start the fun 403 redirect process, yay! So until then you’ll still see the old site, and I’m going to do my best to redirect all the RSS for those of you who subscribe in your favourite reader, too!
This meant that I was mostly behind the computer (or a barbecue!) this weekend without much happening in my sewing room. But I’d been awaiting the arrival of a re-up on bear fabric (which I honestly didn’t think would arrive in time, but it did!!), so I whipped up a pair of bear shorts for the Transylvanian Bear Race on Friday while a large ftp process occupied my computer. I used my Steeplechase Leggings pattern (Biker short length), using two different Spoonflower bear prints for the body and yoke. I’ll do a full post on these after the race, but here’s a sneak peek from my test run in them on Sunday (because Nothing New On Race Day, folks!)
I mentioned that I was waiting on the fabric for these, and I am so freaking happy that Spoonflower’s new Berlin printing facility is finally operational! This means you can choose to have your order come from either North Carolina or Berlin. This is massive for those of us in Europe, as it not only means cheaper and significantly faster shipping, but also no customs fees!! In the UK, anything over Ā£15 (approx $20) in value (which includes the shipping price, cruelly!) can be stopped and have not only customs charges, but also 20% VAT and a hefty handling fee wacked on top, which often more than doubles the price of the fabric. But that’s all over now – $6 to ship 1 yard of Sport Lycra from Berlin to the UK, and it arrived in about 2 weeks!
Also a bit of a PSA, if you have a look at our Facebook page, I’ve reposted the latest discount code for all FehrTrade pattern purchases on there, and it’s good til Sunday! Maybe give us a Like while you’re there and help get the word out?
I’m flying off to the Transylvanian forests for the race this weekend, so wish me luck – I’ve never run a trail marathon before, let alone a (cough) 30 mile “marathon”, let alone with wild wolves and bears!