How DIY Goths FAIL! (warnings and tips from personal experiences)

Through SO many trial and error experiments, through bringing a dead girl back to life, how much can a DIY Goth fail?

I've tried to make my own things for years with so many mistakes and fumbles, I thought I was a hopeless crafter. But, I do have some pointers for the crafty bunch out there!

Mind you, these are opinions and experiments I've done, and I am no professional. Trial and error is the only way I've learned.

Now that everyone in the goth community knows how to make their own dreads, I have a suggestion for the girls and ghouls about dreads:

NUMBER ONE!!

Synthetic Dreads

Always make sure that when making synthetic dreads, you use KANEKALON! This was the first lesson I learned, whew, almost 5 years ago! Kanekalon is the fiber you want because of its shrinking properties. When steam is added, the tangled fibers shrink and tighten around each other, causing the lock to stay, well, locked.

NUMBER TWO!!

Accessory and Jewelry making

When you decide to make your own accessories, make sure you know exactly what you are going for. Try to avoid bursting your own bubble, but go hard, jump to it! It took me 2 years to figure out the proper way to create a mold and to make my own charms, and to be honest...its almost not worth it :(

I went out and purchased the mold maker mix, $14. The apoxy jewelry maker (you pour it into your mold and leave it sit for like 24 hours and it gets hard, pop it out, got your charm.) which was almost $20. Jewelry wire (optional, if you want your charm to dangle) $10 for a spool. Then what ever else, like glue, ribbon, sparkles, gems. That was a $40+ dollar trial and error!! OUCH! So, unless you fully plan to mass produce something that will go for 15 to 20 dollars a pop, the hit and miss for your personal uses almost isn't worth it! FAIL! I'm not saying this will happen to you, I'm just sharing my failureness with you :) I won't hold you back!

NUMBER THREE!!!

Corsets

When buying corsets, be aware of the cheapies! My mom used to buy us both the cute corset shirt things from hot topic, NO! Be warned, if you suffer from short torso-itis, be careful buying boned corsets in general! The corsets from HT had plastic boning, cost $50 and with our short torsos, the plastic boning got all wavy and deformed!  These are not meant to make thick girls look smaller! If anything they made my shapely, shortness look much wider than I am. Instead, go for slim fitted tees or something.

GET CRAFTY OR GO HOME...WAIT...usually I'm crafty at home, only.

When crafting elsewhere 

You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose!

When crafting at someone else's house, please clean up your messes! Don't leave anything permanent on their walls or floors. Don't paint their little one's bodies with non-toxic paint and tell them to play hide and seek. Its just never a good idea!

1034D Brother Serger Review (Problem and Solution)

Firstly, I had mentioned a few months back that I was getting a serger. DIY goth is my everything, so a serger seemed like the right machine to have. I bought it from Amazon, and when it arrived I quickly opened up the box and started learning how to thread this monster!

What I saw when I first opened the box.

So, I specifically chose this brand and style because its the only 4 threaded serger that had adjustment knobs for different kinds of material, instead of having to mess with each tension wheel.

Well, I thought I was doing something wrong right from the start! I have watched evert threading video out there, read the instruction (which I now have memorized!) but the serger was eating my material! I could not figure it out, then I was pissed!!

After 3 weeks of endless searching, I found that the two guiding needles, underneath the foot, one of the two did not exist!!! Duh! I felt this overwhelming urge to scream! How dare they send me a broken machine! And, and how can something so small be sooo significant?! Luckily, Amazon let me send it back and they replaced it, no cost to me.

See the right guiding needle is there, but the left one is missing.

Now you can see, there should be 2 guiding needles! yay!

Got that all straitened out, and my second serger is amazing!! I'd recommend to anyone who loves making their own clothes, it was only $199, which is cheap considering the magic it makes!

Now, here is a picture of my very first hoodie!!!

Altogether, it might have taken me 4 hours, just because I freehanded it! WHAT?! YEAH! I got the material from walmart (stretchy, comfy, lovey) all for less than $5! The zipper was only a few bucks. So, yeah! Awesome sauces!

Online v.s. Local

Buying Clothes online is already difficult, but buying Goth Clothes/shoes/makeup, etc. is a chore and a bit of a gamble. 

Between the origin of the company, the sizing charts, the quality and the pricing, its extremely difficult for the average goth to add anything to their collection from online stores! On many occasions, I've run into some kind of problem with this, and I ask; "Does it have to be this difficult?". I've ordered from many places, but I have yet to find an online store that I am comfortable with!

The reason I bring this particular subject up has  to do with local business v.s. online business and local business is losing, failing horribly! There was a legit gothic store just down the road from me, I had just moved into this part of town and I was so happy to see that purple sign that summoned me every time I passed by. At the time I was employed (which I currently am not), but I was so broke that I never had enough money to buy anything from this store. SO, tax season came around and I told My boyfriend, "I'm spending half of this money on clothes and things for myself! First thing I'm doing is going to Raven Blackwood's!". You would never guess, to my horror, while pulling into the parking lot, they were empty with an "OUT OF BUSINESS" sign!! My heart dropped. I was so upset! and now, the closest store (not including the crappy mall stores) is almost 30 miles away from where my tush sits!

Why do our local businesses get stomped on? And how on earth can ONLINE businesses stay a float, so much so that they expand?! I just don't understand!

The other reason I am upset; I have not successfully sold anything...2 things I've ever sold and only one of those things were on my etsy! whoa! I can't say that I'm not cut out to be a selling artists, because I can do anything I set my mind to. But, why does it work out for some and not for others? Is there a secret that some of us are not aware of?

Let me know in the comments your experience(s) with Online v.s. Local

~Love Zaney~