Magie di Stoffa by StregaCorvina

Here we are with the second part of the recap, in the end I needed two parts for this year too!

JULY

Half of the year was already passed and school was over! But not my commitments! I still needed to take my “final exam” at my school: an interview with the principal and a committee of other teachers to talk about my school year, my students and my school life in general. I also needed to submit a project I developed with one of my classes (some pockets made by the 2 grade girls about their interests and hobbies)

I also had to submit TONS of papers (3 copies each!) the last days of school with my signatures, my tutor’s signatures and the principal’s signature! I really have to thank my colleague friends and my boyfriend for having acquired all these signatures for me at school while I was in the bed dying 😩

Luckily the exam went really well for me and also for my friends that took the exam with me and with all the school obligations behind we left for a long weekend on the mountains!

Without school I was finally able to sew full time again and I really pushed the Genshin Impact cosplay! And also other two cosplay for Lucca comics and games: Fantaghiró and Romualdo! from a very famous Italian 80s tv movies!

I started to regain a little free time and between diet and physical exercises I visited a very cool exhibition here in Milan with a colleague friend about Samurai Women.

This month was my boyfriend birthday and we went out for dinner in a very lovely restaurant and we finally enjoyed some time together ❤️

Between cosplay commissions and online classes I still had to take for school, I managed to sew something new for my dolls and I bought a very cute backpack to carry them around.

At the end of the month I went in Tuscany with my boyfriend and my family to visit my brother’s family and we had a pleasant holyday together. We went to see a textile Museum in the city where my brother lives and I really enjoyed the visit! I also submit this museum as a possibile destination for the school trip I will take with my class next April (if my health will finally be alright)

AUGUST

August started really smoothly, we went on the mountains again to relax and to enjoy some time together.

We planned a few hikes, noting too hard, but while we were doing the first one I had a really bad breathing shortage and I end up to the ER…two times in the whole month of August! It was a nightmare, I started to have troubles breathing again and i couldn’t sleep at all! I was exhausted all the time and all our projects went out of the window 😩

At the end of the month we manage to spent some days in Switzerland and the travel went really smoothly but I was constantly afraid of being out of breath again far from home. Not the best scenario to enjoy an holiday! We went on the Jungfrau the highest glacier in Europe and it was really breathtaking!

SEPTEMBER

My brother’s wedding was slowly approaching and so the beginning of the new school year so I decided to finally start sewing my dress for the wedding. Of course I managed just in time and I finished it at my parents’ house just a couple of days before the wedding 😂

The wedding was really fun and we celebrated my brother and his new wife with all my family and friends.

And then…two days after the wedding the school started again! This year me and my friends were decided to take things slowly, to enjoy our time at school and to focus on our girls more…and we’ve been stressed just like last year! Even more if possible!! We’re a week before the end of January now and we already need another holiday 😂

Before things at school became more serious I got back to Fantaghiró and Romualdo cosplays! I was determined to ship them by the end of the month because I’ve had other Cosplays to make before the convention (Lucca Comics and Games, the biggest convention in Italy)

I also started to see a nutritionist and to make more physical activities and I started to lose weight even if my health was still a mess.

At the end of the month me and my boyfriend went on the Lake Como (in Baveno town) to celebrate our 9th anniversary and we relaxed a bit on the lake.

OCTOBER

This month was a quite one. School was not so crazy still so I enjoyed my time at home making some school materials for my girls with my IPad (I still don’t use it as much as I would like to) and sewing some new clothes for my dolls.

I also sew the other only commission I took for the Lucca comics, a remake of an old cosplay I did some years ago Ulquiorra from Bleach.

Speaking of dolls, finally the dolls I ordered in March arrived from Japan (through a Spain dealer) and they’re adorable! So cute! I really want to sew something for them as soon as I can!

We did also some tourism in October, we went to Grazzano Visconti (a wonderful medieval town near Milan) for a goth weekend and we did a little tour of a sanctuary and a natural gorge to enjoy some clean air!

NOVEMBER

November started really well with a nice holyday! Me, my boyfriend and a group of friends we flew in Romania to celebrate Halloween and to visit the main attractions: Bran Castle/Dracula’s castle, Peles Castle, of course Bucarest city, Brasov, the beautiful salt mines in Turda and an amazing Steampunk themed museum in Cluj (the place I loved the most)

After the trip I got back to school obviously, just in time to start new classes for us fashion teachers; one about making patterns with a new technique (I did the second set of lessons at the end of this January) and I started a set of lessons one each month about some new developments in the fashion industry.

Between regular lessons and these extra classes I was feeling a bit overwhelmed again and my bronchitis stroke back…I was back to the doctors for more tests and medications 😩 I cannot go on with my workouts but I stick to the diet (I started a very restrictive Keto diet for all November and December)

This month I don’t think I had the time to see anything at all because I was constantly really tired

DECEMBER

I was really looking forward to the Christmas holidays to get the chance to finally have some proper rest and to spend some time with my family in Rome.

At the beginning of the month we went for a long weekend on the mountains even if I was still really weak and we didn’t do any hiking but I took a deep rest to sprint through the end of the year.

My birthday was slowly approaching and I bought myself the usual birthday present for myself 😂 A new doll of course! From a lovely lady here in Milan. She’s still without a name and without a proper character but I hope to enjoy her more this year.

Just before the end of the School we did a nice event the “Fashion Night at school” where all us teachers and some students teach classes for outside people from 7pm to 12pm. There was also a fashion school with dresses made by our students but, as I was in school from the 8am, I was dead tired and by 9pm I really couldn’t take anymore so I went home. But it was a nice event anyway and a lot of my girls came to help me. I also celebrated my birthday at school with my colleagues friends and my girls and they gave me a lot of presents! I really wasn’t expecting that!

During Christmas break I went back to my family as usual to enjoy some time with them and I really rested all day! Except for family gatherings I never left my bed ahahah

Back in Milan we left for the mountains again and we spent new year eve with some friends! And I took a lot of pictures of my girls and took all the rest that I can!

I finally managed to go through the entire year! As usual this second half of the entry took me almost a month to write because I never had the time to finish it (right now is the 4th of February 😅) but I am happy I did my recap this year too.

I don’t know what this 2024 will bring me, I really hope to recover for good and to finally start enjoying some free time! I have tons of new clothes to sew for my dolls! And a tons of new dolls to enjoy as well!

I am still not taking any sewing commissions for now because I really need to rearrange my sewing room and to do some renovations I postponed for years! Will this be the year that they finally be happening? Who knows…😂

It’s finally time for the last year recap, I think this will be way shorter than 2022 recap because I feel to not have accomplished a lot this year 😩

As usual I decided to split the year month by month to be more accurate and to post all the pictures I can find.

Let’s see if I need to split this entry in two parts or this year one post will be enough 😂

JANUARY

This year I decided to start journaling more so I started the year with a new journal, two to be exact (one for my personal life and one for school life). During the year I’ve bought gel pens, stickers and a lot of decorations for my planners. During the last part of the year, when I started a very serious diet, I also started a journal dedicated to that. I re-discovered a passion for organization and planning that I did have before but never enjoyed that much 😂

Like we did also this year, we started the 2023 on the mountains, it’s became a little tradition for our family to rest and recharge batteries for the year to come. We did some walks in the woods and in the snow and we spent some time together just the three of us (me, my boyfriend and our cat). I took my dolls with me as always to take some cute pictures.

Back home I started a few commissions, “left overs” from past year: another Esmeralda cosplay from my (almost dead) Etsy shop and some upgrading for a Sith costume I did at the end of 2022. As I stopped taking new commissions at the end of the previous year I knew that I won’t be that busy this year and my plan for the year was to start renovating my studio and to do a little inventory of all my stuff…

I started from my dolls, obviously 😂 I decided to clean, restring and improve my oldest BJDs, given to me by a friend that are more than 20 years old! Restoring them took me almost all the month but I was really happy of the results ❤️

As for my health, one of my new year resolutions was to be in full heath again, so I started to do daily yoga sessions at the end of each day and I tried to eat better in general.

Meanwhile my school life was going on, between assignments for my girls and all the papers I have to submit almost weekly for my first year as a teacher.

FEBRUARY

This month passed really smoothly, in school we started to select the dresses that my girls will have to make for the Fashion Show at the end of the year (these theee below) and I was busy as always juggling between planning lessons and submitting papers…

I did a little commission for a colleague, some embroideries for her daughter and I started one of the few cosplays commissions of the year: a Pokémon trainer outfit.

For Valentine weekend we decided to fly to Catania to spent a romantic holiday and we really enjoyed the city and our time together ❤️

Back in Milan a friend of mine from my hometown visited me for the Chinese New Year and we spent some time in Chinatown and to the exhibition of a famous comic artist from Rome, Zerocalcare, that we both love very much.

Ah! This month I also acquired a Cricut machine for future works (at this date she’s still in her box 😩) from a client as an exchange for some future cosplays.

Nothing to say about my health this month luckily.

MARCH

In March my school life started to kick in quite badly: I had tons of online lessons in the evening after school and I also needed to take some extra lessons with my tutor (another fashion teacher from my school) with a very busy schedule!

And as consequence my health started to worsen a little bit, I was always really tired and I cannot focus very well on all the things I had to do outside school. I started taking some pills to sleep better and to keep my fatigue under control.

So to uplift my spirit we did a bit of tourism (we visit a very cute medieval town called Ricceto di Candelo)

and of course I started with the first self-present of the year 😂 I pre-order two new dolls 1/6 scale from Japan scheduled to arrive on November.

I also started a new hobby: diamond painting! As my usual I became really ossessive about it and I compulsively bought a lot of kits, 4 or 5… and I started making the first as soon as it arrived.

As for sewing, I did a couple of new skirts for me to wear at school and I keep working on the Pokémon trainer Cosplay. Here and there I tried to sew something new for my dolls, with the secret hope to be able to open my dolls shop finally this year.

APRIL

I didn’t do anything really special in April, we spent the Easter break on the mountains (we visited a really beautiful water-life center and we saw really cute otters 🦦)

and I took another little break at the end of the month to visit my family back in my hometown. We have a reason to celebrate altogether: my brother and his girlfriend decided to get married in September! ❤️

My health was going downhill again, I cannot sleep very well and the paper works to submit for my school we’re hunting me, so I decided to be more careful about my diet and to increase yoga and physical activity.

In this month I bought some extra hands for my Smartdolls (during a sleepless night on the mountains 😂) and some cute stuff also for my dolls on AliExpress.

Beside diamond painting I also decided to follow some YouTube tutorials to improve my Procreate skills.

MAY

During May I was mainly focused on my school activities: the fashion show for the end of the year was approaching and as well my “exam”; I had to submit a report about my year as a teacher and about an activity I’ve developed during the year with my girls. It was really exhausting 😩

I also started two new commissions that I enjoyed very much sewing (even if some days I really regretted taking them 😂): an outfit for the character Regina from Once upon a time and a cosplay doll-sized of Zhongli from Genshin Impact.

To have fun and stop thinking constantly about school and sewing my boyfriend took me on some cute destinations near Milan during the weekends.

I also bought some new fashion design books for my collection even if I knew that I didn’t have the time to enjoy them 😩

JUNE

Halfway through the year! And it was the most rough month of them all! The Fashion Show was forthcoming and I worked really hard to make sure that all the dresses made by my girls were done: some parts I needed to make them myself as the girls picked a lot of materials really hard to sewn with their abilities (and with the school equipment) I worked so hard that I cannot make till the end…I was having troubles breathing since May but I didn’t had the time to properly take care of myself nor to stop working so hard (as I always do 😩) and the result was a very bad bronchopneumonia that haunted me until the end of the year! (I am not still fully recovered as I am writing this 😔)

I had to take few weeks off of school and I missed all the last days and the Fashion show I worked so hard for! I was so upset but I didn’t have the strength even to be mad at myself because I really couldn’t get off my bed for weeks 😭 but luckily some days before feeling so ill we had the chance to see the Cirque du Soleil, one of the most beautiful show we ever seen 😍

To take my mind off my bad health during the days I was forced at home I started to draw again with Procreate and continued some diamond Painting. To change a bit my routine we also take a little trip to a very beautiful valley to breath some clean air.

Some days I had enough strength to sew a bit so I finished Regina and the Pokémon trainer cosplays. I still haven’t had the time to continue working of the Genshin Impact doll.

This first half of the year was so full of events even if I feel I didn’t accomplished much this year! I sew very few commissions and also very few items for my dolls; I didn’t arrange my sewing room at all as I was thinking at the beginning of the year, I didn’t open my dolls shop nor started the Youtube channel as I would have liked…and better to not talk about my health at all! Looking back to the new year resolutions I wrote last year I was miserably failing across the board 😩

And here we are with the second part of this 2022 recap! I hope it will be shorter than the first half XD

- In July I got the results from the exams and I PASSED THEM ALL! I was so happy that all the sacrifices, the stress and the time took from sewing finally had a meaning but I was also really scared because that means that In september my life will drastically change...I will be a teacher OMG! I was hoping to pass but I really wasn’t expecting it... But it was finally time to go back sewing full time, I had a lot of backlogs and some delayed commissions to deliver so I made the final rush for Emma Swan and Regina Mills cosplays from Once upon a time along with other commissions from My Etsy shop (another Todoroki Fantasy cosplay, another Momo Yaoyorozu hero suit and a season 1 version of Bakugo shirt...it was really a month dedicated to My Hero Academia XD)

Also I managed to finish on time one of the biggest embroidery project since 2B in 2021, a yukata covered in leaf embroideries. I enjoyed this project so much and I really was so upset that I cannot use my embroidery machine in all the ways I planned at the beginning of the year!

I also sewed the last Princess Serenity gown of the year, for a 1/4 BJD.

- In August we finally went back to travel and after few days on the mountains we finally flyed again to Norway and it was one of the best holiday in a while! I took almost 15/20 days off to try to recover my health but the season of the biggest conventions here in Italy was about to start so I needed to resume sewing as soon as I can.

During August I also decided to close my Etsy shop for a while (it’s still closed right now) because I received a very big order when we were on holyday and it really stressed me out because as a matter of fact, I didn’t have the time to make it at all....but I maneged anyway! It was a groom outfit based on the Dracula cosplay I did few years ago.

The cosplays due for this month (for a convention at the beginning of September) were a quite easy summer kimono (or yukaya) and again a very big embroidery project! Rapunzel dress based on the doll version, one of my favourite of the year for sure! I was also really happy to sew a male version of Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail (even if I don’t like her character so much the anime is one of my favorite at the moment !)

Also at the end of August I received the news that I was officially a teacher in a Fashion and Graphic Design High School here in Milan and starting from the 1st of September I had to go to school everyday! So to celebrate this event I bought another Smartdoll XD This time the head only (I will buy the body around December as a birthday gift from a very nice girl from Finland) so here it is Moment, or Sonhora, as Violaine sister.

- September was starting and so my high school career, but also I need to deliver some cosplays until December (i’ve orders until February if I have to be honest XD) so again no rest at all...School in the morning and sewing like crazy in the evening/night! Even with this crazy schedule I manage to deliver quite a few cosplays...while I was getting used to my new schedule I sewed some “easy” projects: a Ravenclaw Quidditch robe and one of the outfit Arshes Nei wore in the Bastard reboot serie

Meanwhile I made some friends at school among my colleagues and it was really nice meeting new people after so long time. Also the girls I have to teach were slowly starting to open up to me and with the majority of them I have a really good relationship right now.

- October as per usual is my busiest month as here in Italy we have the Lucca Comics and Games convention, one of the biggest in Italy and in Europe and I always have a lot of big works to deliver. This yeas was no exception and I had three big projects! I started a bit of each of them during the previous months so I didn’t start from scratch but it was soooo exausting anyway

The projects were Shionne from Tales of Arise, Merida from Brave in an alternative outfit and Kadaj from Final Tantasy 7 AC. I was really excited to sew all of them but at this point I was so exausted to sew that I didn’t enjoy them as much as I expected and that really sadden me a lot. 

I also manage to sew just in time a new Halloween outfit for my dolls to take some pictures in the Halloween weekend. 

- I really don’t remember at all what I did in November, even if it’s so close in time. I think i just rested and cleaned my sewing lab and trying to get hold of my life again XD Also during this month I decided to put cosplay commissions on hiatus because even doing quotations was becoming a real struggle for me and I still don’t know right now when I will be able to resume taking them.

- Between November and December I worked on some old works that needed mending or alterations (I will deliver the last one in a few days) and started to rest in a proper way. Right now I am still on holyday (only for a couple of days alas!) and before this week on the Mountains I was at my parents’ house for Christmas. Of course I brought Violaine to sew some new clothes and take new pictures.

And as December is also the month of my Birthday I really make use of my new paycheck and bought a lot of gifts for myself XD Two girls from the new Shadow High serie (Natasha and Shanelle) and as I said before a second hand body for my second Smartdoll Sonhora. I know, a lot of dolls, but this was supposed to be my "dolls year".. (I also gifted myself an iPad for Christmas XD)

What a year! It happened a lot and it was quite difficult to remember everything to write this entry (it took me more than 5 days to finish it!) A lot of good things happened so I really cannot complain but I was hoping for a different year this time after the 2020 and the 2021...

Who knows that 2023 will bring, I think I will finally adjust to my new life as a teacher but at the same time I will do my best to start sewing again, but with a slower pace...and for a while I will focus more on the things I enjoy making (dolls clothes, embroideries, developing new skills....) until I will be mentally and physically ready to start taking commissions again.

So as we’re almost a week in the 2023 (I started writing this entry on the 2nd of January) I was glad I was able to look back at my last year and see how much I’ve accomplished. It was such a frantic year that I didn’t realize how many things I’ve sewed while studying like crazy for almost half of the year and starting a new job. I also bought a lot of gifts for myself ahahah...next year I have to limit myself a bit!

As for New Year Resolutions, I really don’t have much planned: on a personal level I just want to be healty again (resume my daily yoga and pilates lessons and eat better) and spend more quality time with my family (my boyfriend and my cat here in Milan and the rest of my family in Rome as well). And also finally try to catch up with all the tv series I’ve lost these years I was so busy (Stranger Things, House of Dragon, Dark, the Boys...just to name a few - and I’ve already started as I’ve binge watched Wednesday during these holidays and I’ve almost done with Mirai Nikki (it passed so long that I almost don't remember when I started watching it) On a working/hobby level I just wanted to be back to enjoy what I sew again and to finally be able to re-open my Etsy shops (at least for cosplay sewing patterns and the dolls one), to sew a lot of items in my whishlist and to start using my stash materials more instead of buying new things! I also really wanted to start again learining new thigs, I hope to be able to commit more to Skillshare courses this year (the first thing I wanna learn is how to use Procreate properly now that finally I have an iPad XD) and maybe open the Youtube Channel I was talking about at the end of 2021!

And this was my 2022, how about yours? Did your year went as planned or like mine went totally downhill? XD I hope to be more consistent here on my blog too this year and to post at least one entry per month!

I really wish you all a wonderfull 2023 and let’s work hard together to have the best year in a while! ❤️

Welcome back on my blog, it’s been a while since the last post that wasn’t just a picture reposted from Instagram....2022 is just ended and we’re few days in 2023 so I’m still on time for a recap post XD

What can I say about this year...well, I can start saying that this 2022 was almost like the 2020 for me (for different reasons of course!) I jumped onto it with a lot of projects in mind and a lot of hopes....then around the end of February something happened and all my projects went out of the window... It was a good year for sure, a lot of good things happened to me so I cannot complain at all but it was really different from what I was expencting...

But let’s see in detail what I did each mounth (and it was a really difficult task because this year I was so bad with socials and pictures T_T I almost never photographed anything and I don’t quite remember most of the projects I sewed...it’s almost the third time I open this page and it’s taking sooooo long!) I decided to split this “review” in two parts because I want to add a lot of pictures and it was really difficult to gather them all, a lot of them came from WhatsApp conversations or private messages. So let’s cover the first half of the year!

- At the beginning of January I started the New Year with a late birthday present from my brother, my first doll from the Rainbow High serie: Amaya, because in my mind this was the “year of the dolls”...

Meanwhile I was doing really well with my Etsy shop and my cosplay commissions (in fact I was booked almost till May) and I was so hyped with all the new things I wanted to start. I had in mind a lot of new ideas both related to cosplays and to dolls (a collection of cosplay/animal hats - inspired by this hat I made on commisison - a collection of cosplay lingerie, several new items for dolls...)

One of the first cosplay commission I finished in 2022 was the original Sith I started in December, and also the Scathach cosplay and the Sakura/Kero-chan mesh up outfit that were due for 2020 and were delayed (a lot!)

- In February I attended what I thought was going to be the first (but in reality was the only T_T) event of the year, an exibition/market for BJDs in Bologna.

I worked so hard for this event, I made a lot of new clothes and props, my uncle made a lot of fornitures for dolls and I ordered some new backcards to enchance my packages.

I was so invested in this event also because I was thinking about opening a second Etsy shop just for dolls: clothes, furnitures, sewing patterns...and in fact I did open it and created a branch-brand called “Strega Corvina, The Doll Witch”, but I managed to made only one listing in the shop because just a few days after the convention my year changed so quickly... In fact on the 24th of February the dates for the public exams I had to take in order to became an high school teacher were published (I was studying for this exam since 2018 but then everything was stopped because of the Pandemic) so I had to dedicate half of my day (and more) to study. As you can tell this had a huuuge impact on my commissions schedule and on my life as well, as I need to sew almost every seconds I wasn’t studying...without time for anything else.

So to uplift myself from the upcoming changes I bought myself another Rainbow High doll XD This time I bought Violet, she was really my first choice when I bought Amaya but she wasn’t available at that time.

I also managed to deliver on time the only wedding dress I did this year, for a very Gothic/Steampunk themed wedding and I redid one of the best seller cosplay from previous years, Esmeralda from the Hunchbacked of Notre Dame the musical (and I have another one to make for this February XD)

- In March I started to gather all the books I needed for the first exam (the written one, on the 12th of April) and just for my specific subject (fashion design and pattern making) they were a lot as you can see (in this picture you can also see another present I gave myself for *spoiler* passing the exam XD).

While I spent most of my days studying I managed to sew anyway the commissions I had for the month, luckly really quick ones: Star Guardian Lux for a Summer event and a pair of pants also from League od Legend.

On the dolls side, I shipped to Texas one of the first doll commission of the year, the Beast (from the Beauty and the Beast) with the outfit the character wore in the tv show Once upon a time and the first Princess Serenity gown for 1/3 BJDs of the year (I did three of them in total)

In March I also received this beautiful Serenity Pullip my aunt gifted me as a good luck gift for my dolls shop (unfortunatly still on hold) and my upcoming exams.

- In April I studyed almost every day as the exam was slowly approching and I stopped sewing completely even if I started to pattern two of the most challenging commissions of the year (Vi and Caitlyn from Arcane). But all the hard studying repayed me and I PASSED THE FIRST EXAM <3 So as “well done” gift I finally bought myself my first Smartdoll Challenge! I was pining for her since 2020 when I discovered Smartdolls but she was always sold out! But finally i was able to snatch her!!

I delivered another commission - Uzui Tengen frrom Demon Slayer - and after a few days of resting for Easter holydays it was already time to go back to my books as the next dates for the exams were revealed... And also the dead line for some commissions approached really fast so I had to rush!! Meanwhile I did another Princess Serenity gown for 1/3 dolls to ship to America. At this time I was still keeping my Etsy shop open but it was a decision I will regret in a few months...

- May passed so quickly and so frantic that I almost don’t remember any of it. I kept studying like crazy and sewing every other minutes, my health was started to go downhill again (my allergies were killing me almost every day and I was sleeping just 4/5 hours per night due to said allergy and stress, luckly my back remains quite for almost all the year!) I needed to deliver two of the biggest commissions of the year - Vi and Caitlyn from the Arcane show -  and also study for the TWO exams at the end of the month (this time the oral one and the practical exam on the 24th and 25th). In between all of this I manage to sew some clothes for Challenge anyway to keep my mental sanity XD

*I will update with pictures in the next days as I have them in my laptop at home*

I also did a quick jacket for Thoma from Genshin Impact

- In June after all the exams (I still didn’t know the outcome) we spent a few days on the Dolomites and I took my Smartdoll, I named her Violaine, with us to shoot some cute pictures and my priority was to rest as much as I can because during this time of the year I started to feel all the pressure and the exaustion of the past months and my heath was really bad overall...

Anyway all the commissions for these months were delivered on time, as well as the ones for this month: a set of gloves and cape for Descendants Mal, Belle dress for BDJ, matching the Beast I did few months before, and some new parts for the Sister of Battle cosplay I did last year.

And that’s all for the first half of 2022! I still can’t belive I did all of this while studying like crazy almost everyday! WOW! Only now that I see all the pictures together I finally realize how much I accomplished this year...and we’re still at June! I will post tomorrow the second half (and the Italian version as soon as I can)