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I was banished to the bedroom for a conference call last night, so I took the opportunity to get some editing done on the upcoming video. I worked for several hours, and my video is now at a whopping 4 minutes long. XP I still have over half the footage to edit, so I know it will fill out a bit, but I think this may end up being one of my shorter videos just because, even though it's taken forever to sew, there are actually very few steps involved in the make process.

Tonight I'll have to finish up attaching the last bone to the tapes, and attaching the waistband. That should give me all of tomorrow night to edit, and I think I'll take advantage of the Captain being on vacation and leave a little early to give myself some extra time.

I haven't decided if I'm going to take Friday night to relax, or if I'm going to jump straight into making the red striped dress. I do need a couple of new petticoats for the new hoop, so I actually should probably knock those out on Friday night. Petticoats are my jam, so I have no doubt I could whip up a couple after work. (Also, quick filler video material, huzzah!)

2021 YouTube Plans

I think it's close enough to the end of the year that I can pretty confidently state my plans for 2021.

1) Go to a semi-monthly video posting schedule on YouTube. Weekly would be ideal, of course, but I majorly burned myself out trying to keep that up earlier this year, so I'm shooting now for twice a month. I think that will allow me to get some actual sewing done, have enough time to edit without half-assing it, and will keep my posting consistently, which is key to viewer retention.

2) Up my game on TikTok. All I really have to do is edit a 60-second video to put up there every couple of weeks, using the stuff I'm already shooting for my YouTube videos. There's really no reason I shouldn't be doing this.

3) I'm still in a total 1850s mood, so I'm just going to run with it. I already have video ideas for CoCoVid 2021 (if that happens) for making 1850s stuff, and I'm shifting Historical Costuming Giftmas, 18th Century version, to 2022 so I can do an 1850s version for 2021.

4) Historical Costuming Giftmas is definitely on for 2021, and I already have the videos planned. I have a year now to make the patterns, make the items, shoot the videos, and photograph the promos. I'd say that should be plenty of time, but I don't want to jinx myself, especially since this will be my first time ever making PDF patterns, so there's a whole new learning curve.

5) I want to do some "bigger" video projects, similar to the Victorian diet/exercise video that I'm currently working on. These would be longer videos, 30 mins - 1 hour, looking at costuming-adjacent aspects of life in different historical periods. I think these will be fun projects, but they will require a lot more time to put together, so I'm aiming for one every quarter right now.

6) More actual photoshoots of finished projects! I have the lighting equipment, I have the cameras, I just need to carve out time to take, you know, actual photos.

7) Speaking of photos, I need to up my Instagram game. I get a lot of my YouTube traffic from Instagram, so I need to post more consistently. I really wish they let you schedule posts on that platform. -_- I think the key here is having photos that are ready to go ahead of time, so when I'm battling depression and don't want to get dressed up, I can just upload something that's already been shot and not expend too much mental energy on it. Posting 2-3 times a week should be sustainable if I plan correctly. Ditto all of this for my Facebook page.

8) I'm 90% sure that I'm going to switch to a Friday upload day instead of Wednesday. That will give me more time during the week to finish up last minute sewing stuff and edit the video. Wednesday was working when I was just doing a bunch of one-day projects, but bigger projects with more content to edit require more time to put together successfully.

9) Re-engage with the CosTube community. I've been lurking almost exclusively and not really taking active part in the community ever since CoCoVid, mostly because of burnout, and I want to get back into the swing of things.


Okay, I think that's it. If I can stick to this (which will be difficult, depression really makes it hard for me to stick with things sometimes) I should be able to grow my channel a bit more.

My goal for 2021 is to get to 5,000 subs (I'm currently at 1,125) and get monetized. That's it. It would be super awesome if I ended up with a sponsor, but I'm going to put most of my focus on my content and just hope that sponsorship comes with growth.

Here's hoping 2021 is as awesome as 2020 was shitty.