A Pretty Print

(Above, some delightful cotton fabric for a garment I finished sewing yesterday.)

The other day I posted a little bit about being alone at home and how you have to be self motivated and not wait for someone to tell you what to do next.  If you train your children to think this way, they will never have a problem being busy and productive.  We also talked about the fact that you have to work on your own as a homemaker is something many women are not prepared for, and it can be quite a challenge.  This is a subject I would like to pursue, either with comments or in future posts.

I don't actually sew a dress a day, I finish a dress a day.  Sometimes I cut out some fabric, and then have to leave the project for awhile, so I finish it in increments.  Yesterday I finished sewing from one of these New Look patterns that I have been trying to do a set of clothes from. I do have other patterns but this one has no zip or buttons and it is easy to sew.

Here is the dress on a hanger,  Using sleeves from an older pattern and an obi sash.

Even without the sash it is a nice dress to wear at home.

If you know the downside of getting your picture taken, you know that your idea of what it needs to look like is never understood by the photographer unless it is someone who has also had bad pictures taken of them and knows what bothers you.  I have given up trying to get a good picture of me, as they are usually blurry or have a shadow somewhere that is not flattering (under the chin) or they catch you with one eye shut, etc.  so now, I am just happy if someone can get a picture that at least has a form that I can paint, and when I paint it, I alter it completely, as you see :-)

I like the way the style of the sleeves, sash and ruffled trim at the hem gives the dress a country-western look.  Of all the ones I have made so far, the Aqua one is the most comfortable. You can see it a few posts back.

Maybe you are curious to know a bit about the way I draw. I do not know what happened to my camera focus but the pictures were in my album before I had discovered the blurriness, and then, it was to late to take more, as I finished the picture.  

Here are the pictures anyway.  I do a lot of erasing, and re-drawing. You can see on the above picture how I drew in the arms and then changed my mind, re-drew them and erased them, below.

Here is one with the black ink outline.

And here it is all colored in.

I am planning on taking an art course but I have been too busy doing this to even glance at the first lesson.  The only way I am going to be able to concentrate on studying anything else is to get away from my sewing machine, my kitchen and my laundry room.  I need to get clear out of town where there are no distractions or work piled up in that back room!