Worktable

Today was a gorgeous HOT day. I spent a little time this afternoon while the kids were at school tidying up my workroom. After putting everything away I proceeded to bring things out again; old patterns, doll parts, possibly useful junk.

I discovered I had no pattern for a doll part I'd used three times before so I made a form out of aluminum foil covered with stuffing and mummy-wrapped with strips of cotton. After stitching it all down I had the base (the scraggly thing in the center) over which to drape cotton fabric so I could make a pattern from it. I pinned the fabric smooth and then cut it into pieces. I sewed them together, making sure to document and trace each piece first, and got lucky with a workable shape the first time out. I did have to widen the hole a bit. The finished mock-up (left in picture) is now documented and I have pattern pieces finally. I'd been wanting to make another open-heart doll but was not looking forward to reinventing that hole in the torso. Now it's done and the fun can begin.

I don't know why I didn't do that a long time ago. It would probably be a good idea to make patterns from the pieces I use and like. Most often what happens is I draw the pattern freehand and sew it together and stuff it to see if I like the result. If I do, I just want to keep working and I'm too lazy to take the thing apart (you have to un-stuff it first) and copy each piece. So each time I do something slightly different but similar. So efficient! I'm definitely going to change my ways.