MOVING FORWARD - SLOWLY

If I could just STAY AWAKE!!   Sleep deprivation is a real problem for me.  It seems every time I sit down at the computer, sewing machine or tv, my eyes slam shut.  Then it becomes a choice of lay down or fall down.  I prefer to NOT fall down.  Naps are some times no more than 15 minutes, but necessary to get me back on my feet.  Consequently, any project I'm working on is interrupted numerous times

MOVING FORWARD - SLOWLY

If I could just STAY AWAKE!!   Sleep deprivation is a real problem for me.  It seems every time I sit down at the computer, sewing machine or tv, my eyes slam shut.  Then it becomes a choice of lay down or fall down.  I prefer to NOT fall down.  Naps are some times no more than 15 minutes, but necessary to get me back on my feet.  Consequently, any project I'm working on is interrupted numerous times

WHAT ELSE CAN GO WRONG??

I am SO frustrated!  My little Singer Light Weight has a piece of thread caught in the bobbin  mechanism.  Couldn't get it out, so took it to a sewing machine repairman - who has had it for a week.  I can't understand why it's taking so long to do a piece of work that should take someone with the proper tools, only 15 minutes to do.  If he screws up that machine he will pay with his flesh!  Well, his ears, anyway.  My sister "loaned" me that machine years ago and promised me a slow and painful death if anything happened to it.

I will need to take it to the DollWorks meeting on the 7th of next month which is rapidly approaching.  Meanwhile, I have not only doll work to do but   Christmas gifts and mending.  I'm hoping I will be able to have my sewing machine back by this coming Tuesday.  It will probably cost an arm and leg because I wanted it done ASAP - but I probably could have fumbled around and done it myself in a week's time.

Yes, I'm a very impatient person.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

WHAT ELSE CAN GO WRONG??

I am SO frustrated!  My little Singer Light Weight has a piece of thread caught in the bobbin  mechanism.  Couldn't get it out, so took it to a sewing machine repairman - who has had it for a week.  I can't understand why it's taking so long to do a piece of work that should take someone with the proper tools, only 15 minutes to do.  If he screws up that machine he will pay with his flesh!  Well, his ears, anyway.  My sister "loaned" me that machine years ago and promised me a slow and painful death if anything happened to it.

I will need to take it to the DollWorks meeting on the 7th of next month which is rapidly approaching.  Meanwhile, I have not only doll work to do but   Christmas gifts and mending.  I'm hoping I will be able to have my sewing machine back by this coming Tuesday.  It will probably cost an arm and leg because I wanted it done ASAP - but I probably could have fumbled around and done it myself in a week's time.

Yes, I'm a very impatient person.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

THEY DON'T CALL IT DOLLWORKS FOR NOTHING!

--- and WORK is the operative word.  I can't keep up!  I have no husband or children to care for, very little cooking or cleaning to do (except sweeping up after the dogs!), so one would assume I have TONS of free time.   But being unsure of my skills with computer and sewing machine, requires hours of fumbling around, making the wrong choices and generally doing everything at least twice.  Very time consuming.

So the fabric wizards at DollWorks are light years ahead of me and I'm frantically trying to get my December project off the ground.  It seemed simple enough until they added a doll.  Now we will make a stocking with a doll on it.   MY doll is going to be an elf - and that's all I'm going to tell about it. The stocking is made and I'm adjusting the doll pattern  to fit.  I may use the head from last month's project since I've decided to get a better "doll fabric" for her.  After all, she's to be a very classy 20's flapper.

NOW I REMEMBER

--  why I made only one cloth doll before switching to clay.
I finally received the October project pattern and discovered that what I'd thought was a tightly woven fabric - was not, that the dolls hips and bust looked disproportionally large (so I narrowed the hips a bit),  and that no matter how fat I made the fingers, I still couldn't turn them.  So far, I've made a second pair of arms - that I can't turn past the wrist - and three heads.  I haven't tried stuffing head number three yet.  I'm glad I bought a half yard of the fabric.

But my very first discovery before ever cutting the first piece of fabric, was that the pattern itself seemed to be hand drawn without the use of a straight edge or curve.  Having been a drafter for so many years, I notice immediately when a thing, a pattern piece, isn't a mirror image when it's supposed to be.  I'm tempted to draw a Revision A of this pattern for my own use.  I couldn't sell Rev A because the (lopsided) original is copyrighted - and she's selling it for eight bucks a pop!

With so many other demands on my time, I doubt I'll have this project done for show and tell.  I'm thinking of just ditching the doll and making a dress for my unpainted manequin - and of course, it's not the pattern dress.  I didn't like it either, so did some research and came up with a dress I DID like.  A funny thought; not only do I think outside the box, I create my own box.

PAPER DOLLS -- FOR GROWN-UPS

The idea is floating around Doll Works members.  I think it would be a fun project, especially if we sewed the dolls costume instead of making paper clothes with tabs to hold them in place.  Of course, a sewn costume would require a sturdier doll - perhaps the paper doll mounted on luaun - perhaps show both front and back.  After all if the costume is to be sewn, why not make it complete?

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to receive the pattern for next month's project - my first fabric doll since my poor Christmas doll made of cast off body parts.  I'll start the new doll right away - that is if I can find a good flesh color fabric.  I think my theme will be the 1920's, via some glamorous draped gown with all the beads and feathers.  I need to find the nearest Hobby Lobby.