Saturday, September 6, 2014

Aurora models twice 'cause I'm too lazy to fetch Tia !



Rain ! Glorious, sweet, refreshing rain, all night, all morning and into the afternoon. Cool, crisp rain… We got the air conditioning off and all the doors and windows open. Gonna enjoy it as long as it lasts.


I honestly believe that, for me, having a few bucks that’s all mine can be a terrible thing.  When you really don’t have any to spend, you don’t worry about it, you use what’cha got and drive on. When I have some funds, I drive m’self nuts figuring out how best to spend it. And this is a day after I got the doll I had to spend two days chasing down ! I am shameless.


I have enough in PayPal, thanks to PineCone Research, to snag maybe a cheapie doll outfit or two kitchen-table clothes patterns. Possibly three. Now, it can be argued that the last thing I need on this planet is yet another pattern or any more have-fun-altering-it generic doll clothes, and I’d agree. But… I still spent a pleasant two hours this morning digging through eBay and Etsy looking at both. Luckily I don’t have more funds, or it’d be even more of a dragged out decision. Especially when ya factor in I had an even more pleasant evening last night harvesting about ten free patterns for ‘slim 16” – 18” ‘ dolls at Jenwrenne’s site, Wren*Feathers. Scroll around, archive binge. You’ll find dozens. So far, those look like they’ll fit DP&M, since I’m getting visually familiar with their scale, plus these patterns are made for dolls not too widely different from them. Selfish and shameless ! I want to buy at least one pattern from her Etsy site, probably this one. But I like three others, too…


I finally settled on a pretty Sasha sailor dress from another seller – the Sasha body’s not too different from DP&M, so alterations should be easy – but for the price. I really hate paying more than five bucks for a home-created pattern that just makes one thing. And it’s not digital, I’ll have to wait for it to arrive and scan it m’self. Add to that the fact that I’m going to have to alter it to get what I really want. Just maybe I could use the same pattern to make shirt-dresses, another dress design I tend to favor, but I’d hate to spend eleven bucks to find out that it wouldn’t work, or alterations were impossible. Even though I eventually found it on her personal website for $9., I was still reluctant.


I know I have sailor dress patterns. If nothing else, I have the Cabbage Patch one I made for Hi, Dottie and Timey Tell. At least two Barbie-sized ones. And I just bought an AG & clone pattern with a detachable sailor collar… Went on an expedition through my pattern jungles around lunch. Glad I ate, it was exhausting ! Eventually dredged up a Simplicity Carpatina pattern with a simple bodice – if I recast it with the back to the front, that’d give me a front button placket. From there, I could attach any type or fullness of skirt I wanted. Hmm. Printed it out, ‘cause if it works, I just saved m’self $9 to $11. !


It’s in progress. Hope to have a completed photo of it for you tomorrow, but for now, here’s the work in progress. The pattern was waaay too big – I’ve taken in a half inch on the back, another half inch from the closures, a quarter inch off each side seam, then a quarter inch angled, and I still have to change the armholes, they’re too long and too wide in the shoulder. But even with all my on-the-fly changes, it’s looking pretty good.  Very close to the shirt-dress I wanted… which is basically the ones I wore just outta college. (happy sigh)



I think I just saved me about ten bucks ! (another happy sigh)


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