Focus

Ok--it's time to focus. I've been twiddling my thumbs long enough trying to figure out what/where my direction and focus lay.

The bible. Armstrong's Patternmaking for Fashion Design. I finally got a good deal on it last year, and it's still sitting on my shelf pristine and lovely. I expected it to be dogeared and worn by now. I figured i would never be able to put it down. This book was gonna tell me EVERYTHING i needed to know.

Problem is, it did, and little more. I have been in pattern-making overload. Overwhelmed. Gobsmacked, if you will. But too often i have let my fears get the best of me that i shy away from the things needed to be done. So, I now have a vision--and my current goal is to put it into action. I am going to work through this book, style by style until i have created, FROM SCRATCH the garments i have dreamed about making. Ok, some i have dreamed about--others i just need to create so that i understand the concept.

The fear you ask? multitasking. It's not as if the orders have stopped. I'm still sitting on one while i finish another, I'm researching one and i have two friends having babies within the next few months, and a loyal customer with friends having babies this year as well. It's not like i don't have enough to do, and a toddler to boot (and a house to manage, and a dog to feed, and a husband to cherish, all while maintaining my sanity, skin care regimen and dropping 20 lbs). I am obsessively monogamous to a project--to the detriment of my creativity (and business!) sometimes. People in the corporate world multitask daily. Hell, other SAHMs do it minute by minute--and i can to, which is why it is confusing to me that i can't seem to take that skill into my studio.

So, little by little, day by day, I am going to learn (for real this time--and not just wingin' it) how to make a good pattern, and thus the perfect garment. By the time Benji hits preschool, I want to be able to say i can make ANY garment requested of me, and not shy away from those that scare the bejesus out of me. I do not need Simplicity, Vogue or Butterick to create for me the item i want and/or need. (not that i am in any way considering giving up my extensive pattern catalog, you understand) I just need to end this dependence once and for all.

So, next step: Measurements. mine. ugh.