2/3 of the way

This is the skirt sloper. The second third of my "working pattern". I was able to lay out some paper and my rulers and bust this thing out in what I think may have been 10 minutes. AND, I did this while my son was awake and curious.

Ok, he was distracted with Yo Gabba Gabba. Was this good parenting? Probably not. But since I am not currently competing for most awesome and selfless mom in the world, I'll accept that. I'm sure had any of the mothers in my prior "Mommy & Me" group been present, they would have clucked and squawked about the fact that he was (gasp!) watching TV, eating a processed snack and that the dustbunnies under my couch are about to take over the house. Now, I could worry about what these women think of me and my parenting style, or, I could continue to provide them with anecdotal horror stories and in turn make them feel better about who they are and how well they judge others. I'm a giver that way.

He did come over at one point with an avid curiosity about my squaring ruler and the shiny blue sharpie I was wielding, but I became very stern and he changed his mind. I suppose in the future I will have to provide him with some paper and a ruler of his own. Who knows? Maybe I will spawn a future designer? Diddy's mother was a seamstress and he spent his youth laying out patterns for her. Now he has his own derivative clothing line, stinky cologne, a mediocre overpriced vodka and the largest white wardrobe anyone has seen since Fantasy Island. Everyone has to get their start somewhere...

My next step is two-fold. First, I have to create the sleeve sloper which will complete my working pattern based on my size. And then I am going to measure and create slopers for one of my dressforms so that I don't have to be delayed by fitting problems (yeah--I've got a fitting problem that I need other hands for on the bodice sloper. An easy fix--but it's under my arm, so not a solo fix.) And it will probably be good practice to make slopers for another size. Pete read some book whose name eludes me at present that discusses the fact that great skill comes from some crazy number of practice hours (think Larry Bird and free-throws). So, practice I will.

Lessons learned:

• This does get easier
• A distracted toddler can mean a productive mommy
• anyone can have their own stupid clothing line
• practice makes perfect.