No More Sloth Time

Sloth time is officially over. I am teaching two classes this week and have a podcast interview scheduled for tomorrow. I want to run up one more iteration of the Iguazu Top and start the Burnside Bibs. The baby quilt top needs to be quilted and bound and sent off. And I am trying to get myself back into the groove of embroidering in the evenings. I am working on one of Robert Mahar’s anatomical designs:

All of this fitting stuff is still percolating through my brain, too. If I can get my thoughts into some kind of order, this may end up as a class proposal for Sew Expo for next year.

I am probably going to insult someone with the following observation, even though that is not my intention. A few of my friends and I—friends with fitting issues similar to mine—have commented to each other that a lot of the indie pattern companies seem to be owned by petite women with few fitting issues. Their designs tend to reflect their fitting preferences, which only makes sense. If I had a pattern company, I would probably design clothing that fit me. That’s why I joined the Cashmerette Club. Jenny designs for busty and curvy women, so I will have to do a lot less work to get her patterns to fit me than I do patterns designed by someone who is 5'4" tall and wears a 34B bra size.

There can’t be a perfect pattern that fits everyone; the variation in body size and shape is simply too great. I think it’s worth it to try a lot of different pattern companies to find those—hopefully, more than one—that give you a head start on making clothes to fit you. The Love Notions designs are all wonderful, but I have to do way too much work to get them to fit me. I’m finding the same thing to be true with the Itch to Stitch patterns. I’ve actually had the best luck with some of the commercial patterns—Burda 6315 comes to mind.

******

I am making what my mother-in-law used to call a “croak book.” It’s the master list of everything that is in my brain, so if something happens to me, the husband will at least know where to start. This is a good time of year to do it, because I am having to go through files and websites to gather end-of-year documentation for the accountant. I am writing down information as I do that. Also, if something happens to both of us, we want the kids to be able to find things easily.

I am moving an awful lot of paper around these days. 🫤

******

The seed catalogs are starting to arrive but I refuse to look at them. I will wait another month or so. I can’t do anything until the end of March, so why torture myself?

It is weird to be in January, though, with virtually no snow on the ground. We’ll have to see what the next couple of months bring us.