I just discovered blogging from my phone and while it works, my phone won't email pictures because one of the applications you pay for with this phone is picture sending and I refuse to pay for it.

For the sake of documenting the process, my sloper seems to be coming along rather well. I went with a basic princess line sloper for this first one because my Halloween costume will be based on that design, so I'm really working on hammering out that sloper to have a good, well fitting design. I took my design that I drew (on graph paper), added seam allowances, printed it off at kinkos, then added another 1" to each pattern piece to give me AMPLE alteration room and when it comes down to it I basically altered it back to the the size of the drawing. I did have to make some changes that were necessary and so I have sewn and seamripped the whole thing 2 or 3 times to ensure the changing of the flat pattern correctly and get the proper fit. It sounds very tedious, but that is why I've only posted twice in a month.... I've done little bits at a time so as not to be absolutely frustrated about sewing and resewing... which is why I've never had the patience to do this before. It has probably taken me 10-15 years of maturing to quit swearing at craft time and not expect myself to just sit down and sew something all together and perfect in the first sitting.

I took the advice of many websites and I made a ducttape form of myself for doing fitting on and I have found it to be irreplaceable in making alterations to the back because I can hardly pin and make changes behind me where my arms don't reach. Absolutely necessary tool when sewing for self - especially when others around you don't have the concept of pinning correctly.

More later....

Deal of the century/best $45 I've spent on sewing....

I've been looking for good reference books to learn from since my mom, who's been a professional alterations seamstress for 25 years, lives in Minnesota (and I'm in Georgia). I've read TONZ of reviews on amazon on different books and the only thing "bad" that people have had to say about Singer Sewing Reference Library books is that they are being re-published without the Singer name on them so some people have bought the same book twice without realizing it. So I googled SSRLibrary, and I found an auction on ebay with 10 of the books!!

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I started this blog like a month ago and forgot about it. Since writing this I've received and read most of the books. I am in LOVE with the Singer Sewing Reference Library! The pictures of the techniques are phenominal and they have explained things better than any other tutorial I've seen anywhere for free. The only thing wrong with them is that some of the clothing in the pictures are a little outdated, but for the demonstrations they seem to have picked classic pieces that transcend the current fads. I've already gone to these books several times for the items I am currently working on. Nothing completed yet, so I'm not confident enough to plaster pictures all over, but down the road you may see tutorials..........

SO excited about the SSRL books!!!