Mood:
chattyNow Playing: Rain and traffic - sometimes together !
Sorry this one's late - Beloved Hubby needed the computer to do some work-stuff, and it was late into the night before he came to bed. I'm so glad he's feeling better. He's still weak, and gets tired easily, but otherwise, he's almost back to normal.
I think I am, too. I've neglected the housework and just about everything else for three days to sew. I have lots of catching up to do - Hi, Erika ! I'll write back soon, I promise ! I love being in the Studio now, I don't know why I shied away from it for so long. Made Synergy a skirt to go with her new blouse, and it's posted on the main site (https://dorriebelle.tripod.com/ , if you can get it to load, I couldn't a few minutes ago). I'm really happy with it. In the picture, the front hemline has flipped up a bit, mostly because the Fray Check has stiffened it and I didn't notice.
Yeah, it's funny about the Fray Check. I bought a bottle back in '01, because Real Clothes suggested doing so. Those are nice patterns, BTW - I need to reinstall my two disks and buy the third. Check 'em out at www.perestroika.ca , if you haven't already been. There's free Barbie patterns and ideas there, and the designer is a flat-out sweetheart. Anyway, I bought the Fray Check but never used it. Heck, back in '01, I had such little faith in my sewing that I only hand-sewed her patterns in crap fabric, then threw the finished item away. Well, psychologically, there was a lot going on back in those days...but the patterns were easy to work up, the finished item was only unattractive because I made it ugly and crappily. And without faith in me and my ability to learn.
I never used the F-C, because I was hand-sewing. I had no idea how to sew knits or slippery fabrics. Just happily stabbed at them with an indifferent needle. Really. I didn't even know that different materials require different sewing needles ! Got frustrated a lot back then. But somehow the bottle made The Big Move of '02, where it sat around for another year or two while I read sewing books and technique manuals like a woman posessed. NOW things were starting to make sense ! I still rarely used it, but F-C was there when I needed it. I have a couple of My Size Barbie outfits that could *really* have used it, I'm surprised that yellow-gold cheongsam isn't a pile of slippery threads by now. Frays like a....thing that frays easily, I can't say on a friendly website how bad it frays !
Now I use it on just about everything I sew. That first bottle of Fray-Check is nearly empty, it's got maybe two doll outfits left in it. It's a pain sometimes, smells bad, it usually stains the fabric a bit, waiting for it to dry is a cramp, and taking 20 minutes to coat pattern pieces for a three-inch long skirt is a wrench, but it does help. Doll outfits just look better when there's not a nest of fraying threads inside, go figure. It beats heck out of zig-zagging the raw edges ! I'm really too lazy to do that !
Not sure what's next, except for dishes and laundry ! Since I have Jem-size measured, I may make something for her, then get Rio measured. I know I should use a new pattern, one I've never used before - but I've never *seen* a Jem pattern, not ever. And measuring a doll is a comittment, it takes nearly an hour to get all those measurements. Yesterday, it took me nearly seven minutes to just enter each set of measurements from print-outs ! But at least I got all that done. I'm thinking of scanning all three of those Simplicity toddler-doll patterns at once, because I won't be able to relax until they're backed up this time ! So I think Saturday's full...
As is today. Darn those dishes ! 
