It’s been a while since I entered anything new here. Blogging takes a lot of time. And, frankly, the last several weeks, I have been a bit stretched on time. I have other projects I wanted to get done and almost all of them took me away from the computer and the internet. No computer, no internet = no blogging.

I have to admit I have also stopped doing my daily doodle. I’ve been bitten by the sewing bug. I need new clothes as most of what I own is either threadbare, stained or both. I am a small woman – height wise at least. My girth is a bit rounder than I care for, but not huge. The problem I have been having with commercially made clothing is that it doesn’t fit properly. If I follow the sizing guidelines in most mail order catalogs, the items arrive and rarely fit. In fact, in most cases, I look as if I am a child trying on my parents’ clothing. Sleeves and skirts are miles too long, and forget anything that is not close on my neck. The clothing falls off my shoulders. So I try and guess which size should fit correctly since the size guides don’t work. It is an exercise in frustration. Most of what I order gets sent back. I try and console myself about the cost of shipping both ways by justifying not having to drive the car into the city, or spending the time spent looking through racks of mostly unappealing clothes at stores.

Some of you might be thinking “why doesn’t she shop locally?” right about now. My choices of clothing shopping in town are Walmart, K-Mart, Fashion Bug and clothing shop that has NEVER had anything in my size. It shall remain nameless because I cannot recall what it is called right now.

I suppose buying clothing from the shops above is possible, but I want clothing that’s fun and funky and a bit sexy and not run of the mill fashion-wise. Also, that part of wanting something I am spending $40-60 on to fit well, does come to mind. I have gone shopping in the local stores, but if I find anything I want to try on at all, it either doesn’t come in my size or I would have to spend an inordinate amount of time altering it to fit.

If I am going to be spending all that time sewing anyway, why not start from scratch and build a wardrobe I will be happy with from the get go? I have the tools, I have the skills, in fact, some might even say I have the imagination as well. I did at one point in my life go to college for fashion design.

Last month I took myself to the big, fancy fabric store and just spent hours there. I bought yards of fabric and found patterns in silhouettes close to what I had in mind. I have also learned that the pattern sizing will result in overly large garments if I follow the suggestions for my measurements. So I don’t. In fact, the “right” size for me is several sizes SMALLER than the one the patterns specify. This has worked out marvelously in most cases. All except one. The steampunk styled jacket I made had fitted sleeves. I have fat upper arms it would appear. I will have to fiddle around with the jacket to make the sleeves a little less tight as they are a tad uncomfortable as is.

All in all, I have a new pair of fun pants (the daughter even said she liked them), the steam punk jacket, half of a steampunk skirt/corset/overskirt outfit, a shirt dress, another jacket and matching skirt and I am not done with the fabrics I purchased yet. All the finished items that I have worn so far have brought multiple compliments. I am well pleased.

Aside from the hours spent measuring, cutting and sewing, I have also been creating masks. The leather takes a while to cut and carve. Then there is the molding and drying after which is the painting. This also takes me away from the computer and the blog.

This month, I also went on several book signing weekends in areas where there was no cell phone reception – forget about WiFi. I took my baby laptop with me to the one last weekend and did get some writing done. The WIP is ganking me around. My main character is in flux as I try and sort of the details of her story. It was also suggested to me I’d have better progress with the story by giving my characters BFF something to grow beyond. More 3D that way. So, a lot of my writing time has been spent interviewing my characters. None of which is increasing my book’s word count but is a necessary evil none the less.

On Thursday I decided I was spending entirely too much time focused on end result driven activities and I needed to spend some time ‘playing.’ I’ve been ‘Stumble! ing.’ I have landed on a number of sites with breath taking art, several sites with how to diagrams of yoga poses I would like to add to my daily routine, silly sites and sites with mind bending puzzle games. I have also discovered site with virtual tennis, golf, racing and juggling.

The virtual activity sites strike me as very odd. I mean, if I want to play tennis, should I get up off my butt and go out and play tennis? Are all these virtual activities what’s causing people’s health to deteriorate and their girths to enlarge? Or is the opposite true? Larger girths and poorer health result in virtual activities being popular? Probably a bit of both as things are never really black and white in these arenas.

Anyway, that’s what I have been doing instead of blogging and doodling. I guess I needed a break to clear the way for more art. Who knows?