If you look at this dress and the dress below, you'll see they are made from the same pattern. I just did the color blocking a little differently. 


The unaltered pattern calls for a straight skirt. I thought it needed a little more walking room so I added godets. I've used this pattern, with and without godets, several times over the years. As long as I keep playing with fabric and color, each dress is an individual. 

I was feeling bummed out yesterday, so I decided to make a dress. I finished it this afternoon. I had more problems with this dress. First, I sewed the side/sleeve pieces on backwards so the sides are the sleeve. The sleeve fit, so I didn't change anything. If it hadn't fit, I would have inserted a godet. 


The last time I tried using a metallic thread for a lot of fancy stitches, I ended up cursing the thread. This time, I just grabbed my favorite color and used that. 


The next serger I get will have automatic threading. First the upper looper ran out of thread. Next, the lower looper thread broke. That makes for some really nasty threading. Next, the thread on both needles broke. After a half hour of threading and rethreading, I got the serger threaded and in working order. 


I put hearts on the sleeve hems because I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve. 


I really enjoy working with positive and negative prints. I remember in the early 80's there was lots of quilt fabric in positive and negative prints. I wish there were more of those prints now. It seems as if the only positive and negative prints are in black and white. 

My New Seam Ripper

I love this seam ripper. It fits in my hand really well. I did have to use it on the dress I made - only needed to rip out about 4 stitches. Worked really well. 

Jim Has Been Making More Pens & Goodies

Fountain pen made from a piece of cholla (pronounced choya) cactus and filled with acrylic. 

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Key rings. It would be tough to lose your keys with a ring like this. 

What to do with the leftover bits of acrylic. 

More Bedside Boxes

This was the first of the fancy boxes I made. I used two stamps and did one vertically so I'd have a ready made "key" for the lid. 

Slip on the bottom, terra sig on the badly fitted lid. 

Just slip. I'm not wild about the results. I think if I want to try for something like this in the future, I'll use underglaze rather than slip. 

Right about here is when I decided I needed to try another approach to lids. 

This was the second time I used this glaze. I've decided I don't like it and I'm not going to try to figure out how to fire it successfully. 

Plate, not warped. I want to play around with this drape mold and with both underglazes and funky glazes. 

Disappointing Firing

I've never had a lid from an ^04 piece warp in firing before. I didn't have enough to do my own firing, so I figured it would be okay to let the grad students fire my work along with the other students' work. What I have learned from this is that it's time for me to get my own kiln. 

Bedside Boxes. 

^6 plate. This was a flat plate until it got fired and it warped. I've never had a problem with the glaze on the bottom of the plate. I suspect the kiln was fired fast, there was no hold at the top, and it was cooled way too fast.