It's been a while...

Since I posted. November in fact.
I didn't intend to leave it so long, but hey, life happened and I was busy living it rather than writing about it. Christmas and new year came and went.  and here we are at the end of February beginning of March, Today the sun is shining and last week was the first day of the year when I went to work and arrived home in daylight.

It's now a week after half term and I had a bit of me time. Its been hectic over the last few weeks.
So what have I been up to?

Way back in September, My Daughter and I joined the local Pantomime Society. At the end of January all the hard work came to fruition in a week of performances of "Cinderella in Panto Land". It was great fun and we are both keen to take part again next year.

For Christmas my sister and brother in law bought me this stunning fabric. I had to make it up straight away. I used the Audrey Hepburn inspired pattern from the little black dress book.

 The drafting of the princess seams was a bit out and there was a lot of ease in the back, but a muslin later I had a workable bodice, to which I added a full circle skirt. I still have about 1.5m of this fabric left, so I'll be planning what to do with that (New Gertie dress maybe?)

 

 

 

 

I also used the pale blue/green double gauze I had from Fancy Moon last year to make the Asymmetric blouse from the 4/2014 Burdastyle magazine (this issue is the very best ever, IMHO). There was enought left over to squeeze a sorbetto tank out of. I love the sorbetto and wear the ones I have loads.

My Hubby also bought me burdastyle's digital drafting course, which uses Illustrator. I'd dabbled with Illustrator before, but not very successfully. This course covers the basics of Illustrator as well as drafting and grading using the programme. I've been spending quite a bit of time doing this and now have a workable t shirt pattern - more on that at another time! I'm also using the skills I've learnt to create a digital version of one of my drawings for a banner for church.

I have plenty of projects in the planning stages -a suit for my hubby; a refashioned coat; trousers and jeans. A dress inspired by one I saw last summer and of course party dresses. Too much cake, but I just can't help it.

I've also been working on a proposal for a participatory arts project. I'm still in the early stages of development but can't wait to get started.

My daughter is studying GCSE art, so we had a painting day yesterday (well 1.5 hrs), we did a bit of portaiture work. the proportions aren't great, but it was more about the technique than details. It's ages since I worked like this and I have a tendency to over work paintings. I need to know when to stop. but i'll use it as a demo piece for my students. I think my daiughter is really pleased with her version and I think she'll take it to school next week.