A new effort with a new pattern

I am feeling the need to get back into my sewing room. For whatever reasons, this tax season is the most challenging of the 20 years I've spent doing taxes. I am only working 20 hours a day, scheduled 5 hours a day over 4 days, with the daily hours often extending until a client is finished, but by the time my day is over I'm wrung out. I need the release of my creative activities. 

Since I now have a sloper that fits very well, this morning I intend to take this princess seamed sloper pattern and draft a side darted pattern from it. Then I can use that to help with alterations on purchased patterns. Due to the changes in my body, depending on the actual design I use, there will probably be both left and right side patterns for both front and back. 

The woman I found, Jewell, did a great job on fitting me, but the right to left differences were startling to me. On my right side, both front and back, she pinned out a shoulder princess seam from top to bottom, removing width all the way down. On the left side, the front is similar to the right, but with a different shoulder. On the back left, the shoulder dart was increased slightly, but then no intake was taken from the should dart to the waist where there is a fisheye dart, and then from the waist down the dart was overriden with an increase down to the hip. This is the best fitting sloper I've had since I worked with Ginny and Lyra at Santa Rosa Junior College back in the late 90's and early 2000's. 

In the back of my head is a project that will be rather extensive, and probably wait until summer. I want to use my sloper to draft a basic jacket pattern than can be adapted to either blazer, bomber jacket, or other types as I decide. Many years ago when I taped sewing programs from the television, I adored Shirley Adams series, The Sewing Connection, and she could take one pattern and turn it into multiple looks easily and with some minor pattern work. I have almost all of her booklets from those series and she is truly inspirational no matter what type of textile work you do. The videos are now on You Tube but the quality of the videos isn't as good as the shows were in real life.

But, for now, I'm concentrating on a few small items. I've seen the Friday Pattern Company's Patina Blouse in several iterations over on Instagram, and I'm taken with the look and want at least one, maybe several. I did buy the pattern and although, I'm not loving the picture on the front, I love the looks of it. Here's the line drawings:

I think it looks polished and new, and yet at the same time that collar is reminiscent of vintage clothing. 

I'm also doing some sewing for a forthcoming Great Granddaughter who needs a custom quilt, for her arrival in June. I'm also sewing for a small person and her Barbie doll. Her birthday is in April, so that is as much a priority as anything when my sewing time is limited.

I'm hoping to be doing more sewing this year, and posting more frequently! Here's to a lovely 2025.