Ah, there's a fair amount of dishevelment among our number this morning. Runny noses, sneezing, coughing, and general incapacitation. Andy has it the worst. I have never, ever, EVER been sick as much as I have this year. Ever. It's possible we're on the other side of it, or possibly possible this is only the middle. I think tomorrow will tell. I'm picking up very hot, very spicy Tom Yum soup with tofu and plan to knock every germ out of my system with a blast of chili. Right? Gah.
This past week, when I wasn't watching Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery while lying in a tangled pile of quilts and feeling like a battered sweat sock (?), I wasn't cleaning out drawers or reorganizing shelves or going outside, either. I was making a bodice sloper (fever-induced mania? I am bewildered by my own self). Do you know what a sloper is? It's a basic custom fitted pattern that allows you to design whatever you want (in a nutshell). I ordered and used this one. I don't have any pictures, or any current thoughts about the process because I was essentially in crisis (both sewing-wise and sick-wise) the entire time I was doing it. It's actually really hard to do it by yourself and I don't recommend it. BUT, I finally got a really nice fit (and wow, am I crooked, and wow, my boobs are bigger than I thought — no wonder nothing fits — hello, full bust adjustment, as if I didn't know that).
Completing it successfully was nothing short of seriously empowering!!! [Cue sputtering germ-spreading coughing fit of enthusiasm.]
No, really. I haven't made a sloper in twenty years. If I were to do it again, I might use this blog post to help me draft it from scratch. (I might still do that when I feel like I can lift my hand to do more than change the channel or cuddle Meemers.) The coolest thing about it is just that you learn so much while doing it, and clothes suddenly seem much less mysterious, and you really do feel like it's just all a bunch of measurements and adjustments that you can make based on those measurements, and not that you are somehow a human anomaly that just shouldn't wear clothes.
Do you know what I mean? Have you made one?
Oh jeesh, and THANK YOU so much for your very kind comments about my new quilt!!! It's been making me very happy as I sit under it shivering and sneezing. Thank you! :)
