Fashioning My Cyber Microcosm: A Secret Code Carved.

The past week was a strange mixture of elation and a touch of melancholy; I spent the last 10 days accompanying my husband on one of his training workshops out of town which was held in Phoenix AZ, in an attempt to allow myself to "get out more" for the new year. I was listening obsessively to Pagan Poetry by Björk that it turned into my unofficial theme song.

I took the opportunity to plan the weekend with one of my friends I met while living in Holbrook; we packed as much into the weekend as humanly possible-- we took a tour at Taliesin West, watched a piano duel, tasted a cheese platter, went to the zoo, rode a camel, fed giraffes, experienced a "4D" theater, shopped at the mall, and I tasted sushi for the very first time. Actually, there were a lot of firsts this past weekend, now that I think about it... You see how tiny the rock I lived under was? It gets even smaller, trust me.

The spider rolls were my favorite

That's right, up until the past weekend I had never tasted sushi or anything like it at all. To be frank, the idea of sushi sounded repulsive-- raw fish? Kinda crazy, I thought. However, seeing as I am forcing myself out of the proverbial box, I said to hell with regression.
I have never been so totally wrong about something in my entire life; it was, without a shadow of a doubt, the single most exquisite dining experience I have ever had. The explosion of flavors and sensations were borderline intoxicating.
And I used chopsticks... awkward, but certainly new and refreshing for me!
It's funny to have such an experience in a place that was slightly commercial, heh. Regardless, I certainly can't wait for the next time I have sushi again!

At the zoo, I took the opportunity to get up and close to the large animals; again, up until that point I have never even seen a horse up close.

So, they were offering camel rides... I heard the familiar voice that told me that they're all dangerous, and that's why I've never tried going up to animals unless there was several hundred feet or reinforced glass between us. I ignored that voice again and rode the camel. It was surreal.

The giraffes were ready for snack time, so we did that too; I would have never guessed that a giraffe's tongue is almost dry-ish and spiky, like a cats. I was guessing it was more similar to a dogs, slobbery and slimy. It took several snacks to get a few good shots because it kept nabbing it from my hands rather quickly, hah-- what a tongue!

After the weekend with my friend, I settled into the next hotel with my husband and that is when I found out Bowie had past; it set a rather melancholy mood for the next couple days, as he was an inspiration to us all. I stewed a bit in that gloom and grabbed my sketch pad, and began to draw...

There are few things that inspire art like loss does... it sounds like such a cruel reality. I'd like to think it is through the creation of art after loss that we as artists carry the memory of those we respected and appreciated during their life.
In one of his last videos, Blackstar, there was a scene of the floating headless skeleton drifting towards an eclipsed star-- I kept thinking, and thinking about it after the news.

I don't know why I decided to reattach the head... I simply felt like I needed to after the news. Progress stopped Wednesday after deciding I needed to give it an india ink and watercolor wash for the background, while adding the finishing touch to it-- all which required masking fluid, which I didn't/don't have a designated brush for yet...
I do have plans to finally go shopping for more supplies tomorrow-- I'll need it all for the watercolor class I signed up for coming up the week after next, heh.

There is definitive change coming in 2016, and it is felt indirectly through the passing of some of our greatest and most beloved icons. Though is saddens me to see them go under the nemesis cancer, it is a reminder to continue living life with little apprehension, and a surplus of passion. Death doesn't care about tomorrow's and some other times.

Fashioning My Cyber Microcosm: Developing The Horizon.

A new year a new canvas, right?
When I look back at 2015 it's not with a particular reverence; last year was a giant listless fog. I may have been my most productive in my sewing room, but there was a passion lacking in my efforts; I seemed to have misplaced it along the way to now.
As I went through 2015's archives, I frowned some. I lacked something, and it just got worse over the year.

I remember when I lived with my mother I had this insatiable hunger to create; there was nothing I didn't wish to dabble in, and my mother encouraged and supported each endeavor-- whether it was jewelry making, film photography, painting, sculpting, creative writing... I tried and loved so much!

And now, now I'm an adult and my running excuse is that I would rather focus on a sole hobby then spread myself too thinly.
I've had enough of that excuse, I haven't felt any growth as an artist and have reluctantly cringed at the word. That is not right; I remember being a teenager and attempting to find my artistic niche through a plethora of mediums... and looking back at that time, I believe I resembled an artist closer then, than I ever have in my adult life.

So you know what, I decided to get back into the things that made me happy: 2016 will be the year I resume my position as a jack-of-all-trades (circa 2003), for whether through pyrography, sculpting, or sewing... I have always loved manifesting my heart and dreams through my hands.

To ring in the new day of the new calendar year, I bought some flower wire and mosaic tiles to reacquaint myself with one of those long lost friends; these supplies are cheap and abundant, perfect for the purposes of practice unlike the costliness of actual jewelry wire and cabochons. Oh beloved wire work... how I have missed you.

I realized that you can most certainly forget how to wire work (lol), and this is especially true of your flesh. My index fingers were a nice shade of purplish red having worked 5 pendants in a night-- the best of the bunch being the two pictured. I practiced different forms of wire weaves and twists. Rebuilding my skill set means rebuilding the savage callouses I used to don.

I practiced on the less pretty pieces in my bag of tiles; I set aside the pretty ones to practice a little painting on. I used acrylic paints and then took a thick sewing needle and scratched out finer details.

I am going to glaze them with a layer of modge podge dimensional magic to prevent the design from being worn off... once I buy a bottle that is, heh.
When I eventually feel at home with wire again, I will purchase some black wire and make what I hope is going to be some pretty snazzy pendants.

After painting these couple of tiles it also got me to thinking about painting in general, too. Last year I purchased a palette of watercolor cakes from Micheal's which I used to paint a witch as a part of a Halloween swap, and I haven't touched it since.

In the eerie hours of yesterday's morning, I busted out my pad of paper and began sketching one of my furry muses... little Khan. I had no particular goal for the sketch, I merely doodled for lack of a better word.

Khan seemed content sitting at the table and creating with me; what a sweet little tot. We stayed up just basking in all the supplies I had dug out. I had bought a bottle of masking fluid from walmart to experiment with some time ago, and this piece seems like the perfect one to try it on. However, I don't want to use any of my new brushes for the stuff, so this drawing will have to wait for the color wash and inking until I can buy some rubber tipped brushes.

I don't think he sees a resemblance.

After a few days of just playing with art supplies it is clear what I need for myself in 2016, and it is with all of this in mind that I was able to compile what I will achieve in the coming year.

Expanding Myself:

• Take a watercolor class: I'd like to make friends while learning and expanding myself. Watercolors is something I've always had an interest in going to a class for, so it clicked together-- now that there's a community art school at my disposal with which to fulfill this desire.
• Begin learning how to crochet: I taught myself how to knit, so why not crochet? They say it's easier to catch on to... so we'll see. I've managed a chain stitch and a very rudimentary edging finish to some knitted pieces.
• Continue learning tatting: I had the basics down with a shuttle once upon a time, my momma even found me some vintage ones that seem really neat but I never used. I have let up on my education so I don't remember how to do it. A little ironic because I had purchased some tatting needles because I was lead to believe it was easier and more intuitive than the shuttle.
• Sew more in solids and luxury materials: I've been feeling trapped in the materials I've been using in my sewing. As cute and awesome as Halloween prints are, I think it's about time I resume making more decadent pieces of attire for my closet. Pieces that have a little more maturity and class in mind; laces, velvets, and dark colored solids will be incorporated into my future projects.
• Sew a waist training corset: I've made fashion corsets in the past, all for friends. I buy fabric for corsets I keep saying I'll make for myself and it never happens because what I actually want is to delve into legitimate corsetry.
• Explore the city: while I lived in Canada, I had the luxury of a pretty boisterous art community, and a nice range of live jazz lounges to pick from. I took that for granted; moving South of the border, there hasn't been a lot of art and music of my tastes for me to experience because of the rather small and rural nature of the places I have lived in. I've gotten so used to not having places to go to that I even forgot what it's like to go out for something other than going to and from work and the grocery store.
• Self-date: My husband refuses every one of my invites to see things that seemed cool. I missed a myriad of events and historical sites for years because he didn't feel like going or it wasn't his thing, and in return I didn't want to go alone so I stayed home sulking. Yet, when he desired to go to sporting events I went along despite absolutely abhorring everything but the food. I wonder how I got used to this... I used to go on self-dates all the time while I lived in Canada; it's time to get that independence back.

Refining Myself:

• Purge my wardrobe: having a hobby in garment sewing, one has a tendency to accumulate an inordinate amount of clothing. I feel it's about time to let go of pieces I've had for years years and haven't worn even on an irregular basis.
• Maybe get a haircut: I've been sporting long locks for many years now... perhaps it's time to change it up a little? This is one I constantly say I'll do and never actually do it lol, that is why there is emphasis on the 'maybe'.
• Invest in platform shoes and boots: I no longer like stiletto heels. I mean they're pretty and I'll probably keep my absolute favorite pairs (ones passed down from my mother), but it's torture and as I get older the less I can justify the pain I endure for the sake of vanity. Totally not saying heels are wrong for every woman, though... just so we're clear, heh.

I am just fed up of wishing and hoping things will change or I'll eventually get a chance... Nope. I am legitimately fed up of my stagnation; it's gone on for too long now.

Fashioning My Cyber Microcosm: Meanderings and Goals.

The wheels of time doth turn and churn, and like always I've been blind to its unrelenting passing.
Like Frankenstein to his monster, I tend to my creations to the detriment of everything and everyone around me-- I barely notice how many days go by before the next post. Typically by that time, days sometimes weeks have gone by.

November was pleasantly productive, I finally and once and for all finished that Whovian scarf that had so long haunted my WIP pile since its conceptualization that fateful day. I finished the bat peplum blouse, another notch on a trend I've been effectively obsessing about since 2013! I still haven't had enough, there is more yet to come.

I overhauled my entire fabric stash and came to the startling conclusion that I actually don't have a baby stash-- it's actually a huge stash that comfortably sits around very high triple digit yards on a given estimate. Scary-- so I took away all the excess that I could comfortably rid myself of... granted, it might not have seemed like much, but I have never fought so hard against my fabricaholic tendencies.

Carnage during the "great purge".

I went through my 200+ sewing patterns and retired many I'll never sew, and a few I can part with altogether. This has made sewing them all in my youth a feasible goal. I cleaned every nook and cranny, and redecorated the entirety of my sewing room; by god did it feel great!

Oh but how time has had it in for me this December.
Things have gotten slow once December arrived on the calendar. I mean real slow. So slow, my body aches with atrophy.
Ok, so I'm being dramatic... I've not felt this listless since I lived in Holbrook, AZ.

Some of you may remember how I combated this feeling; I used to make lists to keep me focused and busy. I decided to go back to doing that-- it helped a lot.

Since I really want to work through the remaining patterns and use (instead of hoard) my fabric stash, I thought it might be nice to target those especially with Roses and Vellum hosting a wardrobe sew-along. What better time to making it all happen-- as opposed to the smorgasbord of crafts that was once how the lists were.

So with my goals and intentions set, it's time to make it sew!

Sew long, and prosper.

Spooky Basket: Something Pretty For When All Else Fails.

I had trouble deciding whether I wanted to post about my kind of gloomy non existent plans in an attempt to join Professor Z in her Gothidays blog event, or curate a Freakshow Films post around one of my favorite filmmakers Jan Švankmajer who I've been seeing quite a lot of recently, or write about how I think Christine McConnell is a much better pinup role model than Dita Von Teese is... lol.

Well... I could't decide.

So naturally, I've turned to my sewing room which has recently welcomed some new members-- all consequences of the act of the "treat yo self" movement... *shiftyeyes*

In October, Tula Pink announced her new hardware line of rainbow steel awesomeness that included 8" shears, a surgical steel seam ripper, and some tweezer snips. I preordered them, of course.

I ordered my set from The Crafty Cora on Etsy. I had trouble locating a shop that would answer my pleas, and this shop was quick to communicate and happy to take orders. They came to me in mid November, just as the doctor ordered, heh!

The tools are far prettier than I could have expected! True to the nature of Tula Pink (one of my favorite fabric designers, weird I know), they're very bright and colorful-- they easily beat out my Gingher shears. To be honest, I am not sure why I ordered the ripper and the snips too... I don't like either method of snipping or ripping lol. I'm just as bad a gadget-aholic as I am sew-aholic. 

I did worry about one thing when it came to the shears since there was no real description of the blade; luckily my worries dissipated when I slid my finger across the blades... 

If there's one feature that annoys me, it's micro serration. I don't know why they add this to so many sewing scissors-- it's the worst idea, in my opinion. Once they go dull (and they do, despite the claims of otherwise) you can't take micro-serrated scissors to get resharpened without completely ruining them. You can tell if you have micro serration just by looking at the blade-- it would appear as a tiny pinking pattern. Likewise, you can feel it-- a blade that isn't serrated will feel smooth and kinda dangerous to slide your finger across.

Shortly after, Black Friday sales were kicking in online and I saw two deals I couldn't pass up; I was in the neighborhood for a new iron, even though there isn't anything mechanically really wrong with my Rowenta. It doesn't sputter, and I kept up the maintenance well-- it's just that, even at its highest temp it wasn't hot enough and didn't steam enough for my liking anymore.

Entrer le Oliso TG1100.

I used one of these in the quilt shop I worked at back in New Mexico, so I knew it packed a punch in the heat and steam department. It's a little weird that it doesn't need to be propped up like any other iron, you keep it on its plate and it jumps up with little legs on its own. Cute, and actually pretty intuitive if you think about it; like so many who sew, we've all been victim to the "hot plate graze" every now and then. It glides better than any iron I've ever owned, and best of all... it's purple!

That being said, I nabbed it for $100 flat (including shipping); it's a lot for an iron even on sale, and I don't think I would have spent it if I didn't know what I was going to expect from it... but I had a gift card to use so I "treated myself" to it. My second choice was the Smartfill by Maytag; I did a bit of research and this maytag is probably the best one if you find yourself on a limited budget but in need of a decent iron for your sewing-- current price on amazon being under $40!

Finally, along with the Oliso, I ordered myself...

A thread tower. Yup.

Probably the most gratuitous purchase of this post, it comes with 80 spools of all purpose Guterman sewing thread in a rainbow of colors (some of which I probably will never use lol), and can hold 3 of each color. It's on a lazy susan mechanism, and spins rather quietly and gracefully dons my Ray Bradbury inspired Halloween Tree. I guess since there's nothing else to say about the tower, I might as well tell you all my favorite brands of thread. They are as follows in order: Mettler Metrosene, Gutermann, and Maxi Lock.

So if you're thinking about splurging and spoiling the seamster in your life, any one of these might put a huge grin on their face-- and don't forget to stuff their stocking with good thread (not coats & clark), high quality sharps (John James needles are great quality), and perhaps some 45 mm rotary blades (make sure to ask the brand of their cutter so you can match the blade!). Trust me, they'll love it.

Mortem's Tricks or Treats: Simplicity 1590

I am not a fan of winter. The sudden change wreaks havoc on my body, and around the time of my last post I've been laid out sick to my gills-- my body can't decide if it's allergies, a cold, or just overly socialized. Probably a combination of all.

There is so much to update since last I posted! A crazy whirlwind of tiny but significant events... for starters, I've gone back to making lists of the projects I want to complete by the end of the month-- they were such great successes while I was living as a hermit in Arizona, why should it not be so while I am a hermit here in Texas? Even as I was rhetorically begging for my life to end from the symptoms of whatever ails me, I managed to complete so many of the projects on my rather ambitious list in November. The first of which was: 

Simplicity 1590

It occured to me after the last bat dress that I was making too many dresses, and I do realize that makes me sound mad as one can't really have enough... but, and I know this may sound silly, but part of the reason I have been constructing all these commercial patterns is to facilitate the sewing bug, as it's not an easy one to dive into like other addictive hobbies, and if I knew what blogs were when I was starting off I'd probably read into people's experiences like I do today. Anyway, I greatly digress.

Notice anything new, maybe? hehe...

I have a few peplum top patterns that I had trouble deciding to craft because it was indeed a peplum and a top that I wanted, and then it occurred to me that this particular one is a goldmine of useful skill building. It encompasses many, if not all aspects, of intermediate sewing level methods: bust darts, front darts, back darts, tuxedo style collar, buttons... all of which need intermediate tools like a button gauge, tailor's board and a pressing ham, knowledge on what interfacing to use... the list goes on! I say again, it's a goldmine!

I definitely recommend this particular pattern if you're looking to build upon your skill set with these tools to improve the look of quality in your work, or even to refresh yourself in case its been a while. Plus, it's hella cute for anyone.

I chose view B which includes all of the above details, and for the fabric I chose a Chillingsworth blender by Andover Fabrics and a dancewear material for the collar. Two particularly difficult materials; Andover fabrics is notorious for either over starching their cottons or they create them with a heavier weave then I can observe... I prewashed this material twice and there still seems to be residual stiffness, which is apparent by the tenacity of the folds created with simply pressing center folds in. This would by why they tell people not to construct garments with quilting cotton... but you can't find these kind of awesome prints in fashion material, so it makes it hard to heed that warning. Anyway, the dancewear might've seemed like a bad idea for a collar no less, but after observing the construction of t-shirt quilts while working in a quilt shop, I was convinced a t-shirt backing interfacing would work.

It did. It completely removed the stretch of this ultra stretch dancewear, while still retaining some of the natural drape. See? Quilters and garment constructors can learn from each other!

The blouse comes together in a total of 3 AHS: Freakshow episodes-- not so long. I almost hit a brick wall in the exact place where there seems to be a consensus where it is badly written in the instructions. The attachment of the peplum; other than this part, it's all very intuitive. I had debated creating a video on just this section, as people seem to have trouble preventing a bubble where the tie and peplum seam meet. 

I think the problem might be that either people haven't made the initial reinforcement in the corners, or they clipped into that seam after the peplum has been jammed into and attached to that seam-- which it seems to suggest from what I can tell. During the mock up, I simply clipped first then attached the vertical seam and followed through into the front dart when I stitched it up-- and voila no bubble, no pucker. That might've made things worse since I am not the best at verbal (written) direction...

I was a little lazy when it came to the tie-- I chose not to create it out of either of my fabrics. Instead, I used a black cotton lace that I had received in a lot of vintage notions in an ebay auction; I purchased it primarily for a tailor's clapper since I had never seen a clapper alone for how little I paid for the entire lot! Quite a find.

Finally, I finished the hem using a narrow lace ribbon... another momentary lapse of will-- I just didn't feel like turning under the seam so to hide the overlocked stitches lol.

I am also letting Ophelia model it alone, since the state of my face and body has been in a constant state of redness, puffiness, oozing liquid, and exhaustion since the beginning of November, heh.

My final notes on the pattern other than what I mentioned, it turned out to be a touch tighter than anticipated-- doesn't seem to be much integrated ease... or maybe it's because I've just been horribly swollen and bloated, since it doesn't appear to be tight on Ophelia who has been my identical measurements before being this sick lol.

As a side note, if you're thinking of using this amount of specialty material, do bear in mind that it probably can't be tossed in with the regular wash without horrible consequences-- my blouse will have to be dry cleaned.

More updates as I get better! Spook ya later, ghouls!

Mortem's Tricks or Treats: McCall's 6887

During this past week my husband was gone for yet another business trip. I spent the entire time at home; I stepped outside a total of two times; once to take out the trash and pick up mail at the beginning of the week, and again to do the same at the end of the week.

That may sound pitiful and unhealthy to some folk, but I really relish these moments; it's the times I'm in solitude that I am at my most productive.

With nothing to derail my creative drive such as a grumpy/hungry/"in the mood" husband (heh), I was able to focus completely on my own thoughts. Problem was, he's integral to the fabric decision making process, and without him I spent 2 days just attempting to choose fabric; I could be a poster child for indecision. So I enlisted the aid of friends online to help me with the job, and so the pattern that had been in my queue for a long time was finally underway.

McCall's 6887

I'd like to point out that, that friend is male and has no particular interest in sewing, halloween or dresses that I'm aware of, so the mere fact he was willing to help me with swatching this pattern was immeasurably appreciated, heh. He decided this glow in the dark bat fabric was best out of the choices I managed to bring to him.

The pattern is deceptive, at first glance the dresses looks basic, but the dresses have a design feature that won me over; they are partially backless. I chose view A and cut out a size 12, and made a slight design change.

One of the key complaints to this pattern's backless feature is that the placement of the button bar that goes across your back is awkward and has a tendency to show too much bra. With this in mind, I was able to plan my attack of this dress, but I wish my problems began and ended there...

When I finished my draft I began work on my mock up, but something funky was apparent when I tossed it up on Ophelia-- the straps for the sleeves had a little too much ease, so I took it apart and used my brand spankin' new seam allowance curves to redo them.

"What do you mean I'm not helping?! I'll cut you!"

The adjustments were perfect on the first try for the armholes and the button bar (having put a bra on Ophelia to determine where exactly one sits). I went on to assume that I was over the worst of the adjustments after just mocking up the bodice alone, and continued onto the final garment. That would be my first error, though I didn't realize it at the time what it entailed.

Nearing the final stages of the dress, the second mistake showed up; somewhere during the attachment of the lining and exterior skirt pieces to the dress, I had unwittingly sewn the back half of the lining wrong side inside-- meaning the sewn seams were exposed on the inside, which defeats the point of having a lining. I realized this only after having inserted the zipper. Being the finisher freak that I am, that meant I had to undo regular and overlocked seams to redo it all at that point.

Once corrected, I was having an unbelievably difficult time reinserting the zipper; it's like it decided it didn't want to be part of the garment anymore. It was a regular zipper, so after several attempts I decided to just insert an invisible one... that meant undoing the center back seam so that I could add it seamlessly...
Any other person probably would have just said F that noise, but my determination pushed me forward. After I had done with the unstitching and sewing of said zipper I believed I was done, what a fool I was...
When I put on the garment, it was at that point I realized I made the biggest mistake of all (that error #1). The bodice did indeed fit perfectly, but if I had not been so presumptuous and skipped ahead, I would have seen during the mock up stage that the skirt was a whole size too big! I checked my pattern draft to the original, and it appeared that during my sleep deprived stupor, I had copied a size 14 skirt instead of a 12-- I think this is what they meant when they warn people not to sew at night...
I could have just added pleats, but the sight of them was just not suitable to the design of the dress. I took a deep breath, and to my own surprise I did not rage and rampage. I grabbed my seam ripper and went to work... again.

After all that unstitching, my house looked like I had a fierce battle with some type of thread monster, and its blood, the thread cuttings, covered every inch of me and everything else. I'm still finding cuttings in my hair, but that ended the reign of the pattern mishaps... finally.

Now onto the design changes! The only design change I made was the addition of the collar. I found the front to be too boring and not fitting a dress of this kind. Initially, I drafted a peter pan collar and it quickly evolved into bat wings.

Drafting a peter pan collar is no big deal, but turning them into a bat wing required a little bit more thought. It was tricky drafting it so that it would so obviously look like bat wings while still allowing a 5/8th seam between points and curves-- all while attempting not to make it too small or too large.

The points were dulled during the process, but I believe I succeeded in doing exactly what I set out to do. I left a little gap in between the points because once again there was an initial plan; to put in a cute little skull button. Instead I ended up sewing a bow into place after deciding the button would be too much.

It was during this project that I decided to jump in an try my hand at fabric covered buttons for the first time. I don't know why I didn't try them before, especially since I love fabric covered buttons-- they're the bees knees. Since I don't have a fabric button press of my own (yet), I bought the insta-kits by dritz.

They actually worked pretty well, and resulted in some fine looking buttons to match the fabric of my dress! I mean, I can only assume that buttons made with a button press would look exponentially better, but being so... not bad at all, heh.

And that folks concludes this rather long post; if there's one thing I hope you take away from my experience with this dress is that you do not ever skip any part of the prep -- it really is the difference of spending a few hours of prep and having a great garment, to days worth of mistakes or god forbid a crappy end product because you didn't see and address the problems. This proves that even us veterans can get complacent and make a plethora of mistakes.

Fashioning My Cyber Microcosm: Scary Spooky Numbers.

I don't know how other sewists keep track of all the numbers we deal with, but I surely cannot. Even when they belong to me.

I can't ever seem to remember my own measurements, no matter how often I use them; numbers never had sticking power in my head, unlike interesting tidbits and catchy jingles...

It was with this in mind, and the fact I go through plenty of notepads losing the notes I make, I bopped around the internet in search of a good spooky template to use. In doing so I discovered a really cute blog that offered a printable template that exemplifies the awesomeness all over this blog; I speak of Tea and Craft. Her template is cute, really damn cute-- much like her!
However, as cute as the template was it didn't perfectly fit the need I was looking for; I needed it to be a little more basic and bold since my eyes play funky tricks with small text. So I took to the internet again, but not for another template. I wanted to build on her awesome idea and add more Halloween kitsch to it!

Click to be directed to google docs for printing

After visiting the Graphics Fairy, with nothing but Pixlr and Paint at my disposal...the result is a printable that has lines for all the basic measurements one has to remember for sewing patterns, and a little room for the real specific ones, just in case-- all large enough to hang and glance at quickly. With Tea and Crafts blessing, this template is available for you all to use at your leisure!

Go ahead, print and be merry knowing you won't have to remember all those bloody numbers!
Be very sure to visit and thank Tea and Crafts for inspiring us all.