Making a Maxi Can Make you Mad!

It's summer + I wanted a maxi dress + I have short legs = I make my own.
This one, to be exact, cause it's purdy!

Smocked Maxi Dress 4/2013 #125, from BurdaStyle

The measurements seemed like they should be just fine, other than the length adjustments I knew I would have to make.  So I just dove right in.  I got the bodice done, and it was beautiful, but way too big.  Like, the shoulder straps sliding off my shoulders too big.  The arm holes are gimongous, too big.  Who has tatas this size, too big.  

I took it as a cue to finally draft myself a sloper based on my actual measurements.  I used a tutorial on youtube for a very basic sloper, and I measured in centimeters.  For one, the video used metric, and it's just more precise.  Additionally, I have no idea what 50 cm actually is, so it's a good, honest way of measuring myself.  

I traced my new sloper onto some vellum, and began marking points based on the Burda pattern.  I marked the depth of the V-neck, and where I wanted the shoulder straps to land.  I matched the width of the straps, and matched the armhole of the Burda pattern to that of my sloper.  Here, you can see all the changes I made.  The original sloper in purple, and the pattern in blue.

And here's a comparison between the original pattern pieces and the modified ones.

The bodice ended up a little too long in the back, and I'm not quite sure why.  It's still wearable, but I need to figure it out! I love this pattern, and it may be the first of many more maxis for me.

Color-aid Paper and Colored Pencil - A Great Pair!

Well folks, I have been busy! I've done a lot of work on the house, a lot of family related stuff, and lots of drawing!

My sister had this big stack of Color-aid paper.  If you've never seen it, the color is rich, incredibly even, and has a very fine tooth.  We were going to try some collaborative exercises, but we've both got a lot on our plates and it hasn't really worked out.  What did happen, is that I found out I LOVE to draw on it with colored pencil!

I've always really enjoyed drawing on toned and colored paper, but this stuff is fantastic.  It's small, so I don't usually spend more than a couple of hours on a drawing.  It's a lot of fun to let the colors come through in the drawing.  This is made extra challenging by the fact that it doesn't erase well.  In fact, you'll probably lift the color off the page before you lift the marks you want to remove. 

The best way I've found to work on it, is to start with a low-contrast pencil, and draw lightly.  For these bird drawings, I've been lightly blocking in the whole bird, and slowly building the colors.  It was initially developed as a backdrop for photographs, but since when did artists ever use things the way they were intended?