Artist Mode: the Polka Dot dress

It has only been more than a week that I can say I have really given my focus to my current project.

For the first two weeks of February, I kind of was busy with life. My house help was away for a couple of weeks to take care of her family, so I was left alone with taking care of my boys. At first I thought it would come smoothly. You know, wake up at 4am and prepare everything that the boys need for school and work for that day. Then perhaps I could easily go back to my task for the day, right? Well, turns out, it wasn't that easy. Because although I had some time to focus during the day, my work time is diminished substantially. Between 10am to 4pm isn't always a solid 6 hours because there are laundry days, market days, other errand days squeezed in between days of the week. And as if after completing your errands, you still have that much energy to go back to your project, right? I relied so heavily on black coffee, which yielded another challenge - not sleeping early enough.

But but but... I'm not complaining. It actually is such a blessing in disguise.

Those two weeks taught me a lot of things. Firstly, you need help. Sure, you can and would want to do ALL things, but sometimes, you just gotta accept that it will take you a lifetime to complete your projects if you are totally alone.

I also had these alone times of the day when I would realize a lot of things. Things that I missed to carefully think about while I was preparing this venture. Like, for instance, "having a conversation with my fabrics". It was such a beautiful thing to do. But I will tell about it more in another day, okies?

So, the reason why I'm having such an annoyingly long intro? To justify why I only got to design one dress for those several weeks. 

Teehee...

But, I gotta tell you. This simple looking dress was actually kind of complicated to make. I have tried different techniques, threw away lots of prototypes, even tweaked the original design. But my final prototype made me happy, and I will be producing the items for sale starting Monday.

Here are some photos that I managed to snap in between those 'really focused' days.
I hope I inspire someone today :)

Pinning, basting, cutting, machine-sewing... while watching a documentary on my little buddy Ipod Touch...

Prototypes galore...

My gals...

The small size, modeled here by Aya

I hadn't shown a photo of the small size in the current contest post because I think I am revealing too much of a Momoko's cleavage. I will be making another pattern for her and Ramona (a Blythe) because I think they are just so cute in this print, they deserve their own size, too.

Lastly, me and my current work area.

Messy, I know... but shshhhh...

See ya later!

h u g s,
s h a s h a