JuanitaS

World War II scarcity made me want to dress up people in clothing not available in our small town. So, I was still loving to cut out paper dolls and their clothes, dime store stuff, when my father asked Mom...isn't Juanita too old to be doing this? She let me use her Singer treadle sewing machine, using lined paper. After much use, I overloaded the shaft with paper, and Dad had to clean it out. We made our own sheets out of muslin, ordered from catalog. Grandmother told me she and Mom made their own blouses, buttonholes by hand; she taught me how to mend socks. Mom's friend started business...taking apart men's suits, recutting from lady's pattern, making beautiful suits for sale.Now, I'm retired, do portrait sketching, jewelrymaking and will buy dressform, learn patternmaking from Armstrong book, to complete what I started years ago...fashion illustration. Out of the box thinking from art, I decided draping fabric around dress form, was like sculpture, but less work. JuanitaS