What a way to kill a Sunday

So, instead of working on the actual pants pattern I'd downloaded from the Internet and traced, I spent several hours doing a new croquis. I didn't remember how long it had been since I did my last one, or what I weighed at the time.

Here's the overall plan:

Take pictures of myself in dark, tight fitting clothes, front and side, and reduce the photos to outlines. Then, in theory, I can draw the outlines of sewing patterns on top of "me" and see how I really look in them. That is often enough to cure me of wanting that pattern altogether.

Oh, and since I couldn't find my old croquis, I hooked up my old computer and spent a great deal of time copying selected directories to the external hard drive, then comparing directories to the new computer. Mission accomplished, day/time killed without actually working on my pants pattern. More measurements were taken.

The last croquis was 13 months ago and 13 pounds heavier. I am smoother in this one, but it may be due to the choice of dark and tight this time around. Is it obsessive that I am considering buying a leotard and tights specifically for future croquis?

This croquis came out much better since I used Nina's old room for a background (less cluttered, better background angle to the wall, and better contrast), and fully extended my little tripod. Also I was standing more straight to the camera. Not perfectly straight, but better.

My conclusion after studying the two croquis side by side? I used to describe my body as a tube atop a beach ball, but that comparison only works from the front view. The side view shows a belly that denies the tube and extends the beach ball idea. With tiny bumps for boobs. Really now, was that necessary?

Sigh. Time to start doing some of those "core" exercises I have been avoiding at the gym. Damn I hate getting on the floor at the gym. I'm not too keen on doing it on the floor at home either. The treadmill is so much more sanitary.

No, I'm not going to post MY croquis here. The sample above is a professional model croquis. Mine would be TMI.

Avoiding the dry cleaner

I've managed to avoid the dry cleaner for over 4 years. Mostly I wear casual clothes, and I have started to hand wash some things that were previously marked dry cleaning recommended.

But, I have a confession to make. My jacket, pictured above, has not been cleaned in over 6 years because I needed to mend the lining in the sleeve first. We wear jackets infrequently in Florida, and I would remember the lining each time I would put this on, but promptly forget until the next time. And the tear in the lining wasn't getting any better by itself.

I believe I have mentioned in the past how much I don't look forward to mending by hand. Never mind I have enough hand sewing needles to last 4 more lifetimes, I just don't like to do it. But I did it anyway, and finally took the thing in for a cleaning. Ten bucks, why am I not surprised? Anyway, it's good to get that one little nagging job off my list.

What's next?