Begun

Now that my Sencha blouse is finished, I've begun work on the Violet blouse.  I bought the fabric for this blouse together with the fabric for my green Ginger skirt, and intended to make them in succession, so I could wear them as an outfit.  But then the Sorbetto pattern came out, and I was a goner . . .

I spent part of a cloudy afternoon last week tracing out my pattern, a job made easier and more enjoyable by the use of Hubby's new desk in the office I redid for him for his birthday.  Thanks, Honey!

Sunday afternoon I got down to the task of cutting out my pieces:

Another cloudy, rainy day.

When I made my Sencha, I traced out my pieces and did my markings with tailor's chalk - the chunk kind.  Needless to day, my markings were thick and less than perfect.  So this time around I decided to use a little trick I learned in a sewing class long ago:  marking with a sliver of soap!

Worked like a charm, even against this white fabric.  I'm really not sure why I didn't do this on the Sencha.

The markings are faint, but clear enough to be able to cut out the pieces:

And of course, they wash right out when you're done!

Does anyone else use this trick?  I remember it being a real revelation to me when I learned it.