Employing Mary

Mary still doesn't have a foot. I haven't had much opportunity to hunt one down and, unfortunately, using the foot of my regular dummy is not an option. To stay in place, it uses a mechanism that's inside the dummy, not on the foot. Mary is stuffed with newspaper and has a cardboard bottom. She will need a foot she can just stand on.

That said, something suddenly occured to me yesterday: if I want to work on a top, I could just put her on the table...

Which is just what I did.

I'm playing around with a big silk shirt which proved to be a rather unwilling candidate for refashion so far. Mostly because of its two breast pockets which rendered to front of the shirt pretty much useless.

After taking this picture, I've taken the shirt off and ironed it. Then, I put it back on Mary, this time making sure that it was on straight. I very carefully pinned the pleats, making them neater. I plan on basting them next. After that, I'll make the back. There is a plan for it.

In the picture, I've been playing around with white tape and a bit of Mary-fabric to try and determine a proper line for the armhole. It seems tempting to keep the shoulder width and call it a cap sleeve, but, unlike Mary, I need to be able to move my arms forward. I'm still contemplating sleeve options. I won't have a lot of of material left for it, so it will have to be a short sleeve at most. Any suggestions?