R has been using our fancy (alcohol-based, higher quality) markers very happily for a couple of months now. She wants to expand her skills, though, so she recently asked me for a set of coloured pencils.
Shockingly, my mother’s voice seemed to burst from my lips in response: “Do you have any idea how many coloured pencils we have? Have you seen all the coloured pencils in the basement?”
“But they’re not the good kind,” R pointed out. “I want to use the ones that real artists use. You can do so much more with them!”
I have to admit that she had a point. Good quality materials, tools, and equipment can be the difference between loving an activity and being frustrated by it. So I bought a set of professional (semi-professional? Is that a thing?) coloured pencils. They arrived last night.
Did you know that I’m too impatient for my own good? I opened the package right away, without stopping to realize that the excitement over new art supplies would probably interfere with an early and orderly bedtime. R sat at the table colouring and marvelling at how amazing these pencils are. Of course I joined her—how could I not?—and happily discovered that she was right: these coloured pencils seem to be worlds apart from my memories of pencil crayons back in elementary school.
(Yes, pencil crayons. In case you didn’t know, that’s what Canadians call them. I’ve been saying “coloured pencils” so as not to confuse my international readers—both of them.)
Earlier today R and I made the pattern pieces for the sleeves of her dress. There was a surprising amount of arithmetic involved in drafting the pattern—if R wasn’t confident at adding and dividing fractions before, she is now.
N walked by as we were cutting the fabric for the muslin (the mock-up, not the actual fabric) and asked why we weren’t using the fabric that R had bought specially for this dress. We explained that it’s customary to make a mock-up (which is called a “muslin”) in order to test and fine-tune the fit before cutting into the good fabric. Accordingly, the muslin for R’s dress will be a mix of different-coloured knits that were left over from other projects (don’t worry, we did our best to match the weight and stretch so that it was as close as possible to the final fabrics.)
So the pieces are all cut out, waiting to be sewn (tomorrow, we hope.) R’s first design is slowly coming to life. I can’t wait to see it made with the actual material.