Violetta Craft's Arc

Chapter 23 of 65

Elowen slept through the night in four-hour stretches. By morning Violetta had fed her twice and changed her three times. Jordie took the eight o'clock feeding so Violetta could stand in the sewing room and look at the purple fabric again. The pattern paper was still pinned. The scissors were where she had left them. She picked up the bodice piece and held it against the dress form. Something was wrong. She could see the shape but not the flaw. Last year she had cut her second-place dress the same way, sure of it, and the judge had told her later she had crowded the design. She needed another eye before she cut the silk-wool blend. She had four yards and no second chance. She called the studio on the main street where the senior who won last year now interned two afternoons a week. The woman who answered said the intern was in and could give her fifteen minutes at two. Violetta wrapped the muslin bodice and the pinned skirt panels in tissue and drove them across town. The studio had glass on two floors and a blue awning over the door. Inside, dress forms stood in a row under warm lights. The intern met her at the counter and cleared a table. Violetta laid the muslin flat and explained the A-line, the matte purple, the single idea she wanted: one clean silhouette, nothing else. The intern walked around the table twice. She pointed at the neckline and said the curve fought the shoulder seam. She pointed at the skirt and said the front panel was a half inch too wide, which pulled the eye down instead of along the line. She said the rest was strong. She said to cut the neckline higher by three-eighths and take the panel in before Violetta touched the silk. Violetta wrote it down. She thanked the intern and drove home with the notes on the passenger seat. In the sewing room she repinned the pattern, trimmed the neckline curve, and narrowed the front panel. Then she laid the purple fabric on the cutting table and made the first cut. The scissors went through clean. Elowen cried from the bedroom. Violetta set the shears down, washed her hands, and went to her daughter. The dress was started. The mistake from last year was not in it.