The Fifteen Minute Novel is an attempt to take a single prompt and use the last sentence written each day as a start for the next day. This year I had several prompts circling around a similar story, so I have combined them. However, the story starts the same way each day, with the last line from the day before and a timer set for fifteen minutes. The hope is to end up with a complete, if very rough draft by the end of the year. Some stories are better than others, but I always learn a whole lot about my own writing when I do this so for me it is not only a nice way to work out a story, but it is a tool for helping my writing get better. And so, we continue this story for 2024 with…
Day 13: It was calming and soothing to simply work.
It was calming and soothing to simply work. It felt good to see a single piece of cloth become an entire garment. When she was through she slipped them on to make last minute adjustments to the fit. As she turned to look at the angles in the mirror, Sophie thought about how she would wear them.
While she liked making clothing for sale and getting the profits, she especially enjoyed making items for herself. She loved tailoring them to fit her body and knowing that the garment would look exactly as she intended. She suspected that was one of the reasons she didn’t want to make this her full time job. She didn’t want to rush any pieces or sent them out where they might not fit terribly well. Pieces like these wide legged trousers could look sloppy and more casual than intended if the fit wasn’t quite right. Here, for herself, she could make sure the fit was perfect.
‘But Janine can sell the pieces I want to make that I have no where in my life to wear so I get to make them without guilt,’ she told herself. ‘And I do like the sleep wear.’
Sophie knew that there were only so many pajama sets she could make for herself and she did like working with the softer and silkier fabrics.
She decided that these trousers were the sort she would wear with heels and she went into her closet to slip on the heels so she could double check the length. With a few more tweaks, she finished the trousers. She gathered up the scraps, folding the excess material around the smaller bits so they could stay together. She both the end of a bolt to get this material and even though there was not enough material for another set of trousers, there was plenty for a project demanding less fabric.
‘’Maybe some capris,’ she thought. The material could work well for that as well as the trousers she just finished and the capris would take up significantly less material. She made a mental note and set the material to the side. As she did she saw some emerald green material she picked up on a whim because she loved the color. Thinking of the deep, rich chocolaty brown of the trousers, Sophie thought it would make an excellent blouse.
“And I know just the pattern,” she told herself deciding that it was certainly well worth adding the blouse to her weekend to do list.
The weekend seemed to fly by. By the end of it, Sophie had a clean apartment, all her laundry washed and put away, clean sheets and a well stocked fridge. She managed to finish the trousers and blouse and decided that Monday she would wear them to the office. She arranged her hair in an up do and studied the outfit in the mirror. As she thought the Emerald green blouse complemented the chocolate trousers well. The trousers were wide legged and but tailored at the waiste and rear. The blouse was tailored around the waist but had voluminous sleeves. She was very proud of the way the outfit turned out.
‘Too bad it has to be wasted on the office,’ She thought as she slipped her lunch into her bag and prepared to head back out into the land of cubicles.
Traffic was the usual slow and steady drive.
Ten til Midnight 