About Me
I’ve had some kind of block lately and have to force myself to write. This is an exercise.
The website name was also an exercise in self-acceptance many years ago. I grew up disliking my name, but in retrospect that may have been because people only called me by it when they were angry. I wanted to make an effort, because it seems like if I like myself, then I must like Janel.
I was born in western Washington 52 years ago, and thought it was okay because I didn’t have anything to compare it to. Then we moved to north California when I was about 13 and I found out there were alternatives. My dad took us to a somewhat remote place, a valley at the end of a road. I want to talk about that more in a while. It’s already on my Blogspot blog Then I got trapped up here again and been trying to escape ever since. There is a way out of this murky muck without leaving Washington– it’s called Eastern Washington, and that plan has moved to the preparation stage.
About me. Hm. Well, I’m decently smart if I pay attention, which isn’t always. I have a variety of interests to keep me amused. If a few people are okay with me, that’s more than enough. Was that enlightening? I’m a mammal, breathe oxygen, etc.
Internet publishing caught my attention from early on, when ISPs naturally came with hosting and everyone had a yourhost.com/~you. My diary and photos of my children went up instantly.
Check out my personal blog that’s been around forever, at https://janelwashere.blogspot.com/
The Barbie patterns came later. I had to invent a pattern for my daughters’ 1999 new body Barbies, so I might as well share it. I guess I wasn’t the only one who needed that! It’s fun to get attention and receive nice letters from around the world.
Here’s me current as of recently, having not had a bath for some time since this is our cold new home and there’s no water but what we bring.
Howzat for a big old Cheshire cat. Just happy to be home. I’ve wanted a home for a really long time now.
Hi! Are you the Janel who posted a recipe for “Carob Blobs” some time ago?
Yes that was me. However did you come across that?
I forget what I was looking for when I first found the recipe, but I blundered back into your site looking for Barbie patterns!
“Janel” is a pretty distinctive name, so it stuck in my head, along with the comment along the lines of “If you say chocolate cookies, people have expectations.” Is the recipe still online?
I just thought of checking on my blog and there it is 😁
https://janelwashere.blogspot.com/2009/09/carob-blobs.html
Janel,
I’m new to your website and I love what you show so far. I am in a huge dilemma. My 7 year old granddaughter is wanting a “Princess Peach” Barbie dress to be made by, you guessed it, her Nana. I have struggled for over a month now trying to figure out how to piece-meal a pattern. I figured out how to make a princess full length skirt. You cut a 18″ diameter circle with a 3″ diameter whole opening in the middle to be gathered for the fullness of the skirt. You can make the hole larger for more puff but you will need to lengthen the skirt by making it a 20″ diameter circle. Then you make about a 3″ seam opening just off the center opened circle to get the skirt on and off (or sew 1/8″ elastic all the way around and the child can slip the skirt on an off. I did the slip this way. Here’s my problem, I need a high neck fitted bodice with short puff sleeves. There is a insert in the front bodice part, but I can always just make it on the fold and sew the “almond” shape insert on top of the fabric. I tried the wrapping the Barbie with plastic wrap and then masking tape to draw on the darts, waist, bust points and cross line, neck, sleeve opening etc. and it just doesn’t work for me (I guess I’m not very talented). Can you help with a bodice front and back that can be attached to a long full length skirt with princess bellows around (like a Cinderella dress)? Thank you in advance, Debra Black
Oooh Princess Peach, that sounds like great fun and should come out really pretty! You need a fitted bodice, then the first question is, which Barbie body?