My great room is 16 deep x 20 wide from wall to wall. The built in cabinets take up 2' of space and the fireplace hearth eats another 2'. My furniture arangement is as you describe - I have a 5' walkway behind the sofa and 3.5' between the fireplace hearth and coffee table. We also have french doors that open to the covered patio but we elected to have them swing out to save that interior floor space. I have a 8x12 rug in the room and my sofa, tables and 2 chairs are arranged around that and the seating pieces have front legs on, back legs off the rug. We have plenty of room to walk around the furniture but it is still intimate enough for conversation. My house is nowhere near as formally appointed as the ones in the pictures above and upon the advice of a decorator friend, my furniture sits closer together than is normally seen in staged photos but again, it works for us.

Thank you Sue! I will certainly pass that on to my son. Stinky, no way I am posting pictures of the mess around here. We have a partly finished bathroom where I glazed two very nice CL vanities. I got all the old stuff out of the game room, it's now half way to a spare bedroom where it will live until the dreaded garage sale (said I would never have another). I have several doors to paint and walls, pressure cleaning, fascia repair and endless spiffing to get my house on the market for season. There is no way I will make the January first date though. I was hoping to have a few realtor interviews under my belt by now as I need to decide if I am going to do a flat fee listing or other. I have no idea how I managed all this work (I am the laborer) every two years while the kids were young. I did breakdown and hire two high schools to weed-out the secret garden in back though. Can you tell I'm a bit overwhelmed?

Measure yourself and then look at the pattern envelopes...they always list the measurements....then you can select the size that fits you best. Women's or Plus sizes are cut larger for fuller figures. Most patterns these days will come in multiple sizes so you can do things like taper the side seams from one size to another for the best fit. Here is a link that might be useful: What pattern size?

You'll likely find a disclaimer on the back of pattern envelopes that will state the patterns are not to be used for commercial purposes. While it's perfectly all right to produce a single garment for a customer who pays you to do so, using a commercial pattern to mass-produce clothing for resale is a violation of the pattern company policy. People will tell you that if you change the pattern 10 or 15 or x percent you can call it your own. They are wrong. I can't tell you that they'll catch you. I can tell you that they'll be well within their right to sue you and they certainly have the money to do so! Mass-produced clothing is sometimes awfully drafted. I bought a couple blouses in size "large" from a well known retailer. While they fit through the chest, (I'm a commercial size 12-14 by the way) the neck was fully three inches too big around. Plus sized clothing is often made bigger all over, and that's bad pattern making. My bust, at 40 inches, is 33% larger than my size 2 pal, but my shoulders aren't 33% bigger, nor is my neck! It takes a lot of finesse to make a truly good fitting plus-sized garment. Since using commercial patterns isn't feasible do you have pattern making skills to produce your own? Do you have plus sized friends who can try on your garments and model them? As for your friend's assessment that "if she would carry all plus size clothing she would be sold out all the time" that's interesting. Why isn't she carrying it? What is her market? What are her price points for tops, pants, dresses? What income level is she selling to? I work in a very small city of about 65,000. A woman who had run a couple successful businesses opened a resale shop for plus sized women and it struggled for a year or so before folding. The prices were *very* reasonable. The clothing was carefully chosen - nothing shabby or dated looking. She knew fashion and had a passion for it. There just weren't enough customers.