Thank You

Memorial Day can sometimes get lost in the relief of 'a day off'...for some, like My Sweet Baboo, it's the first 'day off' since New Year's Day and a much welcomed break in the routine.

But it is not just a 'holiday'...it is a solemn time of remembrance of those who have sacrificed their lives and their loved ones so the rest of us could live in a freedom that a large portion of the world's population cannot comprehend.

We can worship in any church of any denomination without fear of legal consequences.

We can choose our own government from virtually the entire population...not just rubberstamp the candidates the ruling party chooses for us.

We can then criticize that government freely without fear of reprisal.

We have rule of law, not rule of a dictator's whim.

Each of us can choose our own occupation.

I could go on, but the truth is that we are very, very blessed in this country...and we have maintained that blessing largely due to the bravery and sacrifice of men and women who have served and are serving in our country's military services.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you and God bless you.

Choir Sundays '09 #20

This Month's Colors: Black w/turquoise

I finished the New Look 6407 blouse in cotton/lycra poplin last night so I wore it today. This is the last turquoise piece in the queue, and it's not even the last Sunday of the month....

I do have a cami top on under it; that top button really is pretty low. I'll comment on that in the review...

I'm also wearing my sandwashed microfiber Sewing Workshop Plaza Pants. They're beginning to show their age (5 years?) and really need to be replaced soon...

I Missed It!

Arg, I've been on the 'net less than I realized!

I didn't participate in SWAP competion this year; the calendar was just too full. But I did look forward to looking at all the wardrobes and voting. I dropped by Stitcher's Guild every once in a while and took a peek at some of the wardrobes, but basically I just thought I'd look at 'em all at once when the voting started.

I went over and found out that the winners had just been announced! And I didn't vote or anything!

Wow. Time flies when you're...really busy...

Sewing ahead...

My buddy The Embroidery Queen brought the mantles to me last night; the letters/numbers are GORGEOUS and I'm so happy to have that TAKEN CARE OF!!!!

I was able to return the unuseable appliques to the company from which I purchased them; I don't know if they'll give me all the money back or only a portion but at least I don't have to look at them anymore. I learned my lesson on that one!

So...my holiday weekend sewing will include finishing the mantles (I'm guessing I've got about 45 minutes - an hour's worth of work to do on each one yet; there are 6). Graduation is a week from Sunday (and will be broadcast live on the 'net, so, Yay! the Artist's grandparents can watch!); if I deliver them on Tuesday that will be plenty of time.

And, just because I am forever the optimist, I've got some turquoise cotton/lycra poplin laid out on the cutting table for my first go at the very popular New Look 6407. I'd like to wear it in choir on Sunday....

Well, we'll see...

Tryin' to get the beat

I'm finding it really difficult to post when I'm not sewing. That's kind of new; I did a daily post for so long that it feels kind of, oh, weird and disconnected to skip posting.

But when I've said all I can say about the last project, and the new one isn't ready to talk about yet, I'm having a hard time putting words together for a post. I've actually missed one or two days other than the intentional Wednesday and Saturday 'days off'...and I don't like that.

Somehow I've lost my rhythm; I don't know if I'll ever get it back or if I'll have to learn an entirely new one.

I kinda suspect it will be the latter.

Shoulder Query

I posted the review of the Burda Top I wore yesterday, and mentioned that I thought the drafting in the shoulder was rather odd. Some discussion ensued, so I thought I'd post some photos of what I was talking about.

So, I did a quick copy of the bodice upper front and upper back pieces straight off the pattern sheet w/no seam allowances. You can see how far offset the front shoulder is from the back shoulder:
















Now, there may be an entirely rational reason for this. It may be a stroke of pattern drafting GENIUS to draft this way. But I have extremely narrow shoulders which also happen to be pretty square, and I have lots of trouble with front necklines draping and gaping. And this looked to me like a prime candidate for neckline droopage. So I whacked away on my piece to pull that shoulder up...and ended up using what I'd added as facing as filler so I wouldn't have a huge kink in the neckline. You can see my altered piece (which does have seam allowances and has also been lengthened an inch) compared to the original here:
















Here's a better shot of the altered-up front piece:
















And a photo of what I did to the back to make it all match:






















Anyway, what I did worked great for me; the shoulders are very nearly spot on and the neckline is fine. But that may just be due to my particular set of fitting issues (narrow square shoulders). So I will no doubt continue to alter my BWOF tops this way.

But, because I'm curious... can someone enlighten me as to the rationale of the offset shoulders?

Choir Sundays 09# 19

This Month's Choir Colors: Black w/turquoise

I finished the BWOF top last night! Wow, it feels good to make something and wear it ;). It's 103A from the May 2009 issue, made up in some of the poly/lycra matte jersey that blew up my stash two years ago. I've got my black rayon/lycra Jalie 965 cami on under it, just in case, since it *is* church choir... I need to make more of those camis...

Still getting great use from the black cotton/lycra La Fred Daphne Pants. Gotta make more of those too.

All I need's a little time.

Inchin' Along

I made a wee bit of progress yesterday...

Interfacing fused on 2 out of 4 remiaining mantle linings. Gotta cut some more to finish.

Got most of a knit top cut out. The contrast band is left for today...then the sewing machine.

Can I get it made by tomorrow?

Hm....let's see... ;)

Thinkin' Positive

Gone all day yesterday...gone all day today.

Laundry and such to do tomorrow, but...

I intend to do SOMETHING in the sewing room. Dunno if it'll be creating or cleaning or just advancing a project a little, but SOMETHING.

It's so frustrating to have projects that are calling my name and no opportunity to answer!

Not a blogging break!

Not a planned one, anyway! We had out of town company over the weekend and a concert last night. I just couldn't get to the computer...or the sewing machine, but that's not anything new.

The Embroidery Queen still has the sashes, so I'm not exactly behind on that, although I haven't got the rest of them done to the point that I can put the lining on yet. Looking at the calendar, it may very well be Friday before I even get a half an hour of unscheduled time to work on 'em.

But we had a nice visit with my DInlaws, and celebrated both Mother's Day and the Actor's 16th birthday (yikes!)

Um, you really can't put candles on cherry-covered cheesecake....they fall over....

Choir Sundays '09 #18

This month's colors: turquoise and black

I think I'm liking the layered look; I need to make some more Jalie 965 tank tops. This one is from black rayon/lycra jersey and I'm going to wear it to shreds if I don't get it some help. It works well under a lot of my lower-neckline tops, including the turquoise Simplicity 4076 Scoop neck top.

Likewise, I need more pants from Vogue 7881 pants. The black cotton twill from the dollar table at Wal-mart is amazingly long-lived, as those of you who've been following my Choir Sundays posts for a while have no doubt noticed!

We go to blue jeans again next month, though, so I suppose the black pants can wait a while.

Must...Find...Sewing...Time...

Y'all, this work thing is tough.

I am really disappointed in the lack of sewing I've accomplished so far this year...I've only finished about a third of what I'd done by this time last year.

If this keeps up, I'm just going to have to curtail all fabric purchases for a really, really long time.

I'm telling myself that it's really just a season...I had some costumes to make for church (the Frontier preacher...Pastor N. has *promised* me photos, but he wants to clean his suit first. It rained HARD the weekend of the camp out to which he wore the costume, and he says it Must Be Cleaned before any photos), then I started work and started sewing costumes for Aida; housework got horribly behind and there's been so much going on outside of the house that I haven't gotten to it.

And my in-laws are coming for a short visit on Saturday.

Well, you can only do what you can do. I have a couple of errands to run tomorrow, but I should be able to Stay Home and Clean for the better part of the day.

But I don't think I'll get any sewing done.

Sigh. Maybe next week.

To the Embroidery

I spent most of yesterday cutting and doing laundry. The low back issues are giving me fits again, so I'd cut until it started to hurt, then take a break, then cut more, then take a break...but I did get all the scarves cut. Somehow, when cutting the interfacing, I miscounted and was one set short, so I'll have to pull out the interfacing and cut another set of pieces before I can finish them all, but I had enough cut that I could interface all the black pieces. That's a long stand at the ironing board (oy, my back! My next major sewing purchase will be a press!), but the black sides are all done and sewn together and ready to hand off to my friend the Embroidery Queen for embellishment. I don't know how long she'll take to do 'em; I'll be surprised if she has 'em for more than a week.

And the internet vendor honored their offer to send me a return label so I could return the appliques that Just Didn't Work. I don't know if I'll get a full refund or not, since the appliques are all removed from their little six-pack bags, but anything will be better than nothing and they'll be out of the house.

And, while I was at it, I traced of Burda WOF 05/09 #103A, with the intention of making it from a turquoise-black-grey-white abstract print poly/lycra jersey knit. It's some of the 1.49/yd stuff I got at Sir's two years ago and I thought it would be a good test fabric...and if it looks good, I can wear it for choir this month!

I'm ready to make some quick wardrobe additions....

A Day Gift

After a very busy weekend for our church's 10-year anniversary, the staff was given the day off today.

I wasn't one of the folks who were working really hard cleaning, trimming, serving over the weekend, but I get the day off just the same. Wow.

Top on my list of things to do today is to get the mantles cut out. I need to have the black portion sewn on all of them so I can give them to my friend to embroider when I see her on Wednesday.

Then I can cheerfully and without guilt sew on some other projects while she's doing that...

Choir Sundays '09 #17

This month's choir colors: turquoise and black.


My regular fashion photographer being out of town on a business trip, The Princess pinch hit. And took a photo while waving the camera over her head at an odd angle. I did get her to take another with a more conventional angle, but she still insisted that 'overhead' shot would be more flattering. This one was actually the better of the two...and two is all we got before the battery died again for the moment (gotta get those batteries changed!) I will say the wear wrinkles in the pants don't show *quite* so much from this angle, maybe? We took the picture after lunch, which was after church...

Can you tell I'm telling her to straighten the camera?

Anyway, it's the black poly/rayon crepe Textile Studio Florence Jacket, my black cotton/lycra sateen La Fred's Daphne Pants and the new, hot-off-the-machines turquoise silk charmeuse Loes Hinse's City Dress (Modified for top). I actually used the matte side of the charmeuse for the blouse. The shiny side was pretty, but it looked a little lingerie-ish to me so I went with the matte. And I used bias strips to bind the neckline and the armholes. I forgot to trim the seam allowances off of said edges, and I think the shoulder/underarm area would fit a little better if I had remembered, but since it will be worn under a jacket 98% of the time it's ok.

Today we're celebrating the church's 10th anniversary; John Bevere was our guest speaker this morning with an amazing word on 'Honor' (I sat in all three services); tonight we're having a celebration; Master's Commission will be doing some things, the choir will sing (black tops w/jeans tonight...I probably won't try to get a photo of that, give how the above photo turned out), and we'll have a praise set from Lindal Cooley.

It'll be live on the 'net...drop by if you're not doing anything at 6 PM central time... (I'm predicting we'll still be going at 9... ;))

Fabric In (again)

You'd think I've been sewing up a storm since I'm still allowing myself to buy fabric. But one of the online vendors had a sale I couldn't resist...some pieces I really and honestly have been looking for for a while now arrived on my doorstep yesterday.

One of the things I've been wanting to make for like, years, has been a pair of silk charmeuse pajamas. But a pair of classic PJ's takes four yards of 45" wide fabric, so I needed a serious sale on silk charmeuse. And a color I liked. $5.49/ yard made it possible, and I thought the red would do. Now that it's actually in my possession, I find I don't like that red...I *love* it and I'm not sure I want to use it on PJ's. (But I think I will...Christmas PJ's, maybe?) I also got 2 1/2 yards of what was called 'sage', but I think it's more of a dark olive green. Actually, almost a dark gray with a green cast to it. I don't know if I'll use it for a garment or for lining...

And I had just decided I wanted some more black and white stripe knit tops, so I ordered 2 yards of the black/white cotton/lycra fabric in the middle. Either I missed it in the description or it wasn't noted, and it doesn't show in the photo, but there's a gold metallic thread on the borders of the white stripes. It looks very, very cool! I'll have to make that one up pretty quick.

And, just because it's noteable, you can see the scraps from the turquoise silk/lycra charmeuse top I cut out yesterday and hope to finish in time to wear for choir tomorrow. It's our 10 year anniversary celebration; I'd like to wear something a little more uptown than the rather washer-worn top that's in the wardrobe.

Finally, we had a dinner party to go to last night and I wore the new Tribeca. As reminiscent parties tend to do, this one ran very late and the picture wasn't taken until after we got home. Then the battery died in the camera. So it's not such a great photo. Oh well. ;)

Maybe There's Hope...

The Princess saw the incoming mail pile earlier this week and picked up a sale flyer from a local discount store, pointing at a dress on the front that appeared to be made from two large scarves. "Hey!" she said, "I saw a dress just like this in [I forgot! Burlington?] and I thought, 'I could *so* make that!' I looked at it and it's just two scarves sewn together! The front is sewn along the edge of the scarf and the back is seamed straight down!"

The last time she tried to make something she ended up so frustrated that she declared that she would just buy what she wanted, so I was a little surprised to hear her express an interest in sewing again.

I was more surprised when she came home yesterday and pulled two identical printed silk charmeuse scarves from a Target bag. "Look what I got! I can make the dress!"

Late yesterday evening, she had me help pin drape it so it would be properly fitted. She wanted to start sewing right away, but I still had to put the buttonholes on the Green Silk Tribeca shirt and I wouldn't let her change the thread in my machine until I got that done.

She acquiesced, and went upstairs declaring, 'I'm so excited! That's gonna look so cool!'

Hm. She's starting to Get It. There's hope.

It will need a zipper in the back (which I do not have on hand), so she really can't do much beyond the front seam anyway. ("Um, will you help me with the zipper?").

But I have a pile of cutting out to do, so I suppose the machine will be available over the weekend for her to play with her scarves. I'm crossing my fingers that it works...I don't want to deal with another episode of Frustrated Beginner in Over Her Head.

The plus side is that she kinda pushed me to putting the buttons and buttonholes on the Tribeca shirt, so that's finished now. I'll get a picture when I can.

(If she reads this post she'll be ticked. But I don't think she'll read it...)

Sometimes I am soooo stupid....

I pulled out the fabrics for the HMC Mantles and put them on the cutting board and began to pull out the various other things I needed that I had been throwing into the box as I accumulated them.

And discovered that those stupid applique letters really aren't going to work at all.

I ordered 'white' letters. But somehow, I didn't notice until I had them in the bright light of the sunroom that the letters that came are actually an ivory color.

The numbers that I have been frantically trying to match *are* white. I can't put them with those ivory letters!

I think I'm just going to chalk it up to experience and throw the whole mess out and let my friend embroider the scarves. At least it will look better.

A $40+ lesson in....something...

Actually, perhaps I should just send 'em back to the folks I bought them from.

I can't get credit...they're opened, after all. But I can't use 'em and maybe they should see that 'white' isn't 'white' across the board.

Sure wish I'd noticed it before I'd pulled 'em out of the little bags.

It's Dark Turquoise!

That's the Choir Color (along with black) for next month. I've got one top that color that I made for Easter last year (that was the color for just that Sunday), and I've got some stretch silk charmeuse and cotton/lycra poplin in that color, as well as a poly/lycra jersey print.

The problem is, of course, making the snap decision as to which pattern to use. I'm thinking another little Loes Hinse City Dress shell top from the silk...I've only got 1 1/4 yards...but I haven't got a good idea for the stretch poplin.

And I've come to the conclusion that I need a black denim jacket. But I can't find any black denim. Has any one seen any lately?

I'm going to be cutting and sewing several things this weekend; there's stuff going on but hopefully I can squeeze some sewing in around the corners! ;)

Back to 'Normal'

But, being as how the new job started the same week the costuming hit, I'm not sure what 'normal' is anymore.

I'll figure it out.

Meantime, I'm starting to think about actual sewing for the closets in this house. The Flute Player needs some things, and I've only got one top that works for choir next month. So there's work to be done.

Not to mention the HMC mantles, which I hope to at least get cut out and interfaced this week! That'll pretty much be the halfway point on those!

But, back before I took the blogging break, I picked up some Simplicity patterns and they've been sitting on the computer desk for a week so I could post about 'em.

So, I need to talk about 'em so I can put 'em up!

Believe it or not, aside from the monthly BWOF magazine, these are the first patterns I've purchased this year. They were just a dollar each...

Anyway, I picked up one pattern for The Flute Player, 3771. She needs capris; I thought this pattern would work w/a little modification (converting the zipper to a fly front, adding a waistband and putting the pockets on the back. Yeah, it's a lot of work, but there's not a boatload of patterns in her size range....). And the top is cute, too.

For me, I picked up 2648. What a great LBD pattern! Or a LRD, as shown on the envelope. Either way, it's a 'Yowza!' dress. Dunno if I've got any occasion to wear a 'Yowza!' dress any time in the future, but I thought it was worth the price. You know. Just in case.

My Sweet Baboo has expressed approval for any and all wrap tops in my wardrobe, so I also got 2977. It'll probably be a cami-required top on all but a few occasions, but that's ok.

And I'm intrigued with the front pleats on the top and dress of 2938. The pleats on the sleeve and back of the jacket are interesting, too. If I find the right fabric...

So, now I can put them away! ;)

Choir Sundays '09 #16

This month's colors: Purple or lavender w/black

Jacket: Loes Hinse's Retro Jacket, fabricated in a poly/rayon (mostly poly) boucle-type woven suiting. It wasn't very nice to sew with, but it *is* the right color and it's very comfortable to wear.

Top: The bodice portion of Loes Hinse's City Dress, modified into a tank top, made from silk/lycra charmeuse purchased from the JoAnn's in Duluth, GA (one of the few JoAnn's Etc! stores that I've been in that actually is arranged such that the fabric is the first thing you see when you walk in).

Pants: Not Loes Hinse! It's Claire Shaeffer's Vogue 7881, made from black cotton twill from the dollar table at Wally World...a rare and fortuitous find and I should've bought the whole bolt.

I probably won't be posting any more photos of the whole choir now that they're going to be putting the videos of the whole service on the church website. It's just awkward to catch that picture in the two minutes between the choir coming on stage and the beginning of the service. The video is so much better than a poor still photo anyway!

I didn't get much done around the house during my blogging break; I worked M-W, then was out of town Th-Sat, so there wasn't much time to do anything. But I had a great time on my trip and I got back *just* in time to catch Aida's closing night, which was great. I will post photos of the costumes on stage when I get them; that'll be the last HSM '09 post.

After the show is over, the frustration and stress kind of recedes and is replaced by relief at how well it looked on stage. And I'll miss my sewing buddies. And, I'll be honest, it stirred up my acting blood again...there are rumors that we may do 'The Gospel According to Scrooge' again this year (it's been 4 years since the last production) and, as stressful as that gets, I really kinda hope we do. ;)

Choir Sundays 09 #15

This Month's colors: Purple or lavender w/black.

Jacket: Loes Hinse's Bistro Jacket, in herringbone weave poly/rayon suiting.

Top: The sleeveless mock t from Kwik Sew 2948, in a printed cotton/rayon knit I purchased from Emma One Sock several years ago. I squeezed two knit tops from that piece, and I love 'em both.

Pants: My favorite black wool gabardine Loes Hinse Oxford Pants. It's B. Black and Sons wool I picked up on sale at Hancock's a couple of years ago...wow, is it nice to wear!

But, today marked a significant milestone...the Artist turned 21. Hard to believe...


And, on another note, my calendar tells me it's time for my quarterly internet break. It's pretty good timing; I've got a LOT of catch up housework to do...and I have an out of town trip late in the week. So, I'll catch up with everyone next week!

Opening Night Sucess

Considering last week's grueling rehearsal schedule, and the fact that there had already been a performance for middle school students earlier in the day, the show went very well. I could tell the kids were tired, though. After last night's performance, the director called the cast in and, instead of giving notes, told them to go straight home and sleep for 12 hours.

Which The Actor was most happy to do. Me, I think I slept about 10. Which was probably too much, given what I need to do today. It's our annual Father-Daughter banquet at church; I'm wimping on the set up though, in an effort to get laundry within reason and groceries in the larder. I'll be there at 4:30 to serve and clean up, though.

Also, tomorrow is the Artist's 21st birthday, so I have some cake baking to do.

We will be ordering the photo CD, so I'll post pictures of the costumes on stage as soon as we get it. I counted...according to the program, there were 35 people who helped sew/craft costumes.

And every one of 'em was essential!

Looking Ahead

With Aida opening tonight, I'm pretty much considering myself finished. I know there will be repairs and such to make, but, unless I get a call w/a specific request, I'm keeping a low profile and moving on.

'Cos there's LOTS of sewing ahead. The next urgent project will be mantles for this year's HMC 3rd year graduates. I've finally got all the materials collected (found the last three sets of tassels at Hancock's yesterday), so I can get going on those. A friend is doing the machine embroidered nametags, and next year she will also embroider the letters/numbers on the sashes themselves.

I am *so* kicking myself for not thinking of that before I spent somewhere around $40 for fusible appliques that don't quite work.

My blessed friend is going to attempt to embroider a set of twos and zeros so that I can make use of the scrawny numbers sent; we'll have to glue them on but at least they will work. Sort of. I hope.

If they don't, I'll have to swallow my angst and reorder the matching ones from the folks who were *so* not-customer-service-oriented. But that will be the last time I will do business with those people. Ever.

Anyway, that's the Next Thing. But our choir colors for the next two months have been announced and I only have one top that works for May, so I've got to get going on that. I've got one piece of silk charmeuse in the right color in the stash, and, while getting tassels at Hancock's, I found some cotton/lycra poplin in the right color, so that will hopefully turn into a shirt soon as well.

Oh, and I bought 4 Simplicity patterns, since they were a buck apiece. I'll post about those next week.

Right now, I need to go do excavation in my laundry hampers... ;)

Bonus Post: Choir Sundays Video

Ok, it's not Sunday, but there's actually VIDEO up of our Easter Sunday service and it includes the choir singing.

Even though it's pretty low resolution, it's still lots better than a still photo snapped in a hurry, don't you think?

I don't know how long it will be up so I wanted to get the post up while the video's still there.

The Rock Family Worship Center

There's a box in the middle of the page that says 'latest message' or some other such thing; there's a clickable button that says 'video' in the middle of the box; that'll get you to the video of the whole service. For at least a little while.

Oh, you do have to click the little 'play' triangle when the video screen pops up. ;)

The Best-Laid Plans...

often don't work out so good.
My plan was to go to choir practice, then go to school to sew tonight.

But, if you notice the time stamp on the post, it's 8:11 PM and I'm at home.

No wheels.

The Princess had a meeting tonight; My Sweet Baboo had to make a sympathy visit to the next town over after choir. I was going to go with him, but The Flute Player is a bit under the weather and stayed home by herself all day. I just couldn't go off and leave her alone all evening too...especially since she really hadn't eaten anything.

My sewing stuff is in the momvan, which, when last seen, was being driven by My Sweet Baboo. There was an attempt at a car switch; dunno if it will work or not. The guess is The Princess will be home first,so MSB was going to switch cars w/her on the way out of town so she'll bring the sewing transport vehicle home with her. Eventually.

So I still don't know if I'll make it to school for any sewing or not. I wasn't in the middle of a project, so I guess the world won't end if I don't make it.

The flared skirts for the knit dresses were found; those were fixed by other people yesterday. I was making sashes...something a couple of the costumes were deemed to need once they were seen on stage. But I left copious notes on what needed to be done to them since I thought someone might want to work on them before I got there.

Opening Night is tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing the show; I know what the costumes were that I worked on but I've only seen glimpses of things other than that stuff.

I'd go to bed, but *someone's* going to have to get The Actor after tonight's rehearsal...at midnightish...so I might as well stay up and head to school as soon as someone gets home with a vehicle.

We are definitely developing our creative problem solving skills... ;)

Murphy's Law at Work

So, I went to the ladies' study night at church, took my daughters home and loaded the momvan w/sewing equipment and headed back to school (learning in the process that Starbuck's closes at 9:30, not 10 PM as I thought. Rats.)

And what did I find out?

1) The chiffon swirl skirts are uneven.

Well, duh. They have elastic waists; the girls had them on as I pinned around them. They were supposed to be on their hips, not their waists, but you know when you push something down to low hip it's going to sit higher in the back than in the front. Not even considering that more length will be required to go over the booty.

So, the simple elastic waist skirts now have a definite front and back.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it....although I may need to whack the longer bit on a couple. I *was* pinning them in the dark theater. And it is bias cut poly chiffon. ;)

But that's not the worst thing. D'ya remember those knit dresses? The ones that needed a redesigned skirt? Four of them had been cut with the narrower skirts, and two of those four were in the batch of dresses that I handed off to another mom to sew. Unfortunately, by the time I handed them over I'd completely forgotten that those two dresses had two skirts cut. So I didn't give her a heads up to make sure the fuller skirt pieces were the ones she used.

You guessed it.

2) The wrong skirts were put on the dresses and we didn't realize it until all the girls were onstage last night. And we can't find the remnants of fabric that *should* contain the correctly cut skirt pieces.

Surely I didn't throw them away...I didn't throw many of the scraps away at all; just the teeny useless pieces. I don't think. But, well, it was a long time ago and I was cutting those out at night; in fact, those were the skirts I had to re-cut the re-cut because I'd made a boo-boo on my math and didn't get them short enough. But if they don't turn up, we'll be cutting new skirt pieces.

Just goes to show it's always somethin'....

Oh, someone found a little rule in the City Schools Handbook that said if kids were kept at school past midnight for a school function they were automatically excused from the first three classes the next day. So the kids were dismissed at 11:45 last night. But I was taking apart one of the knit dresses, so by the time I got to a decent stop point and loaded up it was 12:30.

Which was still earlier than I expected.

ZZZZzzzzzzz.....

'Week of Intensity"...day 2

Last night was a surprisingly early night; the kids were released shortly after 10. Tonight, however, has already been pegged as the 'come ready to stay late' night.

I did finish my assigned task last night, though...I had to shorten 5 skirts that are worn by 'ex*otic dancers'...they're swirl skirts (aka 'banana skirts'...those long skirts with the curved gores), mostly made from poly chiffon. They were about 6" too long, since they were drafted to fit at the waist and these are all worn at the low hip.

Originally, the lower edges were just pinked, but with them actually dragging the ground the pinking didn't deter the raveling at all. So I put them on the girls, marked them at ankle length, cut 'em off and rolled the edges on my serger.

They're still woefully uneven...but I think part of that may be that the back of the skirts required more length to go over the backsides. So they'll have to pay attention and put them on with the longer part in the back. Does it look good? Not on your life. Will it work? They'll be moving around for the all of maybe five minutes they'll be onstage in these skirts...it's Good Enough!

But now that that's done, I have no idea what I'll do when I go over after our ladies' night at church tonight. Guess I'll be surprised ;).

'Week of Intensity'

Well, the official unofficial nickname for what is officially 'Tech Week'...the last week of rehearsals before the show opens...is 'H*ll Week'.

Today I thought, "I don't need to speak that negativity over the process."

So in my vocabulary, anyway, this is going to be 'The Week of Intensity'.

I probably won't post much; my projects are not going to be big, noteworthy items anyway. They'll be things like adding 1 1/2" and some wiggle room to a fitted jacket or sewing on snaps.

And it'll all be late; except for tonight, I'll be heading over to the school after some other evening event. But, rehearsal won't be over till 12ish anyway, so I might as well sit at school and sew on snaps and whatnot as sit around home waiting on The Actor to call before making the 20 minute trip to school.

For those who are interested, Here's the article in our local paper about the production and the director.

I'll drop by when I can... ;)

Choir Sundays 09 #14

He is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

This month's colors:Purple and/or lavender w/black

The jacket is from the first time we wore lavender in choir...4 years ago? It's Butterick 3398 and it photographs HORRIBLY. Actually, in hindsight I probably shouldn't wear it in the choir, as I'm sure the shaders in the video room have a problem with it. But...it was pretty and it was Easter, so...oh, well...

The tank top and the scarf are RTW purchases from about 4 years ago, too; the pants are the black cotton/lycra twill La Fred Daphne pants

BTW, I did finish The Flute Player's Dress...


After tracing the next size up, I ended up whacking it back down to the size I cut last year, except for the length I added. Difference between a woven and a knit I suppose. But she's happy...and she refused to put her shoes back on after church for the picture ;).

Another Last-Minute Dress

The Flute Player has a real knack for needing dresses on short notice. Thursday we got an email that the 'junior ministry team' for our children's ministry need not wear their official 'uniforms' - jeans and logo t-shirts -- for Easter. They were encouraged to dress up if they wanted to.

Well, I pulled out her Easter Dress from last year (also a last-minute creation) and found that it was hopelessly too small.

So I pulled out one of the pieces I'd purchased for her last month. I had two or three options in mind for it; she finally decided she wanted another version of last year's dress. So I've traced it off again in a size bigger and several inches longer. This is a knit, so I'm not worried about her being able to pull it on.

I'm skipping the costume work day tomorrow to put it together. Shame on me, right?

But this cobbler's child will have shoes... ;)

Return of Lame'

I sewed at school Tuesday night and finished my share of the knit dresses; even got elastic threaded through the backs. Each one needs to be adjusted to fit the girl, and they still need either snaps or buttons (Placement to be determined by a fitting), so I've got them as done as I can get 'em.

So it's on to a new project. I *wish* I'd had the camera with me the day they were fitting the costumes initially...this is a heavy white satin wedding dress that was found at a local thrift store. It had some stains on it (you can see where they've been, um, 'whited out' if you look closely), and it has already been embellished a bit (the gold and white sparkly stuff...the lace is original), but, ohmygoodness, what a fabulous dress this was in its day! It fits the actress like a glove; fitted with french darts that begin very low on the hips and curve up; there are about 3 darts at the elbow of the sleeve for ease there. There's no label in it; I don't know where it came from.



















It also has a watteau (did I spell that right?) train...attaches to the shoulders. It's the same white satin, pleated into the shoulder attachment and underlined with nylon net on the back to give it enough stability and structure to stand out. But the back side was just that net. No lining. The job *I* got was to line the train w/gold lame'.

I didn't have a good cutting surface, so consequently the bottom of my 'lining' isn't as even as I'd like (sorry I didn't get a photo! We were rushed right at the end of the evening). I folded the train along the CB seam, then put the hemmed side edges on the selveges of the folded lame' and trimmed away a wedge of the lame', angling out to the bottom, following the seam on the train. Then split the lame' on the fold from where the angle ran off the edge to the bottom. From the wedge I'd cut at the top, I cut a godet that I inserted into the bottom on the on-grain cut portion. That made enough flare for the sweep. (ETA: In hindsight, that was pure luck that it fit; I didn't do any math on it. Whew.) I machine stitched the sides together before we had to clean up and head out, but I think the top and bottom edges will need to be hand finished, because of the pleats at the top and the uneven lining at the bottom. I don't know if I'll do that or if someone else will do that.

Gotta do some laundry sometime...

On the Run

My mother tells me she can tell from the tone of the blogs that I'm feeling rushed.

Imagine that.

;)

I worked at school 'till 10ish last night, worked at work today and will head off momentarily for another evening at school. Rehearsals are going till 10 this week; the show opens a week from Friday.

Next week's rehearsals will likely go till Midnight or later. It's known as H*ll Week...for cause...

Anyway, I got dress 4 finished last night and got a significant amount done on dress 5. I probably would've finished it, but my sewing machine was acting funny.

Don't suppose it had anything to do with being dropped last fall... I meant to take it in for a check up, but never got around to it.

So it was just a little...whiney...last night.

3 Down Now

I finished a second dress Saturday morning and took the two completed ones in to the costume decision-makers; I wasn't happy with the way they draped on the side. But the girls tried the dresses on and everyone was well pleased so...good enough.

The lady who's making the other five came over Saturday afternoon and I walked her through the parts that I've changed in the sewing order and shared a couple of tips for working with this pattern and shortly thereafter finished the third dress.

Dress 4 is about 1/2 done...I should've worked on it yesterday but, well, sometimes ya gotta catch your breath, if you KWIM.

So, my breath is caught and when I get home from work I hope to put my head down and sew so I can take the finished dresses to the sewing work night this evening. Hopefully to just spend the evening doing jobs there...so I can spend my at home time doing at home things, like laundry and vacuuming and dish washing and maybe even a little sewing of my own...

Choir Sundays 09 #13

This Month's Colors: Purple or Lavendar w/Black

Jacket: Textile Studios Florence Jacket, made from a lovely lofty purple textured wool and lined w/silk charmeuse. Yummy!

Top: Loes Hinses' Sweater Set Shell, from black poly/lycra slinky knit.

Pants: Ye Olde Faithefull Vogue 7881, in black cotton twill.

I forgot to take the camera this week, so I didn't get a photo of the choir. I probably won't try for a photo next week, as it will be a very busy Sunday. But I'll have one before the month is over ;).

(ETA: That's not exactly a feather sticking out of my head; there's an eagle-in-flight sculpture on the shelf behind me and what you're seeing is the wingtip. Gotta pay more attention to things like that in this fashion photography business...LOL)

One of Five

Sorry for such a poor photo; I don't have any means of displaying this in a vertical position (gotta get me a decent dress form one of these days!)

This was actually the sample dress, so before I could make it I had to take the skirt off and take the bodice apart.

Severe weather kind of messed with the evening; it was close to 9 PM before I got the dress apart and ready to put back together with the self-lining and the new skirt.

I was greatly encouraged to only take an hour and a half or so to get it as far as I can take it.

It needs elastic, which I don't think has been purchased yet, across the back (I just made the casing), and we're still not 100% sure how we're going to fasten the back neck. Buttons are the most likely closure, as they'll be fairly quick to do and pretty secure (can't have it coming undone in the midst of the dance! Oh, no, that wouldn't do at all!)

So...one down and four more to go.


ETA: I am *SUCH* an idiot

When I hit 'view blog' after I posted, I saw the photo and realized with a HUGE cold knot in my stomach that I forgot to put the drape on the dress!.

There's supposed to be a scrunchy drapey thing with ties on the front. I totally forgot it. Guess the whole storm discombobulation just messed me up.

Looks like I'm going to be spending some more quality time with the seam ripper.

ARRRRGGGGGG!!!!

E(again)TA:

Ok...this is the THIRD time this dress has been assembled; that should be IT.

Moving on now...and this time, you can bet I don't forget the drape! ;)

April Foolishness (not for the squeamish)

Not *exactly* a choir post...

The three of us who teach the jr. high girls class on Wednesday night decided to have a whacky night to commemorate April Fool's Day. That included weird snacks like blue soda and our attempt to dress as crazily as possible. So, well, if it clashed, I put it on.
Maybe I should apologize to the pattern designers for this? Sewing Workshop's Thai Coat, Sandra Betzina's drape neck top and the good ol' Burda No-Sideseam Pants never looked so, um, April Fool-ish.

Particularly accessorized with a blue visor, stripey toe socks and nubuck slides, don't you think?

Pausing the Green Shirt

All the pieces are accounted for; all it needs are the 'buttonhole patches' added and the edges finished, then buttons and buttonholes.

But I've *got* to get on with those knit dresses, so the patches, which are made, are in the little baggie w/the thread and I'm moving on.

I'm gonna try to finish cutting the replacement skirts tonight...tomorrow, being Wednesday, will not see much sewing. But Thursday and Friday...yeah, I'm gonna be On The Machine.

Deep breaths.

Canceling all engagements...

...for the week. I still need to
1) finish the green silk Tribeca top. I got a lot of work done on it yesterday evening while the young fry of the family indulged their video game itch. Can't hear it as much in the sewing nook....

2) Finish cutting the replacement pieces for the last two knit dresses

3) remove the original, unflared skirt from the test dress so it can be replaced with the new flared skirt

4) make the five dresses I now have in my care. Dear Costume Mistress is going to try to convince one other person to make the other five.

All this by Saturday, if at all possible.

So, I will not be going to the monthly Scrabble (R) party tomorrow night. I will be sewing.

Hm. I may settle for just getting all the pieces attached to the green blouse, to finish the edges and add buttons/buttonholes later....

Choir Sundays '09 #12

Are you sick of this outfit by now? Truth is, I haven't worn *exactly* the same thing in this month's photos...the jacket and the bottoms have changed. This is, again, the Brown Paper Patterns Basic Shell in green silk dupioni from Hancock's, Loes Hinse's Bistro Jacket in herringbone weave poly/rayon suiting and, this time, the black cotton twill Vogue 7881 pants.

I just couldn't get to the sewing machine for the Tribeca. But I intend to push that hard in the next couple of days...I want it finished and out of the way before I start sewing the Aida dresses.

No more missing garment pieces!

Still Cutting Knit Dresses

Not much to talk about; I'm going to be cutting (and doing laundry) all day today.

So I thought I'd just show a photo of the altered-up front skirt. I taped the addition to the center seam, but the addition for the side seam is marked so I can just overlay it to whichever size cutting line I need; it's just pinned in place. When I cut the 8's and the 6's, I'll move it in. Saved tracing whole new pieces....

This particular dress was cut before the alterations were made; so the skirt is getting re-cut, and we ditched the filmy knit we were using for the bodice lining and will self-line instead. I've got two additional pieces of fabric for each dress that has to be recut...enough to get bodice/skirt front on one piece, and the bodice/skirt back on the second.

So.

Off I go....

Why are my brain cells scattered?

Must have something to do with the 'nearly max commitment' level of life at the moment...

I haven't been able to get to my cutting table to work on those knit dresses until around 10 pm any day this week before today.

And today I discovered I'd made some mistakes in what I'd done. I looked at the wrong numbers...put the wrong numbers with the wrong girls' dress...arrgghhh! Guess it's because I was working tired. It's fixable, but it means redoing some cutting. Grumble, grumble.

At least there is Nothing On My Schedule tomorrow; I'm really, really hoping to get a serious amount of cutting done.

'Cause I *still* want to wear my Tribeca shirt Sunday....and I've only sewn one dart...

March Fabric In, Part 2

Another 4.5 yards in, courtesy of an on-line sale. These rayon jersey knits (I think there's some lycra in the blend), and they are for knit 'wear-to-work' shirts (I think...one or two *could* end up being dresses...). That raises my fabric in total for the year to 35 yards, with no 'personal sewing' time in sight. I'm glad I really like these pieces...it's going to be all I'm going to get for quite a while, I fear.

I am so far behind where I wanted to be on cutting the costume knit dresses it's not even funny...and I've something going on Wed, Thur and Sat this week.

Hm. Looks like Friday's gonna be an intense cutting day...

Comment Moderation a Must!

So sorry to do this, but I'm going to have to turn on comment moderation...at least for a while. Someone from Turkey posted about 30 comments on posts from Nov-Dec last year that were just huge lists of links...I don't EVEN want to speculate on what those links would go to; I just went through and deleted them.

Like I had time for that.

I guess the world is full of crazy people with way too much time on their hands.

On the sewing front, I managed to get the fabric for one of the knit dresses laid out ready to cut. It was spring break last week and, well, we did some spring breaky stuff. ;)

Gotta get myself focused on those dresses now!!!

Choir Sundays '09 #11

This month's colors: clover green and/or yellow with black.

I had other duties at church today, so I wasn't in the choir. But I did get a picture of 'this month's' look! ;)

What's Up With Wordpress?

After unsuccessfully trying several times in the last couple of weeks to leave comments on various Wordpress blogs, I've come to the conclusion that Wordpress just doesn't like me.

Everything looks good as I type the comment...all my info is in the appropriate blocks...but when I hit 'Post Comment' the comment goes away. Never to appear anywhere. No error message, no instruction, no nothing. It appears to have 'taken' ok...but it just isn't there.

So, all y'all with Wordpress blogs...am I doing something wrong?

March Fabric In, part 1

Yeah, I succumbed to two internet fabric vendor sales this month; the first one arrived yesterday and I received notice that the second one shipped yesterday.

Hence the jump in 'Yards In' for the year.

To be truthful, the three orangey pieces on the left are intended to be garments for The Flute Player, who loves orange and who is in increasing need of tops that aren't ratty t shirts. I allowed myself to scarf the last two yards of the fine rib knit on the right. Now I just need some time to get to them.

I'm finding myself getting just a litte whiney about this...I've done so much costume sewing since the first of the year that I'm not finding much time to work on the projects the closets around here need.

I just thought of a very apt description for the situation but I will refrain from using that description because it, um, has another connotation that isn't so pleasant. Let me just say that the blockage (costume sewing) must be removed in order to see regular movement in the sewing room. Ahem.

I need to just take a deep breath and hit those knit dresses; I really need to get them cut out over the next two or three days.

Maybe I'll let myself sew a little on the Green Silk Tribeca top in between each dress.

Where the Expo Money Went

I'd been to the Sewing Expo for five years in a row when My Sweet Baboo got the opportunity to go to a class taught by a master craftsman who makes knives and tomahawks for collectors and re-enactors. We couldn't handle both expenses in such a short period, so, since I've been the last five years, it seemed only fair that I stay home this year and let him go.

He really enjoyed it (for a point of comparison, it would've been more like spending a weekend in a small group with, say, Cynthia Guffey than going to the Expo) and came home with a knife that he's been told by People Who Know These Things is worth twice the class fee.

He actually only did the finish work on it...the forging of the knife blank had already been done before the class started. It's Damascus steel, folded something like 260 times. The picture doesn't do it justice:


The problem is, we have two sons. He needs to do it again to have a knife to leave to each of them.... ;)

To Recap: Aida knit dresses

The next project I'm working on is a set of nine 'bathing dresses' from Simplicity 4577. They are to be made from poly matte jersey in various muted pastelly colors like seafoam, mint green, peach, aqua, etc.

I cut out two dresses; two more got cut by others last week when I was tied up with other things and couldn't make it to the work sessions. The largest dress was quickly stitched up and tried on, with the following notes:

We don't need the zipper in the back, but we do need some elastic across the top of the back bodice

The skirts were too long; 2" above the knee is the new target length

The skirts were too straight. Godets measuring 12" at the bottom were inserted into the seams of the test dress and that was deemed adequate. However, the seams don't look good and the flare is too concentrated at the bottom.

So.

Costume Mistress purchased an extra 3/4 yard for each of the dresses and I picked up all the pertinent materials from her yesterday and last night I altered the skirt pattern to have 6" of flare on each seam of each piece, starting just below the waist.

And discovered that the dresses already cut will need an additional 3/4 yard; the skirt is too wide to fit the pieces side-by-side. I *may* be able to squeeze it on the fabric for the uncut dresses; that's tonight's assignment.

I'm starting to think fondly of last year's lame' shirt project....

Bringin' It Home

I tried really hard to keep those costumes at school. But it just wasn't gonna happen.

The knit 'bathing dresses' have issues. The skirts are too long and too narrow; the mesh sold as 'swimsuit lining' at Wal-Mart is too thin to work as a lining. So, after some discussion, we will self-line the tops and alter the skirt pattern so that it has more flare (one sample was made using godets to flare the skirt, but it just didn't look right). So.

I brought home the patterns and all the fabric we have, with the plan to spend my evening altering the skirt pattern and then figuring out whether the extra 3/4 yard our Dear Costume Mistress purchased will be enough (we will just use the 'already cut' skirt pieces for the lining). We will need to recut the skirts for four dresses; that's all that have been cut so far.

Did I say 'We'? Um, that's my assignment for the week. I'm hoping to get the pattern drafted and the fabric call made tonight (there's only a limited amount of one of the fabrics left at Hancock's), then cut one dress a night for the rest of the week.

Sigh. Now that it's in the house, every minute that passes is a minute I Should Be Sewing Costumes.

Gotta pace myself.... ;)

Choir Sundays '09 # 10

This month's colors: Black w/clover green or bright yellow

Basically, I'm wearing the same thing I wore last week, substituting my black cotton/lycra sateen Daphne pants for the skirt.

I think the skinny pants look better with the jacket and top; point to remember.

I really hope I can get the Tribeca shirt finished up in March! We won't be in choir next week (other duties) so I've got two weeks to get 'er done....

Sheesh, Life is Busy...

So, I decided to skip blogging on Wednesdays...then found myself with not a moment on the 'net to blog yesterday. Errands, errands, errands all day and kids on the computer doing homework all evening. It may just be a while before I can get a good rhythm established.

But I got on the 'net this morning and found that...there's a sale going on on rayon/lycra knits over at, um, one of my fave fabric vendors. Now, the two knits that I was ga-ga over last month are long gone, but there were three on sale that were just as nice. So I grabbed 'em.

The working wardrobe, you see, could use some more knit tops.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :D

Just Being Practical

Well, in the adjusting to a paycheck process, I have come to a conclusion regarding blogging.

I'm going to take Wednesdays off, as well as Saturdays. We have a *bunch* of stuff that goes on on Wednesdays, and I'm just not home enough to get on the computer.

I can just about guarantee there will not be any sewing going on to talk about on Wednesdays, either, so there really isn't much point in trying to sweat it out anyway.

Wonder how long it will take for me to find the new 'normal'.... ;)

Squeezing Time In

Last night I cut a couple of the Aida knit dresses, but tonight we had our monthly ladies' study at church, so I didn't go to the sewing session. One of the other ladies watched as I cut last night and made note of how the knit dresses were cut out,so she'd know more or less what to do. They were hoping to get the other 8 dresses cut tonight, although no one else had cutting mats/rotary cutters. I'll miss Thursday night's work session, too, since that's choir practice.

I expect to receive a couple of the dresses to put together next week, which is spring break. We won't have any group sewing sessions, but there will be sewing going on!

The plan also included sewing up one of the dresses I cut out last night and checking to see if the girl could get into it without a zipper. Hopefully that will work; I'd hate to put zippers in those knit dresses. But, if we have too, we have to.

But, the upshot of this is that I have a bit of time to hopefully catch up on some things that are waayyy behind, given the fact that I've been sewing as much as possible in the last three weeks.

And I've still got to put together my green silk Tribeca. I'd *really* like to wear that to church Sunday... I'm eyeing Thursday for that task.

Meantime, I'm trying to decide which Burda pattern I will trace before I put away my tracing paper and pens. I promised myself I'd do one...and I'm taking too long to decide which one. I think I'm about ready to just randomly grab an issue and pick my favorite out of whatever it happens to be....

Only a minute...

Home from work, grab a bite and the sewing supplies, and then I'm off to school to cut some more! I got the pattern traced for Simplicity 4577, the pattern for the second set of 'bathing dresses', to be fabricated in poly matte jersey.

I'm hoping we can leave the zippers off; the fabric has some pretty substantial stretch. We sized down for everyone so it fits snuggly, and plan to alter the back neck and back darts for individual fitting.

But...whew...I'm off... ;)

Choir Sundays '09 #9

This month's colors:Black w/'dark bright green' or bright yellow.
I managed to finish the green silk duppioni Brown Paper Patterns Basic Shell. I figured out that the neckline on that pattern was not terribly flattering, so I trimmed it so that it was 1 1/2" lower in the front. Then I found I didn't have enough fabric to cut the generous facings and I used a bias binding on the neckline...which raised it back up by about 3/8". I also found that, um, since the hot flash season left me with a few extra pounds last fall, it doesn't fit quite as nicely as the other one in my closet that's made from a cotton/lycra blend. Rats. But it's wearable...and it really looks better without the jacket, but sleeveless tops are a no-no in choir. So there must be a jacket.

The jacket is Loes Hinse's Bistro jacket in a poly/rayon blend herringbone suiting.

And I was just in a skirt mood today, despite the fact that a fabric cutting- related achy back has nixed high heels. So I pulled out the black cotton eyelet Cutting Line 'Farewell to Arms' skirt

So, between hair that insisted on going 'Pouf!', a snug top, flat shoes, and wanting another hour of sleep, I felt just a little, um, dumpy today. But...it ain't about me anyway, right?

Naptime. ;)

Cutting Up

I managed to get two tops from the green silk...the Sewing Workshop Tribeca shirt and Brown Paper Pattern's Basic Shell. Love it when I can stretch that yardage into two useful things! Makes the $$ spent on the fabric not so bad.

Then I met the our Fearless Costume Mistress at the high school to begin the costuming process for Aida. The first project was nine 'bathing dresses'...costumes the 'Nubian women' are wearing when they are captured. We began with Simlicity 8589...a maternity pattern. (I didn't pick it! Neither did Costume Mistress! The director thought it would be a good loose dress pattern....). Anyway, other than a little extra ease in the bust, it was basically just a tent dress, not shaped for maternity (larger front than back, extra length in center front) after all. So we just took some of the fullness out of the skirt and lumped sizes 6-8 into 'small', 10 - 12 into 'medium' and 14-16 into 'large'. One girl is very short; her costumes will all need to be truly petited; the lead girl is very tall...her costumes will all need to be lengthened. But we had four girls who were all about 5'3" and in the 'small' size range, so I shortened the small pattern slightly to use for them.

The fabric for these dresses is mostly very gauzy and sheer; one piece was loftier but loosely woven. So, the dresses will need to be lined. We had a goodly chunk of very nice muslin to use for the lining (no, they will not be washed. Ever.) (No comment), so we folded and cut and refolded and cut and managed to get the four small/short dresses and linings cut before I had to leave to go to church choir practice. I was a bit late to choir, but a crew was to come in with sewing machines just after I left and we wanted them to have something to sew. I used all the muslin we had on those four dresses, so we couldn't go any farther in any case.

There's another work day scheduled for tomorrow from 9 - 3 while the kids are rehearsing; if more muslin is procured today we should be able to finish those dresses and move on.

The next project is another set of 'bathing dresses', but these will be in poly matte jersey and be much more fitted. I have a sneaky suspicion those dresses will turn into the 'lame' shirt project' for this show...we'll see...

But for today, I'm going to see if I can get one of those green silk shirts put together! Gotta have something to wear in choir on Sunday!

The Sewing Sisterhood

I've been very remiss in this...

Claire from 1 Seam at a Time and Amy from Shirts and Skirts Galore both awarded me the 'Sisterhood Award', which is designated for blogs that show 'great attitude and/or gratitude'. I'm honored and amazed when blogging buddies connect my name with any award, but this one is special. Thank you, ladies, very much!

According to The Rules, I'm supposed to nominate ten more bloggers for the award.

But this award has been flying around the sewing blogsphere, so I'm going to take it upon myself to deviate and just recognize one blogger who has so moved me in the past threeish weeks that I am in awe.

The Rusty Bobbin's Inklings was, I think, the very first sewing blog I read with any regularity. Beth inspired me in many ways: her garment sewing, her regular chatty blog posts, her fitting adventures, her church banner production, her amazing dolls. We've even met in real life at the Atlanta Sewing Expo.

But The Rusty Bobbin is on indefinite hiatus. Three days before Valentine's Day, Beth's hubby (whom she always referred to on the blog as 'Mr. H.') experienced a severe stroke. Now, Beth's daily updates are found on Caring Bridge, and they reflect a journey much more demanding and much less certain than fitting pants.

Yet, Beth has maintained her attitude and her faith through this. And the Sewing Sisterhood award is given to encourage her and let her know that I -- and many others -- are praying for Mr. H's full recovery.

Looking for Blogging time...

This workin' thang is definitely crimping my blogging time!

Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow to do something with the awards I've been given in the last couple of weeks; I'm honored by them...just haven't had time to think about it yet!

But I've done my three-day stint at work for the week so I'll have some sewing time tomorrow. Gotta cut the green silk in the morning; I'm going to the high school in the afternoon and I've got to take the mats/rotary cutters/other cutting tools with me. Here we go!

And I'm going to try Real Hard not to think about the Atlanta Expo that I'm missing...ya'll have fun if you're going.

Hopefully I'll see you next year.

Lookin' for Numbers - Need a bit of Help

I'm going to make "mantles" for our HMC graduates again this year, but I'm having a difficult time finding the letters to applique to them. I thought I had a source, but, while the 2" letters were beautiful, the numbers that I ordered (zero and nine), which were described as being 1" tall, turned out to be only 3/4" tall, and proportionally smaller in general. Too small to work opposite the letters.

And I spent a chunk of money on shipping a handful of featherweight letters in a box via UPS that could've easily been shipped via Priority Mail in a padded envelope for a much lower cost. In communication with the vendor, I found that they do not ship their own merchandise...it's drop shipped from a warehouse and they had no control over how it was shipped. Furthermore, when I requested a shipping credit on a set of twos and zeros, so I could put '2009' opposite 'HMC', I was told I could return the too-small letters at the company's expense, but they could not waive the shipping charges on a new order. I didn't object to purchasing additional numbers; I just didn't want to pay another ridiculous shipping charge for something that literally would fit in a regular envelope; if the description had been accurate I would've ordered everything together. But the company preferred processing a return...and paying return shipping...to just issuing a credit for shipping on a new order.

Unbelievable.

But I had pulled the numbers from their original packaging, trying to arrange them to see if they would work, so they are not returnable.

For obvious reasons, I do not want to order numbers or letters or anything else from these folks. But I can't find ANYONE else who sells white script-style embroidered letters/numbers fusible appliques.

Does anyone have a source?

New Pattern

Not from the fabric store or the 'net...this is a new life pattern, and it's going to be a while before I find out what 'normal' is.

As of today, I'm back in the workforce.

Oh, it's just part time...while the kids are in school, three days a week. But that's three days of potential sewing time gone now. And the musical costuming is just getting cranked up.

So. This is going to be an interesting spring.

Choir Sundays 09 #8

This Month's Choir Colors: Black with 'bright dark green' and 'bright yellow'. But, since this is as far as I got with the green silk top:













I had to go with what I had, which is a shawl scarf that has green in it that is close to the right color, but it is so mixed with the black that you almost can't tell. I've also got on a RTW turtleneck sweater and my favorite black wool gabardine Loes Hinse Oxford Pants. Hopefully next week I'll have a green shirt finished!

And, as you can tell by the landscape outside the window, we had a touch of snow last night, so I anticipated a small choir and didn't take in the camera for the choir photo. Next week... ;)

Happy Pink Dress Wearer

Finished it up a bit after 2 PM yesterday. Given the taxi driving I did picking everyone up from work and school yesterday, that really was just in the nick of time.

But the Flute Player was extremely happy; and now she has a nice dress to wear also to the Father/Daughter banquet in April (Assuming, of course, that the spot she put on the front when she dropped her fork while she was eating her chocolate pie washes out ok).

And we've got a booked up morning...dunno if I'll even get the green silk cut out for the new choir top. I've decided to go with the simplest option; we'll see what happens when I get home this afternoon.

Pink Dress Progress

I'm completely changing up the sewing order and not even looking at the directions, since I'm making the dress with a full lining and, I believe, a tulle ruffle on the lining for a little pouf at the bottom a la Summerset.

Anyway, I've put the bodice and the lining together, assembled and attached the skirt back so I could put the zipper in. The invisible zipper I purchased yesterday turned out to be too short by a couple of inches (I didn't have the pattern with me at the time and I was just guessing), so I ended up using a conventional zipper that was in the 'stash', but was a bit long. I would rather have had the invisible zip, but, well, ya do what ya gotta do.

So, today I'll finish and attach the skirt and skirt lining fronts, then sew up the side seams and do the edge finishes. I pin-fit the bodice and one skirt panel to The Flute Player last night before choir practice (she is very pleased with the fabric and style, thank the Good Lord. OH, btw, the 'backup' dress is too big -- she wouldn't even wear it out of the bathroom. 'Mom! It's too REVEALING!') It looks like it's going to fit fairly well, although it hits exactly at her knee and I really don't want it any shorter. So I'm seriously thinking about a black serger rolled edge finish for the skirt.

Then all I'll have to do is the net; I expect that will take the longest time.

And decide exactly how the velvet ribbon trim will be applied. Just a band at the seam, or shall I leave enough length to tie it in a bow in the front? I'll have to experiment a bit...I'm not even sure the ribbon *will* tie in a pretty bow yet.

Anyway, here goes day 2!