Trying Out The Trim- lace, beads, etc.

First picture is the historical dress on which this pattern is based. It will be interesting to see how much Abby's dress will resemble the "real" , historic one.

It's Starting To Look Like A Dress (Finally)

The bodice is just the lining at this point. The skirt needs a waistband and a hem.

The sleeves are being held in place. But at least it looks more like an article of clothing today.

Grandma Jo leaves for Slovakia next week to visit her daughter and her family over Christmas and she needs to get Abby to the point where she can finish the dress on her own. Can she do it?

Let us only hope so!

New Curtains

"And you know one can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things."-
Anne of Green Gables

Dear Blue Silk Dress,

Three (or four) years ago, I know you got excited when I cut you out and sewed those first seams. You thought you were getting close to being finished. However, it took some time to locate a zipper of the right length (over 20 inches) and color (light blue). Then, the zipper had to be sewn in by hand. In time, you were forgotten, languishing on a pile of unfinished projects.

Hope rose within you when you were rescued from that pile and brought into the closet in anticipation of hemming. But, alas, that day was still so far off.

So now, blue silk dress, you can breathe a sigh of relief, for you are finally hemmed, washed, ironed and ready for Easter morning. (Thankfully, you still fit even though I am ten pounds heavier than when you were first fitted. ) Your day is here at last!

Jammies Finished

Hope's desire to sew didn't last very long.

Who knew that the cutting and prepping to sew could take so long?

But the mom finished it all and now Hope is ready for those hot summer nights.

The World's Most Uncomfortable Pillow

Not only will the Jingle Bells on this baby leave marks on your face...

It's also stuffed with a strange mix of poly stuffing and feathers (probably one of the most scatterbrained ideas I've had in awhile- take apart a down pillow and use the stuffing for this. We are still finding those feathers all. over. the. house.

But let me tell you, despite its shortcomings, it is a very festive looking pillow.

In the Sewing Room

Abby finished the hand sewing portion of Hope's quilt- yeah!

It only took a year and a half and two people to finish it! Next time I'm in a fabric store and think to myself , "That doesn't seem too hard"- I'm going to remember this quilt.

In other sewing news, I think *everyone* should sew with elastic thread! How fun and easy to smock a little summer dress...

or a nightgown for a teenager...

No elastic thread on the slipcovers (sigh. It would be a lot more fun if I could use it...). I need to add the trim around the bottom and sew the cushion cover (times 2 since there are two chairs) and then I'll be done. If I have the desire to sew any more this summer, which is doubtful, I'll see about the pile of quilt tops waiting to be quilted!

Yet another skirt for Hope

I used some vintage fabric found on ebay a couple of years ago to sew up another summer skirt for Hope.

It seems like it would do well in the fiesta parades we used to go to while living in Santa Barbara.

Or perhaps it's a costume from "Dancing with the Stars". :)

Either way, Hope likes it. I'm a bit pessimistic about this vintage fabric holding up long enough to make it through the summer, however.

Skirt from Scraps #2

Another skirt from left over fabric- this time with a patriotic theme.

And the back

Hope's New Skirt

I started a skirt for Hope last night and finished it this morning. It is made up of bits of left over fabric from her new quilt (still in the process of being quilted), two previous Easter dresses, her pillowcase, and the green (which hasn't been used in any previous projects but I had it stored away).

The front

And the back

Hope likes it and I have less fabric scraps laying around!

It's Curtains For Me

This picture is from an old Ethan Allen catalog. I have wanted to do something like this for the master bedroom since it needs new curtains.

I don't have any ball fringe like the curtains above, but I am hoping to add some small lace to the sides and bottom.

In getting ready for company (and just because it needs it) I am trying to play with these white curtains I bought from the "Country Curtains" catalog. I like them, but I don't know how to get them to look right. Perhaps the fabric is too heavy? I may have to run a gathering stitch up the side, but so far my attempts at the Ethan Allen curtains have been a failure. I tucked the curtain header behind the rod, too, and the girls didn't like it too well.

In the Master Bathroom the curtains were faded- and those were the second set in that room! Before I had put up napkins on the curtain rods, so I wanted to duplicate that idea again. This time I went to the fabric store for the two blue prints and added navy blue grosgrain ribbon and some white napkins I already had on hand. The navy button is just pinned for now- I'll need to sew it on later or it might fall on someone when they are taking a bath!

I am planning to add a small amount of lace to the cream colored napkins when I can get back to the store.



I can't believe I just put pictures of my bathroom on the internet! I have no shame now...

Knit Skirt

Abby (finally) finished her skirt. I think it turned out cute!

Dresses Finished, On To The Party!

Front View

Back View

The girls are at the party right now. I hope they are having a good time!

Skirt sewn, Bodice halfway done...

Abby needs to sew in the lining, then buttonholes and hemming the sleeves.

Next, sew on the skirt and hem it, make a longer belt and add the rick rack trim.

Whew!

Cutting The Dress Out

Friends from church loaned us their sewing machine for the week! Hopefully this dress *won't* be hand-sewn after all!

Sewing for a Birthday Party

Hannah and Abby are planning to attend a birthday party next weekend. The dress is "historical", so the girls have chosen to dress in a 1940's theme. They searched for reproduction feedsack fabric to be as accurate as possible. We could only get 4 1/2 yards of the above fabric for Abby, so we will need to cut carefully. It always boggles my mind just how much fabric these vintage dresses take- the skirts were so full.

To make this project even more fun, the sewing machine died after my last quilting experience, so we are hoping to get it fixed in time (we found our former repair shop had closed and now need to find another). This may end up being a hand-sewn dress (oh please, no).

When the fabric arrived in the mail it included a hand written note from the woman who runs the quilt shop- so friendly and sweet. I have always commented to the girls that the women who work in fabric stores are the nicest people ever.

Abby's Handwork

Abby laid out her quilt squares (after a long time of them wallowing in a dark corner of her room...) and has decided to start stitching them together. However, she realized that she will need to sew more yellow and blue squares to be able to complete the next five lines in the quilt.

She has been knitting a skirt from yarns Grandma gave her earlier this summer. However, she also needs to get more of this yarn to finish it. It seems that this is (almost) always the case- running short of materials for a project. Grandma bought the yarn in Alabama- hurray for on-line shopping!

A close up of the skirt. All those different textured yarns make it so interesting. I'm glad leggings are in style again because that would be perfect under the skirt which should come just to the knee.

This week I am attempting to work on quilting this quilt top I bought on ebay about seven years ago. It is impossible to understate how much I *greatly dislike* machine quilting on my machine, so this task is being done because I really, really want another quilt for the family room this winter. We always scramble for the quilts on cold days and we need a few more so everyone will be warm.

My memory quilt top is finished and it turned out bigger than I thought it would. It is a good queen-sized (none of the beds in our house is queen sized, but we'll make it work...). It will probably be years before it is quilted, but in the meantime I will hang it over the upstairs railing and be happy looking at it.

We are into our second week of school. We decided that "A Day No Pigs Would Die" was not a good choice of a book for our family, so we didn't finish it and returned it to the library.

We are enjoying "The World in Ancient Times" history series as a group read-aloud. Jacob is reading "The Mystery of History" and I have checked out another popular homeschooling history book, but for now, "The Ancient Roman World" (and next, "The Ancient Egyptian World") has been great for our history studies.

Finally- wow- what an exciting Olympics! We look forward to evening when we can turn on the tv and cheer for our gymnasics teams and of course, Michael Phelps and the men's (swimming) relay teams. It's always incredible to watch the talent of these athletes from around the world.

In The Sewing Room -or lately- In The Dining Room That Is Currently Being Used As A Sewing Room

This past weekend I sewed some new curtains for the hallway from some fabric I've had for years. Yes, the curtain rod is bent - not sure why- so the curtains are hanging funny. But since we never pay attention to the curtains as we zip down the hall, that might be o.k.

The fabric reminds me of a late 1980's sofa or a Laura Ashley dress (also 1980's).

I also sewed new curtains for Hannah's room. We found this fabric during our trip last week.

I didn't have enough lace for the sides and bottoms of the curtains, so just the sides got the lace.

Hannah likes her new curtains a lot and they go nicely with the quilt she made for her bed a few years ago.

I had extra fabric from the Heather Bailey quilt top so I made up a little doll quilt for Hope's birthday. Since the bigger quilt needs to have a border added to make it the right size, I wanted to play with the little quilt to see how my ideas for the border would look.

On the little quilt the ruffle looks huge, but on the big quilt I hope it will look more proportional.

While I doubt this quilt will get finished before fall as I had originally planned, hope springs eternal and perhaps next week while Hannah is laid up in bed from wisdom teeth surgery, the sewing machine might be free long enough for me to work...