Where Have I Been?

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been around on this blog lately. Things are relatively quiet on the farm this time of year, and there just isn't a whole bunch to post about. Unless you want to talk about all the seed and chicken catalogs that arrive by the truckload or making sure that the row covers in the garden stay on the frames or mucking out the chicken coop or the horrifically dry winter we've had so far. Then we could talk all day! Besides all that action, I've been able to really work through my herbalist program (getting close to completion!) and get some sewing done (okay, a lot of sewing). While we're on the topic of sewing, that's where my writing attention has been focused. I've been working to get a sewing blog up and running! You can go check it out here: http://pintucksandpinafores.blogspot.com/

Until next time!
SG

Farm Girl Got Geek: Captain America

 Captain America is probably one of my favorite superheroes. Okay, he isn't just 'probably' he is my favorite superhero, and I can't wait until Winter Soldier comes out next spring. In the meantime...

My mostly completed Capt. A outfit.

Dress: An old sheet from my stash that someone gave me. I cut out the pieces, did a couple of seams, painted, painted a second coat, then sewed the rest of the dress together. The belt is a $1 find from the thrift store. Inspiration from here

Shield: It's only duck tape and cardboard. Woot! I found the tutorial on Instructables

Boots and glasses: Purchased at store. Nothing exciting there. 

All I need now is to make some red spats and find some red gloves.  

And my lovely sister made an amigurumi Captain America for me! 

Want one for yourself? You can purchase the pattern and download it instantly on Etsy!

I'll let Loki wrap things up for me: 

Christmas Sewing: Colossal Squid

Sorry for the radio silence lately, I told myself that I would try to resume a more regular blogging schedule after Christmas. Between Christmas trees, Christmas sewing, Christmas scheming, Christmas shopping, well, I guess I could just sum all that up as Christmas... Ahem, with all the Christmas-ing going on, I needed to limit my computer time to maximize productivity time and direct mental energy towards things that jumped higher up on the priority list. 

I much prefer a home-made Christmas. Something about turning your back on commercialism and consumerism and making things yourself just makes me feel freer. I'm weird that way. I'll step into a craft or fabric store any day, but when it comes to actual 'shopping,' I'll run the other way. 

Now to fill you in on what I've been working on - 

Between paper-piecing and pj sewing, I made a giant squid. Not joking. This sucker's probably over 7 ft tall! 

The inspiration and directions came from something I saw on Pinterest. Big surprise there. You can check out the tutorial for yourself here. I drew out the pattern pieces, cut everything out, and, with the help of Emi, sewed the silly squid together. We put the last stitched in on Christmas Eve.  

The thought of trying to wrap something of that size was daunting. So I skipped that step. After the mini-man went to bed and fell asleep, I crept into his room with the squid in tow, and gently put it right next to his head so he'd wake up with a colossal squid looking at him. The next morning, all I heard was, 'Wha...? WHOA!' And then he ran around the house showing everyone his monster plushie. 

Even when I was working on it, it was obvious that it wasn't a 'normal' project for me. Where would you hide such monstrosity? If I told you where I stashed it, I couldn't hide things there anymore. :P 

Farm Girl Got Geek: Bofur's Hat

I confess! I confess! 

I'm a fangirl. 

When it comes to anything Marvel or Tolkien, I will 'SQUEE!' very loudly.

You've been warned. 

And now I think I've taken my Hobbit fangirl-ing to a new level - I've created something from the movie. Bofur's hat is just too awesome. 

So I started shopping around. Unfortunately, the only ones on the market were either expensive or cheesy. I figured I could make one, I mean, really, how hard could it be to make a hat? Granted, I never recreated something from a movie before or made a hat before. This is going to be an adventure! 

With all the farming craziness of summer all finished, I now have more time to dedicate to geeky sewing experiments. ^_^

Looking at the hat, it looks like a bomber hat (I hope you didn't read that as Bombur...) with some serious dramatic dwarf flair to it.  But there's one problem: there aren't any bomber hat patterns. Anywhere. I did find a video tutorial on youtube, but still no pattern to work with. Drats. Being my stereotypical, crazy, crafting self, I jumped right in with making my own. Maybe one of these days, I'll get around to making a tutorial and printable pattern to share with y'all to fill that empty place in the cosplay universe.

 After making up the first draft for the pattern and then making the pre-mock-up mock-up out of some thread-bare, old sheets that I had stashed away for the sole purpose of being a mock-up, I felt comfortable moving on to the mock-up. (Wow, that was a run on sentence with a sad lack of vocabulary diversity. Ahem, anyway.) So I made the daring move to start working with the curly brown faux fur that I had  found at the fabric store. The final product certain had a Siberian hobo feel to it because of the fabrics I used. ;)

"Perfect chore hat," says I, "It'll be wonderfully warm for doing those winter tasks."

 And that's why they call it a mock-up. It's comfy and that's all that matters.

 It was finally time to move on to making Bofur's hat. I sewed up the leather exterior (it looked like a vintage football helmet), embroidered the crown seams, jimmy-rigged a frame/system to use to hold up the ear flaps. But I couldn't find the right kind of fur for the lining. Anywhere. Seeing a trend with this project? I checked the fabric stores in the area. Nada. Etsy? Zilch. Unless you wanted to pay an arm and a leg. Amazon? Same story there. :sigh: Then my brother played the Weird Al song, "eBay." Inspiration can come from anywhere I guess. So I checked the online auction house. Lo-and-behold, FUR! And I had choices too! And it was a 'purchase now' listing. Oh happiness! Guess where my perfect fur came from. South Korea. It was funny seeing my mom's face when she handed me the gray plastic package, 'Uh, what are you getting from South Korea?' 'Oh chill, Mom, it's North Korea that has nukes. It's my fur!' It takes a while to ship things across the great wide Pacific and to my front door step. I finished the rest of the hat that afternoon. 

Good luck trying to convince me to take it off. I LOVE it!

My dad was asking about my recent 'obsession' this bomber hats. I shrugged. Maybe I could turn it into a business of some sort. Hmm...

Historical Sewing: Regency Crossover and Spencer

It was 2009 and graduation was coming up. Being the off-beat, homeschooler that I was, I wanted a Regency dress for the event instead of a cute, trendy summer frock. No, I needed a Regency dress. It was my second 'big' sewing project, the first time I would be doing it on my own without much in the way of mentoring, and the first time I had worked with a pattern so... drapey. A friend of mine let me borrow her pattern from Sense and Sensibility Patterns. It looked pretty straight forward and simple enough, so, true to my style, I dived in without really knowing what I was getting myself into. But I wasn't ecstatic about it. It felt frumpy and baggy, and the closure on the front just wouldn't cooperate. I still wore it to the graduation, and I even wore it to a bachelorette tea party. I decided that crossover Regency gowns weren't my thing because of the kinks in the pattern that wouldn't seem to work themselves out. The dress landed in the farthest corner in the costume closet as more structured dresses were added to the collection.  

Graduation day. 

Fast forward to just several weeks ago. I got my sister and myself tickets to an upcoming Regency ball. And I hadn't a clue what I was going to wear. Anything that I would choose would have to be altered (loosing 30 lbs. will make your entire wardrobe not fit anymore). Now would be an excellent time to see if there was any hope for that light green damask crossover dress. 

I checked out books from the library and scoured Pinterest for ideas. It didn't take much research to find bits and pieces that I wanted to incorporate. But first, fixing that darn closure and those funky sleeves. I wish I had a before and after picture of that closure. It was a mess before. Some ribbon here and some stitches there, I'm much more pleased with the final results. But, as a whole, it didn't seem complete. 

I had enough time to spare before the ball (it's still several days away) to make that something more that the dress needed. A spencer! I had the pattern, fabric, trim, buttons... everything already in the stash (and it was all given to me by different people at different times o_O) I did a mock-up, and somewhere along the line, I decided to make it sleeveless. There are sleeveless spencers out there; just check out this beauty. After doing Jacob's coat, this project went really quick. The only kink that I ran into along the process was the ribbon on the waist that I had on my dress - the spencer wasn't long enough to cover it up. A 1 1/2" waistband needed to be added in the front and 3" to the back. After drafting some pieces and adding a seam allowance, the problem disappeared. 

I took a step back. It was finished (before the day-of). And I loved it. 

Now to figure out what I'm doing with my hair for the ball. ;)

Historical Sewing - 1860's Blue Day Dress

Several years ago, a friend and I embarked on a sewing project together - we were going to sew Civil War dresses. Neither of us had sewn something like that before (Regency dresses and medieval gowns are pretty straight forward all things considered), and we wanted the challenge of a mid-1800's gown. We both studied up on the dress construction, blah blah blah... and jumped in. 

Step 1: find pattern. We landed on Simplicity 3727. It looked straight forward enough.

Step 2: procure fabric. Nothing at Joann's was going to cut it, so we ventured to the biggest fabric store in the area. There's an acre of fabric. Slightly overwhelming. But we found a reproduction fabric section which helped a lot. ;)

Step 3: Create the correct silhouette. Yes, there are petticoats, hoops and a corset keeping everything where it's supposed to be. 

Step 4: Make dress. My friend got her dress all finished in time for the reenactment all those years ago. Mine? It was done. But uh, well... my oops was that I made the bodice to my non-corseted measurements. In other words, it was too big. ;) So in the to-do-later pile the bodice went to be overlooked by more new and exciting sewing projects (don't worry, that blue bodice had lots of friends that pile).

Emily, looking gorgeous in her 1860's ensemble

And I farbed around in what I could make-do with the time and skills that I had. And yes, I wore flip flops under all those layers. ;)

Well, after finishing my brother's coat, I got this excited giddiness about finishing the unfinished. Time for procrastination to be pushed to the back seat. Let's get stuff done. I pulled the bodice out of the bag and assessed where I had left things:

- The fringe. It looked like it was being eaten alive by golden fringe. I guess using interior decorating trims has its downside. So the lion's mane was trimmed 3 inches shorter. Proportionally, it looks much better now. 

- There was that silly sizing issue. Do you know how hard it is to get your measurements of yourself by yourself when you're wearing a corset? ;) Brought in the areas that needed it, and it fits like a glove now. No more bagginess making me feel like a giant lumpy blueberry. 

- The under sleeves needed tacking on and the cuff links needed to be made. That's pretty much self-explanatory. 

- The collar. The pattern included instructions for making your own to attach to the dress. I made it, but it didn't look... right. But I left it there. One day, my sisters and I decided to stop in an antique shop that we hadn't checked out yet. Guess what I found. Yep, a gorgeous, much more elaborate collar than I could ever make. But it didn't have a price tag. It's bartering time. I got it for $4. ^_^ And it fit the dress perfectly.

Then I took a step back. It was done. All those years of just sitting in the cupboard, and it didn't need that much work done on it. I could have been wearing it all this time! Now I just need to come up with an excuse to wear it. 

And that gap in the front? It's not there when I wear it. It's fitted for a different silhouette than what my dress form is. ;)

Random end note: In looking at those pictures from all those years ago (okay, maybe it was only 2 years ago, it feels so much longer than that), it's weird to see how much Emily and I have 'grown up.'  

Historical Sewing - Mid 1800's British Uniform

With much gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair, staring at it awkwardly in fear, wracking my brain over how historically 'accurate' it is going to be, taking my brother shopping with me at the fabric store, some more staring, and going back to the store... oh you get the point. It has taken me almost a year to finish this coat. My brother asked me last summer if I could make him a very specific coat (and this is coming from the guy who rarely asks for anything) - a British officer's uniform from the Zulu War. We worked out a trade, and I sorta set to work. It certainly ranks #1 hardest project I've ever done in my sewing career. I can point out all of the oops, shortcuts, the what-was-I-thinkings, and the 'that-shouldn't-have-worked-but-it-did-anyway.'  I've never done any sort of man's garment before, let alone a lined, tailored jacket! But I survived to sew another day. ^_^


The lo-down:
Pattern: McCalls 4745 (A)

Alterations:
- The pattern is originally drafted for American Civil War, not the British Zulu War. So the color is obviously different. ;)
- lapels on the shoulder drafted from one of my brother's trench coats
- gold braid and decorative buttons added to collar
- My brother has a very strong, athletic build, so, even with cutting it to his measurements, I had bring in the waist even more and put more ease into the shoulders.

Problems:
- The gathers on the sleeves weren't long enough per the instructions, so I had to spread the gathers out even farther.
- The coat tails... a living nightmare. I couldn't figure out the directions after studying it and rereading it. The pictures with the instructions hardly corresponded with what you were doing... I eventually wound up on a pattern review site and I went through everyone's suggestions on how they survived and managed to finish the coat. Those were life savers.

So the final verdict? Would I do it again? Eh... Maybe. :shrugs: Maybe if I can work up the courage to do it again. ;)
Now Jake just needs to find the hat, boots, accessories and what-not to make the whole outfit complete. Then we can get some better pictures with him all decked out in the apparel. My part of his ensemble is finished. Onward to finish the Everest of a project to-do pile.

Sebastian the Hedgehog Plushie

Sometimes when you see a project, you just have to make it. Thus is the story with this little dude. 

Let me introduce you to Sebastian the Hedgehog Plushie. 

I was perusing some handmade toy pattern lists, when I found this little gem here. He was begging to be made. 

And sew him up I did. I had some micro suede left over from a vest, and bunches of little brown and tan scraps laying around. Whipped out the pinking shears and snagged some of the safety eyes from my crocheting sister's stash. I'm debating whether or not to give him legs, attach some ears, or embroider on a nose. :shrugs: He'll probably get those eventually.

Conveniently, it's my sister's b-day, and she was asking for a hedgehog and an otter (it's a BBC Sherlock fandom reference. There's also a hedgehog in 'The Hobbit' which is where his name comes from). Well, dearest, you're getting your hedgehog. I couldn't find any otter patterns.

Baby Quilt Top - 'Spring Chicks'

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Back-to-back weekends: a bridal shower and a baby shower. Mix in daily life, and you have a good idea of what I've been up to. ;) I'll post pictures once I get them pulled together. 

One of my goals was to have this quilt project done by the baby shower for the mamma-to-be... but I didn't get it finished. (Big surprise there) I got the quilt top finished though! I'd say that's a step in the right direction. 

I've been working on the embroidered blocks all winter (when you have ADD and there's a TV or Shakespeare class going on in the background, well... let's just say that I'm not a very fast worker. ;) ), and the quilt blocks are simple 'shoo fly' which were easily finished in an afternoon. The original pattern that I was working from called for teeny-tiny 1.5" blocks all put together for the sashing, but that became really tedious really fast and they didn't line up. :face palm: Needless to say, I got to spend some very good one-on-one time with my seam ripper. I think that tool needs a name, actually; I use it so much. Since I took these pictures, I've been able to get this all quilted up, so now it just needs some binding then it's done! :) 

4-Patch Baby Quilt: Part 2

I started a quilt several weeks ago, and brought you along for the ride. Then I didn't finish it. Well, today we shall finish the quilt top. I'll create a separate tutorial for the layering since that is a universal quilt technique. 

So pull out your quilt top and iron it. If it's been sitting around, it probably has some wrinkles in it like mine did. Finish that? Good, now we add on the narrow border. Using a 1/4" seam, take one of your 1.5" strips and sew it along the longer side of your quilt (the side with 6 blocks). Do the same thing on the opposite side. You're quilt will look something like this:

Head over to your cutting board and trim those renegade tails. You don't want those. Just cut it straight with the edge of your blocks. 

Now take your other narrow strips and sew them on the opposing sides. You'll end up with something like this after you trim the tails. 

Here's a close-up of on of the corners so you know what it's supposed to look like. We're not making mitered corners here. ;)

Now do the same thing with your fat border. When I say 'fat,' I just mean the 3.5" strips. You'll want to really make sure that you sew the longer sides first so that you have enough fabric to go all the way around. This tidbit of wisdom comes from experience. ;)

Here's what your corners will look like:

And that's it for the quilt top! Like I said, I'll make a separate tutorial showing you how to layer and tie the quilt. 

Until next time!

Raiding the Fabric Stash

 A lot of love went into that gift. Many hours. Plenty of brain power. Stumbled upon inspiration. And a well stocked fabric stash. Yeah. It was a labor of love. And a near miracle that I was able to finish it on time (my sisters can attest to that - I still haven't finished their projects)

My dear friend is getting married, and I had no clue what to get her. Yes, her registry was very diverse and varied, but I wanted to give her something a little more personal and from the heart. But what could I give her? I've known her for years... you would think that it would be an easy choice, but no. The date for her shower as coming up and I still had no idea.

Then I came across this tutorial: granny square quilt. Ooh.... Hmm... That looks simple enough to try. How would I manage to fit that into the kitchen shower theme? I really don't know what path my brain took, but somehow a table runner came to mind. Her kitchen colors are blue, white and yellow? I think I have a bunch of those colors! Boy howdy, I did! Actually, confession time - I didn't have to purchase any fabric for the entire set. That's how much fabric I've collected over the years.

After I finished the main table runner, I had quite a few 2.5" squares left over. I could do something with those too! :makes hot pad: Wow. Still have a lot of pieces left. I think I was a little over-zealous with the rotary cutter. I was starting to be done with granny squares. Yeah, they're simple and go together fast, but you can only make so many before you need a change of pace. What else does a table setting need? Place mats! Do I have enough for two perhaps? Oh, and the math worked out perfectly? I think I might have actually had my brain turned on while I was doing that... o_O 


In the process of making all these quilted items, I realized how much I despise making binding. How can I cheat my way through that one? After some thought and sleeping on it, aha! Extra wide, double fold bias tape. Now, I love sewing on the binding. Just do the hand sewing while 'watching' tv, and you have yourself a gorgeous, almost flawless binding! I almost did the happy dance when I looked at the finished product. Okay, I lied. I did do that happy dance. 


But I couldn't stop there... If I do something, I tend to go all out. I dive in head first and fearless. The assembly is not complete until I say it is. And it was missing something. Then I went through my Sugar n' Cream stash. Lo-and-behold, there was blue and yellow yarn. I can hardly knit, let alone show you how to do it, but I can make dishcloths without paying attention to what I'm doing, therefore, I like making dishcloths. Just don't knit while watching an intense movie; you will break your yarn and kick yourself for it. So, I continued my evening projects, curled up in my fleece blanket and knitting away. 


As I was going through the craft closet, I came across a set of coasters that I had made years ago. Conveniently, they were in the same fabrics that I had been working with. So into the gift bag it went! 


That is the story of my creative adventures as of late. I couldn't watch my friend open the gift  because I knew that I would start crying (I kept myself busy. It's easy to look busy if you really want to). I even played with the idea of having her mom give it to her after the shower, but that idea was eventually thrown into the mental trash can. 


I kept asking myself, 'Why are you putting so much into a gift? You have a basket full of unfinished projects yet you focus on this one?' The only answer that I could come up with was that this was my therapy. With every stitch, I was closer to accepting the fact that my friend was getting married. She's not going to be living 5 minutes down the road... (/selfish rant) She's entering a new chapter of life. My time will come, but for now I'm still single. I have the time to put into a gift like this. And I'm happy to do it.


I'll have to post pictures of the shower later - it was a lot of fun and I loved how everything turned out!

So long for now!

Sewing projects

 One reason why I've been so busy lately - teaching. Another reason - farming. And another reason - sewing. And lots of it! I've been sewing doll dresses, pillow covers, costumes, etc, etc, etc!

Reworking the doll's regency dress pattern from Sense and Sensibility patterns is quite simple and fun! You know, I think I like working with dolls because they don't complain when something doesn't fit them quite right, and they are all a very consistent shape - no tweaking the pattern to make it fit better - and a one size fits all sort of deal. 

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I thought I'd see how a pilgrim dress would do in the store. There's a girl's pilgrim hat and apron to match too! 

Now, for the piece-de-resistance! With the Victoria and Albert ball in less than a month, I thought I should probably get my dress started. ;) A friend and I went to the most wonderful fabric store, found the most wonderful fabric, then while we were getting the fabric cut, there were the cutest ribbon flowers that matched the colors perfectly and a jar of peacock feathers. I honestly did not realize that the colors I had chosen for the dress were similar to that of a peacock's. I'll have to figure out some creative way to make it work in my hair. :)

Hope y'all are enjoying your October!

Designing

Last year, I blogged about an upcoming ball - Victoria and Albert. I wanted to make her yellow dress from her coronation ball, but there was a minor problem - I can't wear yellow. And the design of that dress is a bit young for me too...

Faced with my dilemma, I needed to draw inspiration from somewhere else. While browsing on my sisters' book shelves, I found a coloring book. This coloring book to be exact:

I found different skirts and bodices that I really liked, but nothing ever really struck that 'magic' chord. I was able to pull bits and pieces from different dresses, but I would have to get at least five different patterns to get the separate parts for just the bodice. Then a friend showed a pattern to me: the 1860's ball gown bodice by Truly Victorian. It was the closest to perfect it could get. And it would work with the skirt that I really liked! So, without further ado, I give you:

The sketch for my ball gown!

I'm going to the fabric store this afternoon to seek inspiration for colors and embellishments. This is going to be fun! :D

{Captivating}

With everything going on around here, I haven't a whole lot of time to blog... or keep my promise to give you a better glimpse of my latest Regency dress.

v detailing of the embroidery on the sleeve

But how boring would normal 'here's the dress' pictures? So a friend and I got together, grabbed her brother with the really nice camera, and headed outside to take some pictures. :)

Umm... yeah. This can either be 'da smirk' or 'you can't be serious' or an Emma Woodhouse expression.

Yep. This is us and our personalities shining through.


Shiny! Feather! Flower!
Then we quickly changed into our more summery dresses and headed back outside. I couldn't help but drag her along for some time on the trampoline. :)

An Excuse

I've been 'cramming' for the driver's test which I will hopefully do this week. :gasp: I haven't been driving a whole lot, so I've been driving about every day for the last couple of days. With the way gas prices have been and where they are going, we have to have an excuse and destination when driving. Today we decided to go to Joann's. ^_^ The next ball theme is 'Count of Monte Cristo' so it's a little bit darker of a theme. Bwahaha! But there was a little problem - both of the regency dresses that I have are lighter, more summer-y. Uh-oh. So we found the excuse that we were looking for. I new exactly what I wanted. Something black and burgundy with maybe a damask print. If the dress was all black, it would look like a mourning dress. And I can't exactly pull off a red dress (the image that it gives isn't what I want to exude). I found exactly what I wanted. People sound surprised when I say that I found what I wanted at Joann's. Honestly though - you just can't be dead set on what you want. Then you'll be pleasantly surprised when things actually work out. :) This is the fabric that I found: And I have way too many jewelry choices. This is a very good thing. :)

I have a confession to make...

I have an addiction. To sewing! :D Especially historical costumes! (I'll post about my next grand costume in a later post. I still need to get pictures) So without further ado...

Sense and Sensibility patterns is having a give-away! To enter I have to decide on a favorite pattern. Oh dear. Which one? How on earth am I to decide?! Fine. I'll be decisive. My favorite pattern is the 18" dolls regency dress pattern. Now that I think of it, that really was a no brainer. I've made so many regency dresses for dolls now, that I have the pattern memorized (I can probably do it in my sleep...) And have figured out some super cute alterations to it as well!

http://sensibility.com/patterns/dolls-regency-dress-epattern/

Brain Spark

You know in comics, when someone gets an idea, there's a lightbulb above their head? Mine comes in sparks. Once it sparks though, it's kinda hard to stop the neurons from spreading the spark all over the place. ;) About a week ago, we got an ad for Joann's home decor fabric. Inside said ad was this picturesque picture of someone's couch. On said couch was a bunch of mundane, normal pillows, but then, there it was! A gorgeous pillow with a chrysanthemum fabric flower sewn right on top. I had to make it. I didn't have any directions but I absolutely had to make this pillow. For those of you who have gone shopping with me to any boutique-y store/bazaar/show, I have an obsession with unique pillows. I have a few pillows in my room now, but this surely would be the piece-de-resista'nce! I sat all through dinner brooding this sudden surge of creative juices and how on earth I would piece this together. I decided a protractor would be necessary. But how many petals? How big should they be? Well... when I finally found the protractor, we only had one size. So that answered that question. But how big should the finished project be? How much fabric? Could I use all the fun scraps that I can't use for doll dresses? Would those colors all work? The questions just kept coming. My dad suggested to search the web for directions. Not a whole lot out there... There was one felt pillow, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. But it did give me another lead. Then I decided to check Joann's website. I searched and searched. Finally, I found it. At the bottom of the last page of free projects. I was so excited I almost couldn't contain myself! But as I read the directions, I was taken over by the dark cloud of 'what the heck am I getting into?' To feel what I experienced, just click the link:
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/projectdetail.jsp?projectFlag=true&CATID=&fullPath=home+decor+%26+fabrics&PRODID=prod342161&subCatName=home+decor+
I decided I could do it easier and more streamlined. I pulled out the protractor and a big plate (because I can't draw circles to save my life) and got to cutting. I didn't know exactly what I was going to do, but I was going to do it. I found some fun fabrics in my stash that were too small to do anything else with, cut them up, and sewed them together. As I sewed them onto the big circle (the plate size), the flower suddenly emerged. I kept going and then finally decided to just stick them all on there to see what this thing was going to look like when all was said and done. ;) Here's what I've come up with so far:

Isn't it gorgeous?! Sorry for the horrible picture... It's what I get for using my webcam. ;)

A classic, retro evening

The theme for the ball in June was WWII - an odd choice for English Country Dancing - but very fun! As usual, I finished my dress the day of the ball. ;) But strangest of things, I was able to convince my brother to finally go! :D So we got ourselves all dressed up and went to the ball!


Yes, there is a story behind my brother 'costume.' Back in WWII, my great-grandfather helped to rebuild Pearl Harbor after the December attack. When he came back to the states, he always wore a Hawaiin (sp?) shirt and khaki slacks. My mom even remembers that as his 'default', everyday clothing.

I love the big flag! Although, it has fifty stars.

Rosy the Rivetor (aka - Holly)

Winston Churchill even made an appearance!

Mingling...

I had no clue that one of my friends had taken this until she posted it onto Facebook the next day... The strange thing about it is that you can see my Great-grandma Jenny in it! We have a picture of her back when she was my age, and she has almost the exact same face!

A British invasion complete with argyle

The evening did sort of have a 'musical' quality to it.

~The End~