Snip snip

 

I just finished my cutting for today.
2 corsets x 36 pieces each= I'm pooped, and I have yet to construct the dang things.

I decided to go with corset bodices or the bridesmaids because since a corset shapes the body inside of it, I don't have to worry as much about fitting. Does that make sense? The trade off is, they take for freaking ever to make.

And now I shall eat a cookie, corral the children and chain myself to my sewing machine for the rest of the day while I transform those 72 pieces of silk, lining and inner lining into a pair of corsets.
Fare thee well.

What's this?

It's twelve yards of scrumptious habotai silk waiting patiently for a soak in the bath.
I'm really trying to get these Bridesmaid's dresses turned out but there seems to be an issue at each step.
Thanks to my dear friend Suzi I now have Dupioni in the correct shade for the bodices. What I don't have is something light and frothy for the skirts. I went out looking for it today.
I didn't find it.
What I did find was a bottle of dye to pair up with that pile of stashed silk. My test swatch is drying on the back porch as I type and hope I got the color right. Heaven knows I haven't got time to fiddle with dye colors. I need that silk in the bath right away. There are dresses that need sewing.

Update; When the silk came out of the dye there was just one word for it. Bubblegum. Further experimentation showed that once dry it was actually a lovely shade of pink, still too dark though. It's in a cycle with color remover now. If it comes out too pale I'll be thoroughly disappointed.

The agony

I love Sesame Street. I've loved it since I first laid eyes on it as a tiny girl. The following is one of my favorite bits.

I felt so bad for the poor couple being kept from one another by the uncooperative traffic light. As I watched I always sent uplifting thoughts to the distraught groom "Don't worry, the light will change. It will!" After a while I'd start wondering if maybe the light was broken because it just wasn't changing was it? So, I'd think through ways he could get across With it red. Hmm, if he walkerd around the block...No, he'd still be on the wrong side of the street. He could call a cab to ferry him through the traffic, or maybe if he walked down to the light at another corner he'd have better luck.
By this time the song would be ending and a last surge of hope would rise in my bosom, perhaps in the last frame the light would turn miraculously green!
Alas.
Still when I watch it I find myself hoping that the light will change at the end. It never does though.

A story and a dress

I thrifted this shirt last summer to re-purpose into a Zizza Dress. I loved two two stripes of embroidery, I loved the four (I already took one off) pockets.

 

And quelle suprise! Look at those great vents at the hem! I'll admit I didn't notice those until I had it home.

 

It's been waiting hopefully in the closet for me to figure a way to incorporate all of those elements into one little dress.
The day finally came. I happened upon Presser Foot while ambling about blog land and look what they're making for this month's sew along.
I needed a distraction from my stalled progress in out fitting the bridal party this week so I jumped in to play.

 

Now for the story part.
Would you believe this little girl's pop enjoys to tease her?

 

Well, he does.
On Tuesday when she asked him what came in the mail he said "noodles." I told her maybe he was teasing and maybe he wasn't but what did she think? She thought he wasn't and really wanted to know where the noodles from the mail box were.
The thing is though, he was teasing and there weren't any noodles.
On Wednesday she and I decided we'd better give him a little taste of his medicine, so we started out down the road to the mail box

 

She was very anxious to get there so she walked her very fastest.

 

Say, the pockets on her new dress are just right for this sort of thing!

 

She couldn't help but giggle at the thought of her poppa opening the mail box and finding it full of noodles!

 

Into the box they went, now all that was left to do was wait.

 

Well, that and walk home. Just a minute now, she spotted something.

 

Would you look at that little fellow carrying such a big treat home to his family! And isn't it interesting how pretty the cement is when you look so close?

 

Well, she waited the rest of the day, and when her pop came home he told her there had been noodles (of all things!) in the mail box! And he wasn't even teasing this time.
The End

Back to the dress.
I strayed from the tutorial a bit to accommodate the bits of shirt I wanted to preserve.
I wanted the embroidery to reach up over the shoulders so I cut my front piece to extend into a gathered strap. I started out planning to eliminate the sleeve piece all together but I needed the extra length from that piece to get the gather I wanted in the strap, so I used the piece but trimmed the length.
I had really hoped to use the vents from the original shirt but it was just too wide, so they had to go. I had high hopes of preserving the vents for use in another project. I was thinking of a shorty little romper for The New One with a vent on each leg and one of those extra pockets square on her front. Alas, there's just not enough of the shirt left to do it. I'm still mulling over the romper idea though.

Some of Each

It was a beautiful day today. Cool and overcast. We get an overcast day every now and then hereabouts but they're generally stuffy and oppressive. A cool overcast day, now that's something to write about.
We picnicked for lunch, we strolled after dinner, we played in the yard, enjoying the smattering of drippy drops across our faces. I'm just waiting to go for a luxuriously -just because I want to- kind of a run. My windows are open, the breeze is cool and smells like wet pavement. All of this is miraculous.
I've been waiting for bridesmaid fabric to be delivered so I can dig in to that project. I spent the week worrying, wishing I could make some kind of progress. I prototyped the skirt and found that a twelve-gored number with an off set flounce is what I'm after. It felt good to have a game plan, still it's ridiculously easy to mess up a twelve gored skirt, and I'm going to be constructing four of these, heaven help me, without bodies for reference.
Today, with the skirt design nailed down and still waiting, I was feeling rather useless. Then I remembered the New One's dress. Since I forgot to measure her before tucking her in to bed the day I cut the other six flower girl dresses, I've been putting hers off. So I had a purpose.
I decided to make that little dress an exercise in speed. It was the down hill side of nap time and I raced against the waking children to get it finished. While I was working my fabric was delivered. On a roll now, I was exhilarated. The little dress took about an hour.
But it didn't fit her.
And the fabric is the wrong shade of pink.
The Mr is working late and after having my braces adjusted this morning, I've lost the ability to chew so dinner was buttered rice. It's amazing how good that is.
To sum up, today was wonderful and discouraging. It flipped and flopped from one side to the other so many times I couldn't keep track of what I should be feeling. Contentedly discouraged. that oughtta do it.

Bunny hop

Yesterday The New One wore full-out big girl pony tails with all of her hair included rather than just the top section. It was adorable but you're going to have to take my word for it because I have no photographic evidence.
When Enzo saw her completed coif he started talking about bunnies.
"Oh, how cute and creative of him," I thought, "He thinks her ponies look like bunny ears"
And I used to pride myself on my detailed memory.
This photo was taken two/three weeks ago. I put in the ponytails, told him he was a bunny and he hopped around the room with glee.

 

Being the lone son, sandwiched between a pair of sisters can be rough. Every morning when hair combing time comes there's a struggle. Zizza wants nothing to do with it but knows it will happen whether she likes it or not so she requests the fastest hair-do she can think of before I get the chance to suggest anything more involved. The New One, being only eight months of age isn't so much cooperative or uncooperative but sits and looks a whatever interests her while I follow the movement of her wee head with my comb.
Then there's Enz. Any time he sees a vacancy he jumps right onto the step stool with an eager "air, tome?" I comb his blonde wisps and send him on his way. A few minutes pass, I may still be waiting for Zizza to put in an appearance, I may be stowing the hair combing paraphernalia at the end of the task, and here he'll come again. "Air tome?"
He's not satisfied until theres something or other adorning his boyish little head. Usually I put in the blue teddy bear barrette, or there's a cookie monster clip that also works well. These things hold onto the pale froth of his hair for a minute or two and then somehow make their way back to the hair drawer for another go the next day.
This morning he was not leaving that stool without "bunny ears" I tried again and again to explain that since his haircut last week, he was out of luck on the bunny ear front.
Through his persistence he proved me wrong.
He does have enough hair for a quick pair of bunny ears.

But I don't.

 

Found

Remember last summer's quest for golden wedges? I stumbled upon the perfect pair.
Just a few little problems. For one, at $148.95 they're a few (or quite a few) steps out of my price range. For another, after I didn't find a suitable golden wedge last summer, I kind of outgrew the desire.
A sad ending for a quest.