with needle & thREAD

I woke up this morning with the intent of making myself a blouse. I have had the fabric cut out since the weekend and I thought I might actually get around to sitting at the machine today. I had a project I absolutely had to work on, however, so I made myself a deal. The project was altering a bridesmaid's dress for a friend's daughter. I have until the end of next week to get it done, but I just wanted it done, so I told myself if I worked a little on the bridesmaid's dress, I could work a little on the bouse. Do you do that? Make deals with yourself?

The alterations on the dress involved shortening it about 5 inches, but because it had a pretty embroidered design at the hemline, the bottom of the dress had to come off the top to be shortened there. No big deal, right? Well, then I realized I had to disassemble the zipper and the dress was made in such a way that I had to shorten the zipper by about three inches to do all this.

C'est fini

First, I reassembled the zipper using the machine (thank you, St. Anne -- it went well), then I began taking apart and putting back together the waistline. I ripped a few inches and then sewed them back. I felt I had more control not taking the whole thing off, and sewing it by hand. The lining had to be gathered a little bit, and the black tulle a bit more. As it turned out I was afraid if I put it down I'd never want to pick it up again, so I worked straight through -- Faith did some school work in the living room near my chair -- and got it finished. I then went over my hand stitching with the machine to make sure those stitches held, and then had to hem the inner lining, which I also did on the machine. All in all about 4 hours of sewing. And no blouse.

But you can see the new skirt I made in this picture. I made two last weekend -- this pattern, one in this tiny dragonfly and one in the yellow floral seen here, both from Lisette. That pretty turquoise embroidered fabric never did make it into a skirt. I need to buy another yard and it was all gone. Maybe it will be a sundress for Faith next year.

I might be able to get to the blouse this evening.



I am listening to a book during the day and reading a book at night. My day book is Cold Sassy Tree, which is light and entertaining (a good summer read), though I had to turn it off while I was hand-sewing today because I really had to focus. My evening book is The Seamstress, which is a very good and very serious book and I wish I had more time to sit with.

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