Wow, really long time, no blog on my part! I finished my daughter’s Bia Dress and will post a photo of the finished dress in this entry if anyone would like to see it. I did not however finish my friend’s nieces dress. I’m bad. She could not come at the last minute so I focused all my energy getting my daughter’s done. Good and bad! I was so rushed for time that I did not take the time to blog my progress, but since I still have the sleeves to do for the other dress I can show step by step how the sleeves where made.

Here is the finished dress and mine.





(  Read Finishing Touches of Skirt and Starting Construction of the Sleeves )

Worked on my daughter’s Venetian, but not really anything Earth shattering there. I did cartridge pleat and attach the skirt to the bodice. The felt did its job and added POOF! I almost thought she was a 17th century French lass at first glance. LOL. It is really cute and the waistband did add the fullness I was aiming for, but after seeing goodgirl73’s daughter’s skirt all cute, pretty and DONE, I am itching to get all the pretties on mine. I need to get the skirt sewn and attached to Jeff’s (Aiddan McKane) niece’s dress and I told myself that it has to come first so I guess I better get my bum in gear and get working on it so I can get them all prettified! I will say this; the section I had to gather to the back of the bodice was a little large for the area it was being attached to on the bodice. The final pleats are very tight fitting and I was struggling to get it all attached. It did however create a very full gather in the bum area. I really like the look and will do the same for the other Venetian. The only change I will make for the other Venetian skirt is that I will not have a seam in the front. I am not in love with it on my daughter’s and I will play with the fabric on the other so I can leave this out. I am not worried about my daughters though. It is not really visible and will be less so with her girdle belt. I see it so therefore it bugs me.

Yesterday was just one of those days. I did get some sewing done which always makes the day a little brighter. I constructed one of the skirts for the 1542 Bia dress and am trying to work out all of the kinks in the design. I am trying the padded hem that is discussed by Melissa from www.sempstress.org.
( skirt construction and photos… )

Thanks to goodgirl73 and her heavy-duty eyelet setter I managed to get a decent amount done this weekend. All the eyelets were placed onto both of the girl’s bodices and I managed to get one of the bodice’s eyelets bound with embroidery floss. There are 24 eyelets per bodice so that makes a whooping 48 total. It took the entire day Sunday to get one of them done. I think I will work on the skirts and bind the others eyelets at night when I am just sitting around. I will say that my hand where a little crampy after doing 20 eyelets all in one session. I just keep telling myself, 24 down 24 to go.

OK lets see, I did manage to get some sewing done this weekend which made me very happy. I worked on the girl’s Italian dresses and both of the bodices are done.

( more bodice talk and photos… )

Quick update. I managed to almost finish both the girl’s bodices. Yippee. I was going to post photos but as usual my cord for my camera is missing so I will post them later with a write up about them. Thattttsssssssss allllll folks! It does feel good to DO SOMETHING AGAIN!

Well after my Hermione frenzy I have not done a lot. I am working on the house so that cuts into my fun time. We are remodeling the bathroom and that is NOT fun.

But I did sit my bum down and reworked the pattern for my daughter's Italian dress. I am still fuming that I wasted so much time on the last bodice. That is what I get for making while she was staying at her Grandma's house. Oh well, what a world! I am just happy it was too big and can be used on a future dress. All the material is cut for the new bodice and I am going to start assembling it tonight. Wish me luck and I will post photos tomorrow.

OK, big apology. I have not had a chance to journal in a very long time. My life has been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and there just has not been any time or motivation to do much of anything. It is one of those things that one has to work out in their own mind and I still have a long way to go.

I did however take a break and decided on the Thursday before the BIG Harry Potter release to take my little one to one of the book parties. You know what that means, NEW COSTUME. I only had time to make one, so yes I did the adult thing and made one for my daughter.

( Read on to see our adventures in Harry Potter land… )

I decided to back up a little and work out the bodice before I attempted the smock again. I wanted to make sure the neckline of the smock lines up with the neckline of the bodice. Pretty much something I should have done to start with.

( Italian bodice and sketches of dresses… )

I was so excited last night, sewing my little ole’ heart out and gearing up for a writing a post, finally. I should have known that my bubble had grown to big and all that was left is for it to do is burst and burst it did.

( Read on for smock update and photos of the fabrics… )

Yesterday sucked! Nothing poetic to say, just very depressed. I lost a good friend last night. Moe has been a part of my life for the past 14 years. A loyal friend, supporter and filled with more love then I thought one creature could ever possess. Moe was old and sick and died with dignity and on her own terms. I suppose this makes me happy but right now all I feel is the loss and a gigantic hole of emptiness. I will miss her more then I can ever tell anyone. It is like a part of me died with her. My husband said it best, “Moe feasts with the Dog warrior gods in Valhalla this evening!” Brought a small smile to my face.

I am back and I feel horrible that I have been so bad about keeping this puppy up. I was on a 7 day cruise last week with 18 family members so life has been pretty hectic…

( Read on to hear about the cruise and see some photos… )

Well, I never finished letting you know about the “Master Cleanse”. I made it to Day 4, but by dinnertime I was a goner. My legs started cramping and that is a sign for me to stop. So I had a very small dinner. I do not feel like I did such a bad job, but dang, it was HARD.

On other news, I AM sewing tonight. I am going to fix my daughter’s skirt so she can wear it this weekend. I need to find some sort of belt for she can sport her new lovely pouch that my friend made her. I also want to get the last sleeve done up to where just the hand sewing is left. I figured I could then do this in the car on the way to the Omaha Festival, when I am not helping to drive. It will be something to do and if I get it done that would make me so very happy. Then next week I am going to bust a move on the girl’s Italian dresses and my bud, Kevin’s Victorian. Is the work ever done! Nope, but that is fine. I would be bored otherwise.

Day 3 – Not too bad, except for all the pricing I did last night! ☺

( Onward and outward, read on for Day 3… )

Report on the day I wish I were dead - Day 2

( HELP ME… )

It has been a while since my last entry but as always, life can get a little crazy. I am not sewing at the moment though I plan to get on it this week, I hope. What I am doing right now and I thought I would journal my own personal experience with it is “The Master Cleanse” or better known as “The Lemonade Diet”.

( If you are interested, go for it and read on… )

I am not going into much detail on the sleeves right now, but here is one finished. I wanted to make sure I liked it before I spent a lot of time on the other one. I like how it turned out and of course it took me forever. I think I am the slowest sewer in the universe. I have no idea how I am going to get the rest of my projects done it time, sigh.

( See Sleeve )

OK, I probably should not toot my horn too loud. I actually gave into guilt and got off my lazy bum and got to work on my Venetian. I had gone to the “Expensive” fabric store with goodgirl73 over lunch to look for fabric for my partlet and to check out the fabric goodgirl73 was thinking of getting for hers. I was not so sure about what I picked out, but once I got home I was a happy camper. So filled with something, gas, not sure what, I got to work on my sleeves.

( Read On McDuff and Check out the Photos )

Hoo-Hum that is how I feel after my totally UNPRODUCTIVE weekend.

( Read More and check out new Brooch )

I did not do much last night. I was sooooo tired that I feel asleep at 7:oopm last night. It is hard being a woman let me tell you. I did do one thing last night. I took an old t-shirt of Bria’s that fit her tightly and with a marker I traced out the shape I wanted her bodice to be. It helps a lot to do it this way. I am excited to start her dress. Here is the portrait I am basing hers on.

( See Portrait )