Winding Up May

The last prom has been held. The orange dress had lots more rhinestones added to it. It wasn't hard, just time consuming. I can live without the glue covered fingers, however.

My last challenge was to shorten a dress from the middle. The skirt fit without hemming, but the top stood up from her shoulders. I took 3 1/2" out at the waist. I wasn't entirely happy with the fit, but it was a last minute job and had the advantage of lacing up the back.

We had our usual Memorial Day gathering at my daughter's house. It was warm enough for kids in the sprinkler, although the grass in back of the house was a swamp and we all sat on the driveway.

I finished another pair of socks, a mystery pair with beads strung on the yarn, a first for me. The design is called Artichoke.

I also finished a sweater that has been in the works since last August. The pattern was easy, so it was my go to project for when I needed mindless knitting. Once upon a time last summer, our guild had a scarf knit-along. I loved the yarn and there was lots left over, so i started a top down sweater, thinking that I could finish it with something else if the yarn ran out. I probably could knit a shawl with what's left now.

The pattern is fairly lacy, so I'll be wearing something under it. The picture tries to show the sheerness as well as the subtle colors. for a couple of hours, I had nothing on my needles except another fashionista scarf. From now until the September guild meeting, I'll be knitting scarves, although I've slowed down now. Total stands at 13 1/2 scarves.

This month';s sock challenge is DYO in one group and orange in another. Another option is stripes. Use self striping yarn, but pick a pattern that is not straight stripes, make them wave or do zigzags. I have a design for that too. I'm not sure my yarn qualifies for self striping, but will fit the DYO option. Photos later.

I've been working on the garden. All the annuals flowers are planted. Rain really slowed that job down. Every time I had the time. it rained. I also bought tomatoes and peppers in a number of varieties.

Remodeling continues. One bedroom is finished and another one needs to be emptied. DH decided that the guest be needed to be replaced, so we bought a bed frame. We'll keep the headboard. He also decided that it was time to replace the waterbed. The weight of it has caused damage to walls below it, and it will need to be moved for painting and electrical work. We bought a mattress to fit the frame. I'd really hate to give up the drawers under the bed. I'd have nowhere to put all my socks.

Remodeling daughter has given up sugar for the next month, so I'm having to get creative with the lunches I leave for her. Recently it's been salads, so I made dressing last week. I've found that I can use plain yogurt and sour cream as well as olive oil and wine vinegar. Mayo contains sugar, and I'm not ready to try making my own.

My favorite picnic salad is made from seedless watermelon, tomatoes, and fresh basil, dressed with olive oil and wine vinegar.

Prom season is ending

Yesterday I wrote about rhinestones on dresses. This is one dress. It started with a few stones on the sides. The girl had taken all of the stones off the center. I had to replace them all to cover the glue marks. The small stones are stick on stones, which are easy to apply. I use a razor blade to peel the backing. The stones stick to the blade and are easy to place on the dress. I have no idea how well they stay put.

The dress is lying on a table. It also has rhinestones on the center of the ruffles at the top.

I like this dress better. It had no rhinestones on it to start with. It also needed extensive alterations for fit and style. It was strapless, but she wanted a low back. You can imagine what would happen if you leaned over and there were no straps. Luckily the dress came with optional straps. Most of these stones are the glue on kind. The edge is sewn on and starts at the center back. If you make the picture bigger, you may be able to see the small gold rhinestones.

Both dresses are short. That seems to be the fashion this year. I make a lot of money on prom dresses, but I'll be glad when things calm down again.

Happy prom girl

I spent the after noon of my day off on the prom dress rescue. It was sewn by a friend of the family, who got in over her head. The dress is on the floor, because it didn't show much on a hanger. See the poof of sheer fabric to the side. The back skirt is cut too small at the top on that side. The zipper has a "nice" curve to it. The whole skirt torques like that. No more fabric was available in the right color.

I started with the bust, which was too tight. There was hardly any shaping. The girl is very small, but she does have curves. I let it out where I could and darted it in to fit the skirt seam. That part fit nicely.

See how short the zipper is! (14"). I couldn't match the color quite as well, but came close enough with a 22" zipper, of which I used 20".

The sheer overlay really looked funny. It's crystal organza, which is not the best fabric for a drape, but the girl loved the color. The dress fabric is lining fabric. There is a short skirt under the back for modesty. See the square edges on the train and the under layer of skirt. There are 1/2" seams to edge the organza and the "fashion fabric". UGLY!!!It is gathered into a bunch at the hem. The mother sent me a picture of the skirt they had wanted. There was such a difference!

I removed the skirt and completely took it apart. Most of the torque was in the sewing. I resewed the back and matched it up with the underskirt. The underskirt was wider, but I ignored the extra fabric in the seams, later trimmed and serged. It hung pretty straight on the dress form I used for draping.

Next up was the front. The split is actually in the center of the fabric. I removed all the wide edge stitching, and rounded the bottom edge. As you may be able to see, I used a baby hem. I cut the organza curve to match the lining hem curve. I put it on a dress form and pleated the top, lifting each pleat higher as I reached the edge, so it looked like a steep hill before trimming. There was a lot of organza to cut off the side at the hem. I had tilted the whole piece in the pleating and the seam had a lot of extra organza in a triangle tapering to nothing at the top seam. All the extra I found in the original hem was lifted out in the pleating. Sorry no picture, I was too busy sewing. It now looks nice and there is no fullness at the side. The half belt was in the original picture.

I put the back skirt on the top and put in the new zipper. Side seams were sewn and the front was placed as well as I could. The skirt front is off center because of the miscut of the back skirt. It still wraps to the back. The train looks nice, The side seams hang straight. I rounded the corners of the back and made a smooth transition into the train. I found a dress form that can be made small enough.

I like to leave a dress on the form as it shows to best advantage when the customer walks in. BTW when i got the dress, it had not been pressed, steamed, or anything like that. Delivered to the customer with the seams all wrinkled. I charged for steaming. They were going to take it to the cleaners for pressing, and I bought myself extra time. I'm glad I didn't need it. They got a dress ready to wear.

Prom girl came Friday after school and tried on the dress. It fit beautifully. It looked much like her dream. She couldn't stop crying, she was so happy. Her Dad took a stack of my business cards to give to friends. I could have done more and better with new fabric, but my husband still thinks I'm Wonder Woman. So does this family!

Oh No!!! Not another prom dress

I went to work this morning and found a message on my machine. There was a prom dress disaster. Could I help?
I had heard from the mother a couple of weeks ago. She was uncomfortable with the progress on her daughter's dress, being made by a family friend. She finally decided to let the friend finish the dress.

This really is a disaster! The skirt back is cut off grain and is too narrow. Everything is skewed and one "side" seam is where the back dart should be. The hips and bust are too tight. The dress was delivered unpressed and something funny is happening on the front skirt.

The store has no more fabric of the right color, so I have to work with what we have. I can fix the tight bust without affecting the under bust and waist. I lifted the skirt back until it hung almost straight. That may fix the tight hips. I'll take it apart tomorrow and make the lift permanent, adding a little to the hips. If they send me a picture of the front they wanted, I'll see what I can do. There's a crystal organza overlay that has some issues. I'll leave them if I don't get that picture. The prom is Saturday night. I'm supposed to be off tomorrow, but I'll be in the shop working on this dress.

And then there's the folk dancer who needs a number of skirts for a June 1 dress rehearsal. So far, I've altered one skirt and made a pair of Raggedy Ann type bloomers. She still wants 3 new skirts. I should be able to do 2 of them by late Monday. I hope she doesn't stop in before then, She's lonely, disorganized and a talker. Today, she brought in the fabric for the third skirt. I was sewing wedding veils onto combs, and kept on sewing while she talked. (Another customer sells veils and other wedding accessories). If I had stopped, I might not have time to finish her skirts. It was hand sewing and I explained it was another deadline.

Knitting continues, mostly on the green entrelac socks and the black shawl. I need more yarn for the shawl. I wonder when the yarn co owner will get it to me.

I'll take the camera to the shop tomorrow and get some pictures of the prom dress and dance stuff.

Prom dresses are finished, knitting can resume in earnest

First the prom dresses
First delivered was this purple one, designed by the prom girl and her sister. White piping on all the edges. Crochet cotton makes good filling for piping. It was a challenge to get all the pieces where the girls wanted them. I reinforced the "side seam" with twill tape. Thank goodness it will only get worn once. The back goes all the way down to a whisper train. They brought in a picture, which was modified as we worked. I don't have to like the dress!

Next up is a more modest dress. This was a combination of two RTW photos. I had to change the back a little to match the front she wanted. The dress is bias cut and the skirt is wider in back to give walking room. I'm much happier with this one. I ended up hand sewing the curves and them machine stitching over the hand sewing. In the background is the vest and tie for her date.

The third dress I made this year was made for a friend of the first two girls and had the same design input as the purple dress. We started with a cell phone image, which I insisted needed to be put on paper. The bra is connected in the front by crossed spaghetti ties. She originally wanted the skirt much shorter. No argument here, she just changed her mind when she put the dress on. The front hem is piped with dishcloth cotton inside. We had discussions about the train. I originally misunderstood what she had meant. This was a compromise. The train was too heavy to attach at the top of the skirt. No structure to hold the weight and that wasn't what she wanted anyway. The bow was a late addition. I hope she didn't get it tied too tightly. That distorts the upper skirt part. It is kind of cute as shown.

Knitting
I've been working on the shawl. All that sewing cut into knitting time, but it's coming along. The pattern will be easy to write, only two main charts. I don't know what's hiding in the computer right now as far as the charts go. The main lace pattern I'm working from needs a little tweaking. I charted the border lace and the corners with pencil and graph paper. that actually will be three small charts.

My April socks, which should be finished by May 30 to be eligible for prizes, probably won't be. Knitting time has been almost non-existent. I've wanted to make this pattern for a while, but it isn't a fast knit. I actually have one sock finished and am past the toe on the second. They're toe up, so that means I still have most of a sock to knit. The pattern is from a German designer who i recently discovered.

My May socks are going to be a late birthday present for a son-in-law. This pattern is vintage. It's a faster knit, but lowest in priority.

Our family get together was on Sunday. A daughter hosted and a great time was had by all. Today is a lazy day. I'm still trying to recover from all the late hours put into those dresses. If I do it again next year. I'll start late nights once a week or se as soon as I get the order and deposit.

In case anyone cares, my phone problems resulted in a phone exchange. The new computer is working well, with a couple of problems still. Life is fairly good.

I'm Done with Prom Dresses

Finally! I like to help the girls realize their dreams, but it is a lot of pressure to meet the deadlines. Things don't always go smoothly. The fabric isn't always the best for the dress they want. Some of this is a budget issue. These dresses are expensive and the price will go up for next year.

The burnt orange dress is trimmed with a line of gold sequin trim and sequins and bead are scattered on either side of the line of trim.

The red dress is very simple with rhinestones at the top edge and trimming the front. I made a tie-on cummerbund with very long tails. The girl was very slow to come in for fittings and I wasn't sure exactly where she wanted the hip band. This way she can adjust it herself.

Friday flowers
This time I'll show some things in my yard. I don't have a lot of flowers. I have lots of shade and I'm working on more shade plants. We do have annuals, but I'll show them later.

On one side of the front porch, we have these Rhododendrons. We have white ones on the other side, which bloom later. When we bought the house, the space was occupied with pine tress which have been decapitated to look like bushes.

This white bleeding heart plant is new this year. I had pink bleeding heart plants, but they didn't come back this year.

ABC-Along -J
This family photo was taken about 30 years ago. Besides me, there is J, J, J, J, J, J, and J. As you can see scouting was very big at our house. Adding together the years I spent in scouting as girl, and the years I spent as a parent, over 30 years of my life was spent in that pursuit. I enjoyed all of it, but when the last duaghter dropped out, I moved on to other things.

Another historical gathering of the clan occurred when I graduated from college in 1983. It appears that DH took this picture. I started back to college in 1976. There has been at least one family member in college since that time. When I graduated, out two oldest were in college. Several of them took time off and went back. One daughter waited a long time to start and is working in a field unrelated to her degree. Degree total from 6 of the 7 people pictured: Phd - 2 + abd, Masters -4, BA -6. Not bad! The youngest and her sister to her right both have PhDs in Psychology and teach at the college level. DS is working on his in Statistics. Finish date unknown. Other degrees are a MBA, BA in Fashion Merchandising and Business, BA in Studio Art.

I figured that I had gone to all of their graduations, They should come to mine.

Knitting is happening. TNNA swatches, socks for another Christmas sweater, and a sweater for me! I'll get some pictures of those this weekend. I'm still decompressing from the prom stuff.

Back from Boston

Friday Flowers

I was in Boston last Friday. Here are some of the flowers that were still in bloom when I left. Lilacs and Dogwood are found on our daily dog walks. The lilacs are mostly finished for this year. They seemed to last longer than usual. This pink dogwood is a on street we don't often walk down. The dogwoods are still in bloom, but there are more leaves this week.








Prom dresses part 3

One dress with vest and tie delivered.

The other two dresses are finished. More pictures next time. The stripes are 4 individual fabrics sewn together. I got smarter when I did the vest and foundation pieced the fabrics to the vest body.





















Boston area for knitting classes

Last weekend I taught 2 classes for the Baa Baa Black Sheep Knitting guild north of Boston. I have no pictures of the classes. I taught Knit to Fit in the morning and Blue Ribbon Finishing in the afternoon on Saturday. I flew in on Friday afternoon with a little time to see the city. My hosts chose to take me on a "Duck" tour. This is part of the "Duck" fleet on land. They are WWII amphibious vehicles which tour the city and then go into the Charles River for a water eye view.
The pink duck shows the water view.

I had a comfortable hotel room,but I should have been given a shoe horn with the room key. The room was sort of a triangle shape. The sink is behind me in this picture. I presume that the hotel upgrade didn't quite have this room in mind when they did it. It may not show in the 2nd picture, but there's not much room between the refrigerator and the sink. There's even less room to get around the big desk chair and then the corner of the bed. Once in the room I was OK, but half of the lights didn't work because there were not enough outlets.

The bed was comfortable, the hot water was hot. I could have made coffee in the room and ironed my clothes. I did use the hair dryer. I had everything that I might expect, but it didn't all fit nicely in this odd room. Also, the hotel had a nice breakfast included in the fee. I really didn't spend much time in the room anyway.

I was home on Sunday afternoon. I'm now planning for the next trip, a wedding in San Francisco in June.

Prom Part 2, Stuff I've knit

On the knitting front, I've finished another toy for the Guild competition. This is from Fiona Mc Tague's book Knitted Toys.

I also have been knitting a new pair of socks. Rainbow socks by Susanne Kitzmann, originally found on Mag Knits, but now available on her blog - in English! Yarn is Kroy Socks Stripes, knit on 2.5mm Harmony needles from Knit Picks.

I've delivered another 3 prom dresses this week. All made from scratch, a dream and a picture.













Doesn't she look happy.












This actually hooks in the back, but the girl is thinner than the dress form.





And, finally, another dream dress.





Note the date on the back of the dress. I had it done at our local embroidery shop. I didn't attempt it myself. The girl has hips bigger than her bust, and the dress form doesn't quite measure up.