Holiday Sewing

I'm not going to post about EVERYTHING I'm working on, at least not yet... that might ruin a surprise or two.  But over the past weekend and one weekday evening, I did start a couple of little holiday dresses for a few of my dolly acquaintances.

I have a bin of small pieces of some fancy fabrics.  It includes some satin, some tulle and organza, and a couple of pieces of both silk duppioni and silk taffeta.  Dresses that were worn just one holiday season by the Grands sometimes make it into the 'potential fabric' stash too.

This year I actually have a commission to make two dresses for someone, and one potential commission if that lady likes the dresses, and a couple for the grand-dolls.

The fabric for this dress came in a large bag of odds and ends from a cousin, who dropped it off at my aunty's, who decided she didn't need any of it and said "take what you want and get it out of my living room".  You don't have to ask ME twice!

The skirt and sleeves are the plaid taffeta, and the bodice is a bright blue sort of fake velveteen.  You can't really tell but there's a fine black stripe running through it about every eighth of an inch.  I lined the bodice with some white rayon, and ended up hand stitching it down over the sleeve seam.

Once I have the skirt attached, all that remains is some Velcro at the back neck and we're done.

The fabric for this dress was one of Miss A's size two toddler dresses.  It was so adorable I couldn't part with it.  The skirt is white lining covered with pink sparkle organza.  The minute she spotted that dress she decided it was for her.  I have to remember to hide stuff better!

 

It is really pretty, though, very sparkly. 

But she reminded me that she has TWO dolls who need holiday dresses.  I'm up to six that need sewing now... so I went looking for some holiday fabric at JoAnn's this week.  Would you believe there was NO plaid taffeta to be had?  None.  Lots of solid stuff for special occasion, but no plain.  There was one bolt of some embroidered satin, and one bolt of gold poly with diagonal tucks sewn in.  I came away with a couple of pieces of poly knit with a sequin-type pressing, very sparkly, in four colors.

We'll see how that works out.

Meanwhile I ordered some red/green plaid fabric with gold lurex threads running through it from fabric.com.  Hopefully that makes enough choices for six dresses.

Yikes!  Time to get busy!

Sew on...

I Almost Forgot!

I nearly forgot about the bulbs I planted when I did my list yesterday... it didn't happen within the past week but a couple of weeks ago I actually did some gardening!

Yeah, me.

My friend Suzi said she had some tulip bulbs that were ready to be planted, and did I want some?  I do not do a lot of gardening.  In fact I'd say over the past eight years what I've done has been not worth mentioning.  I do supervise well.  But dig, me?  Not so much.

She brought them over on a Saturday and DH was viewing them very skeptically.  I suppose he knows me too well.  He actually said "what are you going to do with those?" like he thought maybe I'd planned to cook them or something.

It was a nice day, so I got out the handy dandy short spade and started digging.

I had yellow, red, and a red/yellow combination.  You dig a hole six inches deep, poke in the bulb and cover it up.  Easy, right?

At first I was thinking, oh, she only gave me three packages.  Well, I didn't know how many she had, it could have been half... and after all, I'm no gardener.

After opening the first package and counting out a dozen bulbs I thought, OH MY GOSH, SHE GAVE ME THREE PACKAGES!!!  That's 36 holes!!

After much bending, pushing, digging, and groaning, they were all planted.  My front yard should be lovely this spring, if the squirrels don't discover that the last six to ten holes are probably less than six inches deep... 

Bloom where you're planted...


 

 

Post-Thanksgiving Post

I cannot believe it's been 12 days since I blogged!  It seems like I spent every single one of those days running like mad to get something done.

What have I been up to?

1. Hosted visit from brother and sister-in-law from Washington - the state of.
2. Hosted visit from brother and sister-in-law from Minnesota.
3. Did family visiting with all of the above.
4. Knit a cowl scarf.  One ball of yarn and big needles - not that hard...
5. Spent a day baking and preparing for Thanksgiving with my two helpers, aged 8 and 14.
6. Baked for the pre-Thanksgiving pie social at church. 
7. Attended church and the pre-Thanksgiving pie social at church.
8. Hosted Thanksgiving. 
9. Cleaned up after Thanksgiving.
10. Did some simple stitching on a couple of fleece projects.
11. Made some no-sew fleece scarves.  This involved a rotary cutter.  And a band aid.
12. Took a family shopping trip to the Columbus WI Antique Mall.
13. Cleaned out my basement storage area
14. Located the cords to my serger while cleaning.
15. Started sewing on dolls Christmas dresses.
16. Oh yes, I did work two days last week too!

Whew, no wonder I'm tired.  I actually felt like coming back to work today was a vacation!

Cowl, knit with one ball of very cool yarn, can't remember where I got it and the label was missing.

Here are my latest sewing room projects.

 I got a small piece of fleece in a donated bag that had shoes on it.  I cut a large slice the width of the fabric, trimmed the edges and called it a winter scarf.  There was a chunk left over so I made myself a neck warmer.  The top was hemmed, so all I did was cut a slit.  Viola, neck warmer!

A neck warmer for inside my winter coat.

You cut a small slit, slide the other end through the slit and it stays put without tying.  I love the print.

There was still a small piece left, five inches wide at one end and about seven at the other...

I measured enough to go from one end of the hanger I wanted to cover to the other.  The strip is about five inches wide, and ended up about 15 to 16 inches long.  The strip should be cut with the stretch going from end to end, although this will work the other way.  It just goes on better if you cut 'horizontally'... with the greatest stretch across the long edge.

I folded the strip in half, and made a small cut - about a half inch long - on the fold.  That is where you stick the hook portion of the hanger.

Fold wrong sides together, and stitch both short ends as shown.  I used about a half inch seam allowance.

 

Turn right side out and insert the hanger.  This cover will keep your slippery clothes from sliding off the hanger and ending up on the closet floor.  Make pretty ones to give as gifts.  You could even use a double layer if you were trying to make a padded hanger.

 



 

 

Hanger cover.  Excuse the taped cardboard tube, normally I toss wire hangers out.  This works on plastic too.





Sew on...