My dress is finished and I will post a photo tomorrow. Yippee. Tomorrow is also working on jeans for class.

I have a dress started and I put together another muslin of my jeans for class this Saturday. We made lots of fitting changes at the last class so I wanted to be sure I transferred all of the changes to the pattern from the muslin. The new muslin fitspretty well except for right around the waist. I am pretty sure I know what I did wrong, which is always a step in the right direction. :) The dress is coming together nicely, but it is a very simple pattern. I wanted to try out using my dress form for pattern fitting and altering. I have posted a photo of it with some progress. I hope tomorrow evening to be able to finish fixing the back darts and sew up the side seams.  Yesterday, I needed a project I could complete, so I made a Barbie doll dress. It looks lovely, as you can see.....although I still have to sew on the snap for the back of it. Oh well, just a little thing.

I forgot to get a photo of my son and his girlfriend with the sewing machine. It is now back in West Virginia with them. I asked him to send a photo when he gets a chance, but only time will tell with that request. I also realized that I forgot to take any photos of my son or Jackie while they were visiting, but I did take some photos of their dogs. Here are Manny and Jerome. Manny is a Toy Poodle and Jerome is a Goldendoodle. 

No sewing today or tomorrow. My son is visiting from West Virginia and we are having a family gathering for dinner tomorrow night. Tonight was prep night.

Wednesday night I hope to have a little time with him and his girlfriend to show them the sewing machine I found for them on Craig's list. It was an excellent buy and I think it will be a great machine for them. (I almost hate to give it away, it is so nice.) I also found a basic "how to begin sewing" book for them. Neither one of them have ever used a machine so it will be an adventure. I will try to take some photos of them and the machine for posting later.

Self Drafted Skirt

Finally I am getting the photo of my skirt up here. I wore it to class yesterday and everyone liked it.

Photo by Clifford P.

I put together my skirt that I draped the pattern for and when I tried it on, I realized it was too big. So I needed to figure out what went wrong since SueEllen is supposed to be the same size as me. When I went back to the drawing board, I discovered that I had put the waistline tape too low. The clue was that the skirt fit if I wanted to wear it as a hip hugger skirt. That is not what I wanted to do. I moved the waistline tape up to where it should be and took the skirt apart and made the necessary alterations. I got up this morning and finished putting it back together and it fits. I have one little thing left to do and it will be completely done. I am planning to wear it to Form Draping class tomorrow morning.Yeah!! After I finish it, I will take a photo and post it on here.

I made my jeans muslin for Jeans class with Jennifer Stern. They will need adjustments, they gap at the back waist, sag some under my rear end, puff out on the sides and the knees are a little snug. I am posting a couple photos.  I also felted a wool sweater yesterday to make a pair of mittens for myself. I made the mittens from a pattern I found on Burda Style. They turned out nice.



















I'm surprised I was able to sew this evening. My skin is very dry and four of my fingers are cracked at the corners of my nails. It is very painful. So painful that I am trying my husband's unique cure that he swears by. It is certainly unorthodox, as you can see from the photo.....

I'm hoping the wool mittens will help my hands so I don't have to do this again. :)