[Tamara]

Oh I just hate it when my jeans shrink! It is bad enough trying to find them long enough in the first place!

I spent about an hour this morning tracing the dinosaurs and all the bits. Not quite finished but had to cut it short in order to collect my son from the holiday program he was in today. I will finish off what little extra is needed and then get into the fabric side of things.

The plan is to do all the sides at the same time so the two projects will be completed simultaneously – that is the plan anyhow!

I hope to have the dinosaurs in their rightful positions on the background fabric before heading to be tonight. Then tomorrow I can stitch them on and do whatever extra embellishments and then a bit of quilting and assembly. Doesn’t sound like much right?

Craving to join the “sewing for me ” club but still going to wait for the weekend or when the bags are done (whichever comes first).

Can’t wait to see the completed Family reunion dress.

[with love Heidi]

I finished up my family reunion dress this morning. I even had the perfect coloured snaps! http://www.flickr.com/photos/73669617@N07/12077476794/

Next up is sewing for me!

[Tamara]

I had a nice surprise this morning. I emailed my sister to double check on the library bag specifications and she said it needed to be drawstring and no reading folder needed. And then Little J put his two pennies of opinions in and asked for trees, grass and a mountain. Well I have T rex running from a spitting volcano and Diplodocus eating grass next to trees. Tick tick tick all present and accounted for, plus no need to quilt just appliqué and sew! Easy! It looks like I am closer to getting back to the dress than I thought. I did prep for four dinosaurs so the others can go in a bag to be used later.

[Tamara]

And to add insult to injury, the recent drop of rain has taken the power with it!! So I can’t do the bag because our gennie doesn’t support the iron! Gah!

Oh well, I can now read the links on fbas instead!

[with love Heidi]

That’s super frustrating Tamara!

I ironed my fabric and cut the lining for my wrap skirt.

[Tamara]

Oh I didn’t mind after five minutes. I had a bit of a read of my fit for real people book.

The power came back on and I managed to do both sides of the bag – pressing the pieces on that is. I can stitch it all tomorrow and send it Friday and then I have the long weekend to do the muslin again.

[Mama_Knowles]

So very frustrating for you Tamara! Glad the power is back on now though. : )

[Masha Richart]

How do you like that book, Tamara? I have been wondering whether it is worth buying.

I finished my Traveler today; hopefully will have time for the hub to snap some photos tomorrow before he goes to work. I ended up chopping 6 inches off the tunic length to make a shirt. I pivoted the bust darts after doing the FBA and added two back darts, and I am so pleased with the way it turned out!

Tomorrow I should really finish the princess dress as I will be seeing the little girl in the afternoon. But I don’t want to.

[meleliza]

Baby girl is lacking in long sleeved dresses, so I cut her a Library dress in some black flowered lawn she picked out. Of course, it’s way too lightweight for this weather, so I underlined the whole thing with some voile I had laying around. Not that that makes it warmer, mind, but it’s a little less lightweight.

I also have some flannel in a really pretty little floral. How would that work for a School Photo dress, do you think? Casual I know, but cozy. Would I be better off with cord?

[Tamara]

Oh the floral flannel should be fine for the School Photo Dress Melanie! Of course if it were corduroy it would also be perfect. But I think in a lot of ways with this dress for winter we tend to go for corduroy so the flannel would be still cozy but a different texture.

The book is informative RTWG besides the fact the photos do look dated.mI really think that if you had a fifty year old book with photos but the correct information it would be a very valuable resource. What I don’t like about it is the tissue fitting, probably because I prefer to fit from the pattern or the muslin (depending on mood) but the information itself is relevant. It says I need to go down a size to get rid of the baggy neckline. So after I stitch the applique pieces in place and make the library bag up that is what I intend to do.

I am hoping I can get started on it this afternoon.

[Nicole]

Melanie, I buy woollen spencers for my girls to wear under their lighter dresses. http://woolerina.com/CatalogueRetrieve.aspx?ProductID=5392700 They machine wash up so well and Tildy is now wearing Hugo’s original ones.

I finished Tildy’s two school dresses. I think I will make Music Class blouse in powder blue knit as well as a navy skirt to add to her uniforms.

Its sad how few dresses she will need this year.

[meleliza]

Do you mean fit for real people? Yes, the photos are quite dated, aren’t they? There are some comparison photos where I can’t even tell which one is better because the styles are so dowdy. But the information itself is absolutely correct and the illustrations are helpful. I also usually prefer to fit in muslin, but a quick tissue fit can save loads of time, because it lets you identify major adjustments upfront so the muslin can be for fine tuning.

So I just tucked my very soon to be 8 year old into bed wearing his birthday pajamas – Star Wars fabric from Joann that he chose himself and the Sleepover pattern. He wanted to wake up wearing them on his birthday tomorrow. I thought they’d be corny, but actually he looks quite smart. I used a contrasting orange thread and some shiny white buttons that I thought looked like stars twinkling.

It occurs to me that since June, I’ve made 5 1/2 sets of the sleepover pjs and 3 nightgowns. I guess I’m a pj sewing convert! Plus, that puts the sleepover pattern nearly up there with Ice Cream and Roller Skate as my most used pattern! Crazy.

[meleliza]

What a great idea, Nicole! I’ve never seen those before but I bet they are warm and comfy.

[Tamara]

I don’t think I made any pyjamas last year and that is probably why my kids are finding it difficult to sleep in sleepwear – it’s time for more!!

Yes it is the book! I cannot believe that those fashions were once fashionable. I do remember wearing a button up sweetheart neckline dress. But as to what age I was I can’t remember that.

I am stitching the grass down on the panels. I had a little trouble finding matching thread for some of the colours so I am improvising. It will be quite a quick stitching project but as to finishing by lunchtime, I don’t think so. I will probably finish stitching the panels by then though. And silly me with blond moments going off every two seconds (I am not blond really by the way) I had to look up a tutorial on how to do the drawstring! Never done one before and I couldn’t picture it but I have it now so we are good to go with the cord being ribbon because I don’t have actual cord.

[with love Heidi]

Wow Nicole, Tildy wearing Hugo’d originals! That’s impressively hard wearing!

I think a flannel school photo dress would be lovely, in fact I would love to sew one when I find some nice flannel.

I am sewing up my wrap skirt, I just need to press and top stitch, then it’ll be done.