anielmom

 Well, I didn't get as much done last night as I had hoped.  
So here is where I stand....
Skirt attached.
Neck line trim stitched down.
Sleeve trim in the process of being stitched down.
To do tonight:
Hem skirt and apply trim.
Tomorrow:
Finish lower sleeve.  (Got frustrated with them today)
Finish stitching sleeve trim.

I've cheated on closures.  For now I am using snaps.  They will eventually be changed to hook & eye, but the snaps were faster.  And right now It's all about speed!

Ive also decided to go ahead and make the lower sleeve detachable.  I foresee wearing this in late Sept.  Around here you never know if your going to be baking or freezing in Sept.  So this gives me options.

Pics to come soon! 

*Edit*  
Also need to apply the ribbon at waist seam.

 I have indeed been working on the Archery gown.  When last I wrote, I had everything cut out and had made the trim.
I now have actual sewing progress, and even a few pics to prove it!
Now, It's off to get ready for a birthday party!

After an hour and a half of pinning, sewing, and pressing, I have trim!

 
Now I can move on to the good stuff!

We'll start with the sewing stuff, and go from there.

Despite life being rediculously stressful this week, I was able to get the toil of the Archery Dress finished.  Sadly I don't have pics yet.  Gemma is still languishing in the trunk of my car, along with my sewing box, pattern, fabric, and pretty much everything I need to work on it.  Oh, and she's wearing the toil.  Hopefully, Ill be able to get those up soon. 
I now have all my fabric, and some thin black velvet ribbon to speed up the trim making process.  I plan on pulling everything out today and getting started tomorrow. 

Now for more fun news.

Friday, we went with E's class to the beach.  We here in Northern Ca. are very lucky to have such a wonderful coast line.  From our little part of the world, the coast is a little less than an hour away.  Unlike much of Southern Ca., Our cost is rugged and rocky.  It can be very dangerous, but when treated with respect, it is an amazing place to visit.  
We are blessed with an abundance of tide pools where one can find the most amazing creaures.  As a child, my family spent countless days, gathering sea weed, and playing in the pools.  I was excited to take E, and show her the things that fascinated me when I was her age.   (We had not taken her before, because the beaches my parents took me as a child are just to dangerous for E.  She would never be able to scramble down the cliffs as we did.)
We were up at 5:30, to get ready and take Marshmallow to my sisters house to be bunny sat.  Then off to school to catch the bus.  The ride was not as bad as I had anticipated, thank God.
We had so much fun.  E loved looking for sea weed, as this is one of her favorite foods.  We saw so many great creachers, and managed to remain relatively dry.  
Here are just a few of the things we saw. (the batteries in my camera crapped out while we were pretty far out, and i was not going back to the beach the replace them)







That's about it for now.  Sorry this post wound up being so long

I'm still feeling crappy, and tired to boot.  It's ridiculously hard to sleep when there is something tickling your throat all night.  But I'm sick to death of watching the election coverage and blogging doesn't take much energy.  So here I am.
In sewing news, not much to report.  I was able to muster up the energy to turn my skirt drape for the Archery gown into a paper pattern.  Tonight I will cut and sew, so should have progress pics tomorrow.  The project is due on the 22nd, so I have to work on it a little each day!  I think the most time consuming thing will be the trim, isn't always.  I now have all the materials and supplies I need, so once it's all fitted and approved, I can start cutting.  I should probably work on getting the trim made so when it comes time to putting it on, I'll be ready.  I should be able to start that on Wednesday.
This morning, I took Marshmallow, the ironic black bunny to the vet.  He has been sneezing quite a bit and we wanted to be sure he is ok.  He has a slight sinus infection, so now I have to give him antibiotics twice a day for 14 days.  This should be an adventure!  Thank goodness, we have a good vet.  He told me he could swab his nose and run tests to see exactly what was causing the infection, but they are very expensive and really not worth it, so why bother?  Now we just need to watch him to make sure the sneezing starts to get less frequent, and be sure he doesn't develop any new symptoms.

Wow! What a great weekend!  It was long and tiring, but great.  
Not much going on sewing wise.  I still need to drape the skirt for the Archery Gown.  But first I need to get my corset cover thingie for the Venetian done.  I forgot that it's being displayed at our open house this weekend!  I would also like to get my regency chemise done.  It's been languishing in it's project bag since January, and it would be nice to have it done to wear with the Archery Gown.
And on a sad note for me, I found another gray hair!  That's two in two months.  I guess I wasn't joking when I told my cousin I told my cousin I was joining the ranks of the middle aged.  *sigh*
 

is me banging my head against a wall.  I was soooo excited about getting the back of the archery dress just so.  After futzing with it for hours last night, and stabbing myself countless times, I threw my hands up and admitted defeat.  There seems to be a lot  of excess fabric all gathered and darted in.  It is so pretty, but frankly I couldn't get my fabric to cooperate.  I may try to work it out in flat.  I think I'll also ask J.J. if she has any insight.  As this is due in a few weeks, I may need to leave it as is for now, and come back to it later when I have more time.  I should have enough green fabric to re-do the back at a later date.
Not willing to go to bed with nothing at accomplished, I picked up the Modern Regency and worked on that.  I'm happy to say that went much more smoothly.  All that needs to be done is binding, add trim, and put on the closures!  Done in less than 2 hours, Yeah!  At least something went right.
I'll try and get some pics up later today or tomorrow for sure.  
Now it's off to he fabric store to get some pink binding and the pet store to get Marshmallow some food.

Now that E is back to her usual happy self, I have gotten back to sewing.  Last night I started draping the skirt for the  Archery gown.  I think I have the front the way I want it but am not sure about the back.  Because E was sick on Thursday, I missed my class, and so missed the demo/lecture on this type of skirt.  So, I'm just winging it.  I can't go much further with it anyways, I have to do some of it in class.
It was only 9:00 when I decided I'd taken that as far as I should, so I decided to get a start on my Modern Regency dress.   I'm using the Sense and Sensibility pattern for this one.I've not made this dress before and so need to do a mock up.  I had a few yards of black cotton hanging around that I decided to use for the toil.  If it works out, and fits properly, I'll add some pink trim and have a bonus dress!  I might even have it ready by to wear when I go with friends to see the J.C.'s production of  "Pride and Prejudice", How fun would that be?  I prepped the pattern and cut and marked everything, so tonight I will stitch it together.  Maybe I'll have progress pics tomorrow.
I've also made progress on the patterning for E's Faire Frock.  I thing I'm going to add curved side back seams to make it look a little more period.
That pretty much sums it up for now

After an exhaustive search of the internets, and fabric stores, I have found the main fabric for the Archery gown!  The search started in Jan., when I first decided to make the gown and ended yesterday at 4:45pm at Stone Mountain Daughter .  

 

 Not much in the way of sewing going on around here.  I'm kind of at a stand still with the Archery gown.  Part of the deal with it being my class project is that I have to actually work on it in class!  Seeing as I am happy with the bodice and sleeve, the only thing I have left to drape is the skirt, so I'll have to wait until I have class time to start on that.  I really should start work on the chemise, what with it being cut out and all.  *sigh*  Perhaps tonight.  I also need to start on E's new faire dress.  She wants a pink one, go figure.  I have an idea of what I want to do,  I just need to get the pattern altered and get the fabric.  My scanner is down at the moment, but once it's fixed, I'll put up my lame sketch.  I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination! 
It's depressing really, my dad was an amazing artist.  He could draw anything, and used to amuse the waiters at restaurants by drawing caricatures of them.  We got many discounted meals this way!  He was also a wood carver.  He would pick up a piece of wood and it would tell him what it was.  There were many times when people would bring him wood and ask him to carve them a bear.  A few days later they'd come back and he'd hand them a dancer, or a deer.  When they asked why it wasn't a bear, he'd answer them by saying the wood wanted to be a deer.
I miss him a lot this time of year, as it was his favorite time of year.  It makes me sad that E never got to know him.  He passed away 6 years before she was born.  But I tell her stories and teach her the songs and traditions he taught me, and that were such a big part of my life growing up.   She looks at his portrait on the wall and knows who he is.  I know he would be proud of her.  She knows most of his songs better than I do, and sings them with great pride knowing they were Grampa Bun's. 
Sorry for being so maudlin, this time of year just gets to me sometimes. 

I love you dad, and miss you more than words can say.