New project?

Well, I went to the rummage sales yesterday and scored some lovely blue velour (yards and yards of it for $1). I think I might use it to tackle the Willemientje dress from Farbenmix. The blue would be the overdress color and I still need to decide on what to use for the underdress. White satin? Maybe a nice bit of white eyelet material? I'm thinking light colors. It will definitely be a winter garment if I make it out of velour so I'd better get on it if I want it to be worn this year.

I also purchased some lovely bright flowered fabric that I might use as a underdress for a Feliz dress for Primrose. I have a lovely bird print that I could use for the apron--or vice versa. Maybe flowers over birds. Too many choices.

I finally set up my mannequin but she's not wearing anything new yet. I can't bring myself to cut into any fabric.

First rummage sales of spring (almost)

March 11 and 12 it's the big church rummage sale kick-off with West Seattle Presbyterian and Tibbetts Methodist having their sales from 9-5. Just as a head's up, University Congregational  (in the U district) is having it's annual rummage and plant sale April 15. Doors open at 9:30.

I love church rummage sales. I am waiting eagerly for Sandpoint Community Methodist to have their annual sale. I could swear that they had it the same day as Tibbetts second sale last year, but I suppose that that would make it an Autumn sale instead of spring.

Exactly how far will I drive for a good church rummage sale? So far, I think it's Everett. Although I have definitely given Puyallup some thought.

Just too busy making stuff

Well, I have been gone awhile. I've been doing other stuff though. First there were the holidays, then taxes (are those considered crafty?) and more taxes. This weekend we changed bedrooms with the girls. Now Willa has her very own loft!  I LOVED my loft beds when I was little. Willa did quite a bit of the work too. First she disassembled our king sized bed --lots and lots of screws to remove, then she screwed all of the slats onto her new loft. She had a wonderful time. We haven't built our new bed yet. Because the bedroom Kevin and I just moved into is so tiny, we are going to have to build a bed on top of my bow front dresser. I'm quite excited about it. It's almost as good as a loft.

My current crafting dilemma is....do I go and buy the girls new sheets for their new twin beds, or do I take the King sized sheets which we no longer have a bed for, cut them in half, hem them up and call them twins? It does seem silly to give them away and buy new ones.

China dolls

When I was a little girl I played with these dolls. I probably played with them more than any other toy that I ever owned. They're a bit grubby at the moment. They could use a good face washing.

I have put the Ottilia dress aside and have gone into high gear making doll clothes. Way too many doll clothes, probably. I seem to be making them all at once too. Usually I work on one project until it's done. Right now I am in the middle of 3 dresses, one skirt, two pairs of bloomers, a shirt and a couple of underskirts. Since the direction and patterns for the doll clothes are pretty minimal ( I have the pattern for a shirt front, pantaloons and sleeves only) my experiences in the past year are standing me in good stead. 

I'll post more about it as I sew along.

Ottilia in progress

How 70s is this going to be! I swear my older sister had a dress in this exact print. Only it was rayon or something slick like that instead of corduroy. 

Anyway, this has been such an exasperating project! I couldn't find the second sleeve cap OR the pattern for it, so I cut a new pattern and a new sleeve cap. Just after I finished sewing both sleeves together I noticed that .....the missing second sleeve cap was actually pinned to the first! How the heck did I miss that!

Anyway, now it appears that I did not cut front or back yoke pieces for the underdress and I can't find the pattern. I will now go and cut new patterns and new yoke pieces. Urk!

Here are the sleeves with the elastic casings visible on the underside. It should work fine, I am alittle worried about the fabric tearing, the corduroy is so delicate.

Apologies

I have been a very lax blogger this month. My cold knocked me out for a couple of weeks and then I cut out carbs which knocked me out for another week. The little energy that I've had since then has been devoted to working out and purging the house. We managed to clear out quite a few books as well as several bags of fabric.

However, I do have a dress cut and waiting to be sewn. It's Ottilia from Ottobre magazine. I'm doing it in a couple of interesting patterns of baby wale corduroy. I don't have some of the needed notions, transparent elastic being one of them. Since I now have some experience with using elastic in legs and sleeves, I think that I might instead use casings on the wrong side of the sleeves. It's just tidier, and no doubt feels better to the skin.

I'll probably get started on sewing up the Ottilia today.

Just too keep everyone entertained, here is a photo of the craft that I am currently working on --boiling the kitchen linens.

I cook with a lot of butter and I cook lots of meat so eventually the napkin and towels start smelling like the sheets in a massage studio --stale oil. Yuk! Boiling cleans it all off and leaves me with sparkling clean linen.

New inspiration!

Lovely! I received three back issues of Ottobre magazine in the mail yesterday! So exciting! Apparently all I was lacking was inspiration because I have already started tracing out patterns from each issue. Now my only problem is deciding which one to make first!

I seem to already have a favorite. I am thinking of making both girls the Ottilia dress below. Although the Oliver pants are a close second --how cute are they!

I also found a pattern at Goodwill for a doll dress with a bustle! How exciting. Just perfect for the china dolls that I played with as a child. If my children are very, very good, one day they will get to play with them too!