Snap! Best laid plans...
May. 23rd, 2008 08:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threadwalkerNot sure, but there still might be a gremlin screwing with my calendar.
Miss E had a headache last night when I picked her up from school. At 2 am she woke me up to climb into bed with me because of scary dreams and being cold. And that's when I discovered she was burning up all over.
"Houston, we have a fever on our hands."
We shall see what happens. I'm not doping my 4 yr old on motrin/tylenol and then dragging her up to the mountains for the weekend. If she snaps out of it tonight we can go tonight/tomorrow morning. If she does not, F is taking N and they are going for a father/son bonding weekend. I will pre-make N and F's lunches tonight if they go without me just to make it easier for him to fight with reduced hassle. I'll have N help me pack a cooler so he knows where everything is.
After doing battle (again) with ants last night, I retreated to the Corbie Cave. I was out there from 9-1:30 am, pushing through the sleepies.
The kids are pretty much set for the rest of the year! yay!
N has: 2 doublets (one gets buttons after work), 2 shirts, trews. No leggings - he'll have to wear sweats. 2 pair of leggings will be whipped out before June Crown.
E has: 2 dresses, a smock, a black-worked shirt, a plain shirt, an apron, trews.
I have: 1 light weight gamurra (gold linen), 1 silk gamurra (wine)
I'll have to pull out the hated cotton chemises. The overdress is still in pieces and needs 2-3 hours of hand work plus about 2 hrs of machine work.
On the plus side, I did get the narrow, black, velvet ribbon around the neck of the gold gamurra, which thrilled me. There are no sleeves - those will have to come later. They will be cut out of the left overs.
I was reflecting that if I'd spent all of this weeks lunch breaks working on this, it would probably be done. Ah well. I noticed last night that I've worked a hole through my embroidery callus doing all this hand work. It's really annoying and the skin inside the hole is tender and the needle always slips to the same spot (hence the hole). I need to learn how to sew with a thimble.
On cutting down dresses
The two dresses that I completed for myself were cut down. One was made when I was 30 lbs heavier and the other when I was 20 pounds heavier. Cutting them down has been interesting. Both are bodices with attached skirts and center-front lacing. The gold was higher-waisted with rings for lacing. The wine-colored had sewn eyelets and was completely hand-finished.
Center Front: The yellow one had rings and the red one had sewn in eyelet holes. The sewn in holes had to be cut out whereas the rings only had to be removed. I'm rapidly becoming a HUGE fan of metal eyelets whenever you can document them.
I found that I had to completely disassble these dresses. There was no "quick" or "easy" alteration. I lost weight from my chest, abs, back, shoulders, sides, etc. Just taking in a back seam was not enough nor just taking in the side seams because it does weird things to the neckline and armhole.
There was no advantage (IMO) to removing hand sewing over maching or vice versa. I found that being careful and taking my time was my biggest lesson learned. I ripped the fabric a few times, which fortunately either got cut off or ended up in the seam allowance. But it reminded me to go carefully.
On both bodices I'd "finished" the seams on the inside by rolling them under and hand tacking them. That's lovely, but it's a hassle to undo. The re-worked bodice pieces were each individually serged and then assembled. I pressed them open. I may go back and finish hand-tacking them flat, but I won't be turning it under.
The skirts shrank, so I have extra lengths of fabric. For the yellow one, I'll be making sleeves out of it. On the red on, it already had sleeves, but I've decided to move the dress 20 years later, so I am recutting the sleeves, which is not done yet, and may put that piece to use.
On the red one, which had sleeves, I'd completed the sleeves and bodice separately and then whipped them together. This was a HUGE aid in rework. There was less abuse (IMO) to the fabric of the bodice when I took the sleeves off since the armholes had been bound in matching linen. I was less concerned about the sleeves since they are being disassembled to become something entirely different, but I think the sleeves took the disassembley process better because of it, too.
Overall, having done this, I'm changing my bodice finishing techniques to make sure I "finish" my pieces before I assemble them. I still bind the neck and arm holes and the closure (front, back or side). And I'm going to get more rings. But it's kind of nice to be able to recycle these and be "done" with 2 projects this month.
Miss E had a headache last night when I picked her up from school. At 2 am she woke me up to climb into bed with me because of scary dreams and being cold. And that's when I discovered she was burning up all over.
"Houston, we have a fever on our hands."
We shall see what happens. I'm not doping my 4 yr old on motrin/tylenol and then dragging her up to the mountains for the weekend. If she snaps out of it tonight we can go tonight/tomorrow morning. If she does not, F is taking N and they are going for a father/son bonding weekend. I will pre-make N and F's lunches tonight if they go without me just to make it easier for him to fight with reduced hassle. I'll have N help me pack a cooler so he knows where everything is.
After doing battle (again) with ants last night, I retreated to the Corbie Cave. I was out there from 9-1:30 am, pushing through the sleepies.
The kids are pretty much set for the rest of the year! yay!
N has: 2 doublets (one gets buttons after work), 2 shirts, trews. No leggings - he'll have to wear sweats. 2 pair of leggings will be whipped out before June Crown.
E has: 2 dresses, a smock, a black-worked shirt, a plain shirt, an apron, trews.
I have: 1 light weight gamurra (gold linen), 1 silk gamurra (wine)
I'll have to pull out the hated cotton chemises. The overdress is still in pieces and needs 2-3 hours of hand work plus about 2 hrs of machine work.
On the plus side, I did get the narrow, black, velvet ribbon around the neck of the gold gamurra, which thrilled me. There are no sleeves - those will have to come later. They will be cut out of the left overs.
I was reflecting that if I'd spent all of this weeks lunch breaks working on this, it would probably be done. Ah well. I noticed last night that I've worked a hole through my embroidery callus doing all this hand work. It's really annoying and the skin inside the hole is tender and the needle always slips to the same spot (hence the hole). I need to learn how to sew with a thimble.
On cutting down dresses
The two dresses that I completed for myself were cut down. One was made when I was 30 lbs heavier and the other when I was 20 pounds heavier. Cutting them down has been interesting. Both are bodices with attached skirts and center-front lacing. The gold was higher-waisted with rings for lacing. The wine-colored had sewn eyelets and was completely hand-finished.
Center Front: The yellow one had rings and the red one had sewn in eyelet holes. The sewn in holes had to be cut out whereas the rings only had to be removed. I'm rapidly becoming a HUGE fan of metal eyelets whenever you can document them.
I found that I had to completely disassble these dresses. There was no "quick" or "easy" alteration. I lost weight from my chest, abs, back, shoulders, sides, etc. Just taking in a back seam was not enough nor just taking in the side seams because it does weird things to the neckline and armhole.
There was no advantage (IMO) to removing hand sewing over maching or vice versa. I found that being careful and taking my time was my biggest lesson learned. I ripped the fabric a few times, which fortunately either got cut off or ended up in the seam allowance. But it reminded me to go carefully.
On both bodices I'd "finished" the seams on the inside by rolling them under and hand tacking them. That's lovely, but it's a hassle to undo. The re-worked bodice pieces were each individually serged and then assembled. I pressed them open. I may go back and finish hand-tacking them flat, but I won't be turning it under.
The skirts shrank, so I have extra lengths of fabric. For the yellow one, I'll be making sleeves out of it. On the red on, it already had sleeves, but I've decided to move the dress 20 years later, so I am recutting the sleeves, which is not done yet, and may put that piece to use.
On the red one, which had sleeves, I'd completed the sleeves and bodice separately and then whipped them together. This was a HUGE aid in rework. There was less abuse (IMO) to the fabric of the bodice when I took the sleeves off since the armholes had been bound in matching linen. I was less concerned about the sleeves since they are being disassembled to become something entirely different, but I think the sleeves took the disassembley process better because of it, too.
Overall, having done this, I'm changing my bodice finishing techniques to make sure I "finish" my pieces before I assemble them. I still bind the neck and arm holes and the closure (front, back or side). And I'm going to get more rings. But it's kind of nice to be able to recycle these and be "done" with 2 projects this month.
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