Happy To Sew!

Last weekend DD#2 had to go shopping to buy an outfit for her Field Hockey banquet. It's at a somewhat fancy restaurant at a major tourist attraction in our area. She spent 1 1/2 hours (long sigh) trying on around 15 dresses/top and finally settled on a black duro-style halter top with a banded hem. It was about $30 and made out of a thin black lycra knit.

Get home. She didn't like the banded hem and asked me to take it off! I did that last night. Found out the front "skirt" portion of the top is actually two pieces of fabric. It has a slit right down the middle. That's fine for an 18-year old, but not a 14-year old. So I butted the fabric edges together and zigzaged with a matching thread. Looks fine.

Can't find a skirt. My mom gave me a long, velvet tube skirt about 3 or 4 years ago. She tried it on--snug at the hips for her. Too long anyway and it has a sparkly applique on the front of the skirt near the bottom hem. So I cut the skirt to an above-the-knee length and cut the applique in strips. I asked her if she would like me unstitch the side seams and add the sparkly applique sections going down both side seams, kind of like a tuxedo effect. She liked that idea and it will give her extra hip room. Today she'll try on the top with skirt so I can figure out the exact hemline for her.

After all this, I'm happy to sew. She is hard to please and has a hard to fit/flatter figure. I have one daughter who has a perfect, lean model hourglass figure and another who has a fuller, athletic rectangular figure with a short waist and long legs. The latter is VERY hard to fit at times. Did I mention she doesn't like anything itchy or tight? That complicates things even more. If she would have given me ample time, I would have made a dress just for her.

I'll have to post the revamped outfit later today when I can take pics.

On to my projects...Susan asked:

"Ooops...I forgot to ask you something. What are you using on top of your fleece when you embroider your design"

Susan, I don't know yet ;) . I do have some toppers for embroidery in my stabilizer section and will read my book for what I will use. Last time I embroidered on fleece was over a year ago and I think I used the water-soluble stabilizer. Will let you know when I get to that point. I have to finish my fleece quilt for the softball Chinese Auction basket. I'm about halfway done at this point and will be embroidering on this quilt so actually, I'll be embroidering on fleece even before the Christmas-gift scarves. I really have to get my thoughts together on this.

Today I will go back and check my to-do list from a week or two ago. The totes, purple top, and rice warmers are done. The quilt is being worked on, but I still must get going with the interlining for my coat. I bought the Vogue Patterns magazine at the grocery store last month because it specifically talked about coats, interlinings, linings, and appropriate interfacings. Sure wish I would have Thinsulate for this coat, but I'm just using some flannel as the interlining. Perhaps I'll have time to pull the black flannel out of my stash today and give it a good pressing (at least it got washed!). But it IS Halloween and the kids have been disappointed that the Fall decorations are still not up yet. It's not very motivating when the house is a mess and my sewing projects are everywhere you look.

So much to do, so little time!