Keeping Busy

Queen Belle Supervises while I work

Spring is upon us now and everything outside is in bloom.  I'm enjoying the extra hours of sunlight with Daylight Savings Time to get some projects finished that have been on the back burner for a long time.  I've been outside walking a bit, doing schoolwork (this quarter I have "Sociolinguistics"), sewing and working on some more knit hats.  As you can see, Belle spends a lot of time in the bed on my cutting table making sure that she's the first one to see any thread stealing opportunities.  I've already found my edging tape strung into the hallway, that's the beautiful thing about cats, you never know what they'll get into.  I like her being at my side when I'm sewing, that way I know what she's doing.  The others aren't quite so miscevious.

I finished my linen sun dress last week and found this great short sleeve lacy sweater to go with it.  The dress is perfect for the warmer weather and I'm planning to wear it when we're in Hawaii for the wedding.  It's a little bit sheer so I decided that I wanted to get a slip for it.  I checked all of the places that one would think you'd find a half slip and I found were polyester and very clingy and short.  They'd be perfect for a very form fitting dress in the winter, but that slimy fabric is so hot in the summer and I'm not going to need anything clingy.  So after not finding what I wanted, I decided to make a slip for the sundresses out of 100% breatheable cool cotton.  Slips are easy, I just made a smaller version of the simple Civil War over petticoat.  No pattern needed.

I've been trying to use fabric out of my stash only as of late so I don't have to purchase any more fabric.  I know that's not in keeping with stash building, but my fabric stash has truly gotten out of hand.  Tthis linen was left over from making my daughter some maternity clothes when she lived in Texas and needed cool clothing for the heat there.  The linen has a lot of body so it's not going to wrinkle too much which is nice.  I have a couple of other nice linen prints that I intend to sew up eventually, more fleece, some silk, wool, and tons of cottons. I don't think I'm going to run out of fabric any time soon, in fact, not at any time during my lifetime. 

This is the slip I made for the sundress.  Once I started working on this simple garment, I went all "Civil War" and added tucks for body and even some edging on the bottom with a little bit of lace.  There is embroidery above the tucks, though since it isn't for Civil War reenacting use, I went ahead and used my sewing machine to create it.  The fabric is just plain 'ole ecru or off-white muslin, the same stuff I use for so many of the linings in my Civil War dress bodices.  It's pretty thin (I bought it online and didn't realize it wasn't a tighter weave) so it'll be nice and cool for the summer.  I had to make myself get away from the sewing machine or I probably would have continued to add more embroidery and such...it's just a slip, after all, and it needs to be finished and off the table. I'm not going to promise that I won't fiddle with it again at some point.  I see a lot of room for more embroidery and I
 have so many lovely floral patterns on my machine to choose from.

I also had in my mind that I wanted to make myself a new bathrobe.  The one that I had been using was falling apart and every time I washed it I think it got a little bit smaller. I've been needing a new robe for a long time. I have a lot of polarfleece in the stash (omg I just admitted that publicly!!!) that I bought to do throws and such so I figured I'd find a pattern and make a fleece robe.  This was a fairly easy pattern, but because it's so big and long and it's very thick fleece, it was a real pain to work with.  It took a lot of fabric, and it is a bit big but it's very nice and warm and cozy with a hood on top.  I plan on making at least one more and won't add the sleeve cuffs and will make it smaller.  I hate it when you follow the measurements on a pattern and make the size that is closest to your own measurements and the thing ends up way too big or small.  I try things on and adjust them as I'm sewing with things like dresses but a robe didn't seem to be an issue for fit.  That's ok, though, I'd rather it be too big rather than too small.  It'll no doubt shrink up a little bit as it's washed and dried more. 

Next up, I have a wrapper (Civil War) pattern cut out and want to get working on that, and I have a couple of possibilities for what to do with some more of my linen fabric.  Oh, and there is always schoolwork and flying.  Busy, Busy!