Photo my big sister took.

Sharing a SCOBY

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If you have an interest in getting a Kombucha SCOBY, please let me know. I have one to share right now, and others will be ready later. If you missed how to make the tea, I posted tutorials and you can find them by clicking on the tag about Kombucha.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I have been pretty sick all week, but thankfully on Thursday I felt much better. It was one of those colds that turns your voice into something people can't help but laugh about, so I was pleased to be able to add to the holiday festivities in any little way I could.

It was pretty bad...

Today I'm turning my turkey into soup, then taking off for office cleaning and then for a much anticipated game day for the kids.

Thankfulness is a 365 day a year character pursuit.
Here we go!

~Faith

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A November Wedding

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The bride is shy, so pics of the most beautiful woman will not be shown, but I can show you some of the fun we had today.

Here is Michael, escorting Ashlee to the reception at a lovely Inn in old town.





We were the happy participants in posh surroundings.





It was a balmy 63 degree day with lots of sun.













Sportin' Spiffies.





This is also where are going caroling before the Christmas ball.





It was a Catholic wedding, and the priest was from Ghana. What a beautiful accent he had!





Cake.





Fluted glasses.





I played with the candles in cracked glass while visiting...





Even the bathrooms were gorgeous.





Yeah, I know. But I clean bathrooms for extra income.... They don't look like this. LOL

I loved how the light from the chandeliers played through the glass with which we toasted the bride and groom. (Kat, I'm thinking of you with my perfect grammar.)









so in love are we two
that we don't know what to do
so in love (so in love)
in a world of our own (so in love)
as we walk by the sea together
under stars twinkling high above
so in love are we two
no one else but me and you
so in love (so in love)
so much in love (so in love)
so in love (so in love)
so much in love (so in love)...





A little live music, specially performed for the newlyweds...





My guy...





Let the dancing begin! First the grownups tripped the light fantastic to a selection of disco numbers. They seemed to remember how to shake it quite well. But I did not get there quick enough to photograph them. When they were through, the younger generation took possession of the territory.

Something about dance floors and children...













Jeremy is sitting this one out, but he asked me to dance later.









We are spoiled by having our very own, experienced DJ, IN THE HOUSE! (Ok, I admit, I'm not so good at that.)





My favorite, well one of them anyway, part of the day was when the guys all lined up and danced to "My Girl" for the ladies. Each one of them stepped out and gave a solo dance during the song. Thanks, guys. We LOVED it!













I think they deserved this, don't you?





Taking a breather





While Michael and Kasie step out into a waltz, and a couple of little ones make a game of darting between them every chance they got.





The food was so good, I didn't notice the centerpieces when we were feasting.





Heading up to the rooftop.









I'm beginning to think these boys are in the running to outshine the girls...





Here are a few...





Michael entertained some of the younger ones with his hat.









Nice view from up here.













Michael and Josiah, a little break dancing...









Whoops. That floor doesn't have a lot of give to it...





Time to go...













And make sure Ashlee gets home safely....





A nearly perfect day...





Stopping to smell the roses...





The chariot awaits...





It was great. Somebody ought to get married at least once a month.

~Faith

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Randomness and the Inadvertent Charmer

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Yesterday was supposed to be partly sunny and up to nearly 60 degrees.

It remained cloudy, in the low 50s, and mischievously sliced by a light, icy breeze.

And that's what made meeting a friend for a BBQ picnic at the local park just a bit on the nippy side. But it was great fun anyhow and it always makes you look forward even more to nice fires and hot chocolate.

The morning began with a donation from one of our hens; a double yolk egg. I always love these. It's like a surprise gift.





And this is Bob. He loves me.





I was almost done sewing leg trim on my pantaloons yesterday morning, when my machine began malfunctioning. Needles keep breaking and catching on something down below.

Well, the little old man at the sewing shop is such a kick. You can't leave there without buying something from the sweet guy. We all compared notes one day, and found that every single one of us had left the shop having purchased some of his 'very good quality German machine needles'.

He called someone in our group and left a 5 minute message on their machine. It is still there to this day.

What an inadvertent charmer.

~Faith

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We Are On the Home Stretch, I Swear!

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At least when you look at it from my point of view, which is - I've been trying to get my ballgown finished since February. Yup, it's taken me that long!

We did manage to squeak in a little work outside that needed to be done. I am ashamed to say that I regret buying this pool. I probably should not, but it did not turn out the way we thought it would at all. We hardly used it, due to the access and cleaning trouble with it.

And then we had to clean it and put it away for the winter.

If you have lots of time or lots of help, a string of nice sunny and dry days, and a clean and flat surface to work on, that would be one thing. But we had none of those.

We got it drained and drug up onto the front porch,





where we did our best to get the dirt and vegetation debris off of it, using a giant blow dryer, then we gave up, rolled it up and put it under a tarp on the pool deck.









And that was one thing done!

Here is the only photographic evidence of Tuesday's sewing day; a floured footprint left by a lovely, bread-baking girl. The rest of the time I was too busy sewing to take pics.





And at a dance practice, Josiah gave Ashlee a knitting lesson.





He's so sweet, and very good at knitting. As well as many other things.





While there, I nabbed the 'community' serger and finished the armholes on my chemise, as well as a dress shirt I had to take in for Michael.

Today we had another sewing day, here at home. Here is my finished chemise, complete with corset.





I have not got on my hoop skirt, but the pantaloons are there. The fabric is not bulky underneath the corset at all, I was surprised to find. However, it is bulky above the top of the corset. I don't know if I will be able to wear it under my ballgown or not. I'll have to try it out after all the hooks and eyes are in place.

I did find later that pulling the chemise down very low in the front helped a lot, and that may be the answer.

Here is the back.





I'm using three different cords to lace it up. It helps a lot to have the separate, as tightening the laces is sort of an art. The middle one is done first, and is the snuggest, then you can work up and down with the other two.

Here is a nice shot of a hoop skirt. This one is shortened due to her height being only 5-2, so you see two hoops rather closely set.





A moment of rest between measuring for hem length.









Even this guy was put to work. He does a nice job ironing and pinning the bottom up for hemming. He's only free because his umpteenth time of trying on his vest that I was altering was finally over. I think that's why he was smiling.





So what's left?

Not nearly so much as last week!

~Faith

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Finishing up the Chemise. Fall Fun.

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Fall is cool.





















































Life is good.

Learning to do a little mending on a coat that was torn during morning chores.









I redid the the gathering on the collar, thinking I would do a better job with some tips I picked up online this morning, but after all was said and done, just doing it by eye worked out just as well, so I'm not going to bother showing what I did to redo it.

Here is a handy way, though, to keep your basted gathering stitches in place while you are getting the yoke ready to sew on. Wrap your basted threads around a pin at the end.





I had originally put the gathers all the way up inside the yoke, but after looking around at other examples in photos I found, I decided that having them as near the bottom of the yoke as I could reasonably get them while still being securely fastened was the best way to go. So I put in additional basting nearer the edge just before sewing it in.





Rather than ironing the gathers, I just crammed them tightly together for a little while. Not real scientific or sewing savvy either, I expect, but it was what I did.





Then stretching it all out later and spreading the gathers out evenly.





At first I was going to leave the neck gussets ungathered...





But decided to go ahead and gather them evenly with the rest of the neckline.





The fabric was inserted about a half inch into the yoke for sewing, and I simply ran over the other seam line already visible.





The yoke is on!









I found some spare trim to cover up the stitching that had accidentally been turned around while constructing the chemise. It's a little bride-ish, but it was the best I could find without running to town. I found a button that can pass as carved bone, and sewed a piece of ribbon to make a button loop, and that finished the bodice and neckline.





Finishing up the hemline, by double folding, ironing, and running a seam along it.





And it was done.





Except for the inner armholes, which I am not sure how to make them nice looking. I'll keep working on figuring out a solution for that.





Here's a quick shot of it on in the mirror. It fits really well, but it remains to be seen how comfortable it will be under the corset.





Now I need to focus on a cape for myself and an overcoat or cape for Michael. It's going to be cold caroling for Christmas in our Ballroom attire.

~Faith

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Working on the Chemise.

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This chemise so far represents a possible 30 hours of serious labor, and I have yet to give birth to it. I console myself with the thought that I am not just giving birth to a really heavy slip, but an amazing journey into knowledge of the mystical land of textile construction and engineering. I'm learning to sew.

Still using this pattern.





With several hours, no MANY hours put into simply locating some instructions that were not in Spanish to use, I finally got some, through pdf attachments in emails. This seamstress then goes on to tell me that she could not make heads or tails of them, and put the thing together on her own.

Great!

Well, I'm nothing, if not willing to make a fool of myself, so I resolve to give the thing a try.

I did not have enough of one color fabric to make the complete chemise. So I used two different sheets.





It will go quite well with my home-made mocha and cream hoop skirt from the Spring Ball. Stepping back in time...





Back to the present.

I had nine different pattern pieces to cut out. I did the upper pieces in white





and the main body of the front and back in brown.





At this time, I had no idea what to do with all the pieces, as instructions were beyond my grasp. I had underarm gussets, neck gussets, underarm liners, yokes... all foreign names to me. This is an attempt to figure out the thing like a puzzle.

Doesn't work.













Yay! 1 pm and I have instructions!!! Leah has delayed her arrival to sew a chemise alongside mine, so I bravely begin to work. That word bravely is not lightly typed, every move was laced with something akin to terror. But one step at a time, right?

First up, was to create an opening at the top of the front panel for ease in getting in and out of the thing. It is to later possess buttons. I almost did not do this, as the opening is so large, extra is not necessary, but I thought it would give me more practice in sewing tasks and, more importantly, it would look cuter on.

Oh, one tip I learned. EVERY SINGLE LINE, DOT, and MARK on the pattern must be transferred to your fabric. I think I would like to splurge and buy my own patterns, because transferring them is a nightmare of time consumption!

Dead center at the top front piece is this little design which I had to measure and mark in, as I'd skipped that when cutting out the pieces.





You stitch it around the outside lines only, and you cut it on the inside lines, making sure you don't accidentally snip through your threads you just meticulously invested into the cloth.





I'm going to show you what I did, then I'm going to tell you what I would have liked to have done, after doing it. Instructions said to fold the edges under twice, very narrowly, and sew in place.













What a pain! Next time, I'm going to affix some single bias tape or something to those flaps to give me something more substantial to work with and make the finished seam look smoother. Kind of rough looking to me.

Now it's time to make a pleat underneath the slotted opening. See the two marks? Pinch and grab the fabric on top of the left mark and pull it over to the mark on the right.





Pin it.





Sew a line right over the top of the place where the slot bottoms out.









Now it's time to begin to put the pieces together. The first ones the instructions lined up were the mysterious neck gussets. I now know what they are. I think. Here is also my second taste of what it means to be careful about all those special marks. I'd put the slotted opening at the wrong end, so all the little arrows had to be redrawn the other way first.





And right away, I ran into my third lesson in markings... the DOTS are also necessary. I had to take a brief interlude and add those to little pieces as well.

So the neck gussets were to be attached at the top corners, matching arrows and dots.





I am sort of becoming familiar with those. They typically are at 5/8, where you'd make your seams. The neck gussets were to be sewn from the outer edge in to 5/8 away from the inside edge. It asked for a flat felled seam, but I did not do it. They wanted it done differently that I'd been doing it, and I was afraid I'd misunderstood, so I decided to wait to finish the seams until I had a better grasp of how it all fit together.





Leah has arrived and is putting the 2nd of four on.





The next piece to attach is the first of four side panels. Long triangles that will add flair to the body, with two under each arm. Matching the arrows and dots...





And pinning to sew.





Here is one side panel and neck gusset attached to the front. The side panel was not sewn all the way to the very top, but stopped at the dot, which was 5/8 inches away from the end. Watch your dots!





Ok all of the panels on the body and much of the sleeves were to be flat felled. Remember I showed that in the last tuturial on the pantaloons? Cut half of one side of your seam off. On this piece they had me work on the inside of the fabric. I guess they wanted the smoother side to the outside instead. I just went ahead and followed the instructions.





Iron it flat.





OK - someone is distracted from the current project. She found something shiny...





Fold the wider edge around and under the narrower edge, iron and stitch to hold it.





Putting the next two side panels onto the back of the chemise. Line up, pin, sew a flat felled seam as before.





Now the front piece with side panels is to be joined to the back piece with side panels. These will be put together with flat felled seams as well.





Done. Now I have a sense of accomplishment. It connects all the way around.









Next up is sleeves and underarm gussets. I knew what an underarm gusset was for; to give extra roominess so you can move around better. But I had no idea how they went in. I was about to find out. Did I mention the terror factor?

If you've done all your marks, arrows and dots correctly, this job is way easier. Here is how we finally figured out how to get them together.





This is done with another flat felled seam, paying attention to those dots to know where to begin and end sewing.





Now the sleeve must be gathered. I've got a pen pointing to one dot, and my finger pointing to the other. It is between these points that the gathering takes place.





I drew some lines to follow...





loaded my needle with thread, and began to baste in two wide stitching lines.





Done, and ready for pulling.





Now it's time to pin the other end of the sleeve around to itself and the gusset. Follow the arrows and dots and they will lead you home.





Here is how they end up looking when pinned together.





Flat fell those seams, and then pull your basting strings to get your gathers going, loose enough to be comfortable on your arms.

Inside view..





Outside view... Starting to look like a sleeve, eh?





I have no idea what we were laughing about this time, but most of the night looks like this...





Just remember to do two sleeves. You don't want to be a lopsided wench.

Now I've discovered that the armbands, or cuffs, I cut are not long enough. I use the opportunity to change the color of them to mocha when I cut out new ones. I ironed these in half, gave them a 5/8 ironed edge, and starched them to make them behave.





Fit them to the size you want, and sew the ends together.





Now pin the gathers evenly into the cuffs. I don't know why this always seems daunting to me. I think I obsess about getting the folds perfectly even. But the later it gets the less you care. Jam them in, pin them, and permanently affix the buggers together with your machine.





Someone has decided this chemise is more work than she's willing to do this evening and has wandered off into a simpler place. A place of makeshift sheet hacking into something temporary. However, she has been slightly distracted again....

I missed the Casper impression, but she quickly moved on to Saint.









Back to the cuff...





I used the edge of the foot as my guide for how far in to set the seam.





Ok, someone else has grabbed the camera again.









Here's where all the weird pieces come together. I have no idea if I got them all exactly right or not, but I did get them together. I went ahead and flat felled the neck gussets as I'd come to no better conclusion.





And began pinning the sleeves to the body of the chemise. It was here discovered I'd accidentally somehow, I still don't know how it happened, flipped the front piece so the the slotted opening is inside out. That will need some decorative edging to cover that up now.





It was quite a challenge getting all those corners and edges of fabric sewn together. I am not certain it's right, but there you have it. At this time the inside seam remains rough. I am not sure what I am going to do about it, if anything. There are underarm liners, but the directions were not clear to me on using them.





There it is, body and sleeves. Waiting for a gathered neckline and a yoke. Again, the directions were not clear to me, so I spent more time trying to research how to put these things together. In the end I just tried to use common sense and winged it. Or is that wung it?





I decided that each of these pieces must be a front and back and they would need to be sewn together first.





So I doubled up four short yokes and two long yokes. Ran a 3/8 seam along the edges, flipped them right side out, ironed and starched them.





Then I sewed all three together, the long one in back, and the two short ones on each end to end up where the buttons are to go, seaming up the ends as well.





Then began gathering the neckline and tops of sleeves the same way I did the bottoms of the sleeves. This view shows the back, a neck gusset, and the top of a sleeve all in one continuous segment.





Then began the tedious process of fitting the gathers to the yoke and pinning.





And this is where I left off.





I hope my experience with learning to use this pattern is helpful to anyone who wants to try it. I would love for there to be tutorials like this on patterns when I am beginning one.

The yoke is not on me, yet anyhow. I'll keep you posted.

~Faith

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