Projects galore!

After completing much of the last curtain panel at the Christmas Country Dance School (aka CCDS, while in seated classes or gatherings), I finally tied it off on the 5^th. Here is a picture of the first and last panels for our bedroom, hanging in the window. I made the second and third panels wider, and then had to make this one wider still for balance. It’s still not exactly the same, but that’s the delight of handmade, right?

Being on a crocheting binge, I stopped by Joann’s to pick up some other yarns to make a couple of vests. I got this one finished in about three hours. Two strands of yarn and a big hook make things go quite quickly. I love the depth of colors that comes from combining the two different blue yarns. If I use this pattern again, I’ll make the shoulder straps shorter, and probably approach it a bit differently, but I rarely follow a pattern anyway.

I’m working on another vest, made with black chenille with little specks of color. I’ll post a picture when I finish that one. It’s rather bulky, so I’m still carrying my ball of thread and the tiny needle when I go out. I am almost finished with a doily that I started in Meeting for Business on the sixth. I’ll post a picture when I finish it. I don’t use doilies around the house, so if someone wants to use it, let me know. If not, I’m thinking about putting it in the auction for the scholarship fund at this year’s CCDS.

The major project for this week was Tori’s gown for the Midwinter Ball. The theme is the Roaring Twenties, and she wanted a flapper dress. Now, if it were that simple, she could have borrowed Aunt Lisa’s flapper dress, but no! Being the princess (or whirling dervish?) that she is, Tori wanted it to have a twirly skirt that hid when she was standing still, so that the dress maintained the lines of the flapper style! Okay, have you ever tried to find a pattern for a flapper dress in January? Maybe in August or September, when people are working on Halloween costumes, but not January. No big deal. I am an old pro at making costumes, and it’s basically a sac, right? We found a delightful fabric in the red tag section on Saturday, and all those fabrics went on a further 50% markdown with the new sale on Sunday, so we set it aside.

I used muslin to make a mockup, and it worked pretty well. I was awake for hours two nights in a row, waking from dreams trying to figure out the geometry of a hidden twirly skirt. (The things we do for our kids!) After trying two (or three, depending on how you count it) variations on the muslin skirt, we were ready to cut the real fabric.

Lots of pressing and trying it on, (the fabrics hang very differently!), we ended up with a quite satisfactory dress, and I made a little clutch purse to match. I think the socks really make the outfit, don't you?

(Sorry about the gap on the page. I can't figure out how to make it go away.)

I didn’t have the right serger thread, so Tori took Miriam out to get that, and bought her flannel to make lounge pants and a soft top to sleep in. Then there are Samuel’s lounge pants, and the curtains full-length blue curtains to hang over the café curtains in our bedroom, and the ones that have been waiting to be made for the library/guest room so we can take down the towel to keep the streetlight from shining in that window, and the covers for the zabuton (floor pillows) because we like to sit on the floor, and need them if we’re going to host teen parties very often, and . . . etc.

Where has my break gone??? School resumes in another week and a half. I’ve missed having the time to do these creative projects during the semester. It’s fun to look at something I’ve made and think “I did that!”