Bollywood Ball Gown- Muslin and Dress Fabric

I am so sorry I have not posted pictures before this. 

I am going really slowly because (grand excuse coming here!)
I have been dealing with migraines a lot lately.

Excuses, excuses!

So, enough excuses already!

Since I had not used this pattern before, 

Vogue 2717, 

and we accidentally purchased the wrong size pattern,

I started with a muslin.

In this case, I actually used real muslin, 

but I have used other fabrics in the past for this purpose.

I like real muslin because it is cheap and you can mark it all up!

Marking is so important because then I can take the 

muslin apart to make changes to the pattern.

Shockingly, I only needed to make a few changes this time.

India is sway backed so I had to add a bit of 

width at the back side panels and even out that 

line a bit. Then I had to alter the angle of the back pieces 

to remove that wrinkle at her upper hip.

It was less of an issue than 

it could have been. 

YAY!

I am sorry I did not get a good pic of the actual pattern alteration.

 Then I pinned the pattern piece to the muslin to see how

much I needed to shorten the length. 

This pattern had me do something I have never done before.

Now for some of you, it may be a big "DUH!" 

but it was a new, and not terribly welcome addition.

It is a bridal pattern so that may have something to do with it.

But let me just tell you how much I HATE tulle!

Ok, that being said, I get it. 

Really.

Each piece of the dress 

(not the lining or the over-dress, just the actual dress)

has a layer of tulle sewn to the wrong side. 

Hm....

At first I thought it was a waist of time.

But that tulle really adds body to the satin. 

Nice!

And serging the tulle to the satin added a nice finished edge

to the dress pieces so after I sewed the dress seams,

I had a nice seam that could be easily altered. 

That is really important since I am sewing so much of this gown while
India is not here. 

This was India at 5:30 this morning getting ready

for school. She will not be home

until midnight because the upper level

choirs are gone all day at the Golden State Choir Competition.

So, I will have to grab her for a few seconds tonight before she 

passes out in bed to fit the dress on her.

So there is not much to show yet. 

It looks like a 7th grade Home Ec. project 

on the dress form there.

But after I get it fitted on her,

and start adding the various layers of lining,

foundation, boning, more tulle,

and then the draping of the Sari fabric,

it will start to look like something pretty.

More pics to come tomorrow!!

So, Ahnalin just learned to make daisy chains and is picking 

all of our daisies before they get a chance to bloom.

I explained to her that I had photo plans for those daisies so hopefully

she will let them alone for a while. 

And one more thing.

Guess who is back!!!

Yep!
The froggies have returned!!!

This little guy was
IN THE HOUSE!!! 

So Papa caught him and Ahnalin got to release him back into the pond.
Yay for our froggies!!!!

Now, back to the " Dress mines."

More pics to follow.

A Lily on my Pads, and the Pouty Frog Princess

You all know our family fascination with our frogs in our little pond. It really is a little pond. But it provides endless entertainment and joy to us. We love to hear them sing at night, and have been enjoying watching the progress of our tadpoles.

Today, a lily opened up on the lilypads! I had to practically restrain Ahnalin from picking it.

Beautiful!


These are just a few of our polliwogs. If they all survive, we will have quite a large choir of frogs!




The water is pretty murky green right now, which looks pretty slimy to me. Ahnalin can not stay away, and I am convinced she is going to fall in one of these times. I was on the phone with my friend Samantha today and kept telling Ahnalin to be careful or she would fall in. My friend just laughed and told me to let her fall in and she would learn her lesson. It would truly be hilarious!

But this is the look I got from Ahnalin when she heard that.


Yeah, I laughed and then hauled her off to bed for a story and a nap.

I pray you all have a lily to make you smile, a chirping frog to make your heart sing, and a sleepy child to snuggle to sleep.

Making Scones, with a side of Froggy singing

Tomorrow is the last day of MOPS until we reconvene in the Fall. That makes tomorrow our annual Tea Party! YAY! I love tea parties and I love scones, so I volunteered to make the scones.
And low and behold, I had the best helper today, the lovely Ahnalin!

She helped me measure, stir, knead, roll and sprinkle. She ate far more dough than was healthy, and then she helped clean up afterward.

We used the scone recipe from my favorite cookbook. This book actually belongs to my mother-in-law but I use it all the time. I hope she leaves it to me someday, hint, hint.




I love my little vintage sifter. I use it all the time.



Ahnalin took this pic of me wearing an apron that belonged to Don's Yaya since the 1930s. Not the most flattering pic, but I love the apron.


Ahnalin is very serious about her rolling pin technique, therefore some of the scones probably did not rise as much as they could have. But she is one serious roller!


What a mess!

Now Ahnalin gets to do her favorite thing, washing the dishes and tools. She LOVES this! She will spend an hour playing in the sudsy sink. And then, her next favorite thing.....vacuuming. Weird! But Nana bought Ahnalin her own vacuum because she loves it so much. Yeah......we do not share the same gene pool for sure!

She refused to let me brush her hair today. It was a sensory kind of day, so the kneading, rolling, washing and vacuuming all were good sensory stimulation and really calmed her down. She truly loves this stuff, which totally cracks me up.

And the end result of our labors was so yummy! We made 10 dozen scones!


And then, just for fun, a little froggy singing.
Excuse the lack of loveliness on my part. No makeup today and, gee, am I looking old!

Froggies, The Flu, and The BlueBird of Happiness

So, first up, and out order of the title, is the Bluebird of Happiness.

So, remember this post? http://goosegirlsews.blogspot.com/2009/03/tea-time-dress-for-fabrics-on-mill-st.html (Sorry, I still don't know how to do links correctly.)
Well Ahnalin wants this dress sooooo bad! But I made it in the size that will fit her next summer so that Fabrics on Mill St. can keep it on display as long as they need it. But Ahnalin has been mooning over the little scraps of fabric, begging me to make her something. And like India, she has gotten into the fun of designing her clothing. So, she presented me with the scraps and asked for a "Skirt she could hang upside down in."
She is quite the queen of the monkey bars, so she knows of which she speaks! We have yet to try them out on the monkey bars though, since India is sick and I am keeping Ahnalin home as well....... (more on this later).




See, she is not always ladylike.
Oh, and the top is just a cheapo RTW that I appliqued with a bluebird from Designs by Juju. I love her designs!

If you look closely, you can see the bias strips of the fabric coordinates in between the fabric blocks. And I was able to use some of my vintage lace on the edges of the bloomers and vintage rickrack on the skirt. I love digging through my treasures to embellish pretty clothes.

When Ahnalin was little I used to make bloomers for all of her dresses. And she has such a "tiney hiney" that I had to draft them to fit her. So I just pulled out that bloomer pattern and devised a skirt out of the scraps, and attached them at the waistband. I do see many more of these little skirts in our future.

Next up....The Froggies!
We have 6 froggies in our pond and they are LOUD! However I am having problems loading the videos. I will keep trying.




And lastly, India is sick again. I finally heard from the doctors office and it is "just a virus" whatever that means. This girl has been sick since Monday, no voice, bad headache, totally pale and listless, nausea and vomiting, and achiness. But her cultures came back clear. At least we are not dealing with swine flu. It is most likely just a different flu virus. She is on Tamiflu and should start to feel better soon. But this girl has missed more school this year than any other year, and really needs prayer. She was even too sick to perform on Tuesday night, and that is saying something. So please pray that my India gets well.

Let me know what you think of Ahnalin's new skirt, ok? Thanks!

Happy Newsflash! The Froggies have returned!

This is short, and no photos yet, but the happiest thing has happened! The Froggies have returned to our pond! YIPPEE!!!! Froggies ribbeting and chirping in the spring is just the happiest sound! (And yes, I know I use a lot of exclamation points when I am excited!!!!) When the Froggies moved out last summer, we were all so sad. Papa went to the plant nursery and bought some for the pond but they did not stay either. We have prayed for some Froggies to return to our pond because they make us all smile. A few days ago, I heard one, and then nothing for a few days. But then today, we heard several and saw two. YAY!!!!!!!!

Ok, enough jubilation. Back to the salt mines, er.....sewing machine.....

Taffeta darling! (think Young Frankenstein.....)