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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

A-LINE DRESS

One of the projects that has been taking much of my time is an A-line dress I was working on for a client.  I had to make the pattern and construct the dress.  She actually found a (Calvin Klein) sleeveless dress on-line and liked much of the style, but wanted her dress to have sleeves and more length; from just above the knee to about mid-calf.

 It was quite the project actually since it has a total of 24 panels; 12 in the front, and 12 in the back with an invisible zipper.  The original was fully lined, which she wasn't too concerned over.  So, I added facings to the neckline and bypassed the lining altogether.   I was caught off guard by the amount of fabric it took; in fact, I needed to call her to pick up additional yardage.  I wish I would have had a way to know that the typical 3 yards of 60" wide fabric was going to fall well short of what we needed.   But, there was really no way for me to know until I started laying out the pattern pieces.   In fact, it took darn close to double that amount!  The hemline of the finished garment is over 100 inches in circumference so the panels really ate up the fabric with funny little wedges of waste left behind.  Anyway, here's the Calvin Klein "knock-off"!  It's a beautiful plum colored stretch gabardine.  Nice drape and reasonably wrinkle-free.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

TWIG WREATH

I've decided I really like to have a wreath on my front door.  I like the way it adds some life and interest to the front entrance.  But, it was definitely time to put the Christmas wreath away and it is  too early for the Springtime wreath that I have....so I put together a non-seasonal wreath for the front door.
I picked up all the goodies I needed at (you guessed it!) Hobby Lobby; the twig wreath base and the feathers.


Then I took the trusty glue gun and glued the feathers around the center.  Since the feather trim is a continuous strand, it made it really easy to glue down.  I just did an inch at a time; glue and press; glue and press all the way around.

 Then I glued a few springs of yellow flowers and orange berries into the branches, very sparingly.  I just wanted to give it a bit of color.

It's simple...but that's what I like about it.

We have several months of winter yet to look forward to in Colorado, so this wreath adds a little warmth and color to the door until the spring wreath and planters full of flowers will bring new life to the entire front porch.

Today is pushing sixty degrees, so the warmth of the sun is giving the feathers and twigs an almost caramel glow.  Beautiful!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

DISHWASHER "CLEAN"

Remember those "clean" and "dirty" signs you used to be able to get for your dishwasher....Can you even buy them anymore?   Well, we lost our "clean" sign long ago and had been using the "dirty" to indicate when the dishes were clean and ready to be unloaded (I know, confusing right?).  It works like a charm for my husband and me.  We lay it on the counter above the dishwasher, then the first one home unloads the dishwasher.  Well, it was time for a new one....and it made sense for our household that we really only needed the "clean" sign.

So, it seemed the lids from the mason jars that I made into luminaries seemed like the likely choice for the base.  I had several lids that needed a purpose in life.  So, I bought a piece of scrapbook paper, some letters and scrapbook decals which were originally intended for a page for "baby's 1st bath", which included some bubbles and a rubber ducky.  Hey, who can resist a rubber ducky?, and in a matter of minutes, I had my new sign.
First, I cut out the paper the dimension of the inside circle of the lid...I decided to let the metal edge frame show.  To be honest, that was my second prototype...the first prototype I cut out the same dimension as the lid and didn't like it quite as well as the second.

After I hot glued the paper into place, I added my letters and decals.  The final step was the magnet for the back (our sign hangs on the fridge when its not in use).  There you have it -  and it took 20 minutes tops!