what a lot of works

I have been busy.

Not necessarily overly productive, mind you,

but that's not for lack of trying.

First - the flower girl skirts.

The bride wanted tulle skirts to match the bridesmaid's dresses.

The bridesmaids dresses are dark navy.

Not navy, mind you - super dark navy.

The problem with that, 

was that I could not find any dark navy tulle in Fort Smith.

So then, I scoured Hancocks for anything that might work.

I touched every single darkish blue fabric in the store,

excepting denim and quilting cottons.

I didn't feel good about it

(that should have been a clue to me!)

but I ended up going home with 2 yds (all that they had) of a dark navy nylon mesh chiffon, 

and 1 7/8 yds of a slippery dark navy something or other

(again, all that they had).

Because that wasn't going to be flouffy at all,

I stopped by Hobby Lobby and got 4 yds (not nearly enough!) of what they called navy tulle.

I figured between the layers, the off color would be okay...

I'll spare you my horror stories of cutting and handling the mash-up of fabrics. 

We'll leave it at

there were multiple texts sent regarding my supreme distaste for tulle.

My heart just sank, the more I worked on the skirts.

They were just horrible.

School uniform was not the look I was going for,

and yet somehow, 

that's what I had.

After some tears, 

and texts with the bride,

we decided white would be just lovely.

And I was so relieved!!

Never mind that I was going to have to work with damn tulle all over again.

I felt sooo much better about the choice,

and instead of trying for a more elegant circle skirt silhouette

I went all out pouffy.

(used 10 yds per knee-length skirt!)

Pinning the tulle to my cardboard cutting board made it much less annoying to work with

and each skirt only took about an hour.

I still need to add snaps to the waist, but that will only take a few minutes.

While wasting time and money buying the dark navy fabrics,

I also grabbed some fabric for a dress for me.

All that fabulous fabric from LA, and I had nothing that would work.

Well.

That's not entirely true.

I have a few fabrics that would work splendidly,

but what I have in mind for them 

wouldn't necessarily work for a dress for the wedding.

I cut out a trusty Lady Skater dress on Monday,

(love that pattern! 

I can't believe the only thing I've posted that used it was this shirt.

Oh, and this top, too.)

and sewed it up yesterday evening 

after the gang left for TKD.

I lined it

(using black swimsuit fabric I bought in LA :-)

 and made the skirt a little more twirly by measuring out 2 inches from the hem

and drawing a line from the waist to my mark.

Without my mentioning it,

when I tried it on for him, Tyler said it swirled nicely,

so I guess it worked.

I'm hand-sewing rayon seam binding to the hem.

The fabric is a 2 layer stretch 

and the outer layer is kind of netting-ish and is therefore a little 'grabby'.

I'm hoping that by enclosing all of the raw edges in the seam binding

I'll eliminate the the velcro-like grabbiness 

and not end up flashing anybody.

see what I mean? velcro like grabbiness!

(I have a way with sewing terminology, huh? ;-)

Let's see what else?

Ties That Bind.

(previously known as the black and white quilt).

please excuse the horrible photo - it was only taken to confirm my suspicions.

This thing is huge and heavy!

I thought I had a finished quilt top.

According to my design, when I finished sewing all of my background pieces together,

I should have had a finished quilt top.

What looks fine on paper

doesn't always work out so great queen-sized....

I think I need to add about 4 smaller dresden plates.

So - maybe 10 more hours.

Then I'll have a finished quilt top.

~

It's been awhile since I've mentioned my EPP project.

I still quietly work away at it when we watch a Netflix show

when I have no other hand-sewing

and I've got 7 more hexagons completed.

I've not improved my time any.

I actually think I may even take a little longer per side

than I used to.

Bill said, "You think you should improve in both speed and quality?!"

Well.

Yes.

I had hoped to.

I guess I will have to settle for improved quality (for now).

The next thing I have to work on is finding shoes.

Shoes (that aren't sandals, it's winter after all) that will make my legs look good,

- okay, decent, at least -

but also be comfortable enough to run around in most of the day,

and dance in.

With my twirly dress. 

:-) 

Linking up with Lee
and Amanda Jean, although, what I have are a bunch of almost finishes....