Call It What You Want...

Guys, can you both sit still and smile?


Okay. How about looking at the camera?


No. At me.


Mark? Put your shirt down.


That's so nice. Now can you look at me?


Um. Please note that the peanut gallery in the background is laughing at my efforts.


Wow.


No, I didn't want a picture of a dog.


Or another dog.


Seriously, guys!

Hmm, maybe there's strength in numbers?


Let's get more involved here.


Perhaps if we get the awful faces out of the way...
(Please note Grandpa, standing in the back, sneaking out to make a video of me trying to photograph the precious children.)


Um, okay, as long as it leads to a cute picture in a minute...


Not yet. Except for Andrew. Boy, he's cute. And cooperative.


Getting better. Maybe this is why the parents usually have to be in the picture.


I think I'll take what I've got and call it good.

Maybe we should have tried this before dessert.

A while back I received a mysterious package in the mail. The contents turned out to be some fabric over which I had drooled some years ago -- fabric which a beloved friend had purchased and never sewn into a dress. Appropriate for 1836, it is a delightful riot of blues, yellows, reds... in short, perfect. And Mer could no longer use it, and would it be possible for me to find a use for it?

It began with the book Costume in Detail, a very fine book with line drawings of actual garments in various collections from 200 years of glorious fashions. Some years back, on our first trip to England (sorry Mel, yes, I am a brat) I was able to see some of the items included in the Snowshill Collection (prominently featured in this book). In fact, the dress I have chosen to reproduce with Mer's lovely fabric is one from the book, and one I actually saw. Can I pass on this idea? (No.)

Paula gave me a pattern, which I cut out, tried on my duct-tape form, and altered to get the basic shape at the back, neck and shoulders that would work with the dress design. I then draped muslin over the shoulders and back to create a sort of cape-like collar for the back and gathered bands that drape from the shoulders to the waist, meeting in the center of the bodice. Once I finally got those pieces shaped properly, I then cut new lining pieces out of muslin, and then re-fit them to the dress form, and used them as my pattern pieces.

These are the back collar pieces. They end at the shoulder, and are sewn into the armscye at the front edge. The book gives appropriate measurements, which, in a couple of instances, ended up being accurate when I forgot to measure one or the other aspect. Nice when things work out well.




Sleeves, complete with double piping on the cuffs, are sewn in. It's hard to enjoy all the detail as the fabric (and background) is plenty busy, but this part worked out great. Totally excited about this!




Shoulder detail. Once again, I will have to figure out how to photograph this stuff to show detail. But cool. And working out correctly.




Waistband sewn on (double piping at top, also will be added at the bottom.

The dress still needs the neckline finished (more double piping, anyone?), the back finished (who doesn't love a row of hooks and eyes?) and the skirt sewn together, attached, and hemmed. For those who are keeping track, I'm about to enter into the world of handwork. I'm also adding a belt to fit over the waistband -- not sure what the original belt looked like, as it was missing from the original (as was one of the front bands), so I am going to make it a self-fabric belt, well-starched, with hooks and eyes to close it.





Closer detail of the front bands where they meet the waistband at the center of the bodice.

More pictures to come as I progress. I think I'll need some nice sleeve puffs of my own?

The other day -- with school canceled and all of us needing a few things out of the ordinary -- I piled on a few special activities (including paying a couple kids from who knows where ten bucks to clean my driveway). One of them was ZIPLOCK BAGGIE ICE CREAM.

Place in one sturdy quart-sized zipper bag:
1 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 tsp. sugar
Zip bag closed and set it aside.

Fill a gallon-sized zipper bag with ice (or, in our case, snow) and sprinkle in 6 Tbsp. salt (I used rock salt and just put in "some".) Place the quart bag with the milk mixture inside the ice bag and zip the ice bag shut.

Shake. It takes about 10-15 minutes of shaking, and your hands get cold, so put on mittens, and, mom, plan to do the shaking yourself if you have a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old.



Remove the inner bag and rinse it off with cold water so no salt gets in your ice cream.

Serve and enjoy.



(The boys are getting excited and Adam is even done crying.)



Here! You want some? He actually shared a bite of his with me. (I also had some of my own from what was still in the bag.)



You can look at mine too. Don't think you're going to get any, though...