Playing with fabric

(You're excused from reading this post if you hear the words 'fabric' and 'sewing' and your mind completely shuts off. Kind of like mine does when I hear words having to do with math or other number-related professions.)

One of my ways of dealing with stress (other than extreme sleeping and watching mindless television shows thanks to Netflix) is to make things. This past weekend I have been doing a lot of sewing. Or doing the stuff I need to do to get ready to sew, such as washing and ironing fabric, tracing patterns, cutting things out, etc. The first thing I did was to nearly complete a dress for myself. I tried to take a picture, but it turned out too dreadful even by my questionable photographic standards. (No place to hang it, poor light, no dress form, etc.) When it's done maybe I'll take a picture of myself wearing it and show that to you. It's a wrap dress and I still need to add on a small v-shaped piece of fabric because it is so low cut as to be unwearable at the moment. So that is project number one.

Next, I have decided to make Easter dresses for the three youngest girls and a skirt for P. Yes, crazy, I know, but also therapeutic. It feels good to have accomplished something. Plus, with my taste in children's clothes, I can't afford to buy them and even with the price of fabric, it's cheaper to make them. 

I'm using the 1958 Girl's Party Dress pattern from Sense and Sensibility. (If you don't want to go look at the link, they are short, kimono-sleeved bodices with gathered skirts and a waist sash. I'm also going to be edging the necks and arms with piping. I chose it because it's cute, it comes in the sizes I needed, and there are no separate sleeves so that they should go together fairly quickly. Here are the fabric combinations.

This is for H. the yellow is the main dress and the blue is for the sash and piping.

G. will be in the pink and L. in the purple. Solid dresses with the floral as sashes and piping.

I will also be making a new skirt for P. (She is not so crazy about dresses at the moment and much prefers skirts.) I'll use the same pattern as the last skirt I made, except in this fabric.

Isn't it pretty. It's not linen, but looks a lot like it and doesn't wrinkle nearly as easily.

Here's a detail of the embroidery on it.

The other thing I accomplished other than get all the fabric washed and ironed was to make a couple of muslin bodices so I could be sure of sizing before I cut into the real fabric. I'm glad I did because the arms of the little girls' bodices need to be widened quite a bit. I was also able to find a use for this, ahem, lovely fabric that's been hanging around in my stash. It actually looks far better in the picture than it does in real life. In person it sort of makes your eyeballs bleed. It has now served a useful purpose and I don't have to see it sitting on the shelf any longer.

As ambitious as all this may sound, you may decide that I'm certifiable if I tell you that I'm also contemplating making a new tie for D, having struck out trying to find an inexpensive one for his size. (K. and TM will be wearing sweater vests.) The older three all have store-bought clothes which will work just fine. Having slowed or stopped growing does have its advantages.

In other, more mundane news, we are doing fine here. In some ways, nothing has really changed, except that I can tell that the boy is really NOT looking forward to visiting the therapist for this week's visit. He's what you might call a little touchy, which means that I have a nearly constant knot in my stomach. After years of conditioning, I can hear trauma-related behavior and feel it first in my stomach before it even registers in my head. (Remind me to tell you about the doctor's office and someone else's child someday.) I've been doing a lot of deep breathing. It helps to remind me that we haven't all fallen off the cliff yet, even though we're facing that direction.