seamstress for a day or two

some of you may recall me whining about finishing up these dresses intended for wear on Easter Sunday. if you do recall (and I am sure you do because, well, my life is just that interesting) then you will also reflect that it was way after Easter when said whining occurred. but due to a little diligence on my part, and more to the sweet pity my lovely seamstress of a sister in law, and my mother, took upon me the dresses are FINALLY complete. and they are lovely if I do say so myself. and of course why wouldn't I? the part I am most proud of is that I got to alter a pattern and add to it as well. talk about creative!


first sorry for the blurry shot - these girls could barely sit still at the moment. and while I toot my bitty horn for you I will also sing the praises of the ladies who inspired these lovely smocks. I love to peek in on the creative lives of too many women these days. two of my favorites inspired this project. I saw this post on Huffmania, this gal is amazing - so cool and inspirational. she has inspired too many ideas and fueled new desires to pursue. I'll be sharing more on some of those later. I decided to do this the week before Easter, I am sure I had forgotten who I really am and how I really operate. I still remember the spasm of excitement that seized me as I thought I could do it, and do it for two! so in I dove, and I don't regret it at all. after finding the darling print the addition of the hem was the next wave of inspired blog surfing. that came from House on Hill Road and her darling twirly skirt tutorial - I have one in the works right now and have purchased several prints to make too many more. this blog is so fun to read - I love her fabric choices and passion to do so much. after reading her blog I generally feel like I should take a nap myself before moving on to anything that needs doing in my life. talk about a craft goddess, or more accurately a sewing goddess, she can work wonders with a machine, some fabric and some thread. she knits too.

(I love that Grace would only pose for me if she could lie down)

and so, inspired, the cutting commenced, the alterations planned for, the stitching went well. and then I hit a wall on the necklines; it stalled me hard for a few weeks. enter my sister in law Jody - she is amazing. I had tried EVERYTHING in my power to avoid unstitching my work. not sure if I am too lazy, or too afraid of admitting defeat, but for whatever reason what I thought was the unthinkable was a very obvious and easy fix when she looked at the problem. so with the neckline all done the last thing to complete was that cute little hem at the bottom. procrastination hits again. determined to finish this project I packed them in a suitcase and shipped them with us to visit my sisters family in Dallas - if it was the only option for the girls to wear, of course it will have to be done. and with a little more help from my lovely and talented mother it is. wisely she helped but never took over and I can say very proudly I did it, even if I didn't do it alone.

this was certainly an eye opening experience, in more ways than one. I look forward to trying this project again and finishing it in a more timely manner, now that I have suffered some of the pitfalls and now know how to persevere. can I get an AMEN here. thank you, I'm glad it's over too.