Easter Dinner

I'll be taking a break from sewing and blogging for the weekend. I most likely will not be posting "Vintage Pattern Sunday". It's time to put down my needle, pick up a wooden spoon and hole up in the kitchen. Here's what we're having for Easter Dinner...

Easter Menu

Brown Sugar Glazed Ham
Grilled Salmon
Baked Halibut

Twice Baked Stuffed Potatoes
Steamed Asparagus
Ambrosia Fruit Salad
Easter Pistachio Salad
Deviled Eggs

Outback Brown Bread
Homemade Dinner Rolls
Whipped Honey Orange Butter

Chocolate Mousse Pie
Strawberry Shortcake
Apple Pie
French Vanilla Ice Cream

Southern Sweet Tea
Peach Tea
Variety of Sodas

I hope your Easter is super blessed. Enjoy your time with friends, family and reflecting on the spiritual blessings we have received in Christ. Christ Is Risen!

Charity

Skirt #10..."Lemon Zest"

Another 5T skirt completed. I still want to do a little beading on the applique on this one. I will be picking up either a white, orange or yellow tee for this one depending on what I find. This skirt was made from a denim I had in my stash. I have enough left over to make two or three skirts in the other sizes - though I will alter the embellishment as I want each skirt to be unique.



Skirt #11 (I think! LOL! I need to get my count caught up *g*). This one is called "Pocket Pals" and it's made from vintage sheeting in a very nice weight. It irons beautifully and is highly wrinkle resistant. This is also a 5T.



Skirt #12..."A Little Bird Told Me"



Charity

A Little Business

I am SOOOOO delighted with the sweet emails and comments I'm getting from folks who want to help with The Hundred Skirt Project. I have gals from New York, Indiana, Washington and here locally who want to be involved. What a treat! I am happy to report that the 3Ts and 5Ts are either done or promised. Sizes remaining are 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and I will need to make a few Misses Plus sizes as well (have two of these so far and could probably use 3 more).

On the downer side...I think my computer is about ready to fry. I've done quite a bit of maintenance on it with no improvement. It's an old computer so this is nothing unexpected. However, if I didn't get back to someone waiting to hear from me, please try again. It's taking several minutes to download a page so my computer time has dropped drastically and I may have missed a question, comment or email in the frustration and confusion. We are working on it, but if I suddenly disappear, it means we've had a crash and will be back online as soon as possible. Just wanted to give a heads up.

Thanks again for all your encouragement, enthusiasm and participation!

Charity

Skirt *8..."Peachy Keen"

Actually, I need to recount because I think this is Skirt #9. I'm going to need to come up with a system soon for organizing these skirts (which ones need a shirt, which ones need a tag, etc.) or it's going to get confusing very quickly.

This is how the skirts will be packaged. They will be wrapped in tissue paper first. Hot pink if I can find it and then put into a gallon size ziplock with the skirt tag on top.



Charity

Sewing Lessons Monday

Emily, Sarah and I had a very productive sewing day today. We covered two more applique techniques, reverse applique and needle-turn applique. We kept our instructional time a little shorter because I really wanted the girls to make some solid progress on their projects today.

On the project front, Emily completed the cutting on her Project Runway Style Mystery Assignment coat. You can read about that adventure here. This is a "repurposing" project. She will be turning a chenille bathrobe into a lined jacket with hood. We will share before and after pics when we get done. Besides the cutting, she also experimented with a little beginner-level pattern drafting, figuring out how to make a "powder glove" for her jacket. We got a successful draft on almost the first try. She was ecstatic. The powder glove muslin soon turned into a frenzy of making 80s style fingerless mitts. I think she went home with enough mitts to wardrobe an octopus! She also got her first lesson on a serger. It went pretty well, but...well,,,let's just say it's gonna be awhile before I turn her loose on anything that matters.

Sarah meanwhile was wrapping up her vest. This has been a looonnnnggg project and Sarah's fortitude has amazed me. I would have wearied of this thing about two weeks ago. Sarah is a bit of a perfectionist. She and her seam ripper have become fairly inseparable as the slightest wobble in a seam gets the pointy end of her ripper. However, the vest finally passed her rigorous standards. She is probably about one hour from completion. We have a little work on side seams and the buttonholes left to do. Buttonholes are always a bit of a gamble. Especially on a slightly stretchy and napped fabric like moleskin. I'm a littie nervous for her. It would be quite disheartening if, after all her painstaking efforts, things went south from here. So keep your fingers crossed for her.

And a little business...thank you for the emails and comments from those of you wanting to help with The 100 Skirt Project. I am getting some weird error message on my computer. The thing is barely crawling from page to page. So I'm a little behind on getting emails out and questions answered, but I'm doing major computer maintenance tonight and I hope I'll be back up to speed tomm. Thanks for your patience.

Charity

Skirt #5 - "Pumpkin Patch"

Skirt 5 out of 100 has rolled off the production line! I want to make some holiday themed skirts just for fun. So this one's Harvest themed. This is a 5T. This is another destined for The Hundred Skirt Project. See yesterday's posts for more information.



Skirt #6, Strawberry Fields Forever." Size 5T. Embellished with rick-rack, applique and vintage button. This is a vintage poplin fabric I found at a thrift store. I think it's just fantastic and it has a wonderful weight to it.




Skirt #7, "Victoriana"



Skirt #8, "Seeing Spots"



Charity

Vintage Pattern Sunday

Wow! A week rolled by already! It's Vintage Pattern Sunday again and time for me to share a pattern from my vintage pattern collection. This is a sweet one that I dearly love, a vintage toddler's sailor outfit.



And this is one I found online recently and plan to purchase out of sheer nostalgia. My grandmother made me a whole wardrobe from this pattern when I was 13 years old. There was a solid royal blue top and a floral royal blue top. Two skirts from the same and a pair of royal blue pants. She made them for me to wear on a European summer tour. I adored my grandmother and adored my mix and match wardrobe. It was one of my favorite outfits I had as a girl. So when I saw this pattern online, I just fell in love all over again and decided I had to have that pattern. Who know...I might have a 13 yo granddaughter some day. :) :)



And these are not from a vintage pattern. The tote and the girl's design I drafted myself and the other is just a basic romper. But since I'm in nautical mode here, I thought I'd go ahead and share them as well!











Charity

Organza Flower Applique

Kat asked how I created the organza flower appliques in the skirt below. It's really very simple....I cheated. :) LOL! The flowers are pieces of a trim that I purchased at Wal-Mart years ago. It was a by-the-yard trim of layer upon layer of these organza flower shapes. It was beautiful. Looked extremely expensive. Definitely NOT Wal_mart-ish. It came in this pale pink and a few other colors I don't recall right now. I bought it to use in the dress below. I wish I had bought a ton of it at the time. So I had a tiny bit of the trim left. I have used it in a variety of crafts for ethereal type appliques by simply cutting one flower off the trim and then separating the layers. So for the skirt's embellishment, I didnt' do anything but slap down three of the individual pieces and sew a button through their middles.

Lesson learned from this...when you find a fantastic trim or fabric at unbelievable price, rare quality and unlimited potential, buy a TON of it.





Charity

Skirt #4..."Spring Fling"

The 100 Skirt Project Update

Okay...I finished up Skirt #4. I'm calling it "Spring Fling" (so original, huh?). I will buy a lime green or hot pink tee to go with it. The embellishment is simply three organza flowers with button centers.



Charity

100 Skirt Project

I decided it was time to make some progress on my 100 Skirt Project. For those who might be new readers, I'm working on making 100 Skirts in size 3T to Misses Small. Each skirt will be unique and have some type of embellishment such as beading, applique, rickrack, etc. These will be paired with a simple matching tee to make a coordinating set. They will then be attractively packaged and wrapped with a tag that reads "The One Hundred Skirt Project, You are the Owner of Skirt # (whatever)". When these are done they will be sent to this orphanage in Guatemala. Original Posts about my 100 Skirt Project can be found here and here.

So today I cut out 5 skirts in a size 5 and started whipping them out assembly line style on my serger. Tomorrow I will insert the elastic into the casings and give each their respective embellishment. I'd like to knock out two more by Sunday evening and that will take me to 10% done! My goal is to have them shipped by the end of the year. I'll post pics when I get tomm's batch finished.

I have had some ladies express interest in contributing a skirt both here locally and online. If you're interested in participating, I'd be happy to include your contributions as well and share your pics here. Here are the guidelines.

1) Create a simple skirt in one of these sizes 3T, 5T, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, Misses Small. Add an embellishment of your choice (applique, trim, pocket, ruffle, piping, beading, whatever). In order to make fit as flexible as possible, please use a pattern with an elastic waist and an A-line shape.

2) Please be aware that the orphanage is in a small Guatemalan village. The dress for young girls there is much more conservative than typical American wear. You will want to make the skirt a couple inches longer than normal.

3) The girls do their laundry themselves and scrub on rough washboards. You will not want to use fragile fabrics and will need to make sure seams are finished in a way that can hold up.

4) Purchase a simple tee to match your skirt. If this is not possible, please just send on the skirt and I will purchase a tee.

5) Name your skirt. Have fun with this.

6) Contact me for a shipping address. It will be easiest and most economical if everything is shipped together, so if you ship it to me I will put everything together, add the "100 Skirt Project" tag with your skirt's name (and your name if desired) and ship everything in one big box.

My Mom and Dad have twice served at this orphanage for several months. This is one reason I chose this particular organization as my project. I'm familiar with the need there. Most of these girls have been badly abused. Many were entrapped in sexual exploitation and abuse. The need there is legitimate and all gifts received with much gratitude. Here is a picture of the girls.





Charity