HotPatterns Cosmopolitan Dress

Dudes. I am so making this dress again.

My 20 year high school reunion was last night, and I needed a new dress. I chose to finally make HotPatterns Deco Vibe Cosmopolitan Dress, after having this pattern for ages. I traced off a size 10, but then started thinking that it might be a bit small, so I serged the whole thing together using 1/4" seams. I needn't have worried, as it's a wee big. The only other adjustment I did was to add the constrast bands, like Jalie 2449. I used the long version of the skirt, shortening it 4" before I cut it out, and then shortening it another 1" before I put in a 1" hem.

This is a quick dress to make. I think I took more time deciding which fabric to use and cutting it than actually sewing it. The fabric was from my 'collection', bought locally, and the black contrast is powerdry, since that's what I had and I started this Friday night after supper. I was finished by Saturday afternoon, and I had taken some breaks to feed people, do the housework thing, and paint my toenails (important stuff, you know!). I wore it last night to my reunion, with a black cami (since it's a bit big, it's also a bit low) and my black patent boots. It'll make a nice holiday dress too.

FYI -- HotPatterns is doing a buy one/get one free sale right now, but only through midnight Monday. I've got my eye on the Kimono Wrap dress.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a lovely day, though my brother and his family were not able to come due to sick kidlets. :( We had my mother, my friend Beth, her dad and his wife:
Our yummy meal consisted of turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole (I tried a new recipe which was delish), cranberry sauce, and dinner rolls (another new recipe I tried and was also a success).

After gorging ourselves, we took a game break before having dessert, and played a few games of Horse Race.

Then we had dessert: pumpkin pie, apple pie (still warm from the oven), banana cream pie and tiramisu (not pictured, sorry!). It was all soooo good!!!

Tomorrow I plan to spend most of the day sewing my dress for my HS reunion on Saturday. The pattern is traced off, but that's as far as I've gotten!

BookWorm Meme

Gwen, of After the Dress, tagged me for this bookworm meme I've seen going 'round. The meme says to pick up the closest book, open to page 56, and copy the 5th sentence, plus a few more for context. We've been discussing Advent traditions/ideas on the DAR board at Ravelry, so right now the closest book I have is Celebrate Jesus! At Christmas: Family Devotions for Advent Through Epiphany.

Page 56 is in the section for the third week of Advent (the Bethlehem Candle), and is the hymn Away In A Manger.

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus Laid down His sweet Head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,
But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.
I love Thee, Lord Jesus. Look down from the sky
And stay by my side until morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And take us to heaven to live with Thee there.

I stopped at Target today after Calvin's gymnastics practice for some cleaning supplies. While we were there we did a little Christmas shopping for Connor (since he had stayed home), and I finally found a wooden Advent calendar I like! I never thought I was too picky, but I guess I am: it couldn't have Santa, it couldn't be 'country' or juvenile, it couldn't cost $100, and it had to have decent sized boxes/windows. This is the one I bought (looking online I like this one too).

Advent starts next Sunday, I need to get some goodies for the calendar now!

Streakin'

I got my hair done today:
I have a bunch of uniforms to hem, and then I need to get started on a dress for my 20 year high school reunion (on the 29th). I'm planning to do the Hot Patterns Cosmopolitan Dress.

Halloween

Here in Milwaukee, trick-or-treat is always held on the Sunday before Halloween, in the afternoon. It's always been that way (I don't know why); I never trick-or-treated in the dark on Halloween as a child. Anyway, here are the boys:
Caleb was a biker. He was going to be the Joker, but I didn't get a costume done in time, and it actually turned out for the best, as we had to quickly leave town a few days later for a family funeral (having green hair at the funeral probably wouldn't have been the best thing. ^_^)

Calvin was Zorro, Connor was a ghost. He was going to be a doctor again like last year, but at the absolute last minute he wanted to be a ghost. It's a good thing I keep a bolt of muslin on hand at all times.

As I mentioned above, we had to go to Iowa for a funeral. They do trick-or-treat there at night, usually on Halloween (it was on the 30th this year, and they call it Beggar's Night instead). My FIL dressed up as a clown, Caleb decided to go as a pirate this time, and Connor decided to skip the whole thing and stay home to play with trains. One of the traditions in Iowa is that you have to tell a joke to get your candy. Calvin told everyone that he doesn't do jokes, he does tricks. So he'd go into the person's yard and do a running roundoff into a backhandspring. In a cape. It looked pretty darn cool. People were pretty impressed, and would give him extra candy. He scored big on the candy in Iowa!

I used Butterick 5656 for Calvin's Zorro cape, adding 10" to the length, and using the collar piece from the tunic. To finish off the collar, I stitched it on as if I were making a dress shirt collar stand. It's sewn all around the neck and front edges, leaving the top open.

I then trimmed and clipped the collar. After pressing it, I turned under the open edge on the top.

To finish it off and close the opening, I edgestitched all around. A finished collar, with all edges enclosed!