Prom 2010

Son and date headed out for prom 2010. I made Anna's dress. It was a combination of several patterns. She found a picture online and I created it for her. I now realize i should have underline the satin. It was a little flimsy and is buckling. Other than that, I am pleased. She was happy with it and due to my stashing fabric and sale coupons we accomplished the dress for right around $22.00. Not Bad!

Son is wearing the suit he wore in his prother's wedding! His shirt and tie are new. $30.00.

Very budget friendly prom!


Coursage for Anna. Looks great with her dress style. Anna and a front view of the dress. The "pulled up " areas of the skirt are centered. I think this was taken before I realized it had twisted from car riding.

I love this smiling shot! Evan rarely smiles like this... love it!

Wish I had thought to underline the satin. A little buckly here. It looks very unpressed but I promise, I pressed this! I did learn that i need to carefully consider underlining satin when using it. I did do a compete boned corset under this. Oh well. She was pleased so I am too.

A decision has been made....

I have been struggling recently with the busy-ness of life. Following is my current life:

Wife
Mom- 5 kids. 2 grown and three at home. 17 YO soccer and tennis player, finishing his junior year of high school, preparing to make college visits. 10 year old daughter, gymnast who competes. 9 year old daughter who plays soccer.
Taxi drive for kids
Seamstress (own my business)
Work as secretary for husband's business
Church obligations- adult Bible fellowship leader
School volunteer obligations- Coordinator of SCRIP program, coordinator of annual auction
Mentor and Bible study leader for 4 couples

I have been feeling overwhelmed particularly when it comes to my sewing business. I have made the decision to close my business for this portion of my life. I enjoy sewing for myself and that has been pushed to the bottom of the pile and I am losing the joy of sewing. As of the end of April, I will no longer be accepting any sewing "jobs". The little bit of spending money I make doing this is not worth the anxiety I get from this. I want my sewing room to be a retreat. A place where I can relax and think and pray. Now it has become a chore to head here and that makes me sad.

God keeps bringing people into my life to minister to and I want to do what He wants me to do.... and that is focus on people and love them as He would.

One custom prom dress to finish, two to hem, and a few pair of trouser to hem and then it will be done for now. I may come back to it when my life changes but for now, I am at peace with this.

Blessings- linda

Closet dreams.....

We have been working on transforming some space in our bedroom. We have a very large master sweet but had the typical 1970's reach in closet for each of us. Hubby had one and I had one. Mine was at the "end" of the bathroom wall. To the right of the stool is the closet area. Please excuse the pile on the bed. This was taken as I was emptying the closet. Once all is said and done the closet will be 6' x 12'8". We are leaving hubby's closet on the other side of the room to become a linen closet as the one I have is about 18 inches wide and holds nothing neatly. The linen closet will be cloed up on the bedroom side and then opened on the bathroom side to make built in towel storage. Eventually we will be tiling the bathoom and adding a few things. No change in the footprint for in there. I'd love a whirlpool tub but that costs way too much and we are trying to be frugal ont his project.

This photo shows the before closet area. Very standard closet with bifold doors- yuck!!!

Here is the in process of demo. Shelves, rods, and doors removed.

Here are some studded walls and then drywall is up! This is the bedroom side of the closet. The bed will go on this wall. The blue electrical boxes are for scones that we moved from another wall for above our bed. You can see on the far purple wall where we moved them from.

I am now in the process of priming over the paper over paper over paper (left by the previous owners) so that the entire wall will be purple. I will take some more pictures and post them later.

Repurposing... well, sort of....

My niece had a baby a couple weeks ago. Her 4th in 4 years! So in the spirit of having so many so close, my mom and I decided to shop for matching outfits (for the babies not my mom and I!) We found adorable dress/bloomer dresses ( all at a killer on sale price) for the newborn & the 18 month old but not for the almost 4 year old. There was a shirt in a girls size 12 that was of the same fabric (also on killer sale) so we purchased that and I made knit shorts fromt eh shirt for the almost 4 year old. The other child is a boy so we found a polo and short in matching color scheme for him.

This picture is of the style of shirt used for the repurposing. I forgot to take the actual shirt photo. I was so excited to get started on the repurpose so the fabric is different.

And here is the photo of the shorts made from the top:

The navy ruffle on the legs is from the bottom band of the shirt. Turned out rather cute and makes a nice matching ensemble for the kids. We purchased a pink top to go with the shorts.

Now off to finish a prom dress alteration!

Blessings- linda

Sad day for mom

The day has finally come. I knew it was on it's way. My 10 year old daughter just had a melt down over her Easter dress. She thinks it makes her look fat. She picked the pattern and the fabric. It was a loose fitting, more flowing type dress. One of McCalls new patterns. I knew the time was coming so I am okay with it.... The meltdown on her part and frustration on my part is not worth it. I will take her shopping and she can find a dress she likes.

The 9 year old liked her outfit so I am okay on that one.

It marks the end of that time in her life.. she is growing up and for now, does not want to wear homemade items. She is becoming more independent and trying to figure out who she is apart from me.

She is a strong, determined, beautiful, intelligent, witty, bossy, and strong-willed young lady. God has a wonderful plan for her. I will not allow something so petty as sewing for her to stifle her or cause her to be frustrated with me. There will come a day later, on down the road where she will ask me to make her something again. And I will do so with love.

And jsut so you know, there is not one speck of fat on her precious little 10 year old body. She is a gymnast and is smaller than most second graders in her school. She is a 54 pound bundle of dynamite! With the temperment to prove it!

Well, now I am off to sew something else.... maybe something for me.. or maybe the prom dress for my 17 year old man-child's girlfriend.

Blessings- linda

Baggy pants

I made a pair of jeans a few weeks ago. They are too big in the backside for sure. I do not like the high rise either. I pulled the wrong adjusted pattern out when getting ready to cut these so they are not right. I used Sandra Betzina jean pattern V 7608. I have a pattern done that reflects alterations that she recommended when I took one of her classes but as I said before I pulled the wrong pattern out. I probably should get rid of the too big one!

The front fit is not too bad as you see in this photo:

The backside however, well, that is another story! />

I have no butt so I think I need to remove via a fish eye dart alteration under the cheek. Actually going to try just cutting a size smaller in the back and see what that does for me!

I have a pair of ready to wear that I like the fit of (except that it is a little tight in the waist and causes a small muffin top to appear) so I think I will lay them on top of the pattern and compare them.

My adjusted pattern that I should have used has a bit removed from the "body" of the pant to make them a little lower rise than these "mom" looking jeans!

These are wearable for around the house (at least until I lose a few more pounds). I think the main issue is that they are just too big. I can snug them up by about two inches when I pinch out the excess on tne body.

Well, off to hem a wedding dress.

Blessings!

Linda

Some people never fail to amaze me....

This is nothing more than a vent post... I need to get it out of me so that when I see this person the next time, I do not say the things that are going through my mind.....

Background. We had a computer client (person from church) bring us their computer last spring (April). Thick with viruses because she does not work and spends her day doing nothing but hitting the gambling sites and games sites. We cleaned it up and the charge was $90.00. Called her to get it and was told I do not have the money. Well, knowing her financial/work situation (or lack thereof) we did not let the system go without payment. It sat here until September. We knew she was being trained by a church person on budgeting and had been told that we would get our monies due but to not let her have her computer until said monies was paid. She finally paid and all was resolved.

Forward two months and she comes to me at church to say hey we have a virus so you guys must not have got it cleaned up... TWO MONTHS of surfing and playing games and gambling and we did not get it cleaned up!!!!!!!!!!! I told her that as politely as I could and said it would be 90-120 to clean up the virus depending on the extent of the problem. She got mad and made some rude comment under her breath which I ignored. Looking at the source so to speak.

Now today, someone on Facebook mentions a virus that is out there now and I responded with not understanding what the creators of the viruses get out of doing this. She responds back that there are lots of "programmers" (which programmers are not necessarily computer techs but what does she know) out there that can remove them inexpensively but not T.T. (which is our company). AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want to rip her head off and spit down her throat! She did not pay us for months (not even an attempt at payments), tried to rip us off, and then makes a rude comment like that!

Some people are just plain ignorant and rude!

Anyway, that is my vent... If you made it all the way to here, thank you for allowing me to vent!

Now on to taking down the snowmen and then some sewing!

Blessings- Linda