Ballgown Bodice & Pool

This morning started at 11 am with me making piping and the tucker for the ballgown bodice. Followed by the sleeve puff. As of 6 pm the bodice has piped armholes, boning, tucker is attached and unattached sleeves. Kay did the narrow rolled hem on the sleeve trim and the bodice trim on her machine. It worked really well. Can't wait til tomorrow. Ballgown workshop here at Kay's. I still need to trim the sleeve jockeys, attach sleeves, attach trim to the bodice itself and add the double piping to the bottom edge.

Kay and I spent some time talking about starting your own business.

Dinner was great! Smoked pork chops, broccoli, homemade potato salad and German beer.

Went over to a place called Chevy's. Played several rounds of pool with Major & one round with Kay. I think I lost every game. Oh well, I had a great time.

More on the ballgown tomorrow. It's time for bed. Later.

Indiana Here I am

Well, I made it to Indiana. Fort Wayne to be exact. I had planned on being here by 4 p.m. yesterday. That didn't happen. I got here about 7 pm, their time. I left home around 6 a.m, I got about 4 miles down the road when my husband called to ask me if I was suppose to take a bunch of clothes with that were STILL on the bedroom door. OOPS. Had to go back and get them. I had to make a stop in Hampshire, Illinois to get my friend's house key. I got behind another IDOT truck painting stripes. Talk about slow. This was followed by what was suppose to be a quick stop at my mom's house in Mundelein. NOT! I was there for a little while collecting things I needed to take home with me and stuff I needed to drop off. It only took about 35 minutes to get to my husband's mom's house to drop off my daughter. I was there longer than expected too. That's what happens when I get talking. Then there was my BIG goof. (brain was not engaged when looking at the map). I took the longest (time wise) way through Chicago. I should have just taken US 41 the whole way from Highland Park. I will NEVER make that mistake again. The next slowest part is driving through the Hobart & Merrillville areas on Route 30. LOTS of stop lights. Once I got through there it was pretty smooth driving.

Had a great dinner. Kay made chicken w/ rice and asparagus. Talked a little about stuff in general. I didn't go to sleep until about 2 am, I sat up looking at original 1860's ladies magazines. COOL.

Today, we walked up to the post office and talked about things that are going to be torn down and built along the way. Stopped at Starbucks for a muffin and a scone and stopped at the gas station for milk. Came back to the house and started talking about ballgowns. I picked a bodice from 1862 La Mode Illustree. It is going to be made from a teal & white check silk. It won't fit me but it will look really cool when it's done. I got the bodice lining cut out then I took a nap. Kay woke me up about an hour later. We had some lunch then I started cutting out the skirt for the ballgown. I learned how to cut out a gored skirt with no pattern. Cool. I'm going to try this for a riding habit skirt later (but with more of a train). Next, I cut the bodice out of the silk. Started pinning the bodice and lining together. As of 6:30 pm this is as far as I've gotten. Tomorrow morning I will start putting the bodice together (after breakfast).

We (Kay, Major & myself) walked up to the King Gyros for dinner. Really good gyros by the way. We stayed for 2 1/2 hours to watch them pull a Ford F-150 out of what used to be a Mexican restaurant across the street and then tear down most of the building. We then walked home and now hear I am updating my blog. I will post more on the ballgown adventure tomorrow.

Thursday & Friday

Let's see. Thursday morning was pretty much uneventful. Just ran a couple of errands, you know the usual kind, dry cleaner in Stoughton and then to Madison to have my sewing machine fixed. Came home and did some hand sewing on Civil War costumes. Thursday was also the last day of school for my daughter. They were dismissed at 12:30. Picked her up and finished two girl's civil war dresses and a woman's riding habit (acutually just the chemisette needed to be finished)- finally. The sage green plaid which fits my daughter and a rust print with navy trim which should fit about a 4 year old. Did some more hand sewing last night, in the basement. The night started with a tornado watch, then thunderstorms and a tornado warning for the county just to the south of us.

This morning I finally got to the gym. Weights and 15 minutes of cardio. Spent part of the afternoon photographing the girl's green dress, my daughter's lightly used wrapper and the riding habit. The pictures of the riding habit aren't great but the will work until I can take better pictures. I got the pictures uploaded (after an hour), took my daughter to one of her friends, then decided to do the blog.

Times up!!!

Now back to the sewing machine!

Catching up

Okay, so it's been a couple of days since I posted. Here's what's been going on. Friday I chaperoned my daughter's field trip to Oregon, WI. They visited the Police Dept, library, Pizza Pit and the Fire Dept. Afterwards, all of us (4 first grade classes, teachers and chaperones) went over to the park for lunch. All of the kids seemed to enjoy the trip. I went home from the park and worked on a couple of sewing projects. Despite the weather, my husband spent the weekend in Iowa with one of our horses at a Civil War reenactment. Sunday morning they called the event because of rain. It had been raining (heavy) there since 8 pm or so on Saturday nice and hadn't let up. As of this morning, I still had gear laying on the floor of the garage drying out.

Monday was my last class of the eight week fitness class I had been taking at the gym. Unfortunately, I haven't been to the gym since. I will definitely be going sometime tomorrow. It was a great class with great people. I learned a lot about myself. The biggest thing was that I can do it and don't give up. I may not have lost any weight but I can definitely see the difference.

I ran by the barn after my class to check and see if they were going to get the chance to fix Mark's stall. He's taken to grabing hold of the back wall (when he's mad) and pulling. When I got there, what do I find? A horse in my horse's stall, mind you not my horse!!! If I had been asked I might not have minded, but it's kind of irritating to be paying for a stall and having someone who's doesn't using it. Okay, I feel better. Sorry about that. Any ways, Mark's stall is fixed.

After that, I went up to my daughter's school for their end of school Beach Party. It was fun. I left after lunch.

Now, since Monday afternoon I've spent most of the time sewing. Hopefully, I will have everything I'm working on done by Monday afternoon. That's when I have to pack it up to go to my friend, Kay's in Indiana. I usually work well under pressure. Monday, finished a bodice and got most of a girl's dress done (needs buttons / buttonholes). Yesterday, finished another bodices (next step cartridge pleating the skirts). Today I finished a little girl's dress (except for some hand sewing and buttons).

I think that's all for now.

Later.