Emily's Wedding Sketch

So, this is my working sketch.  I constantly make adjustments as I am draping.  So Emily, I have changed the back a bit and added in lace details since the last sketch.  There is a lace lining under the bust line and all around the opening in the back.  The shoulder detail is also lace, just under the neck.
Another adjustment was the swag in the back.  That draping piece of fabric.  I tried to drape it asymmetrically (only on one half of the back) and it didn't look quite right with the dress.  It looked like it didn't go anywhere, so I made it one large drape that starts at one shoulder and continues to the next shoulder. I am going to do a little more research on 1940 couture, I want it to have the vintage feel you love.  It isn't true to the 1940, but I want to give it the same feel.

Emily's Wedding Dress

This is just the very beginning.  I carved a bodice out of styrofome to your measurements.  OK, I admit it the boobs were hard to carve out of my cheep Styrofoam so I bought a padded bra in your size and used it as boobs rather than sculpt those things.  The whole foam piece was covered in fleece and hand stitched together.  I also screwed a hook into the neck to I can hang it where ever I would like.    Now I have a dress form for you!  Excellent addition to my dress form collection.  

 This photo shows the very beginning of my work.  It is the organza stabilizer that I will use on the inside of the dress, backside view. The is the part of the dress no one will ever see but it forms the foundation of the structured part of the dress.

Here you can see the front view of the bodice.  Each bra cup is made up of 3 pieces of fabric that will be heavily stitched to form the structure of the breast.  The lining layer is cut on the grain and the bra cup layers are cut on the bias.  This is to insure stretch and to eliminate the need for darts that would cause bulk.  

The waist band arcs along the under bust and ends very low on the back.  Waist band is cut along the grain to insure stability and a a smooth lay.  

The process is officially started at this point.  I will need to pull this off the form and clean it up at this point.  I will copy the pattern pieces onto paper and sew it all up.  I know it is not the fabric you have in mind but I had it laying around and it does provide the same stability as the silk organza we will use in the real dress.

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Cooking Class Homework, Day 1

Baked Pototo Soup with a Cookie Supprise

I like to bake.  We needed bread. I wanted to make bread.  A quick cabnet sweep resulted in no bread flour, corn meal, or wheat flour.  I had a few cups of all-purpose flower so I made some cookies.

Down to business...  Washing the potatoes.

Charlotte loves helping in the kitchen.  she wrapped the potatoes in tin foil for me.

The potatoes were smallish Idaho potatoes so I cooked them at 350 for an hour.

I grabbed some Cashews I had in the cabinet to try and avoid eating the cookies I just made.  They were delicious, and they did the job.

When the potatoes had about 15 min left in the oven I started cooking the bacon.  I made a big batch to have leftovers tomorrow.

This photo looks so amazing.  The food colors are so cool.  I dumped my bag-o-veg from cooking class last night in the pot with the bacon and grease.  I cut up another onion and cooked it all until is was all smelling amazing.

OK, yes I did use swanson stock in that bottel.  No I had not tasted it before today.  I did taste it today.  It was not bad, not amazing.  I had bought it though, so I used it.  It did the job.  The stock was a bit bland.  I will be learning how to make my own stock though.  I love figuring out how to make things from scratch.

The potatoes are all done.  I chopped them up in 1-2 inch chunks.  I wanted to keep them in nice big chunks so I didn't add them to the soup until the end.

Yum.  Almost done.

I chopped up all of the herbs, and the kale from cooking class.  I can't remember exactly what I had in there.  Parsley... not sure what else.

While I was chopping I decided to make a salad as well.

OK, the cashews worked a little too well.  My two girls ate a tone of these.  I am a little worried that they are not going to want to eat dinner.  

 Yum, Salad.

Tossed in all the green stuff for just a minute and it was time to eat.

Hubby came home with some yummy ciabatta bread, and we had olive oil with parmesan cheese.

TA-DA!

Teal and Purple Tutu Dress

Shell Frame

I know today's craft is not winning any awards for creativity but we had a blast making them.  It was a wonderful day spent with a great friend and two beautiful daughters.  The shell frame is such an easy craft it is great for little people.  

We started our day at the amazing ArtScraps shop:  1459 St. Clair Ave.  St. Paul, MN 55105.  Charlotte my oldest (age 4) has been here for a birthday party and I have been meaning to visit this place ever since.  It is a shop that sells "junk," you can use for crafting.  I use junk like my husband would in reference to my basement craft stockpile.  I think of it more like treasure.  No more need to stock pile my basement with craft stuff just in case.  

Art Start is a non profit organization that collects scraps, bits, and pieces of things to use in craft projects.  They take donations and if you live in the area it is a great way to recycle some of your treasure. Art Start has a bunch of artists that work with schools and more.  It is an amazing way to encourage recycling in a non traditional kind of way.  I am so loving Art Start and Art Scraps please go check out there page, or shop and show some love.  Tell them StitchesByJeni sent you

We picked up a bucket full of shells and two photo frames.  The total cost for everything was $4.  

 We dumped the bucket of shells, laid down some news paper, heated up the glue gun and were crafting in minutes.  It was a very easy set up, which is great for the kids.  They can only pay attention for so long.  There was a little fighting over all the "good," shells but after a little compromise we were off to the races.

 We had one adult for each child.  The adults started with the glue guns thinking the kids would burn themselves but it is so easy to do my 3 year old, Delilah was soon doing it herself.  With my close supervision.  Delilah did get some hot glue on her finger, she wined about it being hot for a moment but than pealed the glue off and got back to work.  She didn't even have a mark form the incident.

 There is no trick to the gluing part, just lay some glue down and put a shell on it.  I would say that the more generous with the glue the better.  You don't want big clumps of glue showing, but it will be more secure with lots of the glue.  

 Expect to have a bunch of those little trailing strings from the glue gun.  Ignore the strings until the project is finished and just go back and pull them all off.  No big deal, part of the process.

 
Delilah was so proud.  She wanted to take the frame and play with it like a toy.  We had a talk about looking at our beautiful work.  The talk didn't seam to help so I hung it up on the wall out of there reach. The girls now like to draw pictures to put in there frames.  We have changed the photos out at least 3 times now.

 It was such a great day.  We enjoyed ourselves so much.  Such simple little things are so surprising when they are so fulfilling.  It is a good reminder that the activities don't need to be elaborate they just need to be something.

Over all a great bonding experience.  I will be going back to ArtScraps and maybe even volunteering to do some work for them.  It is a truly wonderful place, there should be one in every neighborhood.  The community is a better place when shops work to bring a community together in a responsible way.  

Painting in the Entry

I love my painting in the entry of my home. It is a great converstion piece for people walking into my home. It belongs to my brother but it deserves to be in my house. It fits the area perfectly. I will have to talk to him and get the low down on the piece and post it here.