Darci's Dress Up, Part 1??

Look at me trying to be a good little blogger and post some updates!!  :o)

I haven't figured out the sewing machine situation yet so in the meantime, I'm plugging along on prep work.  Doing what I can to prepare for when I have a working machine here in Turkey. 

I've had this pattern and layer cake kit for...oh, about two years I guess.  That must be my "simmer time" because that seems to be my average of projects I brought with me.  I guess I had to bond with my fabrics and kits first....like raising a family.  Hold 'em tight and then let them go.  hehe

Anyway, no sewing but there is quite a bit of prep work for this project, Darci's Dress Up.  The dresses need to be fused onto squares of background fabric.  I'm using Steam a Seam 2  I'm hoping it doesn't make them to stiff but I'm guessing this will be a wall hanging and hopefully, it will be fine.  (Sorry for the poor quality photos.  My camera's on the charger.)

 

 

The need to be fused, attached by blanket stitch, blind stitch or whatever your choice is.  I'm probably going to blind stitch them on.  There are collars, sleeves and pockets.  You can also add embellishments like lace, rickrack, buttons.  I brought a few things but not a lot.  We'll see how far this project goes.

 

 

I brought a charm pack of 30's but not big pieces.  I'm not thrilled with all of the fabrics I have to use but I'm going to go for it.  The background blocks and dresses are okay but once I pulled all that I liked, there wasn't much left for the little "pinwheel" border. 

 

 

I'm guessing it'll take me some time to get the dresses done so who knows, I might be home by then.  lol 

 

We'll be going to Munich in a few days and will be gone for a week.  Thus the Part 1, question marks.  Who knows what I'll get done while I'm here.  :o)

Blooms `n dresses

I've seen so many bloggers share their gorgeous spring flowers so I'm jumping on the band wagon. (Yes, I probably would follow them if they all jumped off the bridge too!) :o)

I will be the first to admit I have two brown thumbs but I keep trying! The only reason I can grow these roses is because they are a shrub. And they're all over the place so I'm assuming "anyone" can grow them. *sigh*

They smell so good. They are right under the kitchen window and the fragrance comes in with every breeze.

I swapped out the I Love Lucy dresses from the swap on Backporch Friends. Everyone did such a nice job. I'm not sure how I'll set mine yet. These will sit a while since I have so much more to work on that takes priority.

One of our swappers, Betti, found this fabric in her mother's things. She said it's from the 1940's and everyone who swapped got one of her blocks.

And one swapper, Kris, made these blocks with a little apron on it. Isn't it just the cutest!?

Well, off to go straighten up my sewing room only to make a mess again. I am going to go have a little sewing retreat Thursday-Sunday with some friends in Lake Arrowhead. I have to clean so I have room to pack my bag! What a sad tale, huh? ;o)

Little Dresses

I've seen little dresses created into quilts on blogs like Holly's blog and even have a few patterns like Darcy's Dresses and one for mini aprons. Well, I got to thinking the other day that I wanted to do a swap for the online group I do so I started playing in EQ6. The more I started designing, the more this was looking like a dress from the 50's or something Lucy Ricardo would wear. So I called the swap "I Love Lucy" and printed up a pattern to sew up and see how it looked. This was my result.

As I was stitching it up, I was getting excited. It was coming out so cute. Yay!! Then I thought about laying on some embellishments like buttons. So I did that. And then I pictured a little corsage so I traced a circle on scrap fabric from the bottom of a spool and made a yoyo corsage. How's that?

And just so you get some perspective of how nimble my gigantor fingers had to get, here is a flower head pin next to the yoyo corsage. :o)

We'll do the dresses in 30's prints so they should come out pretty cute. They're not due until May 1st so I'll probably go back to this project after I do a few ufo's. I've decided the thing I do the best is juggle.....projects, that is!

I went to my friend Neena's house today to make cards. I'll post the adorable projects we made tomorrow.