Creative Burst

My most recent funk is receding enough so that I can function at a normal instead of emergency level. You know how I know? 'Cause I feel like making stuff!

I made a charm bracelet for Lily Ruth!

I used an idea from my Kittyn. You use jewelry chain and stretchy elastic cord. For Lily Ruth's bracelet, I used a length of chain twice the circumference of her wrist, and then threaded the cord through every other link to bring it down to her wrist size. We bought a tiny turtle charm at the aquarium, and it was my intention to put only that on the bracelet BUT when Sweet Lily got a look at my bead assortment, her crow-like tendencies kicked in, and she confiscated a few for her very own. Instead of leaving them in her tiny hands like so many choking hazards, I added them to the bracelet.

She has actually agreed to wear it it public on two separate occasions ;-)

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I luuuuuuuuv sundresses. I very firmly believe that (especially in this climate) you cannot have too many. I also believe that I have way too few... but I digress... In my newly bloated and ever-expanding condition, sundresses are practically a requirement for surviving the summer. A new on-line hero/acquaintance introduced me to the world's easiest sundress pattern. Apparently, you cut jersey knit cloth to a desired length (your armpits to however long your ideal dress is), and make sure the width is your belly plus about 5 inches. Once you sew this into a tube, you shirr the top (tutorial from Portabello Pixie), and VOILA! Dress. I almost peed with excitement. Then I made it to JoAnn Fabrics, and they had ZERO acceptable jersey knit prints... and solids simply will not do (for me) SOOOOOOO...

Dress modifications! In surveying my (*ahem* meager) collection, I realized that there were THREE jersey knit dresses that I don't wear for various reasons. Three! That would be a huge boon to my clothing collection.

One is a maternity dress that I thought that I loved, but it turns out that it has an unattractive bust - droopy and shapeless :-/

This one's getting a shirring treatment across it's pathetic bosom area. I've already done the grunt work, but I still have to steam-blast the elastic thread to finish it off... you'll have to wait to see the results - just like me :-P

*** Update: o.k., so I was big-time scared that this wasn't gonna work... so after I finished the sewing, I waited several hours to steam blast it... then I waited several hours to try it on... now I may never get a picture, because I love it so much that it's gonna be tough to get it off me!

*** Side note: OH THE HUMANITY! Vanity, thy name is boobs. Since not too long after puberty, I've been sporting the same perky, gently rounded B's. Pregnancy and nursing temporarily gifted me with delightfully full C's. What FUN! Weaning left me with deflated sort-of B's... and I was waiting with baited breath to see if I would be one of the lucky ones who had boobs that plumped back up a bit a few months after weaning. So here I am. Waiting. Bloated. Hormonal. Trying on dresses in the middle of the night... only to observe that shirring makes me look like a generous A :-/ ... dammit...
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One is toooooo slinky (a.k.a.: it shows every lump) but I ADORE the color and print:

So I'm gonna cut off the top, shirr about 10 inches, and call it reborn.

*** Note: I am currently too scared to cut off this dress. I don't know why. I don't wear it like it is. *sigh*
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The last one is an easy fix - it's just too long. Everything else is perfect:

So just a hem. No biggie :-)

How did I not know about elastic thread and shirring before? Have I been living in a cave??? It is a mind-numbingly boring process to hand wind the bobbin and sew row after row of closely spaced stitches, but the results are so AWESOME! I'll post 'after' pics as they become available :-)