Hi everyone,
Given a choice between picking up things in my sewing room and putting them back in their rightful place OR sewing…you know what I’m going to choose. There’ll be “other” days for working!
This is what happened: Last night I was trying to get to sleep, but I kept thinking about how much I enjoyed making Ten Ping’s overalls, and then trying to decide how a pair might look on another doll. All of your favorable comments were helping me with my considering it.
So, this afternoon I looked on Ebay at the listings for sale for the Little Darlings, and just about everything shown was a dress…As much as I LOVE making dresses for them, this time I didn’t want to… I wanted to see if I could enlarge the overalls pattern I made for Ten Ping and make a pair for the Little Darlings.
I had a rich blue denim that was soft and lightweight and a fabric I thought would make the prettiest top to go with them. It took a few times trying to enlarge the pattern, and I’m just hoping it will be the right size when I get a little farther along…
This is as far as I got tonight… I’ll see what I can get done tomorrow!
Lots of top stitching again…
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
And….another winner, I do think!! I love the red top-stitching on the blue denim, and that print is so cute with it! If it’s a blouse, it could also go with a skirt, I would think. But the overalls are the focus right now, and maybe some red shoes? What little girl doesn’t LOVE red shoes?!!
Paula, referencing your comment yesterday, yes, I am being very careful to only look at the Ten Ping outfit when Gigi is sleeping. She just has to learn that Auntie Jeanne isn’t going to make clothes ONLY for her!! Other little girls will want a turn at something beautiful, too!!
And I am sorry to hear about your wrist. Please do keep us posted on it. I’ve been having trouble with my left wrist of late, too, although today it’s not been to bad, but still, it can be worrisome. One of the gals in my sewing guild just recently had surgery on that joint at the base of her thumb, which is where mine is acting up. It’s so fun to get old. Not!!
You are exactly right, Jeanne! The smaller dolls really don’t get the cute casual outfits like the bigger one do. I remember when I got my Betsy McCall doll, she had nothing that she could wear when posing with my other dolls, who would be dressed in play clothes. I like my dolls to wear what real little girls wear, and would look and look for play clothes for Betsy, who is about the same size as Ruby Red dolls. I did find exactly ONE pair of bubble suits, like you are making now, but more of a summer vibe. This outfit will fit the bill for something that smaller dolls can wear, like say, to the pumpkin patch.
Denim always works well, ,and I love that red topstitching you added! I am not all that excited about the print you are making the blouse in, I would prefer more of a “little girl” vibe for this outfit, but maybe two different tops could work? Maybe something like multicolor stripes in a knit would be more appropriate? It’s not that I don’t like the print, it just seems too old for her. But that’s just me!
That thread isn’t true red, is it? It looks like rust, to go with the leaves on the print. If the print does look too old, it will go nicely with a skirt or shorts, but whenever I have doubts, it turns out that Jeanne has trim or a design that takes care of what I thought might be a problem.
I went back to the Day 2of my fashion show and commented on each outfit, but the entire long message disappeared. I was going to refer to it here, in case people were interested. Can we only comment on the current date?
Good morning Happy Tuesday already!
I love the beginnings of this new outfit Jeanne.
I hope everyone gets plenty of sunshine today.
Jeanne, I have the longest list of things to do, but I am going to make 5 patchwork leaves today.
Oh, I love the blue! My favorite color. The absolutely perfect topstitching really makes the pockets stand out too. And the blouse print is lovely. Can’t wait to see more of this outfit.
As to the tidying up, take a deep breath and close your eyes! Snap! Everything is back in place. Well, in the mind at least.
Here, I am finally at the hemming stage of the outfit I’ve been working on. I’ll bet everyone is extremely happy to hear that so I’ll change the subject. 🙂
It was too hot here yesterday to do any deck/yard work. So, while at the other house, I managed to take out the furnace filters and hose them off. Letting them dry outside overnight, and then hopefully, today I can put them back in place. They are strange and go in kind of accordion style. So, now I’ll be able to turn on the heat there as rain is expected again Friday. 🙂
The should do list keeps growing around here. But, the inside stuff can wait until I can’t do anything more in the yard. 🙂
Happy Tuesday everyone. 🙂
That denim is perfect, not too dark or light. The earthy brick topstitching will really pull out the leaves in the printed fabric. Maybe brick will be an important trim color? My only concern is so the legs don’t get too puffy, looking forward to the developments.
Also important to remember, tidying up never killed anyone, but why take the chance?!
Have a great day all.
I love the denim and the other fabric, also a plaid with be fun with it too. I have got to get back sewing, you really make me want to.
We have a day at home, lots to do, hope we can get it all done.
Looking forward to Joy’s new dress, too!
Have a good day, Y’all.
I totally understand what you are saying about clothes for Little Darlings and so many of the dresses are the ultimate of fancy. When I got my first LD the only place I could find shorts for her was a Farmcookies pattern. My LDs love to dress up but they also like to play too. Try finding a ready-made swimsuit for them. I couldn’t and the one pattern I have for a swimsuit I don’t particularly like. I found another pattern that was for several doll sizes and made some from that but now that I’ve used the decorative elastic for the edges I’m going to make a few more for them next summer. I really like the way the swimsuits came out for my L’il Dreamer dolls.
Someone mentioned termites yesterday, but I didn’t see the post till this morning. We had carpenter ants in the windowsill of our one bedroom. David applied ant killer and they were gone and never came back and evidently weren’t anywhere else in the house. Our house is on concrete piers for the purpose of keeping termites at bay. So many of the old houses here were built of wood and sat on the ground since we have no basements, so termites were a real problem. Now even the houses that are slab on grade have a concrete slab so we don’t have too much problem here any longer. The house that my parents bought in 1954 used wood from Canada. It was loaded with woodworm. My dad was a contractor so we made the trip to watch the new house being built nearly every Sunday. We kids enjoyed seeing it go up; my dad was looking for bad lumber. When he found it he made them take it out. We were one of the few houses in the subdivision that didn’t have to be tented eventually. Thankfully none of the houses were severely damaged and those homes are still there today. But David told me yesterday that we are importing wood from Canada again. I just hope it’s being properly inspected.
In addition to my belated back-to-school sewing, I have a project from David I’m working on. His hobby is beer and wine making and he’s really gotten into fruit flavored wine making. He decided he needed labels for the different types/flavors. We found some labels he liked and you can either have them do them or do them yourself. They provide the design tool to do it. You choose the style label you want and that label is in your design tool. It was fun to do the labels for “DAVID’S non-FAMOUS WINES”. I tweaked the label a little more this morning so I’m awaiting his approval so I can start printing.
Still hot here but a front is on its way to at least bring down the humidity if not so much the temps.
I wouldn’t know how to start on label making. Good for you! Do you have to set your printer to do them? Clueless here. Our printer has these lines going across any photos. Can’t get rid of them even after we do a clean several times.
The only time I have had lines through my pictures (when printing out patterns) is when I was low on ink. I think you have an Epson ecotank like I have. That shouldn’t be happening since the ink isn’t in a cartridge (which could be bad and happened to me once) but the ink could be feeding erratically so you might have to replace your print nozzles.
As for the label making, it was pretty simple and worked liked most programs I’ve used. We purchased the labels of our choice from onlinelabels.com. They have tons of possibilities. The labels came giving a site to go to for designing the labels. Your choice of labels was included so you click on that template and get the design page. Design your label (text and any photo or clipart you want) and then you can do a preview or go straight to printing them. I was a little surprised when I saw what came up when I hit print. Instead of the eight labels per page I saw three large labels on the page. I clicked print “actual size” and got the eight labels to a page I wanted. It has the “save or “save as” feature so when I wanted to change the name of the wine I just pulled up the first one I did, changed the name and then did a “save as” so I didn’t have to redo the design each time. When you return to the site your previous labels show up and you can click on them for any changes or create a new label. It was actually a lot of fun – for me. Hubby would have been tearing his hair out.
This will be really sweet and perfect for any fall outing to pick apples or pumpkins. I love the blue as it’s my favorite color as well in many different shades. I love the blouse fabric as it reminds me of the chicory we have in the bottom corner of the yard. I love wildflowers! The rust topstitching complements the flowered fabric perfectly.
Some welcome and much needed rain this morning.
Dear Jeanne, I love the blue print! I could see it as a dress or a pinafore as well as a blouse. I am sure that this new outfit will be lovely.