Trimmings

It’s drier and brighter out again today, but for once Mike drops us down to school as he’s leaving for work a bit later than usual. He would have offered to take our daughter for me, but as I help out with reading on a Wednesday morning I needed to go along too which was a shame. It’s not my daughter’s class I help with today, but the five to seven year old's class- they’re a lovely age for helping with as their ability ranges from those who are still struggling with basic words, right up to children who can manage story books by themselves. I always leave their classroom with a huge sense of satisfaction, buoyed up and ready to face the day.

Mike’s out for a really long day today- he’s due to finish work late, and then has a church meeting which he’ll have to go straight to, before getting home at around nine o’clock. Once I’ve finished my early morning tasks, I turn back to my St. David’s day dress, as I really want to get it put onto the website today. Firstly though, I need to decide on the trimmings for it. I’m trying to make the seasonal and saints’ day dresses a little bit more special, so I know I want a mix of ric rac to go across the chest, and some lace to go around the hem. I have many different colours of the ric rac, and can easily find virtually any other that I don’t have. However, I only have white lace, and I’m worried that it just won’t do this little dress justice.

Yesterday I found some cerise pink lace on an eBay shop for one of my other dresses that are in the pipeline and it has arrived in the post today. I was worried that it would look a little artificial and just like white lace that had been dyed, but it’s actually really pretty and just what I needed, and I can’t wait to grab a chance to make the dress up and use it. I think the St. David’s day fabric will look nice with orange trimmings, but when I look at the seller’s other lace she doesn’t have orange. There’s a bright orangey yellow, which will probably look pretty, but the only ric rac I can find anywhere is a much brighter pure yellow colour. An online search for orange lace brings up nothing, so I order the two yellow trimmings and write the description for the dress to include that.

Over lunch I do some more blog drafting, and write up the next day’s post. Yesterday evening I managed to publish another post, meaning that I am now only four days behind which I am feeling really pleased about. I publish the post I’ve been writing up, and then move onto some actual sewing. Our second eldest daughter is home as is usual on a Wednesday, and she’s volunteered to collect her little sister for me so I’m free to work uninterrupted for a couple of hours.

I had a couple of late orders for Christmas dresses come in, just before I took them off the website on twelfth night, and I really need to get them made up and sent out as even I am bored now with seeing the Christmas fabric around. I cut them out yesterday, and I have one that makes up a complete order on its own so I start by working on that. The dress is made from a red velvet fabric, which looks lovely when made up, but can be very tricky to work with- it slides around when folded against itself, but also clings to the sewing machine when the pile on it is going the wrong way for the direction of the sewing!

The end result is good, I’m not too sure how it comes together in the end after so much fighting with the material, but I’ve now got a completed dress waiting for me to sew buttons onto for effect, and also the popper fastening. I’ll try to get started on that tonight as while watching telly is the ideal time because I can’t be doing anything else. I don’t watch much on a regular basis, but it’s the NTAs tonight so I intend actually chilling out, watching the Awards and sewing- accompanied by a nice glass of wine, while waiting for my dear hubby to finish his very long day.