Dress Giveaway

September 29

Dress Giveaway

Please leave a comment to win this dress.
Freya didn't wear them this summer and I want it to go to someone who will wear it.

Cheers!

The Dress, A Stove And Gymnastics

September 28, 2010

The Dress, A Stove And Gymnastics


I'm nine hours into making this dress for Freya.
It's coming together nicely.

The first pleat I sewed took an hour.

.............................................................................................................

To random things now.

Freya has been teaching her babies gymnastics.

I really like my funky, jankity, old stove.

Freya's School Clothes: Zipper

September 26, 2010

Freya's School Clothes: Zipper

I am very proud of how Freya's dress turned out.
I think I sewed a good zipper.
I am no longer afraid to sew a garment that has a zipper.






I bound the hem in brown polka dot fabric (same as sleeves) rather than just turning it under.




I chose the wrong color of zipper though.




Freya's next dress is going to be made from fabric as old as the pattern.

This pattern looks a bit complicated.

We'll see.

Cheers to a new week.

Good Stuff

September 24, 2010

Good Stuff

(I really want to write a blog to today but I am way too tired.
I didn't blog last night either.
To keep on task with my goals I'm just posting photos.
I'll add the words tomorrow. )

September 26, 2010

I had great luck at the thrift store Friday.
I put this knitted quilt back twice.
I didn't know it was 100% wool until I washed it and inadvertently felted it.
It has a few holes I need to mend.
I am very, very in love with my 5 dollar quilt.

Thrift find.

Thrifted vintage patterns.

I received goodies in the mail Friday morning.

My friend Teena sent me wonder stuff from her Etsy store.

You can find her blog at littlebirdvv.blogspot.com

This ring was in a small box.

When Freya opened it we both screamed!

Teena sent me back the same envelope I mailed her a banner in!

The post office neglected to cancel the postage so she reused that also.

Bonus.

Friday night I was invited to help with a service project the Mormon church was hosting.

It was a nice evening.

The blankets, dolls, sensory blankets and other things will be donated to orphanages throughout the world.

They feed us and had lots of deserts. I usually don't eat sweets but Friday night I ended up eating two rice crispy treats, two smores brownies and a lemon bar. I came home and had a Coca Cola.

I am lucky I didn't go into a diabetic coma.

Vintage Dress Patterns

September 22, 2010

Vintage Dress Patterns

I have decided to step out of my comfort zone and try making something from a pattern that's not Oliver+ S.
I've had these Butterick patterns for sometime now (plus two dozen others) and have decided to give them a go.
My only concern is they have zippers.
Big confession: I have never sewn a zipper into anything. Ever.
I have a great fear of zippers and I blame it entirely upon my seventh grade home-ec teacher Mrs. Buchanan. In class we had to make duffel bag. All went well until it was time to put in the zipper. She had so many zipper rules and was so insistent upon perfection that she scared me for life, until now. I am missing out on too many things I want to sew because I won't try.

I became giddy when I remembered this fabric I found at a yard sale this summer.
I like both A and B.

Which dress do you like best for this fabric?

Contemplating.

I'll make the long sleeve dress from this paisley corduroy I found at Hancock's.

Hancock's carries many terrific light weight corduroys.

I want my sister to cut my hair like the long sleeve dress girl.
Maybe the same color too.

You can't tell from the photo but this periwinkle (that's a fun word to say) fabric is light weight wool. It was a Christmas gift from my grandma Johansen last year.

It was her mother's fabric. I have five yards of it and plan to make all the cousins something out of it, maybe 'Paul's' or a different softie.

I purchased the four petal motif fabric to compliment the periwinkle fabric for a different project and would still like to incorporate it into one of the dresses.
I will keep my blog posted with my zipper crusade. I may need advice if they are terribly difficult.

Etsy News

Coming this weekend to me Etsy shop are decoupaged Disney villains.

And their hapless victims.

'Touch it I say!'

Praying Mantis Drama

September 22, 2010

Praying Mantis Drama

I almost crushed this preying mantis with my laundry basket this afternoon.
I had Chris watch her while I grabbed my camera.



Praying Mantis are intense creatures.
She watched me as I moved around her taking photos.
I turned my head she turned her head. Really.




Oliver and Freya were due home from school in an hour.
I really wanted them to see her so I rounded her into a big jar.

(Freya has never seen a living praying mantis). (Last week she saw her first green worm).




Manti, (that's her name), wigged out.
She was pissed and loud.
Manti hissed and tap danced her legs against the glass.
And she followed me with her eyes.
It's a fact.




Chris said I couldn't keep her in a jar until the kids got home.
Our conversation went a little like this

Me: I only have half of the lid on and I gave her grass and pretty red leaves. She can chill out for a bit.
Chris: She's extremely distressed and could die.
Me: Die of what? A heart attack. Insects don't have heart attacks.
Chris: You don't know that.
Me: How could anybody know if insects can die of a heart attack?



Chris was adamant about letting Manti go and when I looked down at her again she looked like this,




She was mother Mary lovin' ready to fight.
I told Chris he could take her back outside.

Me: Put her on the other side of the fence.

It was all very dramatic.

This evening I told Chris he would be a hero on my blog tonight.
Chris: I saved your ass from PETI by letting her go.
Me: What's PETI?
Chris: People for the Ethical Treatment of Insects.
Me: Does that really exist?
Chris: No Camille.

We had a nice family lesson about praying mantis without having Manti there hissing at us and threatening us with her blade of grass.
I though I was letting my imagination run a little too fast thinking that Manti was watching me
That was before we wiki-ed her.
We knew the basic stuff like they bite off there mates head during copulation and eat their bodies later.
I've noted a few interesting facts that I didn't know.

• Mantises are exclusively predatory.
• The mantis has remarkable speed.
• Prey items are caught and held securely with grasping, spiked forelegs.
• Mantises are highly visual organisms.
• Mantises engage in cannibalism.
• During matting the female starts feeding by biting off the males head (as they do with regular prey). The males movements become even more vigorous in its delivery of sperm.

All info came from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis

Now for some pretty things.

A gift wrapped in my favorite vintage wallpaper.



The moon rising over the mountains this evening.

It was a good day.

PS: My Etsy store is open. It is called Camille's Fancy Stuff.
If you click the Esty button at the top of my blog it will link you to my shop.
I have much more to post this week so keep checking back.
Please be patient with my shop while I begin.
It will be awesome when I get the hang of it.

Thanks friends!