Wednesday, February 27, 2008

It's a sickness, I tell ya'

I realized this past year that when I go to a program or show or even watch a movie, I automatically try to figure out how the costumes are made. So when I watch something at home, the remote control quite comes in handy. Rewind is truly an amazing invention. When I first saw "Meet the Robinson's" on dvd, I practically got carpal tunnel rewinding and pausing so I could study Franny Robinson's dresses. Just look at this!

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And this?

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Of course, cartoon characters aren't easy to translate into real life. You can draw shapes that just don't exist on real people. Seriously, who has a waist as tiny as Franny?

I've sketched out the two dresses pictured above, but have not attempted to actually make them. Some day I will find an excuse to try one!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

An Apron For My Grandma

My dear Grandma has Parkinson's. So when she eats she tends to drop bits on her lap. My Mother had made an apron back in the 70's sometime that my Grandma would wear during meals. It was very easy to get on--just slip your arms through the armholes and fasten the one button (or just drape over her back!). I wish I had a picture of it; it was quite bright to say the least--yellow, orange, pink. Not the type of fabric to match with too many things. And it was old! Threads fraying, don't pull on it too much or it will rip old! So thinking that someone really needs to make a new one, I laid it out on some white butcher paper and made a pattern of it.

So a while later during one of my ebay fabric browses, I found this very sweet print and thought it would be great to duplicate the old apron.

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The finished product modeled by my lovely 15 year old daughter Chelsea:

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(Chelsea was quite annoyed at being my model. Ha! I just posted it for the world to see! Ooo, I'll have to send this to all of her friends)

And the back:

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Of course, I'm never satisfied unless I have to make things more difficult, so I decided to make it reversible. Thinking that red would be "too" red, I found a blue that was super close to the blue in the girl's dress and boy's shorts in the border print. It's not perfect, but pretty darn close!

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(I think Chelsea's facial expression in this picture is saying, "Hurry up and get this over with.")

I sewed the border along the hem as a pocket with four sections. And I put a button on each side of the tab, so it can be buttoned on each side.

I gave it to my Grandma the day they left for home after their unexpected two week visit. She loved it. In fact my Mom called and said that it's already gotten a lot of use. And the old one is in the trash. Seriously, I don't think it could have made it through another wash!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Missing In Action

I am still alive and kicking! I've just been too busy since Christmas doing to write about the doing. Just a few highlights:

I taught a Human Body class for my homeschool group. We covered the major body systems in one day!

human body, homeschool, bone

That was one big femur! Unfortunately, I can't find any pictures of the cow heart dissection.

I also taught a sewing class. We made Valentine table runners. Three of the ladies had never sewn before. They were amazing, and their projects were fabulous. Again, unfortunately, I have no pictures of their projects. I have to remember to take pictures of things!

This is the one I made for my grandma before the class. (Ignore the badly-needs-repainting table.)

Valentine, runner, quilt, fabric, sewing

These are just a very few of the things I've been up to. I could go on about learning washing machine repair, the apron I made for my grandma, my mom and grandma's two week visit, etc, etc. I guess I just need to post regularly instead of waiting two months!