Gardener's Delight!

We've tilled the earth, picked the stones and pulled the weeds. We've planted the seeds and watered and fed the delicate seedlings, lovingly tending to their needs. Each day We've watched in anticipation as the seedlings grew and blossomed into strong healthy plants.

After much patience and a little luck (if the weather co-operates and the insects don't get too carried away), our efforts will pay off. Our gardens overflow with a beautiful show of luscious, tender fruits and vegetables in thanks. The fruits of our labour...

Pink Tulle Skirt

Well, I won the battle with the tulle but my attempt definitely has room for improvement. The tulle was a little annoying to work with. It would not gather with the sewing machine no matter how I adjusted the tension and stitch length. After sewing a line of stitches along the length of the tulle strips, I had to hand gather it before attaching them to the skirt. This took much longer than I thought it would.

After sewing on a couple of the strips, I had a look at the skirts on the sites I got the idea from (shown here and here). It appears that they were much more generous when gathering the tulle than I was. On my next attempt I'll be sure to be more generous. Click on the picture for a closer look.

Tulle Striped Skirt

I love the idea of this little skirt with strips of tulle sewn on the outside to make it look all girly. There is another version of it here. The tulle gives it a fluffy look that's just perfect for play time in fairy tale land.

I've decided to try my luck at putting one together myself. I chose to use pastel pink cotton broadcloth for the base of the skirt with purplish pink tulle strips. You could have a lot of fun with the colour combinations since tulle comes in so many different colours.

It seems to me that there must be a secret to getting the tulle to gather while sewing it on, as it refused to do so for me when I was experimenting with my practice piece. If I can't figure it out after a couple of tries, I'll just pre-gather it by hand before sewing it on. Either way, I'll post a picture of my results...

Shirred Dress

In my first post I said I was working on some shirred tops. Although I have made a couple of them now, I thought I would show you the first one I made. This one is actually a dress and bloomer set that I made for my niece. Other than the length, it is exactly the same as the tops.

For those of you contemplating trying to do some shirring, rest assured it is much easier to do than you would think. Give it a try and let me know how you made out.

Click on the picture for a closer look...

Happy Birthday!

Well, today is my birthday! I'm quite old now, but that's alright because I don't feel any different anyway. We had a nice day today. I did some more work on the back deck. A couple of days ago my son and I started dismantling the old one. I intend on removing it entirely and making a nice sitting area, but that's a discussion for another day.

My family surprized me with a lovely dinner out, buffet style. I think the King's Buffet is my new favourite. I love, love, love Mandarin Garden, but this place is more our size. Both mother and mother in law, graced us with their presence/presents. My mom brought along my little niece too which was an extra treat. After dinner we went down to the park to enjoy the ducks and let said niece loose for a bit before her long ride back home.

After returning home, I took another couple of boards from the deck apart, but since my back is so much older now, it wouldn't take much more abuse and I had to give in for the night. All in all, it was a good day, but I fear my back will not be thanking me tomorrow.

When In Doubt, "Shout"!

I'm not normally the type to advertize name brands, but today I take exception. Last night while preparing dinner, I splashed olive oil on my shirt. Leaving it until today I got out my handy, little bottle of Shout stain remover (the gel type in the small bottle with the rubber scrubby things on the end). I have to admit that this stuff is great! The only thing I've found that it doesn't remove from fabric is ink. Hair spray is just what you need for that, but I'm sure you already knew that. (I was actually surprized by this as the ink appears to dissolve before your eyes. This being the case what does it do to your hair?).

So, if you don't think your stain will come out in the wash..."Shout" it out"!

Another Day Ends...

Well, it's the end to another day and time to tuck it in and say goodnight. All in all it was not a bad day. I managed to sew up another shirred top and get two more ready for shirring tomorrow. I quite enjoy making these little cuties as they are easy to do. (I'll post a picture when I can find the camera).

There are a couple good tutorials on how to do shirring and the ones I like best are: Kuky Ideas, Blue Prints and Amity Mama. Basically I took the best of all their advice and made my own version (is there any other way?)....