a pirate after my own heart

Hello, friends!  I received this photo from Renee this week, of the fabulous job she did recreating our pirate costume this Halloween:

Bravo, Renee!  (Love the socks.)  What a cute pirate.

~E~

where does the time go?

I seem to have wandered off.  For about...six months.  Hm.  But have I showed you this?

I appreciate, so much, the emails and comments over the last months asking if my abrupt departure from this conversation meant bad news for me or my family. It is lovely to know that you care!  The answer is no, everything is fine here, and that's the problem. 

See, I used to have a couple of hours every day to work on projects that I could then excitedly show you and you would talk to me about and we could thus feed our creativity together.  I love that.  It's exciting for me.  But somehow, between the new baby, the new house that needs considerable fixin', and the four other children at home and abroad with me always, that time has disappeared.  From time to time I look back over some of our projects together and think, what fun we had! We should do more of that! And we should, but just at the moment, I'm spending all day every day pouring finger-paints, building furniture, coming to see "this neat thing!", reading books, singing lullabies, and falling into bed at the end of every day exhausted.  It's good exhausted.  It's fulfilled exhausted, but it leaves little time for sewing fun, and I thought I ought to let you know.

So.  For now, while I'm off being a homemaker, the website here will remain as it is.  Which means that ordering of patterns and lessons will work, but that I won't be around to update the blog (although I do read and treasure every comment you ever leave).  E-mail me and I'll do my best to answer.  Maybe someday I'll come back and we'll take up where we left off.  Maybe at some point I'll gather up all the information here and put it into a book, at which point I'll probably become intensely guarded and growly and snap at anybody who tries to get it from me.  Which makes a good case for getting my goods while the gettin's good, as it were. 

No matter what happens, though, you'll know about it.  I've loved the fun we've had together and miss it.   See that baby face up there?  It needs kissing.

Love y'all,

~Erin~

blessing dress drawing winners

Happy Friday everyone!  Thanks so much for all your participation on the blessing dress, I seriously don't think I could have slogged through it without you.  

The winners of the drawing are:

Shayna, who said :"It looks beautiful!! It will be a treasured heirloom! Well worth all of the frustration!"

and Jerri, with her comment: "I like the pale pink ribbon and the two narrow laces. I might try to sew down the pink ribbon accent, then sew the openwork lace over top of it so the pink would peek out through the oval windows."

Congratulations, ladies, and your infant-sized basic patterns will be arriving in your email boxes shortly. 

~Erin~

blessing dress::day 5

Thank you all so much for the encouragement.  I needed it so badly to finish this dress!  

I bound the sleeves, put them in, did up the side seams, then added buttonholes and buttons, just like we did with the other baby dresses.

Then I hemmed it, clipped all the threads, pressed it again, slipped it on over the dress form...

stepped back...

And it was all worth it.  How does that happen?  

I wish you could see the fabric in real life.  It glows.  Just dully, not shiny-lame-Halloween-costume glowing, just a subtle, silk sheen.  Beautiful.  

When I got to the hem, it just seemed so right left simple.  Because the fabric's a little sheer, doubling the fabric for the hem gives it the effect of a wide ribbon at the bottom. 

I wanted to do a tuck.  I tried to convince myself.  But I couldn't.  It was so lovely left alone.  Perfect.

Sleeve detail:

And it's sort of unbelievable, after all this time, that it's actually finished.  On Friday I'll announce the winners of the drawing. 

See you then!

~Erin~

blessing dress::day 4

Ooh, do you ever have a project that you just want to ball up and throw in a corner?  

Yep.  This is that one.  I've sweated, fretted, coaxed and cajoled, ripped out seams, re-sewn, and am generally fed up with this dress.  Maybe it's just the fabric.  Dupioni is soooo pretty, but it's a beast to work with because it's loosely woven and it ravels like nothing you've ever seen.  

But I'm taking a deep breath and reminding myself that I'm nearly through.

Here's how it's (slowly) shaping up:

Now, with the shoulder seams sewn, the neckline bound, and the placket and waistline seams finished, all we've got left to do is put in the sleeves, sew up the side seams, put in the buttons and buttonholes, and hem and add tucks at the bottom.  It'll be a cinch, right?

Right. 

~Erin~