Country Girl For a Day In My New Skirt

City girl turned country for a day. I made this lovely skirt in another paisley fabric, pink paisley. I love pink. I love paisleys.
We went to visit some friends in the country on their 130 acres. We carved pumpkins and ate dinner. The kids played outside while the adults visited. We had a wonderful time hanging out with friends. And it was a great place to take pictures of my McCall's 4875 skirt. It was so easy to make and is so comfortable to wear.

Construction tip: Do you know how long it takes to hem a circle skirt with this much fabric? A long time. I'll let you in on a little secret. It took me less than ten minutes. I didn't have to use any pins, and I didn't even have to fold up the hem, iron it or anything. I used a hemming foot. You just place the raw edge of the bottom of the skirt fabric in the foot, press the presser foot, and the foot does all of the work. It folds it and stitches it. Try it. You'll love it.

I'll post some pictures of the pumpkin carving on my art blog sometime during the week after Thanksgiving.

PARTING SHOT:



My daughter made some mittens for her baby doll and a bonnet for her Barbie. It's so sweet. I know it would mean so much to her if you were able to take the time to stop by her blog and pay her a visit and say hi in the comment box.




I'm participating in the Sew Mama Sew December Giveaway December 2nd. I've chosen an awesome prize to giveaway. Check back Tuesday for details.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!

Lovely and Stylish Muu Muu Dresses

I made three very lovely muu muu or caftan dresses, whatever you like to call them, for my aunt out of 100 percent cotton from McCall's 5640. She chose View B, but without the sleeves. It has a square neck. The brown one she had me lengthen 4 inches. They were very easy to make. I only had one problem, the inside shoulder straps, which I will explain with the pictures below. They are all pretty, but the brown one is my favorite. My aunt agrees. I just think the fabric is so gorgeous. She says they are very comfortable. She wears them when she's home relaxing.










I sewed a ribbon on the inside of the back neck piece to show which side is the back.



In the next two pictures, the gathers are very easy to see.






Here you can see where I was having a problem with the inside shoulder seam. I just can't figure out for the life of me how to get those pieces to meet so that I can neatly slip stitch it closed. If anyone has any tips, please share.



So I just sewed a piece of fabric over it on the inside just to cover it up because it bothered me so much. I thought this would look better than leaving it wide open.




I did the French seam on the side seams.








I made my own bias tape for the arm holes with the same fabric. I like how this turned out.



This clearly shows the top stitching. I top stitched the yoke pieces in all of the dresses.



NOTE: As a reminder, and for those who may not have seen my previous post, I have started a separate blog where I post my art: collage, painting, crafts, just whatever. And this blog will, for the most part, stick to sewing topics. Currently on my art blog, I have a tutorial for how to make the card that is pictured. The previous post is of a cardinal that I painted with acrylics. I will be showing some collages I've made soon and the papers I prepared beforehand to use in the collages and explain how I did them. I also plan to show some crafts the kids and I have done and will be doing. I have a beautiful photograph I took of an American Beauty Berry I'll be putting on there as well. So if this interests you, please go and take a look from time to time. Thanks again for taking the time to come to my blog and/or blogs. And thank you to those of you who leave me comments. You make my day. You are so encouraging. You-all are great!

PARTING SHOT:

My nephew is heading to Iraq in December. It's hard for me to believe he's all grown up now and that he is going over there. He just graduated from high school this past May. He made a huge commitment. He signed up with the Army for seven years. He says he wants to make it his career. He's very excited. Please keep him and all of our men and women who are serving in your thoughts and prayers.