A Glimpse into my Life.

My Grandmother gave me a skirt, and I like it enough that I would like to recreate it. Here are some photos to help with the process. I'm not sure if it would be easier to pattern off this skirt or if I should try to find something similar and alter it.
 The color is somewhere between the first and second photos.
Sorry for the funny side view, I was trying to get my arms out of the way.

For July, I traced off the proper size of Sense and Sensibility's Elegant Ladies Closet Drawstring Gown and then cut out my sari. I cut all the trim and the big fancy border off then found out from some really helpful ladies that I should have left the fancy bit intact and the trim on and then I wouldn't have had to hem the skirt hardly at all! Live and learn though. Next time I make a sari dress, and there will be a next time, it'll have the fancy train on it! Here is the sari as I cut it out.
This is what the fancy piece of the sari looked like. I cut the border off and ended up cutting the flowers into 5.25 inch strips to border the skirt with.
I used some of the border to widen the skirts. In this portrait of Princess Charlotte you can see a center border on her gown. Since I was going to be short for skirt width and had extra of the sari border, I figured, why not?
Here is the front view of the dress as it is right now:
Here is the back view:

Here is a side view:
The drawstring is in place at both the neckline and the waistline. I still need to add the border to the neckline, waistline, sleeves and hem. It also needs a good pressing to make the pleats pretty and a real drawstring put in instead of a piece of ribbon that was handy. So in making this gown has made me realize I need a new petticoat or I am going to go crazy wearing it. The sari fabric clings to the petticoat I have currently, plus I want it to be slightly longer. Also for July, I found a fabulous fashion plate! It isn't for my sari gown, but it's for a plaid gown!! I absolutely love plaid, and this is great. I decided I absolutely need a plaid gown and so I am going to try and get it done for August. Here is a link to the gown: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51592109@N08/4837839744/

Goals For August:

• Finish Sari Dress- Attach all trims, find a good ribbon for the drawstrings.
• Plaid Dress- Cut out, put together, and finished.
• Pelisse- Mockup done, Fashion fabric cut and put together.
• Headwear- Capote- Cut out brim and attach wiring to it
• Research petticoats and figure out what needs to be done for that.

Since it's the last day of June, and I have posted absolutely nothing in regards to the Regency Costume Challenge, it's time to get busy! June has been the tracing and patterning month. In the interest of expediency, and since I am already familiar with the patterns and life is handing me some curveballs that I am having to work around, I am going to be using the Sense and Sensibility patterns for creating the wardrobes for myself and Little Miss. I am comfortable enough with the S&S patterns to feel like I can modify them in the ways I may need to to achieve the looks I want.


June Project List:

• Trace out patterns to start working on Mockups of all outfit pieces. Since I hate tracing patterns with a passion, I have to get it all done or it will hold me up later. As such, I am almost to the point that if I don't look at another pattern for quite a while, I'll be happy. ;)  So far for Little Miss, I have the 1780's Girl's Portrait Dress, Little Girl's Regency Dress, Pinafore and Pantaloons and Girl's Spencer Jacket traced. For myself, I have traced off the Regency Gown Pattern, The Elegant Lady's Closet, the Spencer Jacket Pattern, The Chemisette Patterns, and Reticule. 
• I *think* I have decided on a hat style. At least until I get a bit further in the process and end up realizing I desperately need a new style of hat. ;) I am going to make a Capote to go with this outfit.

I think I have all the patterns traced off that I need to work with, now to start on the mockup!


Now, for what will be worked on in July:

I am going to finish narrowing down my inspiration for my gown. I know approximately what I want my gown to look like, but am lacking the fashion plates/extant garments to back it up so I have been going through as many sources as I can to find what will explain what I am making. I like the earlier Regency style, 1798-1808 ish in style. With a somewhat fuller skirt, drawstring neckline and bodice and either elbow length sleeves or longer. Also incorporating a sari with a printed border. I can see the dress in my head, but want to make sure I have documentation for it before I move forward completely.

My Pelisse will be started with the mockup phase also. I figure I can alter the pattern pieces to get what I want out of the shape.

Any suggestions, links, etc. on where to find an image that would work for the dress would be greatly appreciated.

The Jane Austen Festival Australia decided to host a Regency Costume Challenge and I thought it would be great fun to participate! Each month you set goals for what you would like to do and then report on your progress. You can go the link above to see the different participants projects and follow their progress!



My Project List:

For Myself:
Chemise
Petticoat
Converting a Spencer jacket into a half length Pelisse
Headwear of some sort
Reticule
Gown

For Little Miss:
Chemise
Petticoat
Gown
Spencer


May Project List:

• Research Fabrics used during the Regency Period and try to figure out what would be appropriate and within my budget. Also ordering fabrics that are needed for my ensemble.
• Search fashion plates for inspiration and documentation for my outfit ideas. Currently I am leaning towards an earlier Regency impression.
• Making a mockup of a chemisette to see which style I like.
•  Check the fit on my short stays and see if they will still work or see if I need to make a new pair. If a new pair is needed, I am debating on another pair of the S&S short stays and the full length Mantua Maker stays.
• Figure out my dress style and so I can start making mockups.

Here are my stays:

They seem to fit well enough, although there are some things I would like to tweak on them if I have time towards the end! I don't like how the strap buckles a bit and it feels like it is wideset on my shoulder. If I have a time later, that will be corrected.

I want to make my outfit to go with this Spencer. I will be pulling the Spencer apart to redo it then adding length to convert it into a half length Pelisse. Here are my  fabrics so far for the Costume Challenge. I am debating which color of sari I want to use for my gown.

I still can't decide between the Blue, Red or Green!

Cotton Voile, Lightweight Linen, and Silk Gauze. These will end up being either a Fichu or Chemisette. Please excuse the darkness of the photo. I couldn't get them to show up well.

Here is another Sari that I was thinking of using. It is actually more red than this and the vine patterns are more of an antiqued gold. I couldn't get it to show up right with my camera.

Here is the mockup of a Chemisette. I will probably try a different style during June to see if I like it better, but I really won't know until I decide on a dress style! I still have no idea on the dress style, but I think I can settle that during June!

I know I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus, but I think life has settled down enough for me start to reclaim my life and do some of the fun little things I have missed doing.

We have all of Jake's hay sold, almost all the farm equipment is moved back to my parent's house, the remaining steers and horses are also moved to the home farm. Most importantly, we are done dealing with unscrupulous people. The former owner of the land we leased tried to charge us the yearly lease at the same price for less than half the land. We found out it is because he hasn't been totally honest in his dealings with us and others and is now in bankruptcy and was trying to recoup whatever money he could wherever he could. My dad was able to work things out with him to everyone's satisfaction though, so thankfully we are done with that.

Jake and Shannon decided that they wanted to learn to make apple jelly and syrup. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. We also had to say goodbye to our canning buddy, the water bather for the steamer, but after 20+ years it had a good run. We had some very good little helpers who taste tested, sorted, and all around just had a good time.

Our little taste tester:

The sorting crew:

And here is part of the sorting crew sorting through the canning rings:

Is she singing, or trying to taste test???


We now have 6 of the 11 steers sold off. Thank goodness since some of the people changed their mind after we'd already taken the six steers to the butcher and they were waiting to process them. I will be glad once we have the rest of them sold off.

I have been working on a black corduroy jumper for the Pink Princess. I found out I am out of black embroidery floss to work the eyelets though so I need to run and get some. Other than that, it is done. When I tried it on her to check the fit, she just smiled and then wouldn't let us take it off her. It took both Hubby and I to convince her it wasn't ready yet.



Unfortunately for my hair, I ended up cutting off about four inches of it. The last four inches just would not untangle. It would take me over 30 minutes to comb through that section so after quite a bit of debate with myself, and talking it out with Hubby, we decided I should cut that part off, and just wait for it to grow again. I feel like my hair is so short now!!!! I know it really isn't, but I just miss those inches!!! It was getting so long and I hope it won't take forever to grow back.

Our little Mister absolutely loves pomegranates so much, we love when we have the chance to get them. It's quite the treat!!!!


Pink Princess loves my shoes. She stole my house slippers and wouldn't give them back!


We have started decorating our house for Christmas. Rynie wants to make all our decorations so we have made paper chains that we are going to hang from the ceiling of his room and then hang snowflakes off of it. We have also made a popcorn and cranberry garland for the tree. I've decided that garland would go a lot faster if Spitfire wasn't attacking it and eating the popcorn while I was stringing it. Pink Princess also was biting the cranberries and putting them back with the other ones. We have another garland on the tree, and a bunch of jingle bells and bows on the tree. We are going to make some stars and put them on the tree after we decorate them. I am hoping we are finished by the weekend so I can take pictures of everything.

I know this was random, but I hope that by starting again, I can get back into the habit of blogging and then I'll finish pictures from my trip and getting caught up on life.

Goodnight and Sweet Dreams!

So, this is going to be a mishmash of everything! It'll be LONG so get a drink, something to eat, and saddle up for the ride!

We just got done having Bumpa visit for the week. He got in around midnight on Monday night, and we had to get up a bit before 4 am for him to leave on time to go home Saturday morning.
We have all been crazy busy and running around like mad. Bump would pass out on the couch and fall asleep until bedtime some days! This is what I found one day:


Ya think he was tired? Falling asleep checking email on his crackberry!


And while we were working in our back yard, look what we found!


This is the third toad we've found this summer! He's a huge, fat toad! Check out that determination to hold the toad!


Success! And immediately afterwards, the toad jumped out of Rynie's hands!


And since Bumpa was in town, we had to celebrate Rynie's birthday with him. It was just Mom, Dad, Pink Princess, Jake and Bumpa. Shannon had to work so she only got some cake afterwards. Well, maybe she did, I don't know if Jake ate it or brought it to her. Rynie got a red helmet and a shiny red bike! What a guy!!! Rynie helped me make his birthday cake, frost it, and shared the little leftover pieces with Pink Princess! He is a huge fan of frosting!








Didn't he do an awesome job on his cake?



Pink Princess is trying to get 4 teeth all at once, she definitely doesn't do anything by halves. I had four days last week when she basically shrieked all day each day. The last couple of days have been much better though. She is making up for lost sleep and food with a vengeance.


That is a slip of mine. It was the only thing that made her happy for a few days. She drug it everywhere, slept with it, and you were in trouble if you took it.

I finally finished Pink Princess's dress that I've been working on forever. Honey helped a lot with the finishing (and she was EVIL and made me do the button holes so I'd learn how) so we got the dress done in time for Jeremy and Amanda's wedding.





I also made Rynie a pair of wool pants, and he had to wear them to the wedding since Pink Princess was going to wear a new dress.


Jeremy and Amanda's wedding was very sweet! It's always fun to gain a new member of the family, and I think Jeremy picked well. :D





Awww, Rynie lucked out and got a hug from the new Mrs. G!



Hubby and I went on a date to Boondock's with Jake and Shannon. It was super hot and lots of fun! We played mini golf, Jake and I reminisced about how we used to be good at baseball/softball, played lazertag, and had some good strawberry shakes.


Speaking of Jake and Shannon, since he let the cat out of the bag so to speak, I can now say something: Jake and Shannon are Engaged!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!! They are getting married on October 15 at the Mount Timpanogos Temple!




Well, there are about 25 days until we leave for England and Scotland, my wardrobe for Bath is still incomplete. I have my stays fitted again since I had to redo them since I lost more weight. Hubby is taking the next week off work since he has some vacation time to use up so I am going to try and get them done in the next week. I will post pictures when I have my wardrobe done.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but these are the major points and I'll post more, hopefully sooner than this post came about.

Evening All!

After having Winter, version 2.0 for the last few weeks, it's nice to finally see Springtime weather. Most of the last few weeks we have had rain, snow, or a random combination of both.





When Rynie saw all the water collecting in the backyard, he said, "Look Mom, we have our own lake!" What a guy!



Rynie has been quite the helper. Even more so than normal. He has been fascinated with feeding Pink Princess lately. We have let him feed her dinner a couple of times and it is hilarious.





So this next week is shaping up to be insanely busy. I've been cleaning house like crazy and trying to get everything in order for our trip. I can't believe we are leaving on Tuesday! I am starting to make lists to organize our packing and do things like stop the mail while we are gone. Thursday I am doing a lot of hair. Evidently a lot of people have decided that since I am suddenly not going to be available for a little while, they need their hair done asap. I have a hair appointment to get a trim on Friday and Saturday is the wedding. I am still debating the merits of going to sleep and getting up at 1am at the latest or just staying awake all night long since the bride is going to be here at 2am. The reason for the early start time is she is getting married over an hour away and she is getting married at 7am. She has to be there by 6am. We are invited to the ceremony and the luncheon so I won't be going back to sleep that morning. We are also going to clean up the weeds in our backyard and put down grass seed so hopefully we will have a lawn! Wow. Fun, but busy.

I have been working on a new set of Regency Short Stays and they are fitting well so far. I'm hoping they are keepers and I don't have to start over on a new set.

We worked on Father's Day projects for Bumpa Black Cow. I have to say Rynie was a hoot. He made a 'rainbow' in his palette then painted that onto his canvas.






I have been giving Pink Princess little bits of fruits and vegetables to see how she likes the textures. She had a blast mushing her oranges!