New Years resolutions 2013

A new year, new resolutions. :) But first let's review last years resolutions.

1~ Read the Bible every day.
2~ Brush my teeth every day (I know, that sounds weird ).


I think that I've done pretty well on brushing my teeth every day. Not so much on reading the Bible.
I also  put a list up of different dresses that I wanted/needed to sew in 2012. Here is the list of "wants":


Susan's red battle dress from "Prince Caspian".
Eowyn's green dress (aka the stable dress).
Susan's purple traveling dress from "Prince Caspian".
Eowyn's shield maiden dress.

I did not do Susan's red dress, or her Purple one. Nor did I do Eowyn's Shieldmaiden dress. But I did do Eowyn's Green dress (aka stable dress). It is the dress that she is wearing when you first see her, running up the steps to Meduseld. It turned out exactly like I wanted it to. I was and still am, excited about it. It fits me perfectly. :) I plan to do it again at some other time. It is in the March 3 and August 9 posts. Now for the list of  "need to" dresses.

Linnea' ball gown.
Sara's ball gown.
Grace's ball gown AND camp dress.
My camp dress/ ball gown.


Yes I got Linnea's ball gown done, as well as Grace's camp dress and ball gown. No I did not get Sara's ball gown completed. She wore it to the ball but it was pinned on. ;) We still need to put fasteners on it and the trim. I did not get my ball gown or my camp dress done. This is my fault because I was given the most beautiful forest green cotton taffeta that any seamstress would be thrilled to work with. It was given to me by a very thoughtful and loving sister with the plan being that I would have a ball gown to wear at the ball. But I decided to use it for a medieval costume to wear when we went and watched The Hobbit. :) I guess I'm hopelessly lost when it comes to medieval or fantasy style dresses. :) And I am planning on making a day/camp dress for my self in the next two to three months. The problem is that there are so many different styles to choose from.  I also put a goals/jobs list on that post as well:


1~Clean out the storage shed behind the house.
2~ And there was some thing else that goes under this category, I just can't remember it.


Yes I got the shed cleaned out. Yeah!!!! You can read about it in my February 28 post. And the other thing that I couldn't remember was learning to play the piano. No I do not know how to play the piano. Because our piano is broken. :(

So now that I have you updated on last years resolutions let me tell you what this years resolutions are.

1~ Read the Bible daily.
2~Be a better daughter and a better sister.

Goals/ jobs for the year

1~Finish fencing in the property.
2~Blog twice weekly. Hopefully more then that.
3~Learn how to play a musical instrument.I don't know what instrument,but I'll figure that out later.

So there you have it. My new years resolutions. If you read my blog or are my Facebook friend please, PLEASE ask me every now and then how I'm doing in regards to my resolutions. The more you ask, the harder you will push me to keep them. Thank you! :)

*GASP*

Woohoo! I did it. I actually did it. I just sewed a ball gown. A civil war ball gown made out of taffeta. I remember telling myself that I would NEVER sew a ball gown. Much too complicated. And I would never sew with any thing that was slippery. No silk, no taffeta, no satin. Nothing like that. I was quite sure that I would mess it up. And then Sara gave Grace, Linnea, and myself some taffeta for ball gowns. Great! Now I had to use that slippery stuff. I came up with every possible excuse as to why I couldn't do it. "The fabric was too slippery." "So what? Figure out how to work with it. And hurry up."
 "The material was too cheap looking. It might shred and then it would have been a waste of time." "Well you'll never know what it will do if you don't use it. Hurry up and start sewing." As you can see, my sisters were not going to take  "no" for a answer. So I began with Grace's gown. She had bought a simple pattern from Period Impressions. So we washed the fabric and began to iron it. That was were I hit my first "speed bump". This taffeta was 100% polyester. I took the iron and placed it on the fabric and....... it melted. My room stank of melting plastic for two days. Okay, lesson learned. Do not use your grandmothers 15 year old iron that is no longer adjustable. So I bought a new iron that had settings that worked and started over. Got it ironed and I told Grace to start cutting the material while I got the machine ready. Problem was that I had never done this kind of thing before (as I've already said) and I didn't know that you couldn't just cut it out like you would with regular old cotton. First you have to layer the material with tissue paper so the material doesn't slip and come out in funky shapes. So we re-cut the fabric and got ready to sew it. It was a lot easier than I thought that it would be. The hardest part was figuring out how to fit 180" onto a waistband that's made for some one with a 26 1/2" waist. We ended up doing a triple box pleat all the way around. Half way through sewing the bodice together Grace held it up and said "You know what? I think this will actually work and that it will look quite nice." Thank you for the encouragement Grace. All the way through sewing this dress Grace was right behind me, encouraging me. So now, almost 9 months after I first started on this project, it is finally done.
                                                                       
                                                        

The front of the gown.

Back of the gown.

Close up of the front.

Close up of the back. We are eventually going to add lacing to the back. Half of the girls like it as it is now, with hook and eye closures. Grace really likes the look of the lacing.

Gown from the side.

The antique lace that we dyed to match the binding, which we also made.

                
One ball gown done,three more to go. And all before November  17. I better get movin'. :)