Sewing Vloggers

Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Green Dress and the Garden


I have been pulled between gardening and dressmaking  this past week or so.When I am gifted with a glorious summer day and a husband who loves to garden along with me, the gardening will win out over the sewing. It is something we share together and really enjoy, real quality time. And we can still work up a sweat together, ; ) too! However, I have managed to finish the green dress and  will hopefully get it up on the blog tomorrow. All that is left are the buttons and then it will be picture time. I hope the weather cooperates.
Above you can see that I have taped the v-neckline. I mark my tape the length of the seam on the pattern and ease the neckline on to the tape. This coaxes it back into shape after having been handled thru construction, despite the original stay stitching. For a stay tape I save and use selvedges from thin fabrics, in this case a cotton. It's yellow and will not show once the facing is stitched on. I keep my selvedges in a canning jar. Never throw out thin selvedges!
ETA June 25, 2010: In the above picture the arrows point to the shoulder seam. The seam crossing it above is where the collar and facing are stitched to the dress. You are looking at the undercollar. Once the collar and facing were stitched on and pressed I stitched in the well of the SHOULDER  seam, where the arrows are pointing. That stitching goes thru the shoulder seam AND the facing. Now the facing is secured. Hope this explains a little more clearly. This technique is great for securing any facing or a lining to a purse and I use it fairly often.

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This messy looking hunk of yard to the right of  the walk is my latest project. Here it has been edged, hard to see, and will turn into a bed that will house a "butterfly pool". First all the sod needs to be taken up. We have a roto tiller but I like to remove the sod first and then till in cow manure and peat moss to build up the bed. It took me 6 straight hours to dig out every square inch of sod with my matlock and now its ready for tilling. I hope to plant shortly. There are lots of volunteers around the yard that I can move into this area. I am not solid on the plant materials I will use yet. I know I need some height to balance the other side of the walk but other than that, I think a shopping trip is needed for inspiration. I love going to the nursery as much as the fabric store!. Here's a pic of my 6 hours work:

9 comments:

  1. Your walk is divine, and I can't wait to see the new bed all finished. Looks like everything is still so nice and green up there. Our yard is turning brownish from lack of rain. It is just too big to keep the sprinklers going.
    Green dress - green yard - all kind of go together!

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  2. Love your walk! You are definitely a green type of girl. My green thumb is unfortunately--any color but green!

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  3. Bunny, you amaze me with your energy! No wonder you got that nickname!!!! LOL ;-) *Energizer*

    I sure wish I could WATCH you sew these things because so many times I don't really understand it all. I enlarged your second photo but I can't make out the stitching you are talking about. Could you put a yellow arrow pointing to it? I can see top stitching around what I think is collar. *sigh* So much of sewing well is visual.

    Now I have to run downstairs & dig out the piece of selvage that I threw away yesterday! LOL
    I'm quilting a French Provence table runner...reds/yellow/blue. Almost done & will post photos soon.

    Have a great weekend & don't work too hard out there.
    fondly,
    Rett

    BTW, I feel the same way about a garden store!!!! :D

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  4. Thanks, Rett, for allowing me to explain this a little more clearly. If you enlarge the pic you may see the stitching, but the whole point is to NOT see the stitching so I guess I did a good job. Thanks for the arrow idea. Now if I could just figure out how to get my name on my pics. Can anyone help?

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  5. LOL...you DID do a good job!

    PM me via ES & I'll walk you through it. :D

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  6. Lovely! Your hard work will pay off. Very inviting looking path. I love gardens but not so keen on getting into it. Perhaps if I had a partner it would be much more fun. Looking forward to seeing the dress too :)

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  7. Bunny,
    It is quite easy to get your name on your pictures. I recommend a free image editing program called gimp. There are tutorials here to help you get started. Also, if you do a google search, you will find lots of other hints like the one I found here about how to sign images with a watermark, and here about how to copywrite an image.

    I always enjoy stopping by your blog. Your garden looks lovely!

    :)Deb M.

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  8. Can't wait to see the green dress! The gardens are lovely and really show the amount of love and work put into them.

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  9. I love gardening, especially with my husband. Nothing is more relaxing to me than that.

    Your garden looks lovely. And I look forward to seeing your completed green dress!

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