Damaged in transit. Ugh.

Last night there was a knock at the door... it was the Pink Champage lisianthus plants I ordered from Burpee... yay! I opened the door (the man had already hopped back in his truck and was rolling down the road by the time I got to the door), and discovered the box that said "THIS SIDE UP" all over it was laying on its side (and no, not the proper side)! Just great. So I went to open it up, and this is what I found, all the plants had been dumped out of their cells and their roots knocked loose:







I am... rather unhappy about this. I went and stuck them all in my garden anyway (though most of them barely had any roots at all). I sent an email to Burpee customer service about how to make a claim or get a refund... hopefully I will hear back soon. It was $26.95 for those 12 little plants! (By the way, the plants you get from Burpee so far seem to be about the same size as the 6-pk plants you get from Lowe's or Wal-Mart! What a rip-off! But I've only ordered the lisianthus, I don't know about the tomatoes or other plants). I received my other lisianthus plants last week and they were fine.

New project for my daughters

I've decided to make them some matching dresses. I got the fabric off the $2/yd rack at Wal-Mart, and the pattern is New Look 6884. I will use the bumblebee fabric for the main dress, the checkered fabric for the undershorts (and maybe for the ruffle on the dress, I haven't decided yet).

Rain, rain, come this way...

We have a lot of rain in the forecast. It rained a little on Sunday, and it rained for about an hour yesterday, but our 10-day forecast is calling for a 30-60% chance of rain every day this week (80% chance today and tomorrow).

Rain does such fantastic things for the garden. It seems like tap water from the hose keeps the plants alive, but rainwater makes them flourish!

Here are some updated pics of my garden. The first one is the same garden box I posted here, but taken from the opposite side. Look how much everything has grown in the last week and a half! My tomato plants have nearly doubled in size in just the last couple weeks, but I wasn't able to get good pics of them. Click on each of these for a little bit bigger pic.




My herb garden


My Austin dewberries. This plant has more than doubled in size since we planted it last month.


My Apache blackberries... look at all those blackberries!!


Closeup of a clump of Brightwell blueberries.


My Tifblue blueberries. Click for a little bit bigger pic, you can see how many teensy berries there are on it. I think they ripen in June or July.

Planning my next project

I think the next thing I need to add to my sewing project list is something I can wear in the sun! My daughter is in softball this year and she has 9 games left this season, so I'll be spending quite a bit of time in the sun.

I need a hat and a blouse, I can't find one of either kind ready-made that is a price I can agree with. So for blouses, so far I'm considering:

McCall's 5359
Butterick 5034
Butterick B4819


And for hats, I have a Travel Pop-Up Hat pattern and set of wires. I just need to pick some fabric out. (There is also a bandana hat kit, LOL, but I think I'll pass).

Oooh, strawberry!

This is the 2nd strawberry we've gotten so far... I let my husband have the first one. This one is MINE, ha ha! It's not quite ripe... I think by this afternoon or tomorrow morning, it should be ready.

There are some rather misshapen berries on our other strawberry plants... we have a total of 12, but only about 1-2 berries on each plant. You can see 2 other small berries on this particular plant, but I got this plant at Wal-Mart (the others were purchased at Lowe's). Not many people are successful growing strawberries in Texas, but I am determined to keep trying.

Bodice, part II...

Okie dokie, then! I managed to finish most of the bodice! Now I need to add the collar/trim and the buttons or hooks/eyes up the back. And finish the stuff on the skirt. I might wait until later next week to get all that done.

Click on image for a larger view.

And the bodice...

I just finished sewing the major bodice pieces together. Next I have to put on the sleeves and the facings and the collar and the trim (I don't have any trim yet!)

Almost finished bustle, petticoat, skirt

Here they are!

The almost-finished bustle (needs some more boning in the lower 3 casings, and a waistband & hook/eye):


The almost-finished petticoat (needs a hook/eye):


The almost-finished skirt (needs a hook/eye):


The almost-finished overskirt (needs a waistband and hook/eye, and maybe some trim):


And a different angle view of the ensemble:


And now, to start on the bodice. First is to flatline all the bodice pieces with the lining.

Flowers for the garden!

I ordered some Lisianthus flowers for the garden this morning... Pink Champagne and Balboa Blue Rim. I think they will look great in my 4'x4' garden boxes. I'll have to put some in planters too, because I ordered a total of 24 plants and I don't want them taking up too many of the garden squares. My dianthus is doing terribly (I planted it too early), I can pull those out and replace them with the lisanthus.

Nearly finished with the petticoat & bustle

I didn't get any work done on them yesterday, but on Tuesday afternoon and this morning I was able to work on the petticoat and the bustle. I just need to add the ruffle onto the petticoat (I need 2.5 yds of 3" gathered eyelet, I tried to get some at Wal-Mart yesterday evening but no one was in the fabric dept to help me) and on the bustle, I just need to insert some boning. It calls for steel boning but I have none... I tried plastic boning and I only had enough for the first 2 rows (there are 5). So now I'm trying to figure out what else I can put in there, as I cannot find plastic boning locally, it's not cost-effective to buy it online, and hoopsteel is too expensive (cheapest I can find it is $18 for a 12-yd roll, not including shipping).

I don't have any pics right now, as my husband is off on a nature hike and took the camera with him.

Next I get to start on the bodice!

Baby fruit! Yay!

I've been checking on my garden every day, and my shrubs 2-3 times a week. Look what my shrubs/bushes are doing!


Austin Dewberries!!


Apache Blackberries!


Tifblue Blueberries! (And a spider!)


And a bee, pollinating the Brightwell blueberry blossoms.


This has me very excited... see that little green tip? That is a bud on my teensy little benchgraft apple trees!

Overskirt!

Okay, I got impatient and went ahead and made the overskirt (the 2 younger kids were napping and my 2 older kids were distracted with their Legos!) I'm only partially done with the overskirt, it still needs the back sash and the waistband.

Ballgown skirt is nearly finished!

This was a lot harder than I thought it would be! The pleating & stitching on of the ruffle took about 80% of the time! This is the scaled-down version of an 1869 Grand Parlor skirt. I then had to put the skirt on the waistband, and pleat the back of it to fit. Now I just need to stitch under the back edges of the skirt opening (which was actually an earlier step that I skipped), and add a hook & eye. I was disappointed that the waistband ended up being a little too small (it should've had a 1/2" overlap and there's only about 1/4" overlap), so if I ever make this skirt again, I will remember to add 1/4" to the length of the waistband. Though if I ever do make one again, I will NOT add the pleated ruffle! (It'll save fabric and sanity!)

I would like to start the side-drape overskirt, but seeing as how this is a bustle gown... I really need to make the bustle. Ha ha! I already have all the pieces for the gown cut out, but none for the bustle. I'm done for the day, though, I'll decide later what I want to make next, the overskirt or bustle.

Experiencing the worst pleating of my life...

Don't get me wrong... I've done pleating before, lots of times. Mostly pleating skirts onto waistbands for my 1860's skirts. But this is a lot trickier... The skirt is full-length and gored, and I have to pleat the ruffle onto it, matching the bottom hems of each! I've never done this before, and it is time-consuming and (for me) a bit nerve-wracking. I watched the entire DVD of "Daniel Deronda" in the time it took me to do half the skirt (okay so that included hemming the top & bottom edge of the ruffle).... and then discovered that I'd mis-measured the circumference of the skirt. Oy. So I'm doing it again, using the "Divide & Conquer" method.

Next project: 1872 Ballgown (Demi Fashions)

A couple months ago I bought a Demi Dressform from Demi Fashions by Truly Victorian. I purchased it because I've always wanted to make an 1870's gown but never had a reason (and I can't justify the expense of all the patterns & silk for one!) I also figured it would look neat in our den, which we've recently redecorated with a Western/cowboy/horse theme.

This morning I traced out the pattern pieces, and I'm about to get started on cutting out the fabric. I'm using some iridescent purple/copper acetate taffeta I bought for cheap from Fabric.com (see, with a real gown I'd have to use silk, so I can make-do with synthetics since it isn't something I'm going to be wearing).

Pictures from my garden

I was having fun taking photos out there today. I didn't really get any of the carrots or lettuce because they're still too small to show up well in pics.


This is one of my 4'x4' raised beds. A couple of the spots haven't been planted with anything yet, and I'm going in every week and planting a couple more squares (that's why I have 3 different squares of bush beans).


One solitary bean, sprouting up in its square (the rest should follow soon!)


My Italian Rose bush beans just starting to sprout.


This one is cool, it shows beans in different "stages" of sprouting. I think these ones are Royal Burgundy. I also planted Purple Queen, which is an offspring of Royal Burgundy, but they have not sprouted!


Serrano peppers, my husband will be excited to see that. I need to figure out what's wrong with the leaves.


Blossoms on my lemon tree, woo-hoo!!


Strawberries, yummy!


Petunias... I added these for a bit of color.

Trying to think up a sewing project

My new county has an annual Fall Festival in mid-September that includes an Arts & Crafts competition, and it has a sewing division... and one of the classes is for miscellaneous/costumes! Yay! They also have Classic (detailed construction/menswear), After Five ("soft construction"), Sportswear, Children's Wear, and Wearable Art.

Now I need to decide what to do!

My ideas include:
An 1860's sheer gown made from red plaid cotton voile (miscellaneous/costumes)
A Regency cross-front gown similar to this one or this one (also for misc/costumes)
Simplicity 3962 (for Classic)
and maybe a nice vintage 50's pattern for After-Five. Gotta think up something for Children's Wear.

But... this is all just my ideas so far. I could completely change my mind! I might only make one thing! Who knows. Depends on how much time I have. But I'm not allowing myself to buy any fabric, I have plenty. And I have all the above patterns, too.

I wonder if I could make something from McCall's 4798 and count it as Wearable Art? Or Favorite Things' Frayed Jacket (which I already have the pattern for)?

Sequined fabric... never again!

I am in desperate need of a new skirt. So I decided I'd make myself a half-circle wrap skirt, using this sequined corduroy fabric, which I thought would look rather cute.

Well, the skirt does look cute, but the fabric was a pain to work with! When I cut it, I ended up with sequins all over the place. And every time I'd try to sew, the thread would go all goofy right after the needle would go through a sequin (you know, how it gets all looped up on the under side). And putting a buttonhole in the waistband to run ties through? Forget it!

Actually, the wrap skirts are neat and easy to make, and I love them... but I hate putting the buttonholes in the waistband. The buttonholes always goof up if the fabric is too thick. I think what I ought to try is making the skirt without ties, and just using diaper pins on each side to hold it in place, LOL! Maybe I'll try that for my next skirt, and see how it goes.

My garden

Let me give a quick overview of my garden. I am doing the Square Foot Gardening mewthod using Mel Bartholemew's book. I have six 4'x4' planters, and two 2'x10' planters. In the long skinny planters I have 10 indeterminate tomatoes (1 per square foot) with strawberries right next to them, and in the other planter I'll put canteloupes and small watermelons (1 per 2 sq ft). In my 4'x4' planters I have different varieties of lettuce (Gold Rush, Black Seeded Simpson, Red Flame, heat wave varieties), carrots (Red-cored Chatenay, Thumbelina, Kaleidoscope), bush beans (Italian Rose, Purple Queen, Royal Burgundy), onions (Texas 1015 supersweet), hot peppers (different kinds, including habanero and jalapeno), bell peppers, and garlic. I just planted the garlic today, I hope it's not too late in the season! I'd hope that if the store was selling them, it means it's not too late! Oh, and in one of the 4'x4' planters we put 2 Roma tomato plants, and 2 zucchini plants- that's it. Another 4'x4' planter has yellow summer squash taking up a total of 8 sq ft, and we'll plant the other 8 sq ft with different things.

Today I picked up some Yukon Gold seed potatoes (the ONLY kind I could find, I've tried ordering other kinds online but everywhere seems to be sold out). We have a ton of oak leaves that need raked up, so I'm going to make some Tater Towers out of some plastic poultry netting.

I also have fruit trees/bushes. I have Apache blackberries, dewberries, blueberries (Tifblue- the BEST variety of rabbiteye, and Brightwell), and 12 miniature dwarf apple trees (Delicious, Hawaii, Wealthy and William's Pride), planted on Bud 9 rootstock... I just planted them 2 weeks ago, and they should mature to 4'-6' tall. I have some dwarf citrus trees as well- 2 Improved Meyer Lemon, 1 Seto Satsuma Mandarin, 1 Valencia Orange, and 1 Key Lime. Only one of them- a lemon- has any blossoms so far... I bought that one on clearance at Lowe's for $12.49, a couple weeks after I bought the other ones for $45 apiece from an online nursery (the only one in TX I could find).

That's about it for now... I need to go cook dinner. I'll post pictures later.

sew and sow!