After sewing her first zipper in on her first try, Twirly Girl lost momentum on her circle skirt. I mean really lost momentum. Actually, I guess it wasn’t the zipper so much as having to fix all the puckers she had sewn into the waistband. Anyhow, this past weekend she finally finished her skirt and wore it to church Sunday morning.
I think she’s glad I nudged her to finish.
Even if she’d rather have spent that time practicing piano. 
Just some random pictures from our day. . .
Two out of the three squirrels Boy Genius caught playing ring-around-a-rosy.
Twirly Girl removes the basting threads from her first-ever zipper. Yes, we’re a little behind on our circle skirts.
If there’s a camera in the room, Baby Boy assumes it’s for him.
Flag football in the backyard, Drama Boy & Silly Boy vs. Boy Genius & Bouncy Boy.
We also did a little school work and Drama Boy got 2 coats of primer on George’s new doghouse. And I. . .did seven loads of laundry and served three meals. 
Twirly Girl and I both drafted our circle skirt patterns Friday afternoon–hooray! However, I’m about 90% decided against using the denim I bought. This is partly because I prefer to avoid the denim jumper homeschool mom stereotype. . .and partly because I was looking at my denim while ironing my new 1944 housedress. Which of course means I’m now contemplating a denim housedress–although perhaps that would still feed the stereotype–though on the other hand, since we live in Wyoming and I refuse to wear blue jeans, there are in fact occasions where a denim skirt helps me blend in a bit. I digress! Unless the perfect skirt fabric falls into my lap before it’s time to cut out the circle skirts, I will very likely sew this one from an old bedsheet and call it a muslin.
And speaking of muslins, I made one for the bodice of my LBD. Main changes: added a little shaping to the center back seam, raised the neckline, and adjusted the armscye so it will accommodate a sleeve. I was on the verge of cutting out fabric when a quick peek in Sandra Betzina’s Fabric Savvy informed me that I really should line my silk taffeta with organza. Ack. Not something I keep on hand, and certainly not something available in this county (or this state). I hemmed and hawed and googled and ended up ordering silk organza from Dharma Trading. It arrived today, so now I can return to working on my dress.
Except in the meanwhile I spread photos all over my cutting table. Again. Currently putting 2009 in the family album; I also have 2010 photos ready to go but I did not order enough pages. For the record, Creative Memories did not ask me what I thought about changing oh-so-slightly the size of a 12×12 page. I have a nice stash of the “old” pages which works well for most of my albums, but I had to order a new family album which of course requires “new” pages. Hmmph.
The measurements for this project were quite simple: waist, and waist to hem. Twirly Girl and I were both surprised to find that her waist is only 6″ smaller than mine (which is still 1.5″ larger than it was two boys ago. . .sigh!).
Finding fabric was not so simple. I looked online, briefly, and we probably should have gone that route. But last Friday we were in Casper to retrieve our half of a cow from Wendi, and I really wanted to find fabric at Hancock’s so that we would have it in our hands. It turns out I must be spoiled by shopping online, because I was thoroughly unimpressed with the selection of garment fabrics at Hancock’s. Twirly Girl finally chose a royal blue Kona cotton–her taste in colors must be shifting again. It took me even longer to decide, and on my third or fourth browse-through I realized being cheap would get me fabric I wouldn’t want to wear. So I finally ended up getting a lightweight dark blue denim. And I’m still not convinced it will work for my circle skirt.
I’ve seen various online sew-alongs over the years, but the timing and the project have never worked together for me. Until now.
Clicking on the image should take you to a blog post full of information about the sew along (but after yesterday’s technical issues I’m not holding my breath). I hope to post regularly about our progress. Yes, I said “our”: Twirly Girl decided she’d like to sew a circle skirt too. 
Simul Justis et Pecatur Under Construction Boots on the Ground I shouldn’t be doin’ this Susan’s Pendulum The Elephant’s Child
