It's All About the Shoes

I purchased these shoes at Ross for $3.99 awhile before Emily was born. I decided I needed to make something to match them. The colors really do match in real life. There are some interesting things I learned on this item. One was that I decided to make my own yardage to make my own piping. It would have been so much easier to just buy a print; but not nearly as fun. Also when making that yardage it's probably a good idea to go ahead and use the water soluble stabilizer instead of printer paper. The printer paper didn't wash out and it made the fabric very bulky. Also it took one whole spool of thread of each color to do the machine embroidery. But all in all I think it was worth it. A fun trick I learned was when making piping is after ironing the bias strip in half open it back out and run a line of glue stick (water soluble) down the fold and then lay the cording on that. It makes it so much easier to keep that cording in the fold.

Here is picture of the yardage before I sewed it into piping:

You can see why it took so much thread and so much time to make this.





Here is another fun trick/technique I found and implemented:

You take your sleeve pattern and make a new pattern of just the part of the sleeve that's gathered. You then lay this pattern on the bias fold of a square of organza (or fine netting) and cut it out. (Hobby Lobby only had sparkle organza and I was too lazy to drive to Joann's.) Treat the sleeve and the organza as one. After the sleeve is inserted into the bodice pull the sleeve and the organza apart. This keeps the sleeve puffy. Another trick I've heard about regarding ironing puffed sleeves is to just blow a blow dryer into the damp sleeve. Another trick is to put those mesh dish scrubbies in the sleeve while it dries. Another trick: Hire someone to do your ironing ;)

And for the curious as to what I looked like after my chemical peel, this picture is just a few hours later:

Swollen and red. Like a sunburn. Ignore the bad hair; it was clipped back for the duration of the peel which took about 70 minutes. The next day, Saturday, my skin was very, very tight and dry. Sunday I could barely move my face because of the tightness and when I did my face cracked and started to peel like a sunburn. That's the desired process. Today is Wednesday and I have just a little residual peeling around the hairline and in hyperpigmented areas. Nothing was particularly painful except when I used Mack's Cetaphil face wash not realizing it was the one for oily skin. OUCH! I am very happy with the results. My pores are much diminished and my skin is so soft. An added benefit: I didn't have any sweets in my house and I was way too scary looking to go anywhere to get any and so I may have kicked my cravings.

And speaking of soft: I get to see Emily tomorrow (Thursday). I can hardly wait. I haven't seen her in 9 days!

And I do occasionally still knit. I plan on taking some to work with me on Friday.

ETA: Pictures of bias tape makers. I have both kinds and love the Singer since it's automatic. Yes, there is a fine line between laziness and shortcuts. It's $89.99 at WalMart. Unfortunately, I didn't know that and bought mine at a quilting store.