"She's crafty, and she's just my type" Part 2
Day Two sewing escapades started up in the early afternoon, and I was ready to go. Step 1: Take the 2 front center panels and sew them up the center. Easy, yes? Well.... not really. My biggest problem with this project is I significantly underestimated how much extra time is needed to add a lining.
What I Imagined I Had To Do:
Pin pieces together
Sew seam
Press seam
What I ACTUALLY Had To Do:
Match lining with one panel and pin
Repeat with other panel
Baste together the lining and one panel
Repeat with other panel
Cut any lining extending past the satin
Pin pieces together
Sew seam
Remove basting
Press seam
So that was A LOT of work ahead of me. Thankfully, Mormor was there to show me the ropes. She has this amazing way of tying a knot by simply twisting her fingers! It took me a few tries, but soon I was rolling knots off my finger too. Then she showed me a way to streamline my basting technique. After practicing on that first step, the basting parts of the next steps would go much faster. Unfortunately, the second step involved pinning together a curved section of the bodice, which meant an extra basting step to hold the two pieces more firmly in place while sewing and some seam notching prior to ironing. 5 hours later, step 2 was finished and the front half of the dress was done!
Once I was home, it was time to switch gears and get into furniture mode. Dad was already in the barn gathering some pieces of wood. To go in the barn requires special clothing; winter is around the corner, and the walls only keep out so much of the wind. I pulled on some snowpants and a thick fleece pullover a few sizes too big. "Swish, swish, swish, swish," the pants sang as I ran into the workshop. We pondered my original design and decided to use some shelves Dad had previously marked for my brothers' room. One would be used as a shelf and a place to clip the heat lamps, and the other would be split in two to make the legs on either side. In the course of the evening I would use the miter saw and a sanding belt. The best part was forming the feet out of a couple pieces of 2x4. Sanding was so much fun!! I got pretty good at rounding off the corners. In fact, I may have been a bit carried away - I sanded down all the faces, rounded all the corners, then went over it again by hand with rough and fine grain sandpaper. It was so soft I almost couldn't bear to think of staining it! In about an hour and a half both feet were cut and sanded, and I could leave it for the night and finish the cutting and assembly tomorrow.
What I Imagined I Had To Do:
Pin pieces together
Sew seam
Press seam
What I ACTUALLY Had To Do:
Match lining with one panel and pin
Repeat with other panel
Baste together the lining and one panel
Repeat with other panel
Cut any lining extending past the satin
Pin pieces together
Sew seam
Remove basting
Press seam
So that was A LOT of work ahead of me. Thankfully, Mormor was there to show me the ropes. She has this amazing way of tying a knot by simply twisting her fingers! It took me a few tries, but soon I was rolling knots off my finger too. Then she showed me a way to streamline my basting technique. After practicing on that first step, the basting parts of the next steps would go much faster. Unfortunately, the second step involved pinning together a curved section of the bodice, which meant an extra basting step to hold the two pieces more firmly in place while sewing and some seam notching prior to ironing. 5 hours later, step 2 was finished and the front half of the dress was done!
Once I was home, it was time to switch gears and get into furniture mode. Dad was already in the barn gathering some pieces of wood. To go in the barn requires special clothing; winter is around the corner, and the walls only keep out so much of the wind. I pulled on some snowpants and a thick fleece pullover a few sizes too big. "Swish, swish, swish, swish," the pants sang as I ran into the workshop. We pondered my original design and decided to use some shelves Dad had previously marked for my brothers' room. One would be used as a shelf and a place to clip the heat lamps, and the other would be split in two to make the legs on either side. In the course of the evening I would use the miter saw and a sanding belt. The best part was forming the feet out of a couple pieces of 2x4. Sanding was so much fun!! I got pretty good at rounding off the corners. In fact, I may have been a bit carried away - I sanded down all the faces, rounded all the corners, then went over it again by hand with rough and fine grain sandpaper. It was so soft I almost couldn't bear to think of staining it! In about an hour and a half both feet were cut and sanded, and I could leave it for the night and finish the cutting and assembly tomorrow.