Evelyn's 1930's Skirt

After looking at the directions for sewing the blouse of Evelyn's 1930's birthday dress outfit, I decided to work on the skirt first.  I have sewn skirts before, and I wanted to start with familiar territory.  The tricky thing about Evelyn's skirt was making pleats in the front and the back.  I had to work with a lot of fractions (and measure Evelyn's waist a zillion times) to make sure the skirt would fit my Peanut.  I figured it out, and it fits!  I guess this means now I have to start on the blouse . . .

Let's Begin Evelyn's 1930's Party Dress

Kit, Evelyn's 1930's doll, had a birthday dress made for her out of feedsack material.  Here is a picture of Kit's birthday dress (aka my inspiration for Evelyn's dress): 

Evelyn and I chose material that came as close to Kit's dress as possible.  After washing the fabric (aka pre-shrinking the fabric), I ironed it.  And then I had to piece together the puzzle.

My 1930's pattern directions offered a suggestion for laying out the pattern pieces, but I had to make some modifications.  And Rosie had to supervise.

After cutting out all of the pieces, I only had a smidgen of material left.  It was really close.  Actually, if I weren't making the collar and sleeve cuffs a contrasting color (which is not pictured), I would have run out of material.

Evelyn's Honors Band Concert

A couple of months ago, Evelyn auditioned for the Honors Band.  She scored very well on her audition - she earned the highest rank (blue ribbon), which she proudly wore at tonight's concert.

Evelyn only had a week to learn four complicated songs for tonight's concert.  But she was focused and driven, and she practiced her little heart out.  The entire band sounded great - and Julia loved hearing all of the instruments play together.  We're proud of our little clarinet player for working so hard and earning such a distinguished ribbon!

Snow . . . in April

This morning we woke up to . . . snow.  It was just a little dusting, but it still surprised us!

New Cardio Class . . .

A couple of weeks ago I tried a new cardio class - kickboxing.  I was told by friends and the class instructor that I could safely modify the class to accommodate my knee.  The outcome is pictured below - the end of today's physical therapy session.  In other words, I need to stick to spin class and the elliptical crosstrainer for cardio exercise.

Vintage Sewing Pattern

About a month ago, Evelyn and I chose a theme for her birthday party - a 1930's mystery party that centers around her American Girl doll, Kit Kittredge.  Everyone at the party needs to come dressed to play their role, especially the birthday girl.

After bidding (and losing out) on two vintage sewing patterns, I finally landed this pattern for $12.  When the pattern arrived last week, Evelyn and I were in awe.  We don't know exactly what year this pattern is from, but the style definitely looks like it's from the 1930's.  The pattern's tissue paper is in excellent condition, except one piece is missing.  The instructions, however, are very fragile.  They are very clear and easy to understand...I just need to be extremely careful with the delicate paper.

Yesterday Evelyn and I went to the fabric store to choose material.  She wanted fabric that looked like the birthday dress she has for her Kit doll, and this material was as close as we could get.  Today I washed (aka, preshrunk) and ironed the material, and I also ironed the pattern tissue paper.  The next step is to lay out the pattern pieces onto the fabric, in the hopes that the pattern directions are accurate.

Spring Soccer

Julia's Spring soccer season started today with her first game.  She couldn't wait to get on the outdoor field and play the opposing team.

 Last Fall, I was the assistant coach for Julia's soccer team.  This season, Julia promoted me to head coach.  Well, it might be more accurate to say she blackmailed me - she said she would only play soccer if I was her team's head coach.  True, I have never played a soccer game in my life (and never will with my bad knee), but I enjoy working with kids and thankfully there aren't very many rules when it comes to soccer.  ;)