Hello, friends!  It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything!  Don’t worry, I haven’t been totally MIA– I’ve been reading all your blogs and enjoying them!

A little update on the bridesmaid dress mania: the wedding is one month from TODAY!  Eek!  My sister came up from Baltimore this weekend, so I was able to fit her in her muslin finally.  I had cut out a size 10 bodice and a size 14 skirt, but the bodice was still pretty big.  I pinned out the excess, and then just decided to cut out a size smaller.  The size 8 was STILL too big, so I pinned out an inch from the center front and ¼” under the armpit, then I added a small dart at each shoulder to fix the still huge amount of gapping at her back neck.  Thinking about this now, maybe I should have just cut out a size 6…  hmm…  I found a cotton/silk blend with a nice texture and drape for her dress, so it should really be nice!  I think I will need to do a full lining, though, and I’ve never lined anything before, so I’m looking forward to learning how to do that.

I made the changes to my mom’s muslin by eliminating the back darts, narrowing the front darts, and slashing and spreading the skirt pieces in the front and back.  Then I decided to move the front pleats over so they will look more balanced, so I just cut out a box from the pattern piece (with the pleat lines inside) and moved the entire thing over ½” and taped it in place.  This seemed to work pretty well!

I’ve run into a bit of a hitch with my iron—it keeps making shine lines on the fabric in the weird jacquard pattern of the metal frame for my ironing board no matter how low I have the heat!  It’s so annoying!  I’m getting these marks before the iron even heats up enough to remove the wrinkles!  I’ve got to try to combat this issue tonight after work—I got too mad last night and had to walk away from the problem!  I’m thinking about adding some additional padding to the board, between the metal frame and the fabric cover.  Maybe that will do the trick…  Ugh… for reals, what an annoying thing to deal with! [EDIT: the solution was easy– just laying an old towel between the frame and the cover was enough to do the trick!  Yay!]

I haven’t done anything at all with my dress yet… I’m holding off on that so I can try to finish one thing before starting the next.  I did find a nice peach-colored cotton in a light-medium twill weave for my dress, so I’m pretty pleased with that.   I procrastinated with the dresses a little to do some knitting—I started the Aidez cardigan this spring, but gave up when the weather warmed up.  Now that it’s starting to feel a bit more like autumn outside, it’s so nice to get back to knitting!  I forgot how relaxing and fun knitting is (especially compared to making bridesmaid dresses!)  I finished the first sleeve last night, so I just need to knit the second sleeve and do all the seaming (blech) and blocking.  I’m hoping to have it done before the Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival this weekend!  We’re planning to drive up Sunday—it’s my first time going and I’m really looking forward to it!  I think even Man Friend is excited—there’s a llama parade, people!  Will any of you guys be there?

What are you guys working on?  How’s everything going?  Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to the Canadians, by the way!