Party Day Saturday !

Current Mood : Celebratory !

Song You Forgot : Silent Running, Mike & The Mechanics

We're celebrating today mostly by sleeping - Beloved Hubby's accelerated class finished yesterday with the presentations, and oh, did he have his 'A' ! He really busted butt, and we're all so proud of him. I let him sleep most of the day, and surprisingly, Dearest Son ended up crashing with him. In fact, I was the only one awake this afternoon for several hours.

I got quite a bit done, and enjoyed myself. Yesterday, while I was cleaning up, I cut up the quite battered and almost unrecognizably altered copy of the NG Creations dress and cut one out of the star field fabric still lingering on my cutting mat. This one would have a v-neck and slightly shorter sleeves - but instead of just hemming, the sleeves would have cuffs of ribbon, and the neckline would boast a small collar of the same ribbon. Heck, I could even add a strip to the hem.

So I did. Wasn't easy. Oh, the cuffs and hemline were easy-peasy, but that neckline didn't go right, and even now doesn't look that good. I think next time I'll use half-inch ribbon instead of a five-eighths. It won't fix much - the problem was my lack of skills in sewing ribbon - but it should look better. At least my back closures are looking much better these days ! Found a spool of black thread I forgot I had and used it instead of the new cone we bought Wednesday. Oh, that's right. I forgot to tell you about that....

In my eagerness to prowl Hancock Fabrics, but not buy anything but thread, I grabbed the first one in the display bin - they keep several sizes of that brand's cone in there, and they all looked black to me. I just made sure I had the right size (i.e., cost) one. Should have looked at the label. Turns out I got 'Graphite', a very dark grey. Not black. ARrrgh. I have no idea when we'll be going back there, so I don't know if I should wait and exchange it - I haven't opened the plastic yet - or just use it and hope for the best. Holding the cone next to the black spool isn't much help. I'll probably tuck it away and hope, but I still feel so darn stupid.

I've been warned off using cone 'serger' thread for sewing. I've heard it's both thicker and thinner than regular polyester thread, and either way, it won't stand up as well. But here's the deal - I mostly make doll clothes. And I've yet to have any of them completely fall apart on me. Even the really early crappy ones are still intact. Still, though, I'll do some stress tests when I get it sorted out. Just in case. If I can't tear it up, I'll give it to Dearest. If he can't tear it up, then I'll know it's darn near impossible to do so, no matter what thread I use. For the record, I got told the same thing about wooden-spool thread, and I wear clothes made with that stuff at least once a month...and I haven't made 'people clothes' in years !

DFIL went through his wardrobe this week, and gave me a basketload of discarded shirts for me to do with as I pleased. Since none were good for donations - like us, when he's done with clothes, the clothes are done for ! - I isolated four I wanted for fabric and cut them apart first. And then I went after the rest. When the dust settled, I had four bundles of new-to-me material, eight sets of button-bundles for the button jar, and two brick-ramen boxes heaped full of scrap rag fabric. DFIL approved.

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled ! I've seen several packages of Monster High Valentine's Day cards on eBay ! Some are clearly home-crafted, but at least two were commercially produced lenticular ones - you know, the ones that change pictures when you move 'em around ? And if they're there, you know they're in stores somewhere. Happy hunting - and let me know where you found 'em ! Our Dollar General didn't have 'em, that much I can tell ya.