At least I made an effort. . .

Believe it or not, this looked better before I ironed it. . .

Well, I may *want* to make Beautiful Things, but most of my results are far from the mark ! This looked pretty good right outta Brody’s hoop, but I wanted to iron it, and it crinkled up like that. I thought the fabric had been washed, and I ironed it before I stitched on it, but you can’t argue with the end result. I can stitch it again later, but I did want you to see this latest Fail. I read this on Facebook, thought it might be a little inspirational, so I used my Ann the Gran Alphabet Xpress program to digitize it m’self, but it’s actually more depressing than I thought. At least I finally got to use that frame that’s been sitting around for so long !

Didn’t do much else, I was lazy, and claimed Veteran’s Day / Memorial Day as my excuse. Brought my neglected e-mail in-box to 0 unread, down from 768, with well over a thousand opened but just sitting there. Yeah, I got about 70 of those left to sort through.

Why, Facebook, I didn't know you cared ! Hugs !

I got this little ‘card’ on my Facebook page yesterday, friend S. got a nearly identical personal morning greeting today. Did you get one ? I confess, I rather liked it.

Whew – Beloved Hubby got partial payment from a weekend side-job this morning, so we got to have a little fun. We got Dearest Son a new-to-us Star Wars Lego game he’s wanted for a while, Beloved got a book he’s been eyeing, and I bought a couple wintery embroidery designs. Including the lovely snowflake one that was still on sale that I’ve been trying to convince m’self I don’t need ‘cause I got dozens of snowflakes. I just really liked that one. Mine now !

Game Day was called off on account of allergies and sleepiness, by not just us but most of the other moms. So we got his game, poked into the thrift in the same strip, made the bank run and scored a few groceries. I’m now addicted to Fuji apples. Bought three last week from Local Grocer at 77¢ a pound, and when we went again today, they were still on sale, so I got four at just a bit over a pound. Very tasty, like an apple infused with honey, and not huge – about the time it’s gone, I was ready for it to be. I also have some Provolone cheese and breakfast cereal only I eat, and I got to see the Finding Dory trailer, so I feel rather spoiled.

And we got the local special fried chicken for supper ! I’ve had birthdays that weren’t this awesome !

Barbie clothes do double duty with the FT Ghouls !

Found an awesome sale on embroidery designs – Nana Made decided to close her Etsy shop and stick with her own eponymous site for sales, so all the Etsy designs were on sale for a buck each, while they lasted ! She’s the designer of both of those heart keychains, so I knew whatever I bought would be great. I got the ‘lungs’ keychain and the full alphabet keychain set, which spent up my $2. in PayPal. But now, I have near-instant gifts for my awesome VA respiratory therapist and anyone with an initial !

That leaves me with a few bucks for other temptations –wish me luck ! Buggalena just came out with the prettiest Christmas tree decorations. . .

My hernia made an appearance while I was trying to make dinner, so I’ve been writhing around trying to get comfortable until I could sleep – after a short nap, I normally feel about 200% better. I just have to do relaxation exercises and focus on anything else until I can get there. Beloved had to finish dinner, as I was in no state to cook it, or eat it. Now that I’m up and around again, I’m very hungry but afraid to eat, also typical. I’ve almost finished The Help, an excellent read. It switches narration, which was delightful, since you got more viewpoints that way. The author really captured the speech cadence of the South. I’ve heard that dialect for decades, but out of mouths of many colors.

I love the 'pin it to the doll, cut off what doesn't work and sew down what does' fashions !

Ran the numbers this morning, and things are tighter than we thought. Yaaay ! That means we’ll mostly stay home this week and play with all we got these past few months. That said, I double-checked my resources and found that I still had a big whoppin’ two bucks in PayPal. May not seem like much, but combined with what’s left in my fun funds, I could take my pick of dozens of embroidery designs or at least one, possibly two, sewing patterns on my scattered everywhere wish-lists !

So, even though I already have untouched and barely touched purchased patterns for FT Frankie, I was online cruisin’ for more, or at least, more information. Finally got her measured – bust - 4 3/8”, waist – 4”, hips -  6 3/8”. For comparison, SilkStone Barbie’s online measurements are listed as 5, 3 ¼, and 4 ¾, respectively, and Tonner’s Tyler Wentworth’s are given as 7 ½, 4 ¼, and 7. If ya disregard the FT ghouls’ very long torsos, she could wear Silkstone blouses and Tyler pants. Luckily, Craftsy pattern maker J-Patterns generously offered free SS shirt and TW leggings patterns, so I can play with those without spending a dime. Don’t get me wrong, I love buying patterns, especially kitchen-table ones, I just hate spending $8. on one I have to alter so much, I may as well have drafted it m’self from scratch.

Speaking of that, I found an interesting take on making your own patterns for dolls who are neglected in that regard – of course, I didn’t pin it and can’t find it now. It was basically ‘ 

trace half your doll and draw the dress you want over it, and yaaay, pattern, which I have done before, with middlin’ success. I just wanna pin fabric or discarded kids’ clothes to a doll, hack off what doesn’t fit and sew up what does – that’s the quick skinny on how I made Aurora’s evening gown last night. Yet, it was just somehow refreshing to see simple pattern drafting presented so well, so easily. I wanna try it again ! Many other ‘draft your own doll clothes’ tutorials involve plastic wrap, pinstripe tape, Sharpies, and several hundred measurements – and the skill of an architect.

Lacking that skill today and on any other day, I printed out the TW leggings pattern as something my tall Frankie needed – especially since most of her wardrobe right now consists of tunics that were Barbie minidresses. That’ll change, I’m looking forward to filling up the MH lunchbox that stores her stuff, but for now, leggings !

While the measurements given for TW were all larger, the leggings I made were super-tight on Frankie, and that’s with Lycra-laden fabric plus a seriously skinny seam allowance on the butt and inseam. I don’t think they’d fit my Elphie, who has a standard Tyler Wentworth body, either. While I went with a thinner seam allowance when I could, after the fact I noted that the seam allowance drawn on the pattern wasn’t quite ¼” as stated, and yes, I did measure the ‘this box should be two inches square’  reference on the PDF pattern. Tight as it was, it gapped at the waist to get past her hips, so I’ll either use an elastic casing or a closure on the next one. It also has a bit too much fabric in the front, so I need to adjust the crotch curve, I think. I already expanded the seam allowance a quarter inch on the pattern print out – even with all the fit issues, I like the way they look, and want to use that pattern again. Photo tomorrow !

Finally, I get to what I bought weeks ago - mostly to get rid of one more 'floor bag' !

Wow. I had so much fun with those keychains that I posted the photo to my Facebook Timeline, the digitizer’s fan page, and a machine embroidery keychain fan page, and I’ve had almost 40 ‘likes’ total. Wheee !

Only problem is, all that fun wrecked my Arena. Felt and vinyl scraps everywhere, along with used lack-of-tack masking tape (used to hold the vinyl and felt still in the hoop for stitching) stuck to the floor and threads and stabilizer bits liberally coating everything like flour and salt on chicken. Knew the vinyl scraps wouldn’t fit in the felt scrap box (it’s almost full already), so we made a budget trip to Dollar Tree.

 

I liked the clear-lid ‘starry ornament’ box I got last time, and if I know anything about our local DTree and holiday / cooking stuff, it’s that items like those sell out fast – otherwise I’d have waited a week or so, we are a bit tight on funds. Was hoping to find a different but coordinating design, but there’s only two that fit that lid, and the other was snowmen with Merry Christmas wishes all along the sides. Since mine are out and used year-round, that was a no-go. And having two identical wasn’t gonna work, as the three like mine left in our store were dented or damaged. Ended up with a slightly smaller ‘starry ornament’ box with a solid lid, but they look good stacked up. And the felt and vinyl are put away, hopefully for future projects. Cheese popcorn, I’m hoping to save for tomorrow, as I still have some of yesterday’s chips.

That done, I peeled up weak tape with just enough tack to it to stick to the floor and redid my stabilizer scrap storage. Believe it or not, I did all the VA keychains with scrap / recycled tear-away – I didn’t use a single inch of new stuff. However, that left me with a ton of tiny scraps with just a few larger ones, and they were all mixed in with cut-away and a few bits of water soluble in the Clawdeen 2013 Happy Meal pail. Not good. Got it all organized, separated the ‘tiny bits’ from the ‘big enough strips’ tear-away and put them back in the bucket separated by a divider cut from a cereal box, then repurposed a brick ramen package to hold it and the other stabilizer bits as a sort of slide out tray. Since it’s right above my cutting surface ( i.e., the washer), I added a pencil, a decent pair of scissors, and a found ruler, all stuff I’ve needed over there for a while. Considering adding stickers to the ramen box.

As for today’s image, these are the clothes I bought at the OldTown thrift last Monday, when I had to take the IL’s to their appointments. The navy blue stretch velvet dress was 49¢, the Princess Hello Kitty skirt was 69¢, and it came with a crowned Hello Kitty charm and a big silver bow that I’ve already removed. I’m gonna cut into one or both tonight, make some on-the-fly doll clothes. I’ll probably start with the dress, I have some ideas. The two hearts are silver embroidery, the stripes are silver / blue /white ribbon. But I’ll probably start with the back. . .