It's SEW Not Fair!

My girls are in K.C. and I miss them!  They've been there the last few days because they suddenly found themselves with nowhere to be for a few days, so they took this opportunity to see Aunt Quack.

They're getting pampered and spoiled like nobodies business!  Playing with their cousin...  Fresh cappuccino every morning from aunties Keurig mixed with other well thought out ingredients...  Swimming at their pool and laying out...

They may never want to come home...

Come home girls!!!  We love you!  And you have to take some things to the fair tomorrow.  I have candy.

While they're away, I have not been playing...  I have been finishing seams that I should have finished at the time I made the darn garments!

I'm entering seven things in the open class and they're due tonight.  Got them all ironed last night except for one thing that I'll be finishing up over my lunch today.  

left to right: Maddy's prom dress, a shirt I made for myself, a sweater thing I made for myself, Meri's bridesmaid dress, Maddy's bridesmaid dress (behind) and Maddy's Sweetheart ball dress.

Sew with red much?

Yesterdays lunch consisted of me washing Tiffany's wedding gown from last summer.  Has it been a year already??  And no, we hadn't washed it yet... It's been sitting in my closet with grass stains on the hem for just about one year.

After calling a local one hour dry cleaner, I found out that they don't actually dry clean wedding gowns!  Who knew?!  They said that they wash them by hand.  Um... "I" can do that! Plus it would take them a week.  She actually laughed when I asked if they could do it today...

So I googled some instructions on how to do this and pulled out the barrel that we hauled the puppies in.  I WASHED the barrel really well!  Filled it a little ways with warm sudsy water, using some gentle laundry detergent and a toothbrush, I went around the entire hem.  Brushing away ugly tartar and buildup to reveal a lovely hem again!

Our wraparound porch is open to the sky on the back deck, but has a roof on the side of the house, so I pulled the wicker bench thing around and draped a sheet on that and a railing.  Laid the wedding dress over that with another sheet over the top for protection.  I let it drip dry there for the rest of the day.

Then last night it was mostly dry, which means a little bit damp yet.  So I hung it up in my office.  Pay no attention to the junk on the shelves behind it.  If I could photoshop, I'd SO clean it up for you...

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I'll be working on it over lunch today to get any wrinkles either steamed or ironed out.

I wish I could go swimming and lay out...  My pasty sew-er skin hasn't seen the natural sun for days.  Might be due to our heat wave, but probably because of so much to do inside.

But... as Belle's father yelled, "So long Belle!  I'm off to the fair!"