And Sunday was the Center of it

SUNDAY...  and what a day!  

The previous night, when we got back from the Jazz competition, Meri mentioned that she had to go for a fitting for the Belle ball gown.  I wanted to go too!  So I did.

The woman who made the dress is an artist and has a studio in the next town.  It's in a building that I had no idea had rooms above it.  A steep staircase and dark hallways led to her studio full of tables, shelves, papermache animals on the walls and an elephant head.  She was covered in glitter and I soon found out why.  

The dress was covered with several cups of it as well as 3 pounds of hot glue. 

We tried it on Meri and discovered that it needed to be taken in by about 8 inches as well as hemmed by about 8 inches.  

Since the woman was swamped with making the beast's costume as well as others, she asked if I could edit the dress.  So we got it into a huge garbage bag and headed home.

Ok, NOW Sunday...

After church, Meri and I went to JoAnn fabrics and picked up some thread and a new zipper for the gold dress.  Then we got home and I went to work on it.  The hot glue did a number on my sewing machine needles...  BUT I got it finished finally by 3:30 or so.  And ready for another quick fitting for when Meri got off work that night and then had to edit even more later that night for Meri to take back to the artist to finish up the finishing touches.

My dining room is covered in gold glitter...

I may have made the back too short, so I'm planning on adding some gold fabric back on that part...  

Whoops!

Not sure if you remember but I had received the fabrics for the pink dress late on Thursday evening.  I did NOT have time on Friday or Saturday, so I started it at 3:30 Sunday.  I didn't have a pattern for it, but made a makeshift pattern from one of Meri's Sweetheart dresses, tracing it out on some butcher block paper. 

The bodice is made from a burgundy table cloth and the skirt is made from some silk cotton I had in my stash.  The other fabrics they sent weren't really suitable for a drapey skirt.  Then the flounces on the sleeves and waist band were made from remnants that I'd cut off a skirt that I hemmed for the wife of one of her favorite teachers last summer.  She's short.  The delicate netting around Meri's shoulders came from that project too, as it matched perfectly.

It pays to be a fabric hoarder... :)

So I worked SO hard on the pink dress Sunday, that when I went to bed, my body just shivered with tenseness.  Also because I'd just heard some medical news about my Mom.  

So I pushed on and lived purely on stress Sunday...

Meri came upstairs at 6am Monday for a quick fitting of the pink dress before school.

On Monday, I spent every minute that I had free on the pink dress again.  Got it done FINALLY and sent a pic to a couple of my supportive sisters whom I'd been chatting with.  

The hanger appeal is lacking...  BUT it looks great on her and that's the important thing.

Meri had picked up a white shirt on Sunday at the Goodwill, but it was a stretchy thing and after looking at it, decided that it was too dingy to have her wear under the blue dress vest.  Yikes!  I was going to have to edit it anyway and no white fabric that I had would match that dinginess anyway.  So I found the Princess Leia dress that I made at Halloween and cannibalized it.  I made a new white top using Meri's as a "sort of" pattern.  Got it done before Meri came home to pick them up on Monday night.  WHEW!  The collar looks a little crooked here but it's not as bad as you think.

When I was finishing up the pink dress, I broke something in my serger...  As luck would have it, one of my good friends from church and my sewing group, gave me her serger when she was moving last.  She just had never used it and was trying to downsize her belongings.  YAY!!!!  The timing was perfect and the new serger worked perfectly!

I heard Meri come into the house and realized that the upside down knickers that I'd made for her could be corrected quickly, so while she was changing her clothes I did it.  It took 15 minutes and NOW she could wear them better.  They did NOT fit as hammer pants would fit...  I asked her about it a few minutes ago and she said that she was surprised when she pulled them out of the bag and the crotch was the right side up!  They fit SO much better last night!

THEN since she still hadn't come upstairs and I couldn't find a garment bag to put the pink dress, I found a white sheet instead and whipped one up in about 5 minutes.  

Meri came up the stairs worried when she heard the serger..  "Mom???  Are you done yet? I need to take off.  WHAT are you making??"  a garment bag.  OH!  We loaded up all the dresses and I kicked her out the door.

It was the first full dress rehearsal and she was nervous.  Apparently it didn't go as well as she was hoping.  I plan to go with her to the next practice and sew up a few things so that the changes will go better.  

AND no school today.  It rained last night and everything froze today.  yuck.  Too bad all the dresses are at the school... but then again, GOOD thing they're at the school...