Brought to you by the letter "S"...

S is for snow, slop, slush, sneezing, and sinus (infections).

 

The snow, slop, and slush fell from the sky last night in adequate amounts to make the morning miserable. Not light, fluffy, pretty snow... just wet, heavy, cold, yuck. A 2 hour school delay followed by a wet hike to do barn chores and then mopping the floor inside the house thanks to one big wet dog.

The girls are both home today as they've both been diagnosed with sinus infections and are quite miserable. We'll be having hot soup for lunch.

 

On the crafting front... I had really good intentions of having a post chock full of smocking today but I'm a bit behind. So today, in between making soup, reading stories with Tater, and trying to dry off the dog, I'll be making another attempt at getting this stuff together. See I'm sort of wing'in this project as I go which generally speaking is a bad idea but what the heck.

 

While we're on the subject of smocking Katy had a question...

"How do you mark a full width of fabric by hand? My ruler and mat are only about 18" long, which works fine for the 10" sample, but not so well for a 45" width of broadcloth that the Christmas ornament pattern I found calls for smocking." 

Well, the particular project I'm working on now is a full width of cotton fabric and the answer to the question is.... do it in sections. My mat and quilt ruler are 24" so I fold my piece of fabric in half wrong side out (side edges together). Put a few pins in the side edges to keep them from shifting. Mark the long horizontal lines on one half of the fabric and then carefully flip the fabric over and mark the other half being really careful to measure carefully so the lines will meet perfectly at the center fold. 

Once all the horizontal lines are marked begin making the vertical lines working from the center fold out toward the side edges. Count the center fold as a line.

I hope that makes sense. Maybe towards spring when we're all dreaming about little summer smocked dresses I'll do a tutorial for a full size pattern.

I'm off to warm some soup and settle in front of the sewing machine...

Comments

[Manseera]

Hi .. Your pics are gr8!!! and so are your designs!! Thanks for the hand Pleating Tutorial .. i love smocking and i like sewing ...

[Amy]

I can't wait to see the smocking projects. I just love them and wish I had time to figure it all out now while my girls are still little. I still have a bit of time though so I am not ruling it out all together. Your tutorial remains bookmarked!

[bezzie]

I'm jealous of the snow. But not the sick kids--hope they recover soon!

[Katy]

thanks for answering my question! That makes sense and was what I thought you would suggest, but just didn't believe that it would work/be that simple without hearing it from someone who had done it.