The Red Wren

My friend Tam held a fancy pants tea party this weekend. I wanted to make a dress to wear and as usual left it to the last minute and whipped it up the night before. It turned out  for the event, but if I were to wear it again I’d make more adjustments.

Pattern:

New Look #6557 bodice D (the blue one)

Variations:

• straps instead of a halter
• completely different skirt – I wanted a 50’s looks skirt therefore improvised with a wide piece of fabric with lots of gathering

Adjustments:

• I added about ten cm of length to the bust piece so it wasn’t indecent and added a few cm’s to the width. I overestimated though and ended up making a whole pile of adjustments (my bodice has darts!) so I’d be more careful with that next time.
• I shortened the bodice so the skirt started at my waist.

Time to make:

3 hours

The Verdict:

I like this pattern. I’ve made the red/white dress before in a navy and red cherry print with pleasing results.

I embarked on two projects this weekend, but they ended up being one!

Project 1.

A 1mx1.5m canvas painted in a bright ’sprig green’ to add some colour to our back room which has cream walls and dark furniture.

Project 2.

Pictures from a free Notebook Magazine calendar glued onto 50cmx70cm canvases.

Project Combine:

I wasn’t happy with the canvas on it’s own once we hung it. It looked a bit too out of place. The flower canvases looked ok for what they were but I wasn’t sure where to actually hang them. Then the lightbulb moment came! Perhaps I could attach the flower canvases to the green canvas in a way that if it looks bad I can still unattach them…. a few lengths of ribbon, my trusty staple gun and some more paint and we have:

A little wonky, but I’m so happy with it! The wall looks much less drab and the whole project was under $50. Yay!

My cat Cinders gets a little apprehensive when things aren’t where she’d expect them, like the plum that appeared in our deck the other day.

After running outside, coming to a screeching halt in front of it and sniffing it, the following scene played out:

Oooh! New toy for me!! Hmm, but it’s a bit squishy and doesn’t roll….

..better stand guard incase someone tries to steal it!

30 minutes later…. Look mum! I have a new plum friend.

It was quite strange watching her!

What’s even stranger is that there’s now two plums on the deck. No idea where they’re coming from!

PS- excuse the quality, they’re taken through a window so as not to scare her away.

I noticed while harvesting the tomatoes that they look like little hearts!

A few weeks ago I showed you the tomatoberries! Well – there’s piles of the now. The blue container is today’s yield! Do not be fooled though – the fruit may be tiny but the plant is a huge monster held up by five stakes!

I was just out taking some photos of veggies (more on those later) and noticed that the weeds are out of control and the lawn needs cutting (again). Far cry from last year where we barely had anything.

February 22nd 2009

February 10, 2010.

Of course the later is two weeks earlier than the former, but I can’t see the garden dying off that much over the next 12 days.