In which I try to get organized....

Okay, I think I've tracked down most of my dresses - Evangeline, our resident Pullip, is borrowing my pink circle-skirted sundress and I have no idea where my pink butterfly dress got to. I'm not concerned, though. It's around here somewhere....

As for John-John and Shel back there, they're watching Wipeout. I have no idea what it is that they like so much about that show. I have a theory, but I'm trying to keep this PG - well, PG-13, maybe...

John-John: "It's because they started talking politics on CNN again." He, Shel and Maddy are alike - when the subject turns political, they're out of there. (They all have opinions, obviously, but none of them like to discuss them. Maddy says that no one ever changes anyone's mind and everyone goes home all ticked off.  Then again, they've all been through a presidential election year and I haven't yet.)

"Hey, Maddy? Is this one mine? I don't remember it."

She looked. "Oh heck no. That's the first Hitty dress I ever tried to make. It's a total hot mess."

"What's wrong with it?" It didn't look that bad to me.

"Everything. The sleeves are so tight at the armhole that nobody can get an arm in them, the opening at the back is too short for anyone to really be able to get into it and even if you could, the neckline would be at your chin. Plus the skirt is coming off." She took it. "I usually remake or get rid of my mistakes, but this one I kept. Hopefully to look back at someday and marvel at how much better I've gotten."

This is my latest dress, completed this afternoon, so I think she's getting there already. She said that I'm going to need a chemise with a much fuller underskirt if I'm going to wear such full dresses. I think she said the skirt on this one was twelve and a half inches before she gathered it. (You can't see it so much in this photo because I was trying to keep the breeze from turning it into a sail and blowing me off the porch...)

Maddy: 'There's one thing that sewing book from the fifties got right - if you're going to make a full skirt, make it very full."







Maddy's note: Most of Caroline's dresses are made from either Paulette Morrissey's Hitty Dress pattern or her Multi-Dress pattern (see the Links if you're interested in them - her prices are really good and the patterns are, too. Easy to follow and easy to make. I highly recommend them to anyone who's just learning to sew for someone so small, like I am.) Julie Old Crow's sundress pattern is the other one I use frequently - I adapted it for Caroline's chemise, as well as for her pink sundress and her Woodstock dress.)

~*~

We're thinking of a couple of possible day trips, but nothing's been Google-mapped yet. Stay tuned....