MLS Designs

I am so tired at the moment it's not true! I don't remember when I last had a day off, If I'm not at school I'm in the shop, so much for part time! The last two weekends were taken up with trips to Bath, and this weekend, I had a few hours at home yesterday afternoon (after work in the shop) in which to fit in washing my hair and some laundry, before going out for a meal with some friends, only to fall into bed to try to get some sleep before going to school at 9am this morning for an all day rehearsal. I got home in time to go straight to dancing, and now I'm home again posting this before going to bed.
Tomorrow's rehearsal should finish around 9 or 10pm, (I start school at 10am ish) there may be one on Tuesday evening too, but then finally Wednesday I get a day off! Not that it will help much, seeing as the performances are Thursday and Friday nights and I'll be lucky to get home by 11pm both days.
Still, next week it'll be all over :) although, I'll then get to start house cleaning for my birthday party! and when I'll be able to fit in making my dress I don't know.
Wow, what a grumpy post! feel free to ignore!

I'm freeeeeee!! (well, till next Friday when I do my last day this term :o)
Today nearly killed me though! I had to strike the set and put everything away - it took me several weeks to get everything organised for the play, and one day to put it back again. I made 23 trips from the theatre, half-way across campus and up 2 flights of stairs. Carrying things like very heavy rubbish bags full of costumes or 7 wooden hobby horses (also heavy, and unbelievably awkward!) I was so hot and tired after I'd taken the last load up!
But I'm feeling much much better now! I've made a good start on my sewing :) This morning before taking Emmy to get her hair cut on the way to work at half past 10, I cut out a second top from this pattern : http://www.colettepatterns.com/blog/colette-patterns-news/free-pattern-to-download-the-sorbetto-top
I made one on Monday, and wore it today :) Then after work I made up the top (took less than an hour), had supper, and then refashioned a man's button down shirt into a summer skirt. It's white with big pink and dark brown flowers, very tropical, although, I'm wearing it now and it really doesn't go with my top ;) I need to get photos posted don't I?
Tomorrow I'm going to the local market to buy some zips and things, and see if I can find any nice fabric for even more projects! I had a rummage through my stores at work, and found a couple of lovely summery prints to make summer dresses, one of them is the most fabulous vintage print that I have to make something really special from!

I'm so fed up with work at the moment, by the time Tuesday is over, I will have done nearly all of my remaining hours for this term, and term doesn't end till the second week in July! Last week and this have been awfull! The yr7 (age 11/12) play is always the worst part of the school year, and this one is more than usually dreadful - the kids are useless, half of them are high most of the time and the rest act like they've been given a sedative!
The first performances, matinee and evening, are tomorrow, then there's an evening performance on Monday, and a matinee and evening performance on Tuesday. In between I have to fit in helping at a village fete on Sunday, so by Wednesday I will be sooo tired!
And all this comes when I really want to have time at home to sew! I've got all these ideas for new clothes, and no time to do anything about them :(

I am alive, I'm just now recovering from a crazy crazy week! Both weekends were full, and the week in between was filled with work - going to school from 9 till just before 12, then rushing to the pub from 12 till after 2, then home about 3 in time to cuddle the puppy and nap before going to the pub again from before 6 to after 9, then falling into bed to repeat again the next day!
I never really felt like posting to LJ, all I had to post was 'worked, napped, worked, slept' not very cheerful :( And when I did have time off I couldn't work on my own sewing because I'm finally able to finish dressing the doll I've been comissioned to get restored and dress, I have NOT enjoyed it, but at least it's practically over now!
So last night I got the doll's dress to the stage where it only needs hand sewing so I moved on to my ball gown for the chocolate ball in 2 weeks. The bodice is together, complete with the alterations needed to make my old pattern fit my new post gallstone body! I'm all set to work on it tonight when I get home :)
Anyway, I have some photos from the ball, aaaages ago it seems! They're ( under here... )
I also have photos from the bazaar the next day, but they will have to wait, my lunch break is almost over!

So, I'm home from work at school and the lunchtime shift at the pub, waiting till it's time to go back to the pub for the evening shift! So before I go for my little nap, I thought I'd post a photo of the jewellery I made for the ball on Saturday:

I had a very bad night's sleep last night, so after work and the pub I'm so tried :( I hope a nap now and a good night's sleep later will help, and luckily I don't have to do the evening shift the rest of this week, otherwise, this would be a very very long week!

... with no sewing :( At least I'm used to it now :/ I did bake though, Nutella cupcakes (very tasty!) and I made rhubarb crisp, cabbage with bacon, and creamed carrots for the dinner we went to, and dancing was lots of fun! In the morning we went into town to look for some jewellery to turn into 18thC jewellery, I eventually found what I was looking for after much searching, and hopefully tomorrow I'll get it made up to take pics.
I'm not looking forward to Tuesday, the holidays are over, so I will be working at school from 9 till just before 12, then at the pub till 2, and depending on how stressed my boss at school is I may have to go back to school from just after 2 till 4. And the week after next I may have to work evenings in the pub too. So I guess I better get sewing then!

*Boy this got long winded! Sorry!!

I just realised I've now done 2 of the 4 stupidly long days! Yay!! The dress rehearsal went really very well, just the 2 performances, which I'm sure they will do fine, then strike the set on Friday and it's the weekend!! Next week I'll only go in for one or two mornings, and then it's the Easter holidays :D Of course, the holidays start with the ball in Bath, and my dress is very far from being done, but I have all next week, EEK!!
Clare's new hat went together really well this morning, it has a ruched brim lining made from a bit of cream leftover rayon moire ribbon (used as bonnet ties on my green drawn silk bonnet) some cotton net as a hat band, a couple of sprigs of cream paper roses and a cream ostrich feather 'pouf' made from the vanes of the waste bit after shortening a feather for another bonnet, (following Lynn McMasters' brilliant instructions for turban accessories). I'm going to try to remember to take my camera tomorrow to take a photo of the dress I made, and there will hopefully be hat pictures too.
I had to go into work after lunch, but didn't 'clock on' till quarter past five so spent the time sewing the ribbon net together. It took HOURS!!! I decided to use some little pearls in the end, they look very pretty, but took soooo much longer than gluing would have done! I was running very very short on ribbon, and so it ended up rather small, and I had to wait till I got home to try to sort it out. I managed to fix it though by using a strip of buckram about an inch wide as a headband and sewing the net to the back instead of just threading wire through the loops over the top of the head the way I did before. I covered the band to make it blend in, and Clare suggested I use some of the upholstery velvet I have left over from when I made miniature teddy bears. I had a piece that is the PERFECT colour, and being velvet it grips the hair and stays on really well without any pins! (Mummy's scalp is getting more sensitive as she gets older, and hairgrips that don't bother me or Clare really give her grief, so she'll be very happy if she can get away without having to use them!)
I then played around with decoration. I tried loops of some strips of striped silk (that will be my new ballgown) but it looked too poofy and silly, then I had a desperate hunt through my ribbon stash in the hope there might be something I'd over looked. I found some leftover brown striped ribbon from the ties of my brown velvet bonnet, and the pale stripes are the same colour as the net! I don't know why I didn't think of it before, probably because it's 3" wide, which I would never have thought of using if I didn't have an inch of buckram to hide! I'm adding in some ruches of lace, and maybe lace lappets, and I think it's going to look very smart! hopefully by then end of tomorrow it'll be done, so I can move onto the other cap I want to make for her (an easier one I hope!)
Now I just need to calm down so I can go to bed!

I woke up refreshed and happy, with the whole day planned out, then my mother got up with plan of her own and turned it topsy turvy! It worked out in the end though. We went grocery shopping, I walked the dog, did a much needed load of washing, didn't end up baking a cake as I'd planned, but made chocolate biscuit cake instead (yummy scrummy!!) and then finally got to SEW! I marked and pressed the hem of the dress ready to sew and started work on the frilly things for the sides of the skirt - more pinking :( I've gathered and pinned 3 fanlike wiggly things and joined on the next strip to do the last 2 on one side, I think it's going to look so cool! I took a photo of it pinned in place, but it's very hard to see what's going on, especially without the braid over the gathering lines, so I'll have to take another photo later when I've done some more to it.
Tomorrow while I'm at work I'll hopefully have time to sew once my work is done before the rehearsal starts, (especially as I don't get home till 9 or so) I've got the second set of sleeve ruffles to finish then I can sew them to the sleeves, and I have what I need to start work on a ribbon hair net for Mummy's birthday (a big hank of biscuit coloured velvet ribbon and an 11" cardboard circle!) so 2 things to choose from! ('m working late every day till Friday, so will probably come home too tired to sort out sewing for the next day so it's good I have lots lined up!
Oh, but we came home from dancing to find that the puppy had got into the spare bag of dog food, over eaten and pooed on the kitchen floor. She's lying on the sofa with a very full belly feeling sorry for herself, naughty naughty thing! She's got lots of water though, so I think she'll be OK.

Just got in from work, it was crap.
I've found out I don't finish tomorrow till 3pm instead of 12. Then I have to go into town to get some false hair for one of the girls. So I'll probably finish 'work' at about 5 or so?
I'm going to bed so this day can finally be over.

(And it's not just because Monday is Gleeday!) I had a nicely productive day at work, kept busy all day wit real sewing, not just tidying! I'm remaking another hideous '80s ballgown into a dress for Mabel from An Ideal husband, I had a fitting of the bodice lining and I've been putting the skirt together from gores cut from the ballgown skirt and some fabric I bought, the ballgown is a buttercup yellow moire something, and I found a yellowy cream moire polyester that goes nicely with it, so the skirt is alternate colours and the bodice will be the cream with the original yellow sleeves and a yellow frill around a yoke line. Hopefully it'll look nice when I'm done, and hopefully I'll get some pictures too :)
During my lunch break I finished sewing the petticoat to the waist tapes and sewed up the second sleeve and hemmed it. Then this evening I patterned and cut out the sleeve flounces - 3 per sleeve, with pinked scallops (boy did that take forever and hurt my hands! not looking forward to the yards of ruching I have to cut!) and they will have braid sewn in a curving zigzag to reflect the shape of the scallops. So that's my job for tomorrow's lunch break, sleeve flounces :)
Tomorrow evening I want to get onto the decoration, I think I'll start with the frill on the petticoat, then I'll do the curvy flounces for the skirts, these 2 are the bits I really don't want to skimp on, then Ill cut all the ruches from what I have left, keep your fingers crossed that I have enough :(