The Juliet Dress (almost done)

I still didn't get a very good picture of the Juliet dress - my house is just not bright enough, even in daytime with the lights on. And there was no way I was taking it outside!

Anyway, this is the original Juliet dress - remember?


My sister, The Goth Chick, fell in love with those sleeves. She just wanted the dress 'a little longer'.

Which eventually became floor length.

I was almost done when she asked how difficult it would be to make it flare out... sort of like this:


No problem, not really. Just some increases, I thought. Then I realized regular increases wouldn't work with the stitch pattern, so I made it into five evenly-spaced sort-of flares? I don't know how to describe it. Here's what they look like:


Then Goth-y asked me about adding a bit of a train, like this:


I told her I could, but not that long because it would get filthy and torn unless I made some sort of lining for it, and the stitch pattern for Juliet is not sturdy enough to attach a lining. So as of early this morning Juliet looked like this:


The Goth Chick wants it to flare out below her knees, which it does because I made her try it on so I could see where to start the train. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but it was too dim in my mum's house for pics, anyway. As of right now, I need two more rows to finish the train, then two more rows around the bottom of the whole skirt for the trim. Then...

It's done. And I will be so very happy.

And the Goth Chick will look like she's wearing this:


a la Morticia Addams.

And she'll be so very happy. I promise pics!

Some Crochet and a Tiny Finish

I snapped a quick pic of the Juliet dress - the length is coming along nicely. I didn't arrange the dress for the pic, it was just a spur of the moment thing while I was measuring, so do forgive that it's laying a bit lumpy!


And here's a pic of my makeshift blocking board with some white granny squares (and two granny triangles). They are very brilliantly white in real life, and I'm being very, very cruel to my sister-in-law with them... she's getting a white scarf for Christmas. She'll love it BUT I would hate to be her trying to keep makeup off of it! The squares will be stitched together and then edged with a glittery blue yarn, and there will be tassels! Normally I wouldn't block granny squares as they usually shape themselves quite nicely, but I want the scarf to look really good so I'm not taking chances.


While cleaning up some cluttered closets (how's that for alliteration?) I found this little tiny kit in an old purse...


So... I don't remember buying or starting this... but there was no WAY I was adding something this small to my WIP list. So I finished it up, and had the devil's own time getting that little monster into the frame. I could NOT get it centered. This was the best I could do. But it'll look cute on Mum's stocking at Christmas.


I'll have a progress pic of my Nautical Sampler soon! I was watching TV with my Dad and trying to get a bit of backstitching done on the flags and I left it at my parents' house. So I have to pick it up tomorrow. But I've finished the knots and the anchors.

Juliet Again

It took me 13 tries to get a half-decent pic... I don't know what's going on with my camera. Low light is not usually this much trouble.

Anyway, the Juliet dress is now just above knee-length.



Looks very 'hourglass', doesn't it?

I had a pic of the Goth Chick holding it up to her, but it was hopelessly blurry. I'll have to try again the next time she comes around.

Here's a close-up of the pattern stitch - I hope you can see it. It's shell-stitch, which usually makes me think of granny squares, but Miss Goth will not look even slightly 'granny' in this XD

Lots to Talk About

I have lots of things going on with my stitching - but it would be a really pic-heavy post if I wrote about all of it today. So I'll spread it out, but I did want to post something on the first day of October :D

I chose Rapture. I've been working on filling in the top row of 10x10 squares - it's almost all confetti - and adding stitches to the second row if I happen to have that thread in my needle.



The strategy is working. Well, a little. I have goals for October, and one of them is to finish off the top two rows of this page. Little goals are easier to meet XD

The Juliet dress is continuing on very well. The Goth Chick tried it on a few days ago, when we were both at our parents' house and I needed to see if the waist was long enough for her. She immediately pulled the shoulders down too far, but says she prefers it that way when I offered to tighten it a bit by adding another row or two. It looks good on her.



Do you guys like her dreads? They're not 100% years-to-grow real, but it takes her hours and hours and hours upon hours to do this to her hair.



She cut them all off yesterday! It was a little bit shocking to see her with shoulder-length hair. She said she was cold without them - I think she was wearing two shirts and a jacket.

I'll finish off this post with a bit more stitching - my experiment with green fabric for a stocking ornament.



So far, so good.

The Juliet Dress

It's almost the end of September.

I'm not sure how that happened.

Or when that happened...

It is getting disturbingly close to the holidays, so I'm having to reconsider my projects, as much as I'd like to keep going the way I am (only sped up a bit).

This is the first WIP-present I've hauled out. It was too hot to work on over the summer, but since the weather has cooled down, it's doable again.

This is the Juliet Dress.



My sister wants this dress badly. Only with modifications.

Since I usually call her Goth Chick on here (she says she reads this blog, but since she has yet to howl about that, I'm not so sure) the first modification should be no surprise.

The dress is black.

The second modification is that it has to be a lot longer. She wants it floor-length.

Since she's almost six feet tall, that's a lot of dress! But it'll make a great prezzie.

The third mod will be the drawstring - I have to find some pretty, slightly-stretchy cording or something that won't tear up the yarn. She doesn't want a yarn drawstring and neither do I . They're kind of ugly in real life and have no elasticity at all.

Here's it's beginnings - the worst is actually over. The rest is just pattern rounds, with only a few increases as I go. The sleeves are gorgeous when she's tried it on - it's a vintage pattern, so since she knows she's getting it, we've been trying it for size as we go along to make sure the old measurements work. Excuse the wee loop at the end of that one sleeve; I haven't woven the ends in yet.


The sleeves need a wee bit of blocking to smooth their lines properly but there's no use doing that until I'm done, since they get twisted around constantly while I'm stitching.

If this one works out well, I'm going to pick up some more vintage dress patterns to make for her.

Now, I just have to decide what to make her husband. I doubt if he wants any more hats!