Two Hour School Delay!

Now you know I wasn't going to waste that time! While I'm not exactly thrilled about ice storms, the extra time at home does come in handy. I got two pants hemmed for a client and put the lining in my daughter's dress, plus got the buttonholes in the cuffs and the cuffs pinned in placed for attaching to the dress this afternoon when I get home.

I don't have much progress to show you on either MG or Christmas dress #10. The body of the MG jacket is in the process of the extra quilting being done, the Christmas dress doesn't look much different right now than it did yesterday, as most of the work I did was in the interior. I do have quite a few Q/A's to catch up on, so here they are:

1. From Katrin, "Does the embossed flower remain in the velvet after everything is dry ? I read about a similar procedure but there the prints were made with some kind of colourless fabric paint for stamps to make it durable. But using water seems such a simple solution." The embossing will remain in the velvet if dry cleaned. If it is washed in the washer it will not stay as crisp as when originally done. Since the velvet is lightly sprayed to begin with, the water will evaporate when ironed to produce the embossing.

2. The msilf asked, "Can I ask what the stamp is made out of? It seems like rubber would melt...but maybe not." I carved the stamp from a rubber block sold for the purpose of making stamps for stamping and block printing. I believe the company that made the product is Speedball. This stamp did have a tendency to melt a bit if the iron touched the bare surface of the stamp, such as when I did partial flowers along the borders or if the iron was on the highest setting. With a layer of fabric between the stamp and iron and the proper setting, I had no problems.

3. From Carolyn, " . . those are the buttons that are on my Simplicity 3631 jacket! . . . Where did you find them?" I'm pretty sure these are similar to your buttons, but not exactly the same. I know you got yours at MJTrim and therefore are most likely better quality. The ones I have are plastic and I bought them at Wal-mart for less than $1.00. I do intend to buy nicer ones of the same style, but will not have time to go to Jo-Ann's until Saturday, while in the meantime the dress needs to be done for Friday night. Until then, these will do.

4. Cherie asked regarding the concerts my daughter will be in, "What type of concert? Choral? Band?". Friday and Sunday night's concerts (well, depending on the weather on Sunday - we're supposed to get another storm, either ice or snow) are adult choral concerts. Both my husband and I sing in our church choir, and I sing in a ladies ensemble. She and her brother part of this year's concert because a group of children are reciting a passage regarding the birth of Christ from Matthew 1 as part of the concert between choral numbers. The Tuesday concert is the children's school Christmas concert in which she will be singing and playing the recorder and her brother will be singing a solo.

Parting Shot: To answer the biggest question of them all, "When did you get the time to do that!?" from Vicki, I present to you this picture. Yes, this is my school desk and yes, that's my sewing machine. As bus chaperone, I have to ride the bus home. Two days a week, I have no classes in the afternoon. That means that I am stuck at school until the bus leaves; I am allowed to go home, but home is 45 minutes away by freeway and my car is at the last bus stop, 45 minutes away. I decided to fill those couple of hours with useful work, so the sewing machine comes to school on those days and I set up shop in my classroom.