I wasn't planning to post on my blog today, but I just visited my blogger friend and mentor, Martha's, blog and just had to tell you about her giveaway. I really don't want you to enter, though because I want to win these wonderful hangers!!! She has made some and purchased some, but they are all so beautiful that it's almost a shame to cover them with clothing!!!

Since I'm already on here I might as well tell you what I'm up to now. I am making a smocked dress to give to a local charity that is having an auction. I hope that it will bring a few $$ to help them. This organization began because a lot of the local churches had food pantries. At some point a hand full of people decided that they could do so much more if they joined forces and worked together. They started out in the back of a store downtown. They purchased a building later on and have had to double it's size since then. Now, they need even more room!!! They have food, of course, but they also have clothing, house hold items, etc... People pay nominal amounts for things or some get stuff free. I don't know exactly how it works. Several people in my church are involved. The vision began with one gentleman in our church who talked with other folks from the other churches, etc..... Anyway, you understand, I'm sure how much of a need there is for a place like this. I am just trying to help in my own little way by making this dress. I may try to do another thing or two.


I am using a pale yellow fine welt corduroy as the main dress. For the lining and piping I am using the floral cotton shown here. These are the colors of floss, along with some yellow that I forgot to photograph, that I'll be using for the smocking. I tried to pleat the corduroy with my pleater (I've done it before and not had a problem), but my pleater did not cooperate. This fabric is very soft and fine so I really thought I wouldn't have an issue. But, I decided that I would need to pleat by hand. That's what I used to do before I had a pleater. I went over and under every third welt after marking the lines so I would keep my rows straight. You can see where I did this at the bottom of the photograph. I really like to hand pleat stripes and checks anyway because they don't always line up straight in the pleater, at least for me. If any of you know how to get your fabric to go through the pleater perfectly straight, please pass on this information to me.
Working on this smocking, watching basketball with my in-laws, visiting my mom, and trying to fit in some reading are the things I'll be doing over the next few days. We're getting snow flurries today, after several days of RAIN, RAIN, and more RAIN! Did you get the idea that it's been raining alot here the past few days! There's been a lot of flooding in some areas. Our field looked like a small lake yesterday. It looked like a river flowing through one part of our back yard. The other night we had very strong winds. I noticed a roof, on a house down the road from us, that looked like a sardine can that had been opened, earlier today. We're having strange weather this year, huh?