The Fix

After posting this picture yesterday, I looked at it closely and realized the bottom tier did not look like it was sewn on evenly. I thought, "Surely, I didn't mess up that badly. It must just be the way the photo looks." But, I was wrong. When I looked at the dress I saw that I had indeed sewn the bottom tier on unevenly.


The solution was to take the bottom tier off. I had to regather it. I actually decided to make the dress slightly shorter, so I took a little bit of length off the top tier. I already had the bottom tier hemmed and didn't really want to do that over. Anyway, I evened up the top tier, regathered, and resewed the bottom tier to the top tier. It seems as if I must really like the words, "top tier" and "bottom tier" since I typed one or the other of them 7 times (if I counted correctly) in these two short paragraphs.

It still looks a little uneven in this photograph, but I promise it isn't. I measured carefully this time.
Once again, I need to follow my own motto, which is, "Take your time, so you don't waste your time." Just think, I could have had the other knock-off of this dress done by now. Oh well, one of these days, I'll learn. By the way, the other copy of this dress is going to be red and slightly different.

Mother up-date: She was calmer last night, except when I was ready to leave. She started crying and said she was so homesick that she couldn't stand it. She also said that she missed her baby daughter (that's me, by the way) because no one will bring her to see her. She knows that I am her daughter, but she sometimes thinks that I am still a little girl who needs new shoes and is doing badly in school. I convinced her that I bought "Julia" some new shoes and that shes made straight "A's" on her grade card! Sure I did!
Today she was so groggy that I could barely get her to eat or talk or even stay awake. Do you think they have given her some kind of medicine to cause her to be this way? Maybe, I'm not sure, but I would rather see her this way than to see her upset, crying, etc....
2 meds have been increased rather than decreased. One med was taken away, and one has been decreased. I am still frustrated. The plan is to leave her in this unit till Monday so that her UTI is being closely monitored and then bring her back to the nursing home where they will welcome her back with open arms (so there nurse who said that they wanted "rid" of her) and try to get her doctor there to work on decreasing some of her meds. At least it's worth a try.

Thanks for all of the well wishes for her. I am dealing with this nurse's comment by talking to the nursing home administrator, and on Monday I will talk to the administrator of the unit she's in now. I hope to get a chance to talk to this nurse, calmly, and let her know how her comment made me feel.

Did I Get Close? And Something That Should Never Be Said!

Here's the original Barbie dress.


Now, here's the knock-off. Please keep in mind that this is a size 10 dress on a form that is a
size 7, so it's kind of baggy looking. I purposely made it so it will fit loosely. This little girl who asked her mom if Miss Julia could make a dress like her Barbie dress, is almost 8, so she has a lot of growing to do, and needs to be able to play freely. I think she'll get some twirling out of this dress. Of course, I couldn't find the same fabric, but at least I got the right color and came as closely as I could.

Her mom said she would want the silver straps. I decided to sew silver ribbon on fabric straps to prevent itching.

This is a picture of this little girl in a dress that I made for her the year she had her 3rd birthday. This dress ended up being almost identical to a Strasburg dress that I saw in their outlet store for $140. The main difference was that the Strasburg dress was trimmed in blue instead of pink.
This photograph is fuzzy because it's a photograph of a photograph. It's hard to see the hand embroidery on the collar.


What should an employee of a hospital unit for Senior Care never say to a family member of one of the patients? "The nursing home probably just sent your mom here to get rid of her because they didn't want to put up with her." Can you believe that's what one of the nurses said to me yesterday? I was livid and haven't calmed down too much yet. I'm getting ready to go back to the hospital for their strict visiting hours and I hope this same nurse is there. I also hope the administrator is there. I have talked to several other nurses, etc... there and to the administrator of Mother's nursing home, who couldn't believe this was said about his nursing home. Of course, I know they didn't send Mother there to "get rid of her". She was sent so she could be helped! They love my mom and just want her to get better. UUUUUGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check out these two new blogs.

http://tennesseepresentstextiles.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post.html
I am a contributing blogger on this first one. I am a board member of the local Arts Council and on the committee that plans a wearable arts fashion show. Some of my children's clothing has been in this show several years. The art that is worn in this show is incredible! There are crocheted, knitted, quilted, felted, hand dyed, hand painted, hand sewn, you name it, creations in this show!!! If you live in the SE and would like to know more, be sure to let me know that you are interested. For you quilters out there, Rachel Clark will be our featured presenter this year. She will do a trunk show in the morning! I can't wait to meet her myself, and I'm not a quilter.

and

www.difergi.blogspot.com
My friend, Diana, has started this blog. She is also on the committee for planning the fashion show. Her beautiful creations are some of the most amazing fashions that are featured in the show. She is a quilter, sewist, artist exemplar; she paints with paint and with textiles! Remember

this? She's the one who made it for me. Be sure to visit her and become a follower. You will be amazed by her work, or do you call it PLAY when it's doing what you love and were born to do?

Daughters and an ADD-ON post today!

One daughter has been married 12 years as of yesterday!!!! My how time flies.
Another will be 31 tomorrow!!! Ugh!!!
The other has her 28th birthday coming up very soon!!!

There's no way I'm old enough for all of this!!!!

Mother is not doing well, so far, but they really haven't started DOING anything. Please continue to pray that it really is her meds that are messing with her and that she will get straightened out. I'm not sure she knew me tonight.

We took my father-in-law to see two of his daughters this week. We went to Nashville to see one on Thursday and to Winchester to see another yesterday. We spent the night in Winchester. It was very nice to see my sister-in-laws and their husbands. My father-in-law seems to being doing very well since the death of my mother-in-law a little over a month ago.

Life is just crazy!!!!


Add-on to yesterday's post

I just read my post from yesterday and realized that it sounded pretty negative about my daughters growing older. I am so happy that our girls are independent young women, and that they have found the perfect spouses. I am so grateful that they have happy marriages and that the oldest is celebrating 12 years with her best friend. Our other two daughters will be celebrating their 5th anniversaries this year (yep, they got married within 3 months of each other, That was a busy year!) I am also happy for all three of our daughters that they are at the stages of their lives where they are raising their own families. One of the best times of my life was when our daughters were little. I wish I had taken more time to just enjoy them, though. It seems that we were always in a HURRY to go to one place or another. Our girls seem to be taking more time with their children to do "fun" things than we did. I am grateful that they have seen the importance of this part of their kids' upbringing. I said "ONE" of the best times of my life a few sentences above, because even though that was a wonderful time, I wouldn't give up the times that I get to spend with the grandchildren, now, for anything!! This is an equally wonderful period of our lives.

Sometimes, like yesterday, I get in a funk about my mom, my husband's mom, etc...., but truly I am a BLESSED woman! I realize that becoming elderly comes with things that we don't understand and that I suppose we aren't really supposed to understand. My husband and I were fortunate to have the moms we had and now we just have to realize that phase of our lives are over. I am still hoping that the doctors will be able to straighten out my mom's meds and that she will be able to spend the end years of her life in a much more peaceful state than she is in now.

Not the Baby's Room and Copying a Designer Dress???

This is not the baby's room. This is in my house. This is the crib that we used with our babies, who are now 34, 3o till Tuesday, and 27. It was used by my cousins' babies when they were little and visiting my mom's home, and all of our grands have slept in it when they visit Granmomma and Grandaddy. So, it has been through lots of little ones, and it isn't finished with its job yet.
I am going to add some pink pom-pom trim to the crib skirt and make a couple of pillows. I've got to get to Knoxville to buy the trim, though so it will be a few days before I get to finish. The baby's real room is painted yellow and has a white crib and chest and a blue chair. I'll get these in the mail as soon as I can, and then, once my daughter has it all together and sends pictures, I'll share them with you.
I'm also going to make a sling for my daughter and another one for one of my other daughter's sister-in-law, whose baby was due last Friday. I haven't heard if its here yet or not. I sure hope so for her sake.

New fabrics that I bought at Katy's today. One of the blue prints is to make a dress for my friend's almost 8 year old. She brought her mother this..............

very old and well loved Barbie dress ( well someone designs Barbie's dresses, right?) the other day and said, "Do you think Miss Julia can make me a dress like this?" Her mom asked me if I could, and I said I'd try. I am going to look through all of my patterns to see if I have a basic one that I can use to get the size right. Now that I see the pictures together, I realize that the Barbie dress is more aqua than the blue fabrics. I guess I'll ask her mom if that will matter.

UNBELIEVABLE!!! I WON THE CHALLENGE!

Click on this button to go to the CSI blog site! I am almost speechless over this!!!!

My Brother has a New Hip and Some "LOVEBIRDS"!

My brother had his second hip replacement done yesterday. He had his first one done two years ago!! So, now, he's going to be even more annoying than he already was, by thinking he's the "bionic man" or some such! If any of you have older brothers, you know what I'm referring to, I would guess. My brother is only 22 months older than I am, and rather than me being a pesty little sister, he was always the aggravating one! He delighted in making me squeal, "Mother, make him stop!" He has grown up to be just as aggravating as a man, at least in height, but not in maturity! Seriously, when he is around, I have to ban the topics of religion and politics, because whether he truly agrees with you or not, he will argue just for the sake of argument. He thinks it's funny to see me, or anyone, get frustrated, etc...... I love him, anyway, though, and wouldn't trade him in for anything. I was there yesterday morning when he had the surgery, and he did remarkably well! I wouldn't want to be one of his nurses!

A quick up-date on my mother.....
The doctors have decided that perhaps some of her meds, or a combination of some of them, could be causing some of her anxiety, crying, headaches, etc.... So, she was taken to a nearby hospital yesterday, where they have a special unit for seniors with these types of issues. They are planning to gradually take her off of most of her meds and gradually add back some or change them altogether. The goal is to get her off as many drugs as possible and send her back to the nursing home a much calmer lady.

These are the two main fabrics that are going into the baby's nursery. Lovebirds from the Leanika Collection by Dena FreeSpirit Fabrics is for the crib skirt and a few accent pillows, etc... The pink has tiny white polka dots and will be made into curtains and perhaps a pillow, as well.
I haven't purchased the minky dot fabric that I want to use for a blanket, but I will probably stop at Katey's today to see if she has a color I want.