At Her Leisure

Here is my year in review. I'll put it behind a cut, but first here's a picture of my favorite dress ever.



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I finished Sleeping Beauty so I'm done, done, done with children's costumes! Now I can be selfish and work on things for me!



I'll post pictures of the dresses being worn after their birthday. I'm sure they'll try them on that night.

I'm not exactly sure what's up next for me except that I want to put longer ribbons on my cross-stitched garters because they kept falling down the day I wore them in Williamsburg. Then we'll see.

I've nearly finished with the birthday dresses. Just a couple of snaps, a hook and eye, and hems, and I'll be finished. I should certainly be able to knock that out by the end of the week.

In the meantime, here's a photo of half of the Sleeping Beauty skirt laid flat. It's one heck of a skirt.

I finished the Merida petticoat and am getting close on the Merida dress - it just needs sleeves and a hem. Sleeping Beauty is another story - it still needs to be laid out, cut out, etc. I have fourteen days, right?

I finished the girls' mermaid costumes yesterday. They're an almost un-altered size 5/6 from McCall's 5498. I had read reviews that indicated that it was the mermaid costume pattern with the best design for walking.

I forgot to buy crinoline when I was initially purchasing fabric, and JoAnn's is a bit out of the way so I stopped at Hobby Lobby one day looking for crinoline. They didn't have any so I decided to try out buckram. It made nice, stiff fins, but it also means that the costumes won't be washable. Since I used pretty junky satin for them, I don't think they'll hold up like the others have, but the girls don't wander around all day in costumes like they used to either.

The only other change I made was taking about 2" tuck in the skirt so that the fins wouldn't drag the ground.

Without further ado, here they are in their costumes.





They insisted that I take the second picture where they are posed as mermaids really would be.

Now I've started the boy's Olaf costume. This one will require a little more creativity because there isn't a pattern for a snowman that I've found. So I'm using the tunic from Simplicity 5520 as a base that I'll build something around. (There's nothing particularly special about that pattern; it's just one I already had.) I'm making legs by using the pants from the vampire view of Simplicity 2571, again because I had had it lying around. I've started a hood from the 5520, but I think I saw an Olaf winter hat somewhere that would probably be a lot easier and not terribly expensive...plus it could come in handy this winter, if it gets cold enough.

I'm hoping Olaf won't take too long because the girls' birthday is coming up, and they want some new princess dresses.