My newest dress creation is perfect for spring. I was feeling motivated one day, so I dove into the box of vintage fabric my mother in law, Grandma Moses (we have 3 Grandma's in our family and two are named Barbara, so we dubbed one Moses) gave me. These were fabric pieces that where once her mothers, so I feel very privileged to have received these pieces. As I mentioned in a previous post, most pieces were only 1 yard. It is very hard to find dress patterns that call for only 1 yard of fabric, mostly due to the skirt. This fabric screamed SPRING DRESS, so I decided to dig through my patterns and see what I could make work.
I decided on this pattern, a new one I recently purchased and have never worked with before.
This pattern was surprisingly easy to work with. I thought the top would be tricky with all the different panels, but it wasn't to hard at all. The skirt has lots of pleats all around it. I didn't have enough fabric for both of the back pieces when I cut, so I just cut them as wide as I could and I figured I would just leave out one of the pleats. It worked out fine! You can see how the front of the dress has 3 pleats in the skirt.
On the back, I believe the third pleat would have fallen right in the center hiding the base of the zipper a bit. I highly doubt anyone will noticeI left it out. It still has to two side pleats in back, so there is plenty of fullness. For someone like me who already has a full behind, it might actually be better without the pleat in the center back. :)
I'm sure most of you may have noticed there is something different about me, I changed my hair again. I'm now a red head! Even more red than the last red. I'm going full on I Love Lucy over here and am completely ready for any and all zany activity, so bring it!
I have been tossing the idea of trying out henna on my hair. Henna is a plant that many of you may be familiar with as being used as temporary tattoo ink. It is very popular in Indian culture. It can also be used to dye hair, skin, nails, leather, and wool. It is supposed to be very good for your hair making it stronger, healthier, and longer. There are so many wonderful things about henna. I love that it is just a plant I'm putting on my hair, all natural, no chemicals whatsoever, it is permanent, and any leftover can be frozen and re-used. The only down side is that it is a bit of a process. You have to mix the henna the night before with lemon juice to the consistency of mashed potatoes and then let it sit over night. When you are ready, you add a little more lemon juice to make it the consistency of yogurt. You slap it all on your hair like you are frosting a cake - nice and thick- covering every strand. Then you wrap your hair in saran wrap and sleep on it over night. In the morning, wash it all out and viola, you will have VIBRANT red hair. Everything I have read on it says that it is an oxidation process, much like cutting an apple and exposing it to air, it will slowly darken and turn more brown. Here is my hair day 1 after dying it with henna:
I'm excited to see what it looks like in a week from now. It is a little too red for me at day 1. I think I freaked a few mothers out at pick up today, day 2. I don't think any of them totally get me anyway, so whatever. I'm having fun with it! Overall, it really wasn't too hard to do myself. I'm not a girly girl, either, so things like this don't come naturally to me. I was most worried about staining the skin around my hair line or on my face and being left with an orange ring around my forehead. I only stained one thumb a tiny little bit (I wore gloves - a MUST!). I have to tell you, though, my hair feels amazing! It actually feels healthier. I don't know if that is possible, but it has a nice silky feeling to it. I find it incredible that all this color came from a little ground up green plant. Crazy cool!
Plants ROCK!
