The Pink Gown

Well, I finished it last night, in time for New Years Eve. Or, more correctly, New Years Eve night since I don't think I'll wear it until later this evening.

Did you know New Years Eve is a popular time for women to have babies around here? On the news there was a special report about how many women have scheduled inductions for this day! Anyway. . .

This dress was inspired by the one Lizzie wears in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. I always admired her pink gown and when I found the fabric for mine I immediately thought of hers! My fabric is just a plain cotton print (from Wal-Mart, they are getting rid of their fabric department in a few weeks so lots of things are on sale) and Lizzie's dress appears to be a sheer fabric but oh well, it at least is similar in color!


I used the long sleeve variation of the ELC drawstring dress. I think I'm getting the hang of putting these gowns together since this one only took me three days to get done. One day for cutting out the fabric and sewing together the bodice, one day for sewing and setting the sleeves and seaming the skirt, and one day for attaching the skirt and putting in the waist drawstring and the hem.


I made this dress with pleats and I made the train a teeny bit longer. I had more fabric to play with than I did with my striped dress so I was able to cut a more generous length for the skirt.
The one thing that bothers me now is the neckline. On Lizzie's dress she appears to have lace trim around the neckline of her dress. I have some off white cotton lace that would look nice on the neckline of my gown but I'm not sure if lace trim is period correct. Does anyone know? I know for 1860's things lace was most often used on an accessory item like a removable collar or undersleeve cuffs rather than being sewn directly to the garment itself. I honestly have no idea if the same is true for regency era gowns or not.

Anyway, since this dress is done now I have to focus on making new curtains for the boys room! I found some really nice drapey dark blue fabric at Wal-Mart on clearance for long curtains for their windows and got six yards. Their curtains will take a little more than two yards since the material is 60" wide so I have enough left to do something with. I think I'd like to try to make a gown like the one Elinor wears in the 1995 Sense and Sensibility, the plain blue one. The fabric I have feels and looks like a linen although I'm sure, based on a burn test and based on feel, that it is definitely a blend with some synthetic fiber. But for around the house wear I suppose that would be okay. I have no where to wear my regency gowns to as far as living history goes and no one besides my husband cares about what fibers I use in my sewing!

Happy New Years Eve!

Love,


Sarah

Afternoon Sewing

Christmas is nearly a week gone - already. We still have a few decorations up but our Christmas tree was taken down a few days ago, when it was sixty degrees outside and our windows were open, to air the house - and a wild gust of wind knocked down our poor tree! We had a tornado warning. In December. Odd.

David moved his field desk to the empty spot the Christmas tree left, by our southerly window where we get light nearly all day long. He put my little rocker to one side, and his Big Rocker to the other. It makes a cozy place to sit in the afternoons to sew or read and will be a pleasant place to nurse the baby. The field desk has handy drawers and cubby holes and the lamp fits neatly on top. A very nice arrangement, altogether.

Life has been pretty quiet since Christmas. I think the end of a year is always a bit sad. So many lovely things happened this year to reflect upon and it seems the months went by ever so fast. We moved to a lovely new home, we were blessed richly with the tiny new wee one that is not yet here, the boys grew and learned so much, bringing so much happiness to the lives of David and I. I can't imagine them any sweeter or more joyful to be around than they are right now!

So, life has been quiet as we ponder these things.

And I sew. It is something that does not require much physical activity and as I think I may be considered "great with child" presently, I do not feel so guilty not doing as much as I am used to. This afternoon I worked more on the long sleeve regency gown that could, I suppose, be called shockingly pink. It is almost done and I hope to finish it this evening, in time for New Years Eve tomorrow!

A beautiful rest of the year to you all,

Love,

Sarah

Regency Drawstring Dress, Completed!

With the sun peeking out today upon a cold, frozen, icy world David condescended to take a few photos of my new gown so I could share them with you all. Forgive the glare and odd lighting. The light from outside was very harsh and the flash we used was the best we could do, without the pictures coming out horribly dark or ghostly white.

I wore this dress again today to my doctors appointment. The good news is that I am feeling much better and my blood pressure, which was high at my last appointment (thus my reason for homely confinement) was down. I'm still supposed to lay low until the baby comes but at least I am no longer threatened by the prospect of hospitalization until then. I'd much rather be at home doing very little than in the hospital doing absolutely nothing.

And my contractions slowed down. So, it appears the baby will be a little while in coming, yet.

Anyway, on to the dress!

I think this is only the second adult sized dress I have ever made completely by hand. I sewed all the seams with the tiniest running stitch I could manage and all the seams are finished by felling on the inside. I was going to try french seams for the sleeves but made felled seams before I remembered I was going to try french. Oh well! The seam finish makes the dress smooth and neat on the inside and only itty bitty indentations in the fabric mark the felled seams on the outside.

It took me a while to decide how to attach the skirt. At first I pleated the back excess into a 4" length but when I sewed it to the skirt the pleats didn't hang evenly. So, I took off the skirt again and just gathered the back.

I used one row of gathering stitches then turned under the seam allowance of the back bodice and laid it over the gathering stitches and prick stitched it to the bodice. The rest of the skirt, which fit the bodice smoothly (no gathers) I just sewed right sides together. Once that was finished I bound the seam allowance.
In the front, the bound seam allowance was pressed up and the top edge stitched to the bodice to create a casing for the waist drawstring. The drawstring emerges from the inside of the gown at the side seams and is threaded on each side through fabric loops at the back bodice before being tied to fit at the center back. This makes the gown extremely forgiving in the area of fit, and easy to get on and off.
The skirt is a few inches longer in the back (with the excess length being treated at the waist, rather than the hem). This creates a very elegant silhouette, I think! I just love the trained skirts of the early regency period! This particular one is so slight that it does not in any way impede my movement or household activities.
I didn't have to add any width to the skirt in the front. The little bit of fullness created by the waist drawstring at the front creates plenty of room for my baby bump. It was nice to not have to alter a pattern for pregnancy!
The only thing I did have to alter, actually, was the cup size of the bodice front. After measuring myself and deciding what size to cut, I cut out my regular cup size but found that made the waistline too low. I had to recut it to be a cup size smaller so the waist would hit in the right spot. This was the only alteration I had to do. It is so nice to work with patterns that fit so well and require such little fitting. Sense and Sensibility patterns have always been so nice to work with in my experience!

Now that I have this one done, I can't wait to start on the next one! I have the fabric for it (dusky watermelon colored cotton with dark pink/red print) and want to make it in long sleeves this time. So fun.

Wee ones are awakening from their naps, so I must go for now. Have a lovely evening, dear ladies! (and any gentlemen who might happen to stop by, as well!)

Love,

Sarah

Regency Drawstring Dress, Progress Pics

After watching Sense and Sensibility a week or so ago, I engulfed myself fully into the task (the pleasant task, to be sure) of making a gown similar to the ones worn in the movie. I am using a bluish-gray-purple striped shirting cotton and Sense and Sensibility's Elegant Lady's Closet e-pattern.

The most time-consuming and tedious part, so far, was printing out the pages of pattern pieces and taping them together. (not an easy feat when you have two toddlers who very much enjoy the rustly sounds of paper and who very, VERY much enjoy the sounds of tearing paper). Since my machine doesn't work right now I'm sewing it all by hand. It is taking me a bit longer to do this than if I had a machine but I am very excited about creating this gown the way it originally would have been put together!

So far the pattern has been absolutely wonderful to work with. The pieces fit together perfectly and the instructions are clear and illustrated. I finished the bodice yesterday and plan on starting on the skirt this evening if I have time. I'm still not completely sure how I will gather and attach the skirt at the back and I'm not sure exactly how to make the casing for the drawstring at the waist (which will depend upon which method I use for attaching the skirt) but those things tend to work themselves out so I'm trying not to worry too much about it right now.

I did make a few changes because I only had a little over 3 yards of this material and the pattern called for more than that. To make my fabric amount work, I had to cut the bodice back so there was a seam up the center back and I had to cut the straps of the bodice seperately instead of in one piece with the bodice front. I think these changes are okay since in Janet Arnold's book she illustrates a few surviving gowns from this same period that have center back seams and seperate shoulder straps. I barely had enough fabric left to cut the skirt long enough but I was able to squeeze out the full length measurement plus a scanty 1" extra for a tiny turned hem at the bottom. The dress is interesting to me because it has an inner closure that you fasten before you draw up the drawstrings in the gown. This little inner front bodice is described as smoothing the lines of your stays so they will not show through your gown when you are wearing it. I made this inner lining of heavy green linen since the pattern called for a somewhat stiff, heavy fabric. I think next time I make this dress I will alter the shape of the lining pieces so that will fit me better. Right now the lining kind of gapes a bit at the waistline because I am not flat from the raised waist to the high point of the bust. But redrawing the slant of the front edge should cure that, I think. When I wear this dress I will have to pin the lining with more overlap at the bottom edge than at the top but that is something I can live with.

Hopefully this dress will be finished within the week!

Love,

Sarah

Wee Things, Mid-19th Century Style

It is perhaps a wishful whim of mine, but I do want to bring Baby home in period attire. How this will work in very cold temperatures I do not know. How I will safely buckle the little one in the carseat with long skirts in the way I do not know. But, anway, Baby shall have a tiny set of mid-19th century things to wear, whether at the hospital or at home.

I usually machine sew the inner, long seams on my repro clothing, including baby items. The things I finish by hand usually include hems, trim attachment, finishing piping and finishing seams on the inside. I wanted to use the same method for the baby clothes I'm making my yet-unseen little stranger but my sewing machine is giving me fits right now. So, it appears I will have to make everything by hand.

I had hoped by now to have pictures to share but I don't (yet!). I do however have some pictures of a recent little outfit I made, very similar in style to what I'm making now, for a customer last month.

Gown:

The gown has a plain jewel neckline finished with piping, plain coat sleeves finished with a bias band, and a slightly gathered waist, also finished with piping. The bodice and sleeves are lined with cotton but the skirt is unlined. For interest, I added a little bias band on each side of the bodice and finished them off with a ruched row of cotton lace. I think I made the skirt about 30" long if I remember right.

Petti-Chemise:

Very plain garment made with raglan-set sleeves and a plain long skirt with drawstrings at the waist and neck. The back is open to a few inches below the waist. Made of plain white cotton with all seams felled. I really love this garment since it prevents me from having to make a seperate shirt and petticoat and everything stays neatly in place.

Drawers:

Also very plain, I made these about the same shape as woman's drawers of the period but they are differently proportioned since they are for an infant. I personally confess to using elastic in the waistbands of my babies drawers but for these I made a drawstring. (which I've also done, but not found as easy to use as elastic when it comes to emergency diaper-changes).

So, these garments along with an infant sacque in white wool, a wee baby bonnet and white wool hood will form the new ones layette. And there is something terribly romantic about sewing your baby clothes by hand. Wasn't it in Anne's House of Dreams where the passage is written about Anne sewing all her baby clothes by hand when she was expecting her first, little Joy, who lived but one day?

At any rate, I must get busy. . .

Love,

Sarah

Wreath Making

We are on a rather strict budget so as the holidays approach I find myself not able to spend much on decorations. And honestly, when I look at the decorations within my price range I'm not impressed with the quality or overall look of most of them. Nice things can be had at second hand stores but I don't often get to the second hand stores to look. (We did find a lovely nativity set for $2 at a thrift store this past Monday, though! It has a candle behind the manger where baby Jesus lay and I can't wait til we light it!)

We had a few days of nice weather this week so a few days ago David and I were able to get out and go hunting for decorations from The Wild. We had a wonderful time although we were somewhat cold and we found a lot more than we thought we would. We found all of these things locally, mostly around the edge of the woods at a local park.

Here are the results, after being sorted and somewhat organized on our old kitchen table, which is now on our enclosed side porch:

What we found: (and alas, I know not the technical nor scientific names of most of these things, so bear with my labeling)

Big Red Berry Clusters, from a Thorny Vine

Tiny Red Berry Clusters, from a different Thorny Vine
Purple-Pink Berry Stems from a vine intermingled with the abovementioned Thorny Vines
White Berry Clusters, from a Tree with Red Stems
Red Berry Clusters from a Different Tree
Deep Red Cone-Shaped Things That Grow on Trees
Dried Grasses, Assorted
Dried Mustard Yellow Blossoms
Dried Things that look like grain in long stems
Assorted Dried Blossoms that are probably Weeds, but look Pretty
Dried Queen Anne's Lace Heads
Two kinds of Greenery, one long-needled pine and the other - unsure of correct name. . .
Big Pine Cones
Little Pine Cones

I decided to make wreathes since I have a little experience with attempted wreath making in past years. None of my previous attempts ever came out well, so I took a new view of the project and came at it from a sewing perspective. The frame and wiring of the greens is like the construction of a basic gown. The decorative things added after the basic wreath is made is like trimming a dress.

To make the basic form, I used some of the pine sticks left after I cut off the greenery and tied them together in a circular shape. I used basic twine for tying and cut the ends off. I used 3-5 sticks per wreath (so far I've made three). Then, it was just wiring on the greenery. I used florists wire that we got for free earlier this year to do my wrapping. I wrapped the wire around the form, adding greens to the sides and front as I went.

Here is one wreath with the basic form done:

After that, I laid out my pine cones on the wreath to decide where I wanted them and how many I wanted to use. I used the little cones since I'm saving the big ones to do a plain pine cone wreath later. For the long-needle pine wreath I glued the pine cones to wire and stuck the wire into the frame, but for the shorter needle greens I just hot glued the cones directly to the wreath.

Then, it was just a matter of laying out decorations and arranging them how I wanted, and gluing them down. Simple, easy and completely free!

Here is the finished wreath I made earlier today for our living room. It has small pine cones, purple berry stems and mustard yellow blossoms and white berries arranged on it, with strands of things that look like seed stems sticking out at the sides.

Here is another one I made this afternoon that is more "holiday" looking, with red berries:

(sorry the pictures are not of the best quality, and the colors are washed out. The lighting was not that good when I took these).

I can't wait to make more in different sizes and using different materials! The best thing of all is knowing I can make something pretty for our home that doesn't cost us anything but spending a little time in the creation.

Love,

Sarah

$10, 2-Hour Dressform

I have long wanted a dressform, but due to the high prices of new ones and the somewhat bad reviews I've heard of the cheaper new ones, I have long thought that a dressform was not in my near future. I put out wanted ads for old ones, looked at thrift shops and garage sales but antique ones were often as much as new ones and thrift stores tended to want to keep the ones they had, to display things on. I made a duct tape dressform once, with the help of my mother. That kind of flopped. Literally. The duct tape figure was really heavy and it was almost impossible to stuff and when at last I got her nearly done, the figure was not at all the same as mine and the measurements were off. She died a quick and painless death.

After brainstorming a bit I recently came up with the thought that I could make my own. Why not? It seemed simple enough. A stuffed figure the shape of a woman, a pole or rod for her to stand on, and a stand of some sort at the bottom to keep the whole thing secure.

So, here are the results of my brainstorming, $10, and 2 hours of work! Meet Miss Mattie, a.k.a "The Naked Lady".

What I used:

Pattern:

Since I didn't care if this dressform was an exact replica of me or not (I plan on using it mainly for display purposes), I used a basic dart fitted bodice pattern (From my 1950 dress pattern) as a base and went off that for my pattern. Below is a quick drawing I did to show how I altered the base pattern pieces. I changed the darted front bodice to princess-seam and added length at the bottom and a high neck at the top. I also made the shoulders a bit wider. I did the same for the back, except it did not have a dart so I did not have to princess seam it. If you don't have a dart fitted bodice pattern to alter I'm sure you could get one at any store that sells patterns. A princess seam sheath type dress pattern could also work very well and that was my plan B, if plan A didn't work. If you want the dressform to be a replica of you, I'd make a muslin first out of the altered pattern and fit it to you smoothly. Use the fitted muslin as your final pattern.

Fabric:

I used about 3 yards of natural muslin for my dressform. You can get this at Jo Anns for under $1/yard with a 40% off coupon. I suppose you could use anything that is sturdy and even weave though. You could even make the form out of two layers of fabric with the even weave fabric as the bottom layer and a decorative fabric for an outer layer. I'm not fancy, so I just went the plain way. :)

Stuffing:

I used about 45 oz. of poly fiberfill stuffing for mine. I got 3 bags of 20 oz. stuffing at Jo Anns for 50% off and used all of two bags and just a tiny bit of the third bag.

Pole:

For my stand, I used a heavy cardboard tube, the kind you can get home dec fabric rolled up on at fabric stores. This worked very well for me, and was free.

Stand:

My darling husband kindly dug out our Christmas tree stand from the storage unit his mom has. We used this the first year we were married and we haven't used it since. It worked perfectly for supporting the cardboard tube and is very sturdy. It's not the prettiest thing in the world so I will probably make a skirt type thing for the bottom of it to cover the green plastic and metal, eventually.

Construction:

To make the form, I cut out my pattern from the muslin and sewed the pieces together, leaving the bottom open. I added a short standing collar to the neck at the last minute since I thought it would look better. To finish off the neckline and arm openings I piped around the raw edges and sewed in a slightly oval-shaped circle to keep the figure of the form. The ovals were slightly bigger than the holes they were sewed into so needed to be eased. This created a nice rounded fullness at the neck and arm openings that seem more realistic to me than a flat surface.

The longest, most tedious part of the construction was stuffing the thing. I used very small amounts of stuffing at a time and carefully tried to smoothly stuff the muslin shell. It took me the better part of an hour to get her as I wished her to be. I stuffed from the bottom, inserting the pole once I got the neck area stuffed. When I got near the bottom, I turned under a 1/4" seam allowance all around the bottom opening, pinned up the hip edges to within 2" of the center area where the pole was, and stuffed the hips. Finally, I stuffed the crutch area and slip stitched the opening shut.

After that, it was a simple matter of inserting the pole into the Christmas tree stand. And there you are! My husband seemed rather impressed but solemnly stated that she needed clothing.

Things I Would Do Differently Next Time:

Next time I would cut the pattern pieces slightly smaller, or take up a bigger seam allowance since the finished figure has measurements that are a bit bigger than my own. Although she is definitely squishable enough for me to put my gowns on her, she definitely fills them out well.

To make a more pronounced derrierre, next time I would take out a dart at the waist of the back pattern piece to create more fullness below the waistline. Since this is a display-only dressform it's not critical right now, but its something to keep in mind for future forms that may need to be made to a certain type of figure.

I also cannot figure out how to make the form anything more than an A-cup. I honestly have no idea, so if any of you know how I could do this, I'd LOVE the information! :) In the meantime, she'll be undergarmented and padded out if needed!

It's nice to have a dressform at last, but also a little startling to catch a glimpse of a figure you are not accustomed to at odd times during the day!

Love,

Sarah

1820's Dress Details

As promised, here are the construction details/notes/pictures for my 1820's dress. I was pretty happy with how it turned out for my first try at recreating clothing from this decade. I *really* love the overall style, the flexibility of overlapping styles and the complete wearability of this style for every day. Now that my dress is done, I can't wait to go to New Salem and pretend I really live there as I walk around. Our trip there will probably have to wait until next spring :( but by then hopefully all five of us will have appropriate attire from this era!

Dress, Overall View:

I wanted to make my dress in a style that was representative of the gowns worn between 1825-1830. I chose the later in the decade date since that is the time a lot of settlers were coming into Illinois in the counties near us. Most towns near us were established in the early 1830's, but in order for there to be a town, there must be early settlers, right? :)

The overall style has the transitional sillhouette I fell in love with. The bodice is slightly shorter than the natural waist, but longer than the very high waistlines of the early 1800's. The sleeves are moving to the big sleeve styles of the 1830's but are still graceful and not too enormous for everyday wear. The skirts are plenty long enough and full enough to be modest and feminine yet not so full as the later skirts of the 1830's and 1840's and not as slim in the front earlier in the 1800's. My dress took 5 yards of fabric, which is a modest amount for a historical style dress.

In looking at original dresses when coming up with ideas for mine, I was shocked at how many options there were for different features like neckline shapes, sleeves and decoration! On my dress, I used the machine for hidden seams but any seam that could be seen from the outsdie I did by hand.

The Bodice:

The bodice of my dress was based on the pelisse-robe bodice in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion. I chose this style because the pieces looked basic and easy to work with and the bodice had a front opening - something important to me since I breastfeed my babies and need access! :) I used the lining pieces of the pelisse robe as my basic pattern, and altered my fitted Civil War bodice pattern to approximate the look. All I had to do was shorten the bodice by a few inches, and move some seams to be in the appropriate places and add some seams at the back bodice. I also trimmed the shoulder line so that instead of an 1860's dropped shoulder, I had an armscye that sat right at the point between my shoulder and arm.

To construct the bodice, I cut the pieces out of my fashion fabric and white cotton for lining. I cut the back bodice in four pieces; two side pieces and two center back pieces. I put the seam down the back as an accident. I forgot to put the pattern piece on the fold when cutting out my fabric so it was a necessity! The lining does not have the center back seam, however. I treated the fabric and lining as one and sewed them together at the back seams, the side seams and shoulder seams.

After studying pictures of some original gowns, I decided to pipe the slanted back seams and the shoulder seams. I didn't pipe the side seams since I couldn't actually see the side seams on most gowns I looked at and I figured piping at the side seams would add visible bulk to my sides. The neckline was cut in a shallow V shape and piped, and the bodice was piped at the center front opening. The seam allowance of the piping strips were folded under and slip stitched to the white cotton lining.

Finally, I added a waistband. I did not pipe the waistband since I couldn't find pictures of original gowns with piped waistbands and there were no descriptions of piped waistbands from this period in Janet Arnold's book. Since I wanted to make my bodice with a dog leg closure (front opening bodice but side opening skirt) I measured around my "waistline" (where the edge of the bodice hit) and added a few extra inches so the waistband could wrap around me to the side, where it would later fasten. I cut another waistband of white cotton and it was secured to the fashion waistband by topstitching on all sides. The bodice fastens with hook and eyes and is darted on each side in the front.

The Sleeves:

I originally planned to make sleeves from the pattern for the pelisse-robe. I measured and cut and - the sleeves were too short and the puff at the top was non-existent! I had some temptations of just cutting the sleeve to 3/4 length and calling it good but at last decided I really had to try to make the sleeve work. I ended up cutting an upper sleeve and gathering it to the original sleeve. That worked really well for the puff at the top of the sleeve but it also made my sleeves too long. Since I had already piped my cuffs and sleeve seam I didn't want to cut off the hem and redo all that so I tuck up a diagonal tuck in each each sleeve.

They are still a bit too long so I plan on securing the excess sleeve length with a few pieces of twill tape so the sleeve will hang at the right length. In the meantime, just pushing the sleeve up so the lower portion fits my arm tightly works very well. The sleeve has a lining of white cotton and is piped and finished like the bodice. The cuff closes with hook and eyes.

The Skirt:

The skirt was rather problematic at first. I found many pictures and fashion plates of 1820's gowns but they all seemed to have a common feature and that was a smooth, plain front skirt. Since I'm pregnant I had to compromise a little and figure out how to add extra fabric to go across my tummy. At last I settled on cutting the skirt front in 3 gores so I had maximum fullness at the hem and minimal fullness at the waist, but I did have enough extra at the waist to lightly gather the skirt to the front of the bodice. The back skirt is a rectangular panel of fabric, cut to length.

The pieces are seamed together and the opening for the bodice is at the seam between the side-front gore and the center front gore. The hem is quite deep but the skirt was still too long since I used the very scientific method of measuring by holding my tape at my waist, draping it down across my tummy and trying to peer at the number that hit around the right length without distorting the tape - which is hard to do! I had to put two tucks in the skirt to take up the extra length. It could use another tuck, even, but right now I don't think I'll do that since I like the look of just the two tucks.

The Collar:

I don't know if collars were universally worn in the 1820's or not, but my mind has been so indoctrinated in 1860's rules and regulations of proper attire that I felt the dress looked unfinished without one. I used the top collar from the double collar in Patterns of Fashion. The collar was mostly made on the machine, including the hem, so it is not period correct in that regard but I like the finished shape and the ruffle around the edges. Instead of attaching the collar to a chemisette, I just bound off the neckline with bias cut strips of white cotton and that is basted into the neck of my dress, just like my 1860's dresses. I don't know if this is P.C. or not, but it works for me and was a lot less work than having to make a whole chemisette to wear beneath my bodice.

For these pictures the gown was happily modeled by my brand-new home-made dressform, which I can't wait to share with you all in my next post!

Hope all are having a lovely Sunday!

Love,

Sarah

1820's Gown

Well, today was the first day I was able to wear my new 1820's dress. It has ended up taking me a lot longer than I originally anticipated to complete it. I thought surely a few days would be sufficient, but that stretched into a few weeks!

I am writing a post with the construction details, for those of you like-minded historical-fashion lovers who might be interested, and will get that posted as soon as a I finish up the dress form (hopefully tonight!) so I can take pictures of the gown on it.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures we took today. Forgive my rumpled skirts and tired expression. We took these after being gone to town for many hours. I did not know the skirt hem was so uneven, on account of Baby, but hopefully everything will be straight and proper after the birth. This one is carrying higher now, and at my prenatal appointment recently I was told the baby has very little room left. 9 weeks to go!

I look forward to a comfortable homey evening tonight with beef stroganoff for supper, little ones curled up on the floor with blankets, books and teddies, and sewing projects and a husband who wishes to watch a movie with me tonight. Master and Commander, anyone?

Love,

Sarah