I'm working on the last two dresses for the theatrical. This dress is supposed to be more upper-class than the others, so I chose a paler fabric and more embellishment. The fabric company made a mistake on the order and I didn't have enough material anyway, so I ended up lining the entire dress, adding an underskirt and sleeves made from an old sheet. I wanted big sleeves, and undersleeves were the only way to accomplish that.

Front pleating, entirely for looks. I ended up using a few pattern parts of Butterick 5832, the new romantic pattern.

I even had a little time to work on my Pirate dress. The jute trim looks great!

 

The dress front opening- smaller trim, stitched on by hand.

Off topic but still cool, we had a storm go through last week that dropped some of the largest hail any of us had ever seen. The picture was even taken after they had melted for a while.The largest measured 2 1/2 inches across, 30 minutes after landing.

Striped Blouse in the Heat

I was curious to know what the temperature is upstairs, since we've not been running the upstairs AC(I have an aversion to using electricity) and have just been airing it out at night. So far it's been cool enough at night. So I took the thermometer out of the freezer(testing new appliances!) and put it in my bedroom. Three hours later, it read 98F. No wonder I was getting dehydrated sitting in my own bedroom. Maybe now I'll turn the AC on to 90F, or perhaps on desperate days 85F. This week we have a straight run of 90F predictions. I know this weather is a lifestyle for many people, but it's not for me! I'm having trouble adjusting.

Anyway, I finished the lavender striped non-Mary blouse and wore it to Church Sunday.

It did look better with a linen skirt and my American Duchess shoes, but I was too lazy to take a picture yesterday.

It's a slip-on blouse, which tend to look poufy, so I added a snap-closing belt. I ended up not altering the pattern much at all except to add a collar.

Observations on Humidity

Nebraska summers are humid. This year has been much wetter than normal, with frequent rain and hotter temperatures, making Nebraska seem like a mid-western corn jungle. The weather has had an interesting affect on our life here: In this weather, your hair is curly whether you want it to be or not, and even if it's naturally straight. Breathing is drinking and walking is like swimming. Everything is sticky- you sit on the couch(it's leather) and you're stuck. Your fingers stick to the keyboard. The laundry never really dries. You can drink water when you're not thirsty and never have to visit the (ahem) powder room. One more month and then we'll be done with it, and we just have to take it a day at a time.