I just signed up for a tumblr account - the newest form of blogging (I guess) and as you can probably tell, I'm not entirely sold. I read that it is a newer, faster, better way of communicating short posts and that these long, rambling posts I tend to create are so yesterday. But I already use twitter, and that is limited to 140 characters,and tumblr seems so similar to twitter. Is everything moving towards these short, immediate bursts of sharing and away from the type of journaling writing I tend to do? Am I already obsolete? (I feel like Carrie typing away on her mac laptop right now as she contemplates what outrageous outfit she's going to wear and what pair of shoes to buy after she composes her next article. And about at the same level of life importance.)
Well, I'll keep posting here and who knows, maybe I'll end up migrating completely over to tumblr - maybe not. I occasionally glance at my journals, which I used to lovingly collage and sit and write in early each morning, those have for the most part been replaced by this. Sadly. Life is constantly changing and what you thought you'd never stop doing - writing, painting, baking, running - gets shoved aside for the next thing you are doing.
And what I've been doing, in the evenings while watching movies or back episodes of "Glee", is sewing. And I just finished my first Alabama Chanin dress.
Two layers of cotton knit - a grayish blue and a dark gray. The dress turned out to be completely reversible, giving me two dresses in one.
All hand stitched and with no embellishment, yet. I thought the first one should be plain so that I could check the fit and all before spending a lot of time with a stencil and more sewing. This fits so perfectly and is so comfortable that I will make another one - I think I want to make the inked and quilted dress from Alabama Studio Style:
I can't stop making these designs - they are truly addictive and satisfying to make - but I do need to STOP temporarily and start making flowers for the reception.
Anyway, back to the dress.
The hand stitching goes along quickly once you get into the groove - the only thing is that if you sew through an entire movie your fingers might get a little sore from pushing the needle through two (or more on the seams) layers of fabric. A thimble may be in order.
The neckline and arms holes are finished with a stretch stitch. I haven't ventured beyond this stitch, which I used in both my camisole tops. The thing I like best about this dress, which can also be a tank top or tunic, is that the neckline is cut a little higher and a little more modest than the camisole, which I am always hiking up when I wear one of them.
I now have a dress to wear when I sit outside and watch the parade of hummingbirds to the feeder. And I'm hoping to catch the oriole and the finch that are sipping from the hummingbird feeder - I see them occasionally but never have my camera around at the right time.
I fill this daily now and I suppose I should be filling the other one that is in a less convenient location for me because these little guys and gals are going through the sugar water. And always competing for it.
They are not bothered by my presence - in fact this morning when I went to hang the freshly filled feeder I still had a hand on it and a hummingbird was busy drinking from it!
They don't stay all summer so I'd best enjoy the show while it lasts. In my new, hand-sewn, reversible dress!
Oh my gosh Vic, THAT is the cutest dress ever!! Reminds me of the ones we so painstakenly embroidered during our high school years! Beautiful!!!!
Posted by: Shari French | June 18, 2011 at 09:20 AM