Dress #35:

I was looking through my pile of fabric for dresses and realized that I have a lot of busy material. As I was trying to come up with a dress in my head I realized that I was turned off by the idea of making a ruffle out of the same material and continuing with the busy fabric all over. I thought that maybe I should purchase some solid colors to help accentuate or play up some of the fabric. Yikes! Solid cotton fabrics are not cheap and are hardly ever on the clearance rack. I purchased a pricey yard of material at Hobby Lobby and then decided I would purchase any other solids at Wal-Mart.

This daisy print was purchased off of the clearance rack at Hobby Lobby, but I hadn’t really used it yet. You might recognize some of the material from a recent dress, though! I was at work when I suddenly thought of this daisy fabric and I instantly envisioned it with eyelet lace and a golden ruffle. I didn’t quite remember the daisy material accurately so the end product is slightly different than my image, but it’s just as beautiful!

I REALLY wanted to have a wide eyelet lace to place on top of the golden ruffle, but I didn’t have enough yardage. Then I thought about putting a smaller width eyelet lace on the bottom of the ruffle, but from my quick calculations I would end up being about a foot shy of completing the round. Shucks! So I settled for this pairing, which looks just as nice. Don’t you think? If you’re wondering, yes, I had to hand weave that ribbon through the lace. It was a lot of time spent hunched over, but definitely worth it.

Then I found a small piece of this lace and knew that I had to use it for the neckline. How perfect that it mirrors the lace below. To break things up a little I used yellow ribbon (even though I didn’t tie it around the ol’ oak tree).

I was a little more excited about sewing this dress until I got to the part where I had to weave the ribbon. That put a slight pause in the process. Well, that and this:

Bob insisted that he had to lay on my lap while I was trying to sew. He was not impressed that I kept moving. Poor cat! He’s just trying to get a little shut-eye and his momma won’t sit still. Silly momma!

One thing that I also want to show you is my new pin dish:

Isn’t it great? Last spring I was reading a blog post (and I can’t remember where!) that mentioned an easy gift to make and give is a magnetic pin dish. You just buy a saucer or dish with a concave bottom to allow you to glue a magnet in place. Since then I’ve been on the lookout for the perfect pin dish. It’s a lot harder to find one than you would think!

Finally on one of my lunch hour visits to Goodwill I stumbled across this little piece. It has a curved surface so that the pins aren’t just sitting on top as they are actually in a shallow bowl. I ran over to Hobby Lobby and purchased a magnet that I thought would fit.

Apparently I should have chosen a smaller one because Jay had to trim the corners so that it would fit. He then hot glued it in place for me. Voila! A magnetic, and pretty, pin holder! Needless to say I quickly tossed the plastic one I had been using in my drawer. I feel so elegant now when I’m pinning!