Ember Costumes and Crafts

When Gunnar gave me one of his ripped collared work shirts I knew right away that I wanted to use the soft fabric with the delicate dark blue stripes for a regency doll dress! I pulled out my favorite Pemberly Threads patterns ("Elinor") with the sleeve variations add-on. I also made some tiny piping for the neckline and tacked a dark blue ribbon at the waist. I think it turned out really cute!  I have used this pattern before and I highly recommend it! It's pretty simple and goes together quickly, and old clothing makes really nice material for doll clothes.  I also just saw a video from one of the "Costubers" (or people who make costumes and post their videos on youtube" about making some doll clothes for her American Girl doll that she always wanted! Maybe I should make some videos about doll clothes? I am actually working on a few patterns of my own. 😉 Now that I have my sewing mojo back, I have lots of fun plans!   

 Well it has been about a year since I blogged here regularly. I have to admit that I had some difficult time mentally and emotionally from about August through February, but I have slowly been feeling more like myself over the past several months. Over the fall and winter I did not sew anything, or read much of anything, or listen to any audiobooks, or play any games, so I really had nothing to blog about. I kept busy with the kids and the house, but my only outlet at all was writing.  By Christmas, when I was writing a family update letter for my friends and relatives I described all the cool things that everyone had been up to that year...but I couldn't think of a single nice thing to say about myself. It was hard to articulate, but I didn't feel  like me. I cleaned my house and fed my kids and did what was required, but I had no desire to do anything beyond that. I refused to leave my house (except for food) and I spent all of my free time at home on my laptop writing. Fort