Alarums and Excursions

LittleBit's prom dress arrived at the office yesterday. I ordered it online from http://beautifullymodest.com/. I'm including the link in case you have teenage daughters who have a need for formal wear that does not make them look like Pretty Woman. Photos of LittleBit in the dress will be posted sometime next month, but here's the dress she picked. They say it's "baby blue", but I think it's more of an ice blue. The ribbon and tulle ruffle are jet black.




Why did I not make it myself? I made last year's formal for the Military Ball, a real Barbie Dream Dress, and she's making this year's prom dress to satisfy requirements for Tech Theatre IV, but this one is for a church-sponsored alternative prom serving the youth of the greater geographical area. It requires much tweaking of a commercial pattern to get it to fit her properly, and most commercial patterns are just not modest enough to please us.

I am saving myself hours of time, and both of us much aggravation that would result from all the tweaking involved, and the company I ordered from carries dresses at several price points. They also have wedding gowns, but LittleBit looked at me with horrified dismay when I suggested we might use these people in a few years when it's her turn to marry. "No, Mommy, I want you to make my gown, just like you did for the other girls." Fine, but all the @#$% bridesmaid dresses, and my own, will be ordered from this company, because there are now three granddaughters to sew for, as well as all those nice people I gave birth to.

I loved making Firstborn's and Secondborn's wedding gowns. I spent two and a half months beading the bodice of Firstborn's gown. I had mixed feelings when Middlest eloped. Fourthborn is planning a Renaissance wedding and designing the gowns herself. I'll be sewing her gown, and she'll probably be sewing the others. I may even be tatting some of the lace on her gown, using silver metallic thread. All of that is at least two or three years down the road; she wants to get through art school first, and she's working and saving the money for that so she won't have to go into debt for her education.

Knitting content? You want knitting content? OK, the blog hit 2000 views sometime during the week. We're definitely not getting the Harlot's numbers, but I am astounded that so many people have read me since I fired up the blog last July. Thanks, y'all, you rock!

Or how about this?



Here's my middlest granddaughter in her borrowed dress and the bolero that I knit her in Berroco's Glace. We'll try to get better close-ups for you in the near future. This picture does neither of them justice. She's already heartbreakingly lovely at thirteen; it's a good thing that her dad has some familiarity with the martial arts.