Costumes are READY!

The Scottish Version of the  Irish Jig

The Scottish Version of the Irish Jig is another caricature dance depicting an Irish washerwoman who is angry with her erring husband. The costume worn for this dance is either a red or emerald green skirt and bodice and a full white petticoat, with a white blouse, with a white apron. Red or green jig shoes are worn and there is much stamping and facial grimacing in this dance. In the male version, the dancer wears a red or green tailcoat with a waistcoat of the opposite colour, brown knee britches of corduroy, with a paddy hat and he carries a shillelagh, which is a club made from the forked branch of a tree.

The Sailor's Hornpipe

The Sailor's Hornpipe is a caricature dance developed from the traditional English version. It has become more popular in Scotland than in England and is regularly featured in Highland Games. The movements in this dance portray actions used in the daily work routines of a sailor's life, such as pulling ropes, climbing the rigging, and looking out to sea. A costume like a sailor's uniform is worn by both male and female dancers.

Lily's Quilts - Dresden QAL

In March I started this quilt along. I did really well for a while and then other things got in the way and I didn't get any of my blocks set in the outer circle borders. I cut out ONE outer circle border and got it ready a while ago, but was too afraid that my pieces wouldn't fit. Last night I got brave and set it! It went in easily... so I guess I have 4 more to cut out, piece and set...


Hopefully in August I can get the other squares set, add the 2 borders and layer them for quilting....

More Costume Sewing

Only one costume to go!  My oldest daughter highland dances and she recently moved from Novice to Intermediate.  Now that she is an Intermediate, she requires 2 new costumes.


The Irish Jig
The first is the Irish Jig Costume.  This is a "fun" costume because there are so many different options!  We've gone quite simple for this one... She'll wear her white blouse and petticoat from her National Costume, and red & green reversible skirt, a white apron and a cummerbund.  She also wears red jig shoes (they are like a tap shoe), and it allowed to wear bows in her hair.  This weekend will be the first time she competes the dance in competition.

Fully reversible
Closes with Aplix (velcro) at the back

Bows
She wanted two bows for times when she can wear pig tails.
I think red ones might be brighter, but had the green ribbon in
the drawer...

This costume is one of  the least expensive to make... it uses poly-cotton broadcloth...  I chose the poly-cotton so it won't wrinkle as much.   I've found a great sale on broadcloth when a local fabric store was closing out... or another good time to buy is after Christmas when needing red and green.  At the next good sale, I will need to pickup some more red fabric as I'm nearly out...  My guess is the Aplix (left over from cloth diaper days), stabilizer, interfacing, ribbon, rivets, and hair elastics are the most expensive items...  Estimated total cost of the skirt, cummerbund, apron, and elastics is around $5-10 plus my time...
Sailor's Hornpipe
The second costume is the Sailor's Hornpipe.  We found one second hand for $20... including the Sailor's Cap... BUT it needed altering....so now I'm altering it.  I plan to finish this today.

Hopefully later today I can get photos of both costumes modelled..

Sewing Distractions:  Last night my 5 year old didn't want to go to sleep so I had an "assistant" helping me... Until WAY past her bedtime, so I had to quit sewing to get her to bed....  But I did clean up the sewing table and draft a pattern for a pair of pants for my daughters build a bear...

FNSI - A successful night

I really wasn't home until after 9pm yesterday -- it was after 9:30 before I headed downstairs... so I wasn't organized for this FNSI... my sewing room was a mess... the machine was pulled apart (didn't want to do a wide zigzag, the serger was set to do a rolled hem (in pink and purple), the floor was a mess, the table was a mess... I really should have gotten a photo before, but I cleaned the floor, did some recycling, and cleaned one of my sewing tables so I could sew....

Ah... space to work!  Ok you can still see a mess hiding behind the chair on the left, and up on the window sill, but I still had 6ft of desk space to work with!  And this is how I left it last night, all clean ready for a new day.


Now what to work on... I have some big projects but it was 10:30 at night and I wasn't feeling the enthusiasm to start on one... so I made a small gift for my daughters dance teacher.  She has her last lesson for the year on Tuesday (although will only get 6 weeks off before they start again...)







This wallet uses the pattern at Very Berry Handmade - Folding Card Wallet Tutorial .  I did make one small change with one of the pockets, because I can't read instructions well after 11pm... oops... oh well, I made my pocket work.  And then I made a lined zipper bag... in a triangle shape... I've seen a number of tutorials for this so kinda winged it last night. 



To see what others have done for FNSI, visit Hand Made by Heidi

Sewing at piping camp (day 2)

Sewing... I finished two irish jig skirts today.  One with is for my older daughters costume.  It is a reversible circle skirt, with a Aplix skirt closure.  The only problem with reverisble skirts is they don't last long in the length as they can't be lengthened.  BUT this skirt is made from poly-cotton broadcloth that I picked up on sale... so I'm guessing the whole skirt cost only $4 as I got the fabric on clearence (after Christmas!).
 

The second skirt was made because one of the first panels I cut out had a flaw in it... about 3" up from the hem.  So I cut the waistband a little lower, and the hem up 3" and cut out a matching panel in green, and the green waistband.  This is a half circle reversible skirt with snaps as a closure (only had wide Aplix with me).












Next two proejcts - back to quilting my sons quilt (haven't touched it since February) and altering a Hornpipe costume.

Sewing at piping camp (day 1)

I'm making progress.  Yesterday e squished everything in the van and relocated to an interior ski hill for a week of piping and dancing.  It is a busy schedule for the kids, but so far (day 1) all is going well.  I had some free time this afternoon so I started on my daughters dance skirt.  Two circles cut and sewn together... and now need pressing, then the waistband added.

Issues: 

• would have been much easier if the fabric were 50+" wide then I could have done only one circle, instead of 2 half circles.
• there was a flaw in the red fabric, but luckily I have enough to cut out a thrid piece.  
• the flawed piece was able to be cut down to make a skirt for my youngest.
• but I have no clue how I'm going to sew after the kids go to bed due to the arrangement of the suite.
• And there is NO internet in my room... very frustrating having to go to a hot point to get my email and post!

A successful week sewing

So I haven't been sewing much in the past few months... but got back on track this week.

UFO Update:  I finished 5 boxes for teachers gifts and mostly completing the June UFO challenge!  I had enough squares to make 6 boxes, but only needed 5 this year.  So I have one partially completed... so have a new UFO, but it is much closer to being finished....  and all my teacher fabric blocks are sewn up!

I also made two mug rugs for 2 of the teachers who are retiring...

Highland Dance Costumes:  And I started on my daughters Jig costume for Highland Dance.  I finished the apron for her costume.  I went to start the skirt and realized making a circle skirt out of 44" wide fabric wasn't going to be as easy as I'd hoped... I'll need to cut both a front & back, in both the outer and inner fabrics...  Waistband is done for the skirt, just need to cut out and sew the rest!  And I think I'll make her a red velvet cumberbund.