Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas, Dear Readers!

I modeled my Christmas dress this year off of a design I saw on Pinterest as well as my own imagination. 

It is a fairly simple design. 

I love sweetheart necklines! 

The sleeves are just little cap sleeves. I was messing around with a more elaborate design originally, but it drove me slightly nuts. So, back to ol' faithful!

This dress has side tabs and a corset-like "cinch" in the back for shaping (more on that later.) I made the dress loose enough to slip into so I didn't have to put a zipper in, and the cinch in the back gathers in the extra width of the dress nicely. 

Just for the record, I don't hate zippers that much. In fact, I have installed them many times with relative success. But I do find that not going with a zipper cuts a lot of time off of my dress projects. 

In case you are curious about the pattern of this dress, it is very simple. Here's a diagram of the shapes:

The front of each tab is sewn on directly in front of each dart, as you can see if you look carefully at the image below.

I began the skirt gathers underneath the tabs, and added (non-functional) buttons to the front end of the tab just for fun.

I added grommets to the other end of the tabs and laced my ribbon through, and Voila! My dress is shaped and has a lovely accent to make the back more interesting.

It's a great way to take a very simple dress design and elevate it to something special. I love this effect! 

Thank you so much for reading today!

Have a blessed Christmas!

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

Autumn Dresses

Happy Fall, everyone!! 

I'm loving the change in the air from summer to autumn!

 In the high desert there isn't much foliage that changes color in the autumn, but the light takes on a gentler hue and the air sweeping down the mountain is crisp and clean; something welcome after the smoke season.

Here was our view in early September:

No, this is not a volcano, much as it looked like one.

It's a thunderstorm perched above an active fire. Can you tell where one ends and the other begins? 

It's hard to see, but the location of the fire is right behind that pointy butte there.

Thankfully we escaped during some of the worst smoke and went north where it wasn't so bad.

But take a look now, in mid-September. I'm back home and lovin' the vivid colors, though it's a little hazy in the distance this morning. 

Alright, I will move onto something other than scenery. I know this is a sewing blog, but I enjoy sharing pictures of God's amazing world with you. I hope you enjoy looking at them.

I've sewn a couple of dresses for the start of the beautiful season.

The main fabric of the first is a beautiful, burgundy-brownish red. In more poetic words, it reminds me of an old-fashioned, faded, currant-wine colored print you'd see a woman wearing in the pioneer or Wild West days of the 1800s.

This fabric is pared with a floral-on-white fabric that narrowly misses coordinating, but works nicely in a dress in my opinion.

The other dress is just the opposite! I used the burgundy fabric as an accent for the flowers-on-white print.

Rather than fuss with darts for bodice shaping, I took in a little (tuck? knife pleat?) at the bottom of the bodice. It was a lot easier than figuring out darts, let me tell you!

I even managed to line it up with the pleat in the skirt.

This is the hem. I'm not used to embellishing my hems a lot, but I do like the effect of the lace trim above the ruffle. It makes it look more old-fashioned, in my opinion.

On to the white dress:

~Front~

~Back~

I did a yoked design for this dress. This is another instance where I didn't have to engineer darts, instead shaping the dress by gathering the bodice above the bust and attaching it to the front yoke.

Since we've been on the topic of autumn I might as well throw in another subject related to it. Decorating! My grandma took me to Hobby Lobby last month and I feasted my eyes on their aisles of autumn decor. Ooh, so beautiful...and some of it was quite irresistible...

...like these sweet light-up pumpkins. It's amazing how a little LED light or string of fairy lights in your décor piece transforms it to be something interesting, something you want to look at every time you enter the room. It also ups the cozy factor 100%!

I learned how to make the fabric pumpkins from my grandmother at Homeliving. Here's another of her pumpkin tutorials.

 

Hope you've enjoyed reading - if anyone out there is still following this sporadic blog. I hope, as always, to keep to a blogging schedule that is more sensible, but isn't that what I was hoping last post?

Until next time, onwards and upwards!

-Lillian

In Other News...

Hello All,

My mother and I went to the Sisters Quilt Show in Mid July. There were some gorgeous quilts there, and we walked in the beating sun or the baking shade and looked at the amazing work of these quilters for hours that morning. I, for one, would be willing to sign Mother's petition to move the event to early May instead of mid July, but still it was an inspiring event and made me want to quilt when I was home lying on the couch recovering.

                                         on my bucket list to make!!!

In other news, Fiddle Camp is upon us, and I'm choosing my "wardrobe" for the 4-day event. By the time this post is published I will be at camp already, but here's my ideas right now!

 Wardrobe sounds like such a fancy word, but really I just needed to pack clothes that would be comfortable in the heat and it doesn't hurt if they're pretty, too :)

 

Day 1: Blue & White Paisley dress

light and airy

We found this dress at Ross last year and with a slight modification it was perfectly wearable.

 

 

 

Day 2: Pink A-line Dress

comfortable and stylish

 

Day 3: Blue Prairie Embroidered Dress

made of a thin chambray or other light fabric. Vying for being worn during the camp performance instead of the dress below.

We found this dress at Ross, and let me tell you, it was a find. SO pretty!!

Note: The dress does not reach the floor when I wear it. My dress form was just on a "short" setting! 

Day 4: White Eyelet dress

light and airy, with a fun shawl collar. Formal enough for an end-of-camp performance.

We found this dress at Ross last year. Is it just me or do we find a lot of fun dresses at Ross!?!

Have a beautiful Late July...

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

Wild Strawberries and the Old West

 Hello all, and thanks for reading today!

This was my most recent sewing project, completed in 11 days of inconsistent work on it. 

 

 The shirt was a gift for my mother's birthday and I went to town a bit with extra details. The most fun part was seeing it done, of course, but the construction went fairly smoothly, which is not always the case for me :) Collared shirts used to seem daunting, but with the pattern I have they are actually not scary at all. Unless you are afraid of interfacing and pattern instructions, you should be able to make one of these :)

I should mention, like I did in the first post where I reviewed this pattern, that the instruction to attach the front of the shoulders to the back of the shoulders is MISSING. So if you are considering purchasing this pattern be aware of that!

Also, my collars (I will not say the pattern collars) turn out so thick in their construction that I don't like to use the snap at the very top of the collar. I left it off of this shirt because I was low on snaps and I knew my mother felt the same way about tight collars that I do. My little brother calls the top button the "choker button." 

I made my own twist on this pattern by curving the collar, making short sleeves, adding my own sleeve cuff details, and curving the bottom of the pockets inwards a bit more among other things.

 

 

I would have added more of those fun pearl snaps to the sleeves and pocket flaps except I only had enough to do the main shirt closure. So I did a little cross-stitch to ornament the non-functional sleeve tabs while keeping them attached to the sleeve. 

This is the second time I've made this pattern, (here's the first time) and both times I used "upcycled" fabric, aka, fabric from the skirts of dresses I had made a few years ago that I hadn't worn much and didn't like. I like re-purposing fabric in this way, and since most of my skirts from this era had ~2 or more yards of fabric in them, they are easily turned into something else :)

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

 

Make The Most Of Your Special Day....Week....Month....year....

Being that it's graduation season, and I am partaking in the excitement this year, I deem it appropriate to post something of this category! 

Being a homeschool graduate is great, because even when you graduate you can never stop being homeschooled or homeschooling yourself. When your every day life is learning, you never stop! The same goes for public-schoolers too, I know.

_______________________________________________________

Most everyone asks about college, so here you go, and you're welcome.

I got my "home-college" assignments long before I finished my last schoolbook, and I've already started in on this exercise of Home Management. It's all fine and nice (and really wonderful) to know how to cook, or do your own laundry, or keep your little brothers busy with school when your mom is gone to town. It's also great to be able to clean a toilet or organize a kitchen cupboard. 

But can you do all those things, (plus shopping, hospitality, menu planning, more cleaning, dishes, more cleaning, AND self care) all by yourself, all day, week, month, long, without help? Well, that is what my parents wanted to see, so I've started to gradually get into the project of being the main homemaker on Humphrey Hill. I haven't done a "complete takeover" yet but that is planned for a week, in a couple of weeks. 

Beyond this interesting and creative exercise, I am writing a book that is near to being stamped as a first-draft. I have been writing it for years actually, but my goal is to finish it this month and my goal is coming along nicely. I plan to publish it, and well, I don't know, but doesn't that sound college-like to you? 

Between these things, perhaps starting a business, improving my skills with musical instruments, some travel Lord Willing, and daily life (don't forget the new ideas that pop up from time to time) I'm busy!

Oh, I didn't mention sewing in that list, but it deserves a place there and I have some projects planned for this summer. I am working on an A-line dress made with a very slippery imitation wool dobby fabric, a first experience working with specialty cloth. So far I don't like sewing with specialty cloth - please give me back the cotton I was raised with!!

________________________________________________________

There are so many fun ways to celebrate life accomplishments like graduations. We're having a family camp-out complete with hot-dogs, s'mores, snacks, and a river with 1,110 rocks to maneuver in a kayak. In addition to this, my mom and I have been scheming a girl's day out to "do the shops" in our local quaint, charming little town. But there are so many more ways to celebrate!

Most everyone has a party* with their friends and family when they graduate. Will you have a themed party or a free-for-all fun party? 

*Note: Parties do not have to be wild; in fact, as you already know, parties are more fun to look back on when you don't have to regret being stupid and childish as a celebration of your adulthood.

Many graduates are into sports. ("Ah, all that youthful energy," sigh the visiting grandparents.)

If your family or friends are collectors of outdoor games, I can think of few things better than having a evening of back-yard sports, when it's deliciously warmish-cool outside. Don't forget your coolers of fun pops and juices and iced teas. 

Of course, not everyone is into passionately flinging objects at other passionate people and expecting them to catch those objects, screeching hysterically when they do and when they don't. If you are one of those young persons who would rather sit with dignity in a decorated room and have a fun, interesting conversation with others your age, I think you would enjoy an Afternoon Tea or Literary Dinner. Of course, you can't really stay inside the house on a nice summer evening, so a game of croquet or a stroll about the grounds might benefit your party.

There are also those in-between people who don't fit in either box. They are serious hikers, outdoorsmen & women, fishermen. Sometimes they are the kind of people who would rather not bring 15 teenagers on a fishing trip, and instead would enjoy a group hike in an amazing location they've been wanting to see for awhile, or an organized white-water rafting trip with a picnic or hotdog roast at the end. 

Anyhow, whatever way you celebrate, (and I would happily celebrate all 3 ways) keep in mind that the celebrating ain't over when the guests leave. Entering a new time of life is exciting! And since that was so completely cliché, let me put it another way: Celebration, when done right, is so, so good for people. A merry heart does good like medicine, and celebrating, when done right, brings family together and friends together and strengthens important relationships with the bond of happy memories. Ever since I was born I've been one of those kids that wanted to make a cake for most everything, and I'm not stopping now. I love what God has given me in my life, and though I don't need a special reason to make my life, and my family's life, special, I've got one now so I want to milk this one for all it's worth!

Which could mean many things*: bribing my brother to take me hiking, baking that basket weave cake and giving brother No.'s 4 & 5 the icing bowl to lick out, buying those long-needed organizers for my fabric shelf, taking a walk through the tall, stickery grass at sunset and just enjoying being God's happy creature in His creation.

(*Here's the translation of this thought: "Ooooh! I just LOVE this planner!! Oh, I'm graduating. I'll get it. And those chocolates look so good that I should really get them for myself for graduating. I really, really don't want to do the dishes right now. I'll ask [un-named brother] to do them for me since I'm graduating.)

Just kidding - sorta. Don't get any bad ideas!

Congratulations on your accomplishment, whether it's finishing high school, 9th grade, your new dress, a project, or that pile o'dishes that's indwelt the kitchen for a week.

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

Oregon Is Officially A Northern State

 Oregon is officially a Northern State. In fact, we're practically as good as Alaska at this point. We have seen the Northern Lights!

Boasting and the fact that we are already a north(west)ern state aside, I feel so blessed to have been able to see this once in my life, especially living in an area of the US that doesn't often get to see this special treat.

It was spectacular, humbling, awesome, gorgeous, and a bit overwhelming when it first started. 

We knew there was a chance of viewing on Friday night from 10PM to 2 AM. Being an adventurous, night-owlish family, we hopped in the car at 10 and headed north of our mountain for our "unobstructed view to the north." It turns out that we could have stayed home and seen it just as well, but since we had a 5,000 ft. mountain behind us and no prophets in the family, we drove north to find a side road in the sagebrush flats to watch this great piece of space weather. We found our gravel road off of the highway (as did a number of other people) and we began to see the beginning of the Lights. The sky had a hazy, white "space-bow" arching over the sky. You know, if I hadn't been expecting the Northern Lights I might not have noticed it as anything out of the ordinary. It began to look a little green, as I assured myself over and over again trying to see it. Then, we discovered that if we looked away from the lights, we could see streaks in the sky out of the corners of our eyes. That was exciting.

 

The lights from the highway nearby, and the noise, were bothering our celestial experience, so we packed into the car and drove to a more remote road to see if we could see better. 

A few minutes later, it was getting very late, and the sky, while interesting, was hardly colorful at all and not your iconic Northern Lights experience. Oh well, it was what we should have expected - this was Oregon after all and we were south of the best area for viewing the Aurora Borealis. We headed home, thinking we had seen a cool thing. 

Part way home, I looked out the back window and broke out into exclamations. The sky was changing  -and turning green!!!

Fortunately we were coming up on another gravel road, which we turned onto pronto and bailed out of the car. There, right over that mountain supposedly blocking our view, was 

the most remarkable thing 

I have ever, 

ever seen

 in the night sky.

The striation was becoming more intense, and a gorgeous, blooming pink had formed above an amazing neon green. 
It was overwhelming - so vast and bright and nothing like anything that had ever took over our sky before. 

We hurried home and watched the show behind our own hill, where it showed up quite well.

We were some of the few people in this viewing who got to see colors with our naked eye  - and they were vivid! The ground was colored in pink light, and when we did finally head inside, pinkish aurora light was filtering in our windows and giving us light to walk by. 

The total eclipse has been eclipsed in our family by this amazing phenomenon!

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

Free-Hand Nightgown

 Hello Readers,

I made a nightgown recently that I thought I'd share with you. It is a very simply, but comfy design that is easily made without a storebought pattern. 

We were gifted with some Lanz flannel years ago, and I finally got around to doing something with it.

This is the basic idea of the layout I did on my fabric. I didn't measure how many yards of fabric I used (!) but I'm guessing it was 2 yards. I had to really squeeze the neckline facing out of some scraps, and it is not a nice, finished facing by any means, so I would suggest using another piece of fabric for facings if you're dealing with only 2 yards of fabric. I held the fabric up to myself to get the neckline and shoulder in the right places for the yoke and cut it out. If you'd like more in-depth instructions on this, here's a blog post that has a yoke tutorial in it.

{unfolded skirt}

Then I loosely stitched two rows of gathering across the top of skirt. On the front skirt, I clustered gathers on each side as shown below:

On the back skirt, I did roughly even gathers all the way across. I attached the skirts to the yolk front and back. 

I sewed up the side seams of my skirts to the corners. I don't remember the exact order I sewed the rest of the nightgown in, but I can tell you the steps :) 

I hemmed the skirt and set the sleeves in, and hemmed them as well. If you'd like to see how to set-in a sleeve you can find a tutorial in this post. I made a pleat in the top of each sleeve because I had extra material.

I put the neckline facing in and tried the gown on, only to realize...

The back of the skirt looked rather ridiculous. It just had way too much yardage in it! The front of the skirt had managed pretty well, but not the other side. So I took in two vertical tucks on either side of the back skirt, just below the yoke. They were ~6-7" long and were effective in gathering up some yardage. However, the look was not professional and next time, I would probably just cut a narrower skirt for the back! 

Well, you learn something new every time. I really like this nightgown and it whipped together in one evening. If you try something of the sort let me know!

to God be the glory,

                                                                   Miss Humphrey