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

Crafty Projects

 Greetings!

I hope you'll enjoy looking at some crafty projects I've been doing recently. 

I water-colored this autumn tree yesterday.

One of my favorite pictures to paint this fall has been a mill house with autumn colors suggesting a hill of deciduous trees in the background. But when I add those beautiful oranges, yellows and reds to the background, all of the sudden my mill house is about to be engulfed in flames!

 It can be difficult to give the impression of autumn colors without also hinting at eminent catastrophe; especially when I'm painting a forest of trees. So I did what I should have done long before; I looked at a tutorial . After implementing some of the techniques in my own way, I am satisfied with the result and hope to make my trees more realistic in the future.

I've made some Cowboy Christmas/winter cards to sell at a local shop. I have made them in 2 sizes; the larger size has sentiments inside while the smaller cards are blank.

 I made 3 categories of "sentimental" cards: encouragement, birthday and Christmas. Each of them have western sentiments for the occasion. Here's an example of an encouragement card.

I am making progress on my quilt, which features English Paper Piecing. 

(The process I was taught and the one in the tutorial are very similar; I baste my fabric "hexies" around the paper hexies instead of gluing them.)

I have yet to applique some of my hexagon circles to quilt blocks.

I hope to add a few more colors to my quilt, but for now I have teal and bright green.

As you can see, the circles are quite large when finished. The quilt blocks are 20" squares, so I don't have to make too many of them to make a big quilt; perhaps 3 blocks across and 5 down. 

I plan to put a large border of color around the finished blocks and sashing to make the finished quilt twin or double sized.

This is a picture of one of my quilt blocks folded in quarters. I just thought that it would make a pretty block by itself with the hexagon corner embellishment. This would be neat for napkins or fan-quilt style blocks. 

To finish, here's some Autumn Morning pictures from the high desert.

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey 

Autumn and Winter Wardrobe Planning

Hello again!

I thought I'd share with you my autumn and winter wardrobe plans in this post. It's composed of dresses I've sewn myself, clothes I've been given, and store-bought clothes.

Winter Walking Skirt and Western Blouse

You can view a post about this skirt here. 

I can pair any white blouse with this skirt and look like I stepped out of Scotland.

Festive Circle Dress
This is one of my favorite dresses! It has an A-line flare to it and is all around fun and wintry. 

You can have a better look at it here.

Gold 1830's Dress

You can look at this dress in more detail here.

Jean skirt and blouse

This jean skirt, made from a pattern for an Edwardian walking skirt, is a staple for all seasons. It matches EVERYTHING, and I have worn it a lot since its creation this spring! For autumn/winter I can pair it with a long sleeve blouse or plaid shirt. 

Regency Jumper

Jumpers are a good option for winter since you always layer when you wear them, providing extra warmth. See more of this jumper here.

Midnight Blue 1830's Dress

I just did a post on this dress. You can see it here.

Autumn Foliage

I didn't make this dress; it was a find at Walmart if I recall correctly. Isn't it the spirit of autumn? It features a lower waist than most of my dresses, and I think it would look charming with a sweater or jean jacket.

Blue Anchor Dress

My grandma made this dress and gave it to me on a beach trip. Isn't it beautiful?

That wraps up most of my autumn and winter wardrobe!

I hope this post was inspiring to you. Even if you don't sew or haven't gotten into it yet, you can still compile fun outfits for the cold, drippy seasons. 

Have you begun your seasonal festivities yet? I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas!

I have been enjoying listening to Handel's Messiah recently. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, it is a beautiful, Scripture-filled musical composition that is worth listening to. 

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey