Pin It Weekly #233

After taking Jolie to get her new pointe shoes and hand-sewing the ribbon and elastic on them, I had ballet on my mind. Of course, that meant finding some ballet shots to add to my Pinterest.

Zsa Zsa Bellagio

When I had a minute to do some pinning, I added a few pins to my "ballet, dance" board.

Marianela Nunez as Giselle

I guess I got a little carried away. My original intention was simply to pin a few pictures and share the board with Miss Prima Ballerina herself, but I just kept pinning. There are over 200 pins on this board, but maybe Jolie will scan through and pick out some favorites for her Snapchat.  In the meantime, I'm having great fun. Hope you do, too.

Myriam Ould-Braham and Mathias Heymann in Cranko’s Onegin

Killing Time and Ballet on Pointe

I finished the Harley Davidson quilt top last week but didn't have the backing fabric that I wanted. While I had a few days of down time, I decided to sew some blue scraps together to make some small blocks. The blue bucket was spilling over. It's not that bad now, but it sure seems that I didn't reduce the volume by much.

I have a new set of rulers that we bought about a month ago. I wanted a 15" square ruler to make cutting tee shirts easier, but the set of four was cheap enough that I got the two smallest rulers at no cost. I didn't think I'd use the small rulers (4" and 6") but found that I was able to put them to use with the blue scraps.

I simply sewed pieces together until I had enough to cut out either 4" squares or 6" squares. Later, when I have time again, I'll make some 10" squares. Then it will be time to decide what to do with them. I've started with 12 of each size and am already finished with the smaller sizes. 

While it seems that I didn't use up a great deal of fabrics, this trash basket holds the cut off. Most are slivers smaller than a 1/2".  

All of that will come back into play when I have the HD quilt finished. Hopefully I'll be able to load it onto the long-arm tomorrow.

On Pointe
Since I needed some backing fabric for the HD quilt and Jolie needed some ballet toe pointe shoes--hers were destroyed in the fire--we decided to make an afternoon trip to Lafayette. Her dance school purchases all of their ballet shoes at The Ultimate, so that's where we headed. 

I loved the store! The two ladies were very kind and helpful. Once they learned that Jolie lost her first pair in the fire and had had them only a month, they gave her a few of the accessories that she needed. 

 The store is beautifully decorated with many ballet shoes in flower arrangements, as part of a collage of photos and mementos, and scattered around the room on small tables and in dishes. I kind of wanted to ask them to let me make an arrangement using some shoes. 

Once we got home, Jolie wasted no time in asking me to do some hand sewing. The sales lady pins the elastic and ribbon in place, but someone has to sew them in. It took me a while to figure how to stitch each piece because the thread is really a thin cord and the inside fabric of the shoe is leather. 

Poke and pull sewing is not fun. It took me an hour to sew in the elastic, so I decided to put the rest of the sewing off until tomorrow. 

Jolie called at 9:30 to beg me to finish so she could dance tonight and "break in the shoes." I don't think she will accomplish that tonight, but who knows. How about this picture of Jolie trying on the shoes. I knew she could stand on pointe, but seeing her with the ballet shoes on and in position really made it hit home. How beautiful is this picture?

Eventually I got the stitching completed. She was extremely happy to race in to pick up the shoes. 

Can you see my stitching on the side of the shoe? There are two places: on top of the elastic where it meets the heel and to the front of the elastic where the ribbon is attached.

 As a child I wanted to learn ballet and have a pair of toe pointe shoes. I guess it is possible to live life through your children and grandchildren. I can only hope that I would have sported a pair as gracefully as my beautiful granddaughter does. 

While I've repaired many strange items and I've made baby booties, I've never finished a pair of real ballet shoes. It was fun and required a bit of creative problem solving, but I think it was a success. 

And because I have a video of Milly on the move, here's a copy

Millie on the Move!

Pin It Weekly #160

160! Now isn't that a nice number? It means that we've had right at three years of Pin It Weekly. Give or take a few weeks. I'm impressed. Thank you to those of you who have come back time and again to see what's happening in my little Pinterest world and an even bigger thanks to those who have commented or otherwise communicated your appreciation for Pin It Weekly. I hope we can keep this going for a while longer. 




One way to do that is for you to join me in sharing your boards. Though having a linky party hasn't been terribly successful, I'm going to try again. So, after you scroll through and see what I've been pinning, grab the url from one of your boards and drop it into the linky so others can see what you're pinning.

There are so many inspiring ideas, quotes, and prompts. It would be difficult impossible to pin them all but it's easy to find some interesting ones. Search bullet journal! I don't have a board, but I just discovered this new phenomena that seems to have taken over the 20-something set. These young professionals have conceded discovered that writing things down by hand can be a better way to remember ideas than typing them into a computer, ipad, or phone. Oh, really? 

Anyway, apparently much time can be wasted used doodling, drawing, and designing pages. Then, of course, one should blog about the pretties, Instagram pictures, and tweet. 

I almost started a board, but I think I'm too old busy. I have been adding to my boards. 

As you've probably guessed, I've added to my "ballet, dance" board, which has over 100 pins.  I've also added a new board this week, "sewing, studio" because I really enjoy looking at other crafters' spaces.  Most of the ones I've pinned so far are for sewing, but I plan to add pins from other crafts as well.  Surely other creative spaces can lend ideas that will work in our sewing rooms.

Alayna's MORP Dress

Last week our granddaughter Alayna called and asked for help with a MORP dress.  I knew I was getting into something serious, but little did I know that it would mean changing the design of the dress.



I should have known.  I tend to get into these situations easily.  But who can say no to, "Grandmay, please."  Not me, apparently.  So they arrived late that evening for a fitting, giving me a couple of days to I could figure out the problem and start considering some solutions.  

The dress was just too big.  When her mom ordered the dress online, she had to measure Alayna.  Scared of getting a too-small dress, she was generous with her measurements.  

I would think it was a half-size larger than needed in the bust-line and back.  The halter straps on the bodice were much too long, but there were a couple of hooks so they could be adjusted.

I realized that the straps could be the solution if I could just figure out how to change them to regular straps that would hook in the back. So that's what I did--I moved the straps.  

Instead of a halter top, she now has a dress with straps that connect to the back.  Since the straps weren't long enough to reach the bodice back, I made slim little bands using cording and slivers of fabric stolen from one of the side seams.  Since the dress is covered in chiffon, I had no choice but to treat it with extra care.  I sewed everything before cutting and used fray check to help control the fraying on the little cords.  

I had to hand sew the cord ends onto the back, then attached it to the wider straps.  There are lots of beads on the straps, so I didn't want to fold them under and have them pinching and pricking her skin all night.  I also didn't want to cut the cord and risk messy ends sticking out.  I certainly did not want to take any stitches out!  

So I chose to hand-stitch the cord to the strap from one edge to the other. It worked very well!  To give them a finished look, I added some beading on the small corded bands.  The beads don't match exactly, but they are close enough that even Alayna thought I'd somehow found matching beads.

They returned on Thursday to pick up the dress, redesigned, finished and pressed.  A boxed ride from the manufacturer to Louisiana is pretty rough on an evening dress, so it needed a little TLC in the form of my little steamer.  Alayna seemed very pleased: for a young lady who is very quiet and shows little emotion, she was downright giddy with happiness!  Go Grandmay!  

Quick update: I saw Alayna this afternoon and asked about her dance.  Her reply, "Awesome!"  And the dress straps held up (I was a little concerned).

Linking up with lots of parties tonight!

How I managed to catch them all is beyond me.

Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts 

 A Quarter Inch from the Edge for TGIF Friday 

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts 

My Quilt Infatuation