Pre-Trip Catch-Up

 I've been distracted this past month in getting ready for my two-week vacation; both getting stuff ready at home and wrapping stuff up at work. So I haven't done much crafting in general.

But! I did get Papillon done in time for the last EGA meeting:

 

Done! It definitely took some frantic hemming the night before the meeting, but I did get it done! I'm actually pretty happy now it's done. The variegated thread is really lovely, and I like the way the larger perl cotton for the actual darning stitch looks.

Other than that, I did a little bit of clothes altering and repair, for things I wanted to wear while I'm gone:

First is a dress that has a nice, very elastic, smocked looking bodice. Unfortunately, the stitching holding that together came undone. So that is me, chaining those loops back together and then re-securing the ends at the side seams. I didn't get before or after pics, because after all that careful catching and re-chaining, I was very done.

Second, a maxi dress I bought from the juniors section:

I really love it, but the chest was...let's say not up to the challenge. So it never quite fit right and I usually wore a shirt over the top anyway. So, if I'm using it as a skirt, let's make it a skirt!

I am pretty proud of this; it's my first real alteration. It originally had kind of an empire waist, so I used that seam as the waist-waist. Which has the added bonus of making the whole thing longer on me. Reattached the top button to the outside, and put a skirt clip behind it.

Once I get back from the trip, I'll be diving headfirst into Sara Rickard's Deep Dive into Jacobean. Look at these colors!

Had the first class this week actually, but I want to wait to actually get into everything once I'm back in town. And that's what I have! Hopefully I will be knitting and cross stitching while I'm away, to have something to show and tell once I'm back.