Rain Delay

Due to an unexpected power outage yesterday I didn't get finish all the projects I set out to this week.
I'm fairly sure that I can finish everything up in time for lunch today and will update this post with pictures of the finished product.

I just seem to have done everything in the wrong order. I spent all day Monday working on the laundry I mentioned and reading in between loads. In the afternoon I washed some dishes and did some work in our back yard. Then on Tuesday I finished up the Roman Shade for our office. I used a tutorial that I found on Domestically Speaking. The instructions there are very easy to follow so I won't waste a lot of time rehashing them here. Basically you take the blinds apart and then glue several slats to the fabric you want to use for the shade.

For this one I spaced the slats about 9 inches apart. We hope that this will keep our cats from tearing things up. The office window has a shelf right under it that our cats like to sit on and look out, while doing this they have bent and broken several slats from the mini-blinds. This should let them look out more easily. The plan for the office has always been to paint in some black branches and add cherry blossoms but we've never gotten around to it. The fabric for the shade will tie into that theme.

Night Time- All Open

Day Time- Partially Open

Night- Fully Closed

My plans for Wednesday were to finish my Ironman sundress but we lost power around 10am and didn't get it back until after 3pm. I took a nice walk in the misty rain and got some good pictures of our rosebush covered in raindrops. I took myself out to lunch because I couldn't cook. I sat by our most sun filled window and read a book. It wasn't necessarily a bad way to spend a day (aside from a bit of stress over waiting to hear from the power company) just not what I had planed.  

I had previously cut fabric for dress straps and once the power came back on I could see well enough to pin them in place. Because I want to be able to wear the dress without needing a strapless bra I needed to be sure the straps be covered those of the dress. To make the straps I started with a piece that was 4x18 inches. I ironed in an inch on both sides and then folded that in half and ironed everything again.

For the ruffled 'sleeve' part I used a piece about 5x10 and cut a curve onto one side. The plan is to put a little bit of gather into the straight side and then insert it into the fold of the strap and sew all along the open side.

                                              

                     Sleeve Cut Outs                                                              Sleeves with Hem

Update: May 21 11:45am

To add ruffle to the sleeves set your sewing machine to a longer stitch and sew right along the straight edge of the ruffle. Then pull the thread to create gathers.

I tried to hold it in place and use pins to mark where I wanted the sleeve positioned on the strap. After that tuck it into the open side of the strap and sew everything closed.

Then sew the straps onto the dress. I had previously pinned the straps in place to make sure they covered my bra straps and fit the way I wanted them too. The gathers from the elastic thread hide  the stitches where the strap is sewn on the bodice of the dress.

I think the position of the straps is great but I may want to reposition the ruffles so they are a bit more to the front. I wasn't able to get a good full length picture of me in the finished dress but here are some shots of the sleeves.