Tea and the green dress

Today Deborah and I had tea at the library. We heard Laura Schaefer read and talk about her new book The Teashop Girls. It was so great for Deborah to meet a real published author. And she is a local Madisonian. Both Deborah and I read the book beforehand. I think it was fun for her to read about girls in our own town with references to places we know about. She was such a friendly lady, I hope her books do well and she writes many more.


The green dress is almost done! Just buttons and buttonholes left to do, hopefully tonight won't be too crazy and I can get them done.

I added a lace ruffle around the circular flat lace.

The sleeves are smocked with the same colors as the neckline.  I added 1 1/2 inches to the sleeve length, folded that extra up and ran the bottem edge of the sleeve through the pleater. That way the edge of the sleeve looks finished. Then when I closed up the underarm seam with french seams I made sure the end of the first seam was securly tucked inside the second seam.

I hand stitched the four-inch deap hem. This way it can easily be let down as the child grows. Corduroy tends to leave a mark when you let out the hem. Sometimes I would tack on a matching ribbon or lace around the hem line on Deborah's dresses. I thought it looked more finished and less noticable that the hem had been let out.