September is Here

     Next week my after-school classes start back up.  I originally had 9-10 girls signed up and then school started.  Several of the girls got into different programs at school and now can't start until October or November.  Unfortunately that leaves me with a full Monday class and only one girl in Tuesday and one girl in Wednesday.  Now at the last minute I am trying to juggle things around because it is not cost efficient to run the class with only one girl.  Also it is boring for them.  This has been quite stressful.

Mother of the Bride Dress

     Here is a photo of the mother of the bride dress that I just finished.  The dress did not have an overlay in the pattern.  I had to draft those pieces and then line up the scallops of the lace so that they met in the seam to give the illusion of it being one continual piece.  I think it turned out quite well.  The mom and daughter both loved it.

     I also did a non-tradtional dress for the bride.  It is a short dress on the bias with an open back where the beadwork piece the bride made will be featured.  It also has a short train of a sheer blue and gray.  The dress is a silver gray satin.  On Monday, Labor Day, we had the final fitting.  It was all fine except the back gapped above the waist.  The only way to fix it was to remove the zipper and cut down the top part of the back to have it lay smoother against the back.  That meant that all the snaps to hold the bead work and the thread loops to hold the train had to be removed and redone.  And they were leaving on Tuesday morning to go to the place where the wedding is going to be held.

     I had to cancel a private lesson scheduled for Tuesday morning to work on the dress.  It all got finished and the bride loved it.  I hope they send me a few photos from the wedding.

     I did my first 20 mile run on Sunday in preparation for the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon on October 7th.  I actually did okay until 19.5 miles when I just wanted to quit but I got through it.  Legs felt pretty good afterwards, much better than the 18 mile run 10 days before that.

     I am hoping I can get the after school situation settled and now that the dresses are done the stress will go down some.  I am nervous about the upcoming marathon, my first, but it is a different kind of stress.