My daughter went to the hospital yesterday for her pre-op visit for her scheduled C-section this coming Wednesday, but they discovered a concern with the baby's cord around his neck, so decided to do the surgery right away. Of course, there was no way to get there in time, plus the hospital was in lock-down to an influenza outbreak, so they wouldn't have let us in anyways.

Everything went well, with mother and baby doing wonderfully. My son-in-law sent us a picture a few hours later. Here's little Elliot James, born at 8:20 pm February 9th, weighing 7 lbs 14 oz.

Hopefully we will be able to go for a visit later this week after they go home.

I didn't do much on my Queen's dress yesterday, as I was busy redressing everyone that came back from Charie's.  I've sewn some very large snaps on the inside of the overskirt, so the side panels can snap into position on the overskirt....

The next step is to sew the embellishments onto the other side of the snap. I was cutting silk ribbons, then realized I'd had the silk ribbon drawer out the morning my baggie with flower petals disappeared. So I went to look, and sure enough, there they were, right in the top. I made two flowers out of several sets of petals, and painted the stems on the ribbon roses. Here's some of the embellishments to finish off the over-skirt.....

Hopefully, this afternoon I can finish the overskirt, and start drafting the patterns for the bodice and sleeves.

Went to Charie's last night to pick up all my dolls, after one record-breakingly short visit there (I just brought them all there on Sunday afternoon). Everything had gone really well.

My Lisa is beautiful!  Real Skin is my favourite IH resin colour, and mine is the very first RS Lisa I've seen. It's nice I have lots of clothes for her to try on, as I made three versions of every KID outfit last year, in anticipation of eventually getting Lisa. I think she's definitely a center-part, no bangs kind of girl. I like her with dark hair, but this is just the first wig I tried on her.....

My Asa now has the new glamor bust body, which Charie drilled out for better stability. The "legs tied just to each other" design of the newer JID girl bodies just doesn't work for us, so Charie solves the problem by drilling up through the pelvis, so now her legs are strung right up through the body to the head, like most larger BJDs. I still have one JID girl who needs to be drilled, but all the rest have been - except Asa's original body, which was the old design and didn't have that issue to start with.

 My Lonnie now has one "holdy hand". I had ordered two sets of partly closed hands for my KIDs, because there's so little I can do with those "expressive feminine" hands they come with. I like to put just one holdy hand on a doll, so I have more posing options.  Lisa and Peach will each get a RS holdy hand.

Leona was a lot of work - first to remove the gunk on the back of her head, and the medical tape used for sueding her neck joint, and then a careful cleaning of the white MSC areas, saving Leona's beautiful faceup. Charie then blushed her a bit darker to better match the resin of her body - so now she's a bit more tanned-looking. We were lucky the Testor's sealer didn't react with the MSC, so there was no need to strip her and redo her faceup. Just darken it a bit.

In addition to the Queen of the Night costume I'm currently making for Asa, I only have two other JID outfits. I decided Soa , who is the most "native-looking"- will just have to wear the West Coast Native regalia for now, and Leona gets to wear the "Mother Nature" set. She looks gorgeous in it! I think she'll be keeping those lovely gray eyes she came with. I usually replace my doll's eyes with a size 10 pair, but I think this is one time where the size 12 really works.

Well, Soa still needs dressing, and then I can get back to Asa's gown. I just wish I could find the little baggie with the flower petals I need. I had it in my hands yesterday morning, and when it was time to make a flower using those petals, I couldn't find the baggie anywhere. I looked , and looked - through many places more than once. I feel like I've looked "everywhere", but if that were true, then I'd have found them. They have to be somewhere.

I wonder who ever dreamed up "Kite Day" for this time in February?   But then, most of these Special Days originate in the US, and much of that country, especially the southern and western states are experiencing nice weather, perfect for flying a kite - even in February.  

Byuri took her kite outside, but found the snow too deep to get a good running start, and any wind strong enough to send up a kite, just froze her to the bone...very disappointing.....

Some of the girls wanted to help shovel the snow off the sidewalks, 
but there was so much, there was no place left to throw it.  

Nevertheless, both Peach and Byuri were working hard.......

But Erzulie got fed up....

We certainly got a lot of snow yesterday - the pile from the plow at the bottom of the driveway was about a meter high. But it didn't take too long to shovel it all. The snow is so deep all the walkways are like little canyons. Not as deep scale-wise as they are to my dolls, but there's more snow in the forecast for Sunday, and February is barely even started...so maybe....

The Queen's basic overskirt is finished. There was an awful lot of fabric to gather to the waistband, so I stitched 16 darts across the top in order to reduce the bulk.

Here's what the skirts look like, with the side panels pinned back into position.

The next step is to gather the front panel into position and sew a snap on the inside so the overskirt can snap into position onto the underskirt. Then I have to add the embellishments.

The snow keeps coming, and we can actually watch it getting deeper and deeper. 
It's now so high up the front window the girls can barely see over it.

They'd love to go outside and play in it, but for this kind of snow they'd need snowsuits, and they don't have any. Maybe once it stops snowing, and the sidewalks are shoveled, they can go out.

We are getting dumped on again today. First they said we'd get 10 cm, then they updated it to 20 cm, but I went out for a little walk, and there's WAY more than that already, and it's supposed to snow all day. It looks beautiful. Everything is covered with a very thick blanket of snow

I did a little shoveling, and it's as light as shoveling feathers. But it's coming 
down so fast the sidewalk is white again right behind me as I go.

The women across the street were trying to snow-blow their driveway, but it just came blowing right back. The piles on our boulevard are already so high from previous snowfalls, that there's no place left to put it - except in the middle of the front lawn - and that's quite some throw.

I LOVE snow, and this has been one great winter so far!  It's all very inspirational as I sit working on my doll costume. Yesterday I cut out the overskirt and hemmed it by hand - which took quite some time. I machine-stitched the front openings as they won't show under the embellishment, but the hem will, and they didn't have sewing machines back in the Rococo period, so a machine-stitched hem would look totally wrong. So, it had to be hemmed by hand.

After measuring where the trim would go along the upper front opening, I cut some of the same dotted sheer as the bottom ruffle of the underskirt. I stitched it over the skirt fabric, then decided it wouldn't work that way, as there needed to be a bit of a curve on the front edge of the skirt. I tried picking it off with my seam-ripper, but I can't see detail in dark fabrics anymore, so ended up cutting it off instead - along with some of the edge of the taffeta. Oh well, some Fray Check and zig-zagging over the cut edge, and it will be just fine. Then I cut some new strips a bit longer so I could gather them slightly to make a a bit of a curve. After positioning the velvet petals, they were stitched down. I'm in the process of beading the petals on the second front opening.

I would have liked to have made the narrow purple ruffle a bit fuller, but there wasn't enough of the purple ribbon to cut it 3 times the length of the space it would fill - well, there was, but then there wouldn't have been any left for the bodice. So I had to go with just double. I have to pay attention not to bead right to the top of the skirt (far left) since I'll need space for the sewing machine foot when I sew the skirt to the waistband.

Well, the radio just updated the forecast again, and now the snow is not supposed to let up at all, but will continue at the current pace right until evening. At the rate it's coming down, we could literally get buried! 

My Queen's underskirt is finished. I sewed on the last row of flower petals, made the beaded ribbon puffs, and stitched on the flower and bead embellishments....

It's interesting how all the colours are so contrasty in the photos. In real life everything is a bit more muted and blends together better. The blue lace isn't nearly so dark either. Anyway, here's the finished underskirt. Soa is modeling again, as Asa and Leona are away at Charie's. 

It's nice having several JID girls who can stand in for each other. I just can't work on the dress bodice until I get Asa with her glamor bust back though. But the overskirt is next...


The main dress fabric from the first gown is the only thing I no longer had, so I spent a couple of years trying to find a decent replacement. I've purchased several fabrics during that time, but none were just right. The metallic velour has a very nice pattern, but it's just not period appropriate, and it's way too heavy. The flocked organza is nice, but it's a sheer, and I really don't want to deal with two stiff fabrics - the organza and a lining. The flocked designs on the taffeta are way too big, and the flowers and birds on the silk are way too contrasty.

After playing with the fabrics and checking their drape, I've decided on the plain dark blue taffeta. It drapes the best, and has a nice elegant look. There is no surface pattern or embroidery, but the back of the dress will be covered by a sheer cape with glittery stars and moons anyway, so that will add the interest. So today I have to design the overskirt pattern and make a test out of old sheeting.

Today is actually "Carrot Day", which brought to mind a lovely photo from almost two years ago, of Elin feeding the little brown bunnies, on a nice warm day in spring.   Ahhhh.....spring......

Yesterday was Ground Hog Day, and the theory goes that if the groundhog comes out of his burrow and sees his shadow, we are in for another six weeks of winter. If he doesn't see his shadow we are supposed to get an early spring. With all the snow we've been having lately, the girls figured the groundhog would never be able to get out of his burrow and take a look around. So they went out with their shovels to remove the snow from the top of his burrow. But they couldn't find it.....

"That's okay," said Peach,"It's sunny out with a clear blue sky today, so if he had been able to come out he would have seen his shadow." 

Both Wiarton Willie and Punxsutawney Phil saw their shadows yesterday, so that officially means another six weeks of winter.  I don't why so many people are upset. In previous years it never mattered if the groundhog saw his shadow or not - either way we always had another eight weeks of winter. At least. And then this morning Environment Canada announced they expect our cold weather to last well through April. Does that mean there's a chance of snow on my birthday?  It's at the end of April, and it's been a very long time since we've had snow on that day - in fact it's been 38 years. 

So, twelve more weeks of winter?!?!  Sigh....Well, this is the "Great White North" after all....