Sewing A Swing dress

vintage singer sewing machine is up and going finally! We had it serviced and now my sister and I are loving it for heavy duty sewing, such as slat bonnets we are putting up for sale on our website soon. Sewing through cardboard would not go well on my Janome modern machine. :)

 Hello everyone! I have been sewing up a storm today and since Monday. I decided to sew myself up a 1940's swing dress. I watched this movie here-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036160/ and this movie-http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Thousand-Women-Phyllis-Calvert/dp/B000MOUA3G and that was dangerous! Now I just really badly want a swing dress. :) Both very fun movies by the way! I would recommend them to older viewers though, both have romance scenes in them that are a little intimate. And of course in the era drinking and smoking were both very prevalent, of course its that way today too. Basically if you are under 18 ask your parents permission before watching. :) They were pretty enjoyable though and gave me a lot more insight into what it was like during world war 2 in Britain that is. Wonderful dresses in both movies! great inspiration!

My yellow roses have been doing so so well! I will post a tutorial for doing rose water later. It smells wonderful!

I have the bodice finished now, except for the waist band. In these photos I was in the middle of hemming the sleeves with some lace an older woman just gifted us with! I was so excited as its so much easier to hem with flat lace and its so much prettier. :)

I studied for psychology while hand sewing the inside seams with french seams and hemming the sleeves with lace as well as pinning the sleeves into the bodice and then sewing them up. I am trying to finish the dress so I can wear it on Sunday morning for church, but we will see if that works out because I am not the most timely seamstress. So many other things to do besides sewing. :) Also it may just be hideous and I might not want you all to see the finished result. :) But I believe that will not happen Lord willing! :)

I have not sewn a dress in about a year because every time I tried to sew a modern dress by myself or any dress by myself it turned out unwearable. Civil war gowns I have usually had help to sew them. But I have never sewn a 40's dress before. But it seems to be going well so far. I love love love my fabric! I bought it off the red tag table at our Joann's in April and its a polyester/rayon blend I believe. Its gotten humid these past few days in the high 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so I hope to get it done for Sunday before we get 100 degree Fahrenheit weather!

The lovely lace above! I just loved using it for hemming! It was so much easier. I also received these vintage scissors from the nice older lady who gave us some sewing supplies. They are nice and sharp and great for seam ripping. I hate seam rippers because they are never sharp! So small scissors are much better for me. 

The pattern I am using is from Sense and Sensibility patterns and you can find their website in the side bar under my favorite web sites list. The bodice above as well, its hard to see with the busy print the details, but I love that because you can't see my mistakes as well. :)

The fabric up close and personal above. I thought it was funny because some of the flowers seem to resemble spider webs, but you did not notice that right?? I will just look as if its a bit of lace in between the roses. :)
I hope your day has gone well! Its been lovely here. I will be sharing some outfit posts soon and progress on the swing dress as well as a tutorial on how to make rose water Lord willing soon. I tried it Tuesday and its wonderful! Also some thrift store finds as well will be shared soon. :) Do head over to Casey's Elegant Musings to see her finished swing dress in the mean time. Its so cute! :) http://elegantmusings.com/tag/swing-dress-sew-along/

In Christ,
Rebecca

You may be wondering......

where have I been for the past 11 days! :)

Well life is pretty full right now with many things I have been learning from the Lord, through family, friends, and acquaintances. Its hard to really know where to start this post. :) But I want to share with you all some Scriptures that have really been written on my heart lately and some songs that have come out of these words from my Lord.

sunset this evening! it was beautiful!

I have truly I will admit gone through a tough times these past days and hence no blog posts.But I have found a renewed joy in the Lord through these trials that came out of no where. God gives us these trials in His perfect timing and only for our good I have come to realize after pondering and trying to memorize Romans 8 for a few weeks now.
I have doubted if I am where God wants me to be in this life and I have cried out to Him literally as it talks about in the Psalms. I am serious, I do not believe we should just talk to God in our heads, we should verbally and out loud cry out to the God of our salvation. I believe this is good to do in times where we really just realize that we can do nothing without Him. I believe more often I should talk out loud to God on my knees. This makes us realize how small we are and how big He is I believe. Every time I do out loud talk to God I see Him talk to me through His Word and other believers time and time again. He always answers as it says in Psalm 40. 
40:1 "I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord."

He has heard my cries for His help, because His is the best help. He drew me up out of the pit of destruction I was in( allegorically speaking that is) and now I am secure once more in His arms of mercy and protection. I was always secure in His arms, I just did not understand why there was pain while in His arms. But now I realize its because this is a fallen world, I sin and God does not. So many a time my sin blinds me from His goodness. I was reminded of this at church this morning from the Bible teaching (discipleship hour before our service) and the sermon.


I have also been very convicted lately about as I said earlier everything being for our good as it says in Romans 8:28-30, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, [7] for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

I was so convicted because I thought that what I wanted to do in this life was the best plan, but even though I believed that doing college right now was not the best plan God knows its for my good and is in His plan. Its for my good that I pour over clep exam studying materials. I don't understand sometimes why I have to learn about things that don't seem to matter, such a psychology, which is interesting, but most parts of it don't interest me or are very humanistic or evolutionist and are not based on there being a God who has put the world into working order and created it from nothing. But praise God I can see what lines up with His Word and what does not. This studying subjects that have a liberal back bone is making me a stronger believer in God and His Word that they are living and active and sharper than a two edge sword. :)

My mom, sister, and I tried our hand at drying oregano and lavender today and yesterday. Can't wait to use the oregano in pizza and the lavender in our homemade soap!

Now granted that my life lately has been very much blessed by the Lord. I don't struggle to have food or clothing or enough money to live on as many people in the world today do. The Lord has blessed myself and my family immensely! But these trials I am going through may not be ones such as that, but its really helping me to see again that my old self needs to keep on being chipped away and the Holy Spirit inside of me needs to take over my earthly body so I can be more like my selfless Savior. So I guess to sum up these trials I have been through lately, they have been just me not accepting God's plan for my life right now, which is being at home and doing college plus and not just writing music all day long. :) I wish I could just immerse myself in music and sewing pretty dresses. But hey where would that get me! I would not be using my time in the way God wants me to! Without God helping me to stay disciplined doing the hard things in life which is submitting to His plan for my life I would not have joy! I would be a lonely gal wasting away on the inside and outside.:) But praise God I am wasting away on the outside, but the inside of me has the Holy Spirit of God which is helping me to see more and more my selfish desires of wanting to do what I want will not give me gratification! they will only give me temporary happiness, which is not joy! Only Christ Jesus our Lord ladies can give us true joy when we give our lives to Him!

Sorry this post is a lengthy one and I hope it makes sense. I just have so many things that the Lord has been teaching me! Life on this earth is too short and is passing away and if we don't seek to glorify Him now then we won't see the joy that is set before us and why Christ died for us, so that we could have fellowship forever with Him! We need to use these tough times of wanting to go back to our old selves before we were won by our Savior for sharing the Gospel and not sitting at home sewing dresses for ourselves and writing songs for ourselves. I guess what I am saying is that doing college plus has stretched me and made me realize that my life is not my own. I have been bought with a price! Christ died and went to hell! Yes Christ went to hell for me and you and everyone else that will ever live on this earth. And I want to use my struggles with my sin to glorify God in this life so many others will be able to be in glory with God in heaven someday soon. So ladies live your life not for yourselves but for the God who died and went to hell for you so you would be able to be in His arms forever.

Use your gifts and talents such as sewing, song writing, or whatever it is for His glory! I am really being stretched writing songs based on the Scriptures! I could have made many up with my own words, but the WORD of God really is so much better! I wanted to go to Nashville, Tennessee and record Cd's for what though?! For my own self glory! But now I realize that to die is gain and to live in Christ is eternal gain! So give up what you love to do and give it to God and He just may give it back to you as He did me. Now He is writing music through my fingers and voice, it just comes out from not me, but Him God. He amazes me daily as He puts melodies and harmonies in my head to write down. That actually correspond to Scripture I have read or am trying memorize. I hope these will encourage you and please realize that its not me writing it, its God the Lord of all creation.

Romans 8 Song
Verse 1
For He's the only lover,
Who gives and gives and gives,
Who does everything for my good,
because He cares for us!
Verse 2
For those in Christ are not condemned 
We've been given the Spirit of life.
We live in Christ in life and peace,
only because Christ died for us.
Verse 3
For God has done what the law could not do!
But sending Christ Jesus His Son,
in sinful flesh and for sin,
so the law might be fulfilled in us!
Verse 4
For Those in the flesh cannot please God.
Because they do not know God.
But if the Spirit is inside of You,
God dwells in you, and communes with you.
(more verses and chorus to come)

Gerber daisy my mom planted in a pot yesterday after we brought it home from the local farmers market.

 Psalm 34 Song


probably chorus
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.
Commit your way unto the Lord,
and always trust in Him.
He will act, He will act, commit your way to Him.
verse 1
Fret not yourself over the ones who prosper in His way!
Trust in God and do good and dwell in faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way unto His righteous plan,
the Lord is good and faithful all your days
(this more in progress)

That quilt I had told you all about that I finally finished basting together with my sister 2 weeks ago! More pictures of us quilting it at our first civil war reenactment of the season to come. It was last weekend!

I will post a few more songs tomorrow. Its getting late. But I hope to have these finished being written out with the notes and everything by my next birthday. Thats my goal anyway. I mean all 15 songs I have written. I am going to try and post them over the next week, all the ones I have written that is. :)

I have been having so much fun with gardening lately! we planted a lot of peppers and tomatos yesterday and I dried some oregano from our herb garden with my sister and mother today. Here is a photo of it before the drying stage that is at the beginning of the post.

Here is our oregano patch in our raised garden beds. My mom made that nice little Oregano popsicle stick label yesterday. I just love the way it looks with all the dew after the storms we had this afternoon!

Sometime I want to get videos of me playing them for you all, but my camera does horrible recordings. So I will have to enlist a friend to help. I am sorry this was long and if you read the whole thing praise God! I hope it was an encouragement to you and I was not too wordy or boring. :)

In Christ,
Rebecca