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I have figured out the Ivy Leaf yardage problem! So my planned dress was never meant to be a 1-to-1 copy of the Oak Leaf gown. I was using the oak leaf embroidery as inspiration, but the skirt styling was going to be much closer to this gown. The overdress is going to be shaped like an ivy leaf, so pointed down at the center front instead of split like that Worth gown.

I have a lower-quality green taffeta in the stash that is pretty close to the color that I want to use for the fashion portions of the Ivy Leaf dress, and I just realized that I can use it as the underskirt layer, since the black lace that goes over it will tone it down and hide the quality disparity. Hooray! Ivy Leaf Dress is a go!

I will pull both taffetas out of storage on Saturday morning, before it gets too hot. This coming week I will try and bang out the pattern for the skirts, as well as draw out the embroidery design.

Amazingly, the wrapper fabric arrived at the local distribution center this morning, and is now marked as Out for Delivery, which means wrapper sewing this weekend! Hooray! I guess that means I should actually look at the pattern to see how involved it really is, though my one friend who's made it said it went together easily and quickly. I'm optimistically hoping I can get it all done in a single day, though since it's a long weekend, I don't mind if it spills over into a second day.

If I have the time this weekend, I'll try and size up the maternity corset pattern and possibly do a mockup. I don't expect to get a lot of the assembly of the final version done at all, but I would like to finish this corset by next weekend. I'm just about 7 months along, so I can't really dally on getting it done if I'm ever going to be able to wear it!

I ordered some of this ribbon for the top edge of the corset, and I'll use pink flossing on the boning channels to tie it in.

I'm really happy to be working on so many projects again. I feel like I'm getting my mojo back.

(no subject)

Made chicken tinga for dinner last night, which we ate with tortillas and cotija cheese. I made Spanish rice as a side, and it was overall a very good meal. M was surprised at how spicy it is, since I almost never cook spicy food, but I've developed a taste for it since the pregnancy, and he is happily on board.

Temperatures are starting to go back up in the morning, and the drive to work wasn't nearly as pleasant as the past few days have been. It's 9AM now and almost 80 degrees, where it was comfortably in the lower 70s the past few. Blah. I really hope M can get the air conditioner fixed in the Toyota this weekend, because it's triple digits all next week, and the AC is necessary for survival.

Big Southern Dinner is a go for this weekend, and I've decided to add a pound cake to the feast. I need to pick up a hand mixer because it's one of the few small kitchen appliances I still haven't replaced, and I want to bake, dammit. With Fall around the corner and all sorts of good breads to make, I need a mixer!

I also picked up a gallon of milk to make some cheese. I specifically want to make paneer, because I want some palak paneer (spinach curry with cheese), and paneer costs a stupid amount in the stores and is dead simple to make. Now I just need cheesecloth.

Had an OB checkup yesterday, and all is well. I am down 2lbs, which the doc said is fine because I was overweight to start with, and the fetus is still a healthy weight. I'm hitting all the other milestones. In total I have only gained 2lbs so far during this pregnancy, but the doctors are totally unconcerned. I'm curious to see if I'll actually be lower than my initial weight after I give birth.