Wednesday Wonders

There's been a parade of deer through the yard today.  One group after another, mostly does with fawns trotting behind.  They're always wandering through, but usually not this many in short succession.  I'd already counted eleven before anyone else was out of bed.  Three were grazing in the grass outside my office window a few minutes ago.  I love watching them.  One of the fawns wandered away from it's mama and starting digging in a huge pile of shredded landscape bark that we have sitting at the end of the driveway.  Yes, I said digging with his little hoof.  It reminded me of a cat using a litter box, and I thought, surely he's not going to do THAT!  I kept watching.  He continued digging for several more minutes.  When he was quite satisfied, he curled up in the hole he'd made.  Apparently, even deer have their own particular creature comforts.

Deer are such scatty things and will bolt at the slightest movement.   Somehow I managed to get a decent picture of him through window blinds and the screen, using a zoom.  Look at that face.  OK, I guess I can forgive you for chomping the Lady's Mantle we carelessly planted out in the open and didn't spray.  The only thing we forgot to spray with the magic concoction---that's still working btw.  Alright.  Enough about the crazy deer...

Back to fun biz here... I want to talk about this pattern.   I've always wondered how these traditional peasant style garments were made.  Searched around for years in fact trying to discover the secret behind them.  So I was really excited when I found this website from the Mexican Dress Lady herself, with a download for $5.  Can you believe this is constructed from a square and four rectangles?  Well, it is!  It's so simple, it's brilliant.  Maybe I'm the last to know, but after I made this, I was amazed.  You can make a blouse or a dress.  It's all measured out to fit your size.  I made a little blouse for Ginger, (who is ten) to start with, just to make sure I was on the right path.   I just couldn't believe it was that simple.  She designed the yoke and I did the embroidery.   It's a project I'm pretty sure she can do herself next time, with a little help, but I wanted to make one first, before she put forth all the effort, just in case of disappointment. 

We're both really happy with how it turned out though.  I used a good quality unbleached muslin.  The only thing I did differently was to cut out two yoke pieces, instead of roll-hemming the neck edge.  I used one as a facing to hide raw edges and cover the back of the embroidery, which finished it quite neatly and made a nicer edge for the blanket-stitching.    There are going to be a lot more of these in my future.