Sew Dance

First the good news. I danced in the (delayed) Fall Classic this weekend. I swept my smooth categories. Final medal count was 12 first in smooth single dances, first places in smooth scholarship and 3-dance, 13 firsts and 2 seconds in latin single dances, and third places in latin scholarship and 3-dance. I've linked my videos below. Smooth: Latin: I also got a picture with Tony and his mirrorball. Not the best picture of me, but oh well. I had been dancing for a while. My hair for latin. I think there were 30 bobby pins to hold it all in place. Now the bad news. I was let go from my job on Monday. I was planning on leaving there anyway but I had been hoping to do it on my own terms. So my dancing will be put on hold sooner than I had thought. This is an expensive hobby and with no income (my etsy shop hasn't really taken off yet) I can't pay for my private lessons. It also cuts down on adding to my stash on whims as I've taken to doing lately...

I know I usually do my updates Sunday but I wanted a little spacing between these types of updates and my weekly posting of DWTS opinions. Well, I managed to only get 3 rows done on 'insanity' this week. I wasn't expecting much and it's not enough to take a picture of. It took me almost two hours to do the first row, granted I was distracted slightly by TV. Upon nearly completing the next row, I realized I had gone down several stitches as 2x1 and had to redo them. Not easy with the stitch size and amount of thread already on the back. I had time during the week to work on it more given I was home sick from work, but I wasn't able to give it the amount of concentration it would need. I tried to but managed to only find I had messed up on the last stitch, another 2x1 but the other way then some conflict with the blends that I didn't want to deal with. Oh well. This piece is going to take me a long time even if I didn't screw up. I'm very tempted to scra...

Ok. I've had this pattern for a while with the intent to make a smooth dress. I have finally figured out the logistics to make it. The majority of the dress is gathered pieces stitched onto interfacing and the main panel of the bodice has batting since they have the diagonal lines top-stitched onto it, not the best thing for dancing, too solid. I will take my princess seam pattern to make the bodysuit. This should give me the seaming in the bodice. Next, out of the 15 pieces the pattern came with, I only need 6 and 3 I can wing if absolutely necessary. The halter strap will be encased elastic with the other fabric gathered onto it in a similar fashion to the current red smooth dress I'm wearing for competitions. (That reminds me I need to move the lower two straps to take up the back of the dress.) The only thing I need to figure out now, is color, fabric, and stone pattern. Well, probably going to stone the bodice to mimic the top-stitching. Fabric is probably going to be...