Off In Alterations Land {And A Monarch Costume}

I've missed this place!  Oh my word, I have been so very busy.

I've started doing alterations again and my hands have been full.  The old machine is humming through chiffon and lace like nobody's business.

Kids, I have put in roughly five million narrow hems in the last two months. I seriously don't know what I would have done if I hadn't learned how to hem sheers from a professional seamstress.  If you haven't seen How to Hem Chiffon the Easy Way yet, do click on over and give this method a shot.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

With all of this sewing, I feel like I have burned through packs of sewing machine needles and I am getting a little concerned about the number of times I have layered different colors on my bobbins *gasp*.  It's time for a major notions restock over here!  And I need a replacement light bulb for my machine.  Do you have to special order Bernina light bulbs?  I'm sort of afraid to find out.

Alterations aside, September is birthday month in my house because my two oldest children, both girls, have birthdays eight days apart.  One of my daughters had a Minecraft birthday theme which didn't inspire any sewing, but my six year old chose a butterfly theme this year and requested a Monarch costume.

I ordered a pair of wings off of Amazon and then made a two piece costume to go with them -- a dress and an overskirt.  Orange fabric was surprisingly hard to come by and I couldn't find a perfect match though I think the camera highlights the difference in shades.

  The bodice is out of swimsuit/dance knit, and the skirts are out of satin and organza.

The birthday girl generally evades photos, but she did wear the costume in one form or another all day long and I managed to snap a couple, sans overskirt.

The skirt was cut from a costume pattern I found with a handkerchief hem and the bodice was cut from the pattern in the T-Shirt Dress post.  (I've definitely learned a bit more about sewing on knits since that post, but gosh, when to write about it?  Not today.)

For the butterfly birthday, I also made a few plain butterfly wings out of yard pieces of organza.

But that's another post too.

Well friends, it's midnight here and my brain is mush. mush. mush. If I don't post now without editing, I'll probably never get back to this thing!  Hope you don't mind.  I'll try write again soon!  I have a peculiar hem I'm having a hard time finding a time-friendly solution for and a wedding dress hanging in my sewing area waiting for a lace over-bodice.  Is "over-bodice" a thing?  It is now :o).