Still working on catching up. This was another shirred dress I made for Isabelle while Alan was on vacation. I made it right after the blue one. They are both dress o from 4579110544 again. They were very very easy to make, just rectangles of fabric basically. It was simple cutting with a rotary cutter. No pattern at all. I think it could be done without the exact directions in the book which of course is how I made them since I can’t read Japanese.

As I said before the shirring didn’t work out exactly as I expected. I thought it would tighten right as I was sewing but it didn’t. It only tightened up a little, so little that it actually could have worked as a top for me if I had added a few more shirred lines! I ended up gathering it myself like when you gather with thread. That’s not such a bad thing because now I can make myself a top and just pull it as tight as I need.

And amazingly Isabelle didn’t complain right away when I put it on her for pictures. Oh wait. I bribed her with some food. That’s right. As soon as the last bit of food was in her mouth she started tugging at the dress.

And on a completely different subject. We tried Gymboree! We went when Alan was on vacation. I liked it, I think. I say think because maybe I liked it because Isabelle was sliding on soft matted areas and soft slides. I have this fear of her sliding. Or I should say WE have this fear. Have I mentioned that before? We worry that when she’s sliding she’ll fall back and hit her head. I think I had a post all written up before about it and just never posted it because it makes us seem totally overprotective and paranoid which we are so why hide it now? I actually called my sister asking about when Ebow started to slide and we had this whole conversation about it because, as I said, I’m paranoid. Ok we’re not really that crazy paranoid but about the slides…yeah just a little worried. I’m sure once she starts falling back she’ll just sit right back up. I mean she does know how to balance.

So anyhoo back to what I was saying before I went off on the how weird we are tangent. Gymboree. Inside play. No sun to burn our fair skin. No bugs. And when it’s warm out or I should say freaking hot out is there air conditioning? I don’t know but how cool would that be? We’re going to try it out for a month. I don’t know about the class itself. It’s something right out of a movie. So not us. But I’m willing to try it and see how it goes.