A dress for Felicity

I've been participating in the historical Sew Along's on AG Playthings. We are working through the historical dolls in chronological order. I shared my highly modified Vogue pattern for Kaya back in January/February. For March/April, the theme is Felicity and Elizabeth. I finished this dress last Wednesday and it is currently for sale on Etsy.

Yesterday I started another Colonial dress and it's already close to being finished. I was able to spend the entire day in my craft room yesterday. I got a few things organized in my sewing section and a few things labeled in my scrapbooking section. My craft room is almost photo ready.

Between projects I've been working on cleaning and repairing a few dolls. This has been my first venture into working on porcelain dolls.

My hands have been doing better for the most part. My nerve study went well last week according to the neurologist, and my hand doctor and I will go over the results on Tuesday. So far it looks like I won't need surgery! I've been doing physical therapy twice a week for a few weeks and I'm really seeing an improvement. I also received Cortizone shots a few weeks ago and after the initial few days of pain, I'm feeling better too.

So today I'm planning to spend the day in my craft room again. I love lazy weekends!

-Until next time...

1940's dress

So, the last picture I posted was of an in-progress Civil war era dress for Addy. Well, the dress is finished, but there was a change of plan along the way. In the effort to conserve the piece of fabric that I had and make the most of it, I used a different pattern for the skirt and forgot that it was shorter than the original, and I added the growth tucks in before I check the length of it against the doll. Since I didn't have enough fabric left to cut another skirt, I sat it aside the dress aside for a few days while I thought of a solution. Looking at some 1940's fashions I found one that looked a lot like the dress I was working on, and BAM! my inspiration was back.

The dress was done for a few days before I got the chance to get the pictures of it, and it was hanging with the other clothes for a few more days before I got the chance to upload it to m y cmputer, and then it was a few more days until I was able to list it on Etsy.

So,  since beginning therapy for my hands and wrists, I've been trying to sew more since the pain I have in my hands has decreased. I've found that I am still having to take frequent breaks, but the breaks are lasting as long, which I'm very glad of.

So, my current project? A spring Colonial day dress with peplums. The top is done and the peplums are on. Now the main skirt needs to be gathered and attached so I can add the final touches to it. 

I have Physical Therapy tomorrow, so we'll see if I feel up to sewing tomorrow. My nerve study is scheduled for Thursday, and more PT on Friday, so I am going to try my best to get the dress finished on Wednesday.

Until next time...

Started treatment today.

This post is not easy for me to write. Both physically and mentally. My hands hurt and I'm stubborn.

I have arthritis in both hands and carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists. I've been putting off medical treatment for a few years and dealing with it on my own. I take an anti-inflammatory every day.  I take a prescribed muscle relaxer as needed. I sleep with padded braces on my hands. I wear a brace on my right wrist on some days. I use spring handled scissors when I'm cutting fabric. I've done all of this as a way to baby my hands and put off the inevitable: surgery.

So, this week I had appointments to see a Physical Therapist and a Hand Specialist/Surgeon. The Physical Therapist praised my efforts of what I've been doing, but reminded me to stretch and showed me some stretches to do. I saw the Hand Specialist today and he agreed with the Physical Therapist and we talked about some options. Surgery is most likely going to happen, but I want to put it off as long as I can since with three young boys I have no time to take off. So, I received a cortizone shot in each wrist. The pain and numbness were supposed to last 2-3 hours, and white the numbness is mostly gone right now, the pain is still there. Within 24-48 hours I should be feeling a lot better. If this goes well, my hands and wrists should be feeling well for about 4 to 6 months.

I'm so excited that I want to sit down at my sewing desk all weekend long. Sadly, I have to take it easy for a few days while the cortizone gets in my system. So, my plans are to sit down at my craft table next week.

My craft table has been moved around and my craft space reorganized, so I'm itching to get back to crafting. I picked up a box of vintage fabrics recently and I have a Colonial dress cut out, so both projects have me chomping at the crafting bit. 

I'm sorry for my blog absence. Now that my hands should be feeling better soon, I should be back to sewing/blogging regularly.

-Until next time...