Like a heart transplant but cuter!

So...mostly pics today....

I am obsessed with vintage sewing patterns.  No, really.  Obsessed.  Once you start collecting them, you just keep finding more and more that you 'need'.  Well, I am working on a 50's dress....

To begin...I do not know how to sew.  I have never taken a class.  I have a sewing machine that does not do anything automatically...well, except sew.  Why not start with a dress!  The first bodice was a nightmare, but the second was much better.  It is really hard to understand the directions if you don't know the lingo...

The dress is not done, but it also does not really look like this any more.  I didn't like the round neckline of the bodice...so I figured out a way to give it a v-neck down the back and a wrapping v-neck on the front...much better. 

An apron pattern from the 40's or 50's...original, uncut pattern...This apron was for our cousin who just got married...She had an apron on her registry and I said..."Shucks, I am now a seamstress...I will make her an apron that is cuter than the one she registered for..."

A close-up of the fabrics used...

And an apron for my very bestest friend's birthday...this is from the same pattern...

Fabrics

RUFFLES!!!!!!  I love the fullness of the skirts on vintage patterns.  They make you feel so girly...

And I have done some experimenting with my flowers....Hydrangea: I read somewhere that you can transplant the little branches with new stringy vines and grow whole new plants...well....

So where did I get these new offshoots???  If any of the bottom branches are laying on the ground...actually touching it...or even better, if part of the branch gets buried by some dirt...it will start to grow its own little roots.

So, I dug a hole in a wet, cool, shaded part of my flower gardens.  The most important thing with these tiny little transplants is that they need water...tons of water.  Like every day.  And direct sunlight and heat are a certain death sentence.

I found two decent little starts.  I trimmed the flower off of the one on the right...I thought "the less the plant has to feed, the better"  And after a month I can report that the one on the right (which really just barely had any little root fingers) has died.  Totally dead.  The plant on the left looked dead...the leaves have nearly all fallen off and it is kind of weepy...but upon closer inspection today...I saw little purple spots at intervals up and down the branch...they are tiny little leaf buds...REALLY!!!!  I have no idea if it will survive the winter (perhaps I should give it to the The Bon Savant for his indoor winter garden?) but I am so excited to know that it is possible!!!!

Other than that...the sirs started school on Monday.  I not been very productive these three days...but I am starting to hear the whisperings of the Project Fairy...You will definitely hear more from me now that it is just Madam Lu and I for most of the day...