those dreaded words... By Julie Jacob

Mom...I need a costume...........by Saturday."

And not just any costume.

Not a fireman. Not a nurse. Not an alien.
Oh no. It's a 'dress-the-part' murder mystery party...and my daughter needs a foreign medieval prince costume.

Seriously.

So I hit the thrift stores. Oddly enough there's no "foreign medieval prince" clothing section...so I had to scavenge the men's shirts. I lucked out and found one I thought would work.

Ouch. $4.99. Did they not get the thrift store prices memo? I find some brown pants that will work with my brown boots. Sweet.

Now for the vest. Every foreign medieval prince needs a flashy vest.

I decide to make one. After all, I had great success with a pirate vest at Halloween.

(Maybe not GREAT success...but it was passable.)
I go to the fabric store. Ouch again. $12.99 a yard for the flashy gold sparkly fabric that will make a dashing vest. Good thing I have a coupon.

At home, I whip out a vest to use as a template. I am optimistically planning for the whole vest process to take about 20 minutes.

(Feel free to laugh. A lot. Like grab your belly and really go for it.)
I cut it out and start sewing. You should know that I do NOT possess any sort of mad sewing skills. I am fairly proficient at straight lines...(and Barbie skirts) but that's about it.

It takes me all of 10 minutes to realize (AFTER the hemming was mostly done) that I've assembled the vest right-side in. The wrong side is showing.

I say bad words.
Then I decide it's not so bad after all, because the wrong side is the shinier side...and shouldn't princes be shiny? I keep going.

I then sew the armhole to the neck backwards.
I say more bad words.
I rip that out and sew it correctly.

The vest finally gets done. Mostly. 20 minutes of sewing is a blip in my rear view mirror that I have passed LONG ago. It is still inside out with the wrong side showing...but I'm trying really hard not to let it bug me.

Now I am worried it's more "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" than foreign medieval prince.

It needs something more.

Were you wondering when I would EVER get around to the scrapbooking portion of this blog post?

I fire up my Cricut machine and put in Teresa's Sophisticated cartridge.

I cut out a fleur de lis to use as a pattern. (Accent 3 - Border Shadow at 5").

My plan was to cut the fleur de lis out of the gold and use this really cool iron-on adhesive stuff to attach it to the shirt cuff (the gold wasn't showing up on the vest).

Sometimes though, plans go awry.

This is where my post title should change to "I Can't Read Directions so I Ironed the Fleur de Lis TO MY IRONING BOARD".
Don't believe me?

Note to self: put new ironing board cover on Target list.

I think that if I had just done the magic adhesive process on the actual shirt, everything would be ok. DO YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING?

I repeat the process, ironing the gold fleur de lis to the $4.99 thrift store shirt.

Still wrong. So, SO wrong. Only now the above picture, complete with stuck on background gunk is now stuck to the shirt.

I am beyond bad words. I'm doing that weird laughing-crying sound. My daughter (who had joined me to try stuff on) is now looking at me like she can't decide whether to give me a hug or 'fetch Ma her medicin'.

This is where I took a little break.

I found a shirt that my husband had put in the donation pile. A white shirt.

Dang. Coulda saved myself $4.99. Except then I would have ruined that one, and not had a spare.

I decide the shirt looks fine as it is. I decide black fleur de lis' would look great all blinged up and stuck on the vest.

So I cut out another one, stick them on, bling them out...and...

hello medieval prince!

Today I'm working on her crown. I'm going to use the Sophisticated cartridge again.

There will be no sewing involved.
And hopefully no bad words or anything medicinally necessary.

Enjoy your Friday!! :)