Titania's Dress

Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state; And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;

- A Midsummer Night's Dream

For a school project, Mary created a dress for Titania, the Fairy Queen in A Midsummer Night's Dream.  It was quite a little project.

Cheryl was happy that Mary was going to spend some time behind the sewing machine.  The problem was getting Mary to the sewing machine.  There were so many other things going on, including concerts and tests and quizzes and all the other things that need to get done before Christmas Break.  Guess it kind of slipped her mind.

So she and her mother got to work, selecting the pattern, deciding which variant of the pattern to use, shopping for materials at the fabric store, pinning on the pattern, cutting up the fabric, pinning the seams together, stitching all the pieces together, and then taking a break because it was time for dinner (or bedtime or something).

And they kept that up for several nights.

And other things kept interrupting.

And then, when there was no time left to do it, suddenly it got a lot more complicated.  Not the wings; she'd always planned to do the wings (and they were actually kind of simple).

No, it was one of those sewing things.  Gussets or stitches or something.  (Don't ask me - the only thing I've ever sewn is G.I.Joe clothes, and that was more years ago than I'd care to remember.  And no machine work.)

The little metal rings where the lacing goes through - what do you call those things? - they didn't stay on very well.  I think the holes were too big so there wasn't enough fabric to hold onto. But Mary had fun putting them on.  All twenty-four of 'em.  Or was it forty-eight?  I can't remember.  But she sat at the craft table and pounded on the 2x4 block with the stamper thingie and got 'em all on. Mostly.

It was after eleven o'clock on Sunday night when the dress was finally finished. I didn't get a chance to see it before I went to bed. And then I had to leave for work before seeing it the next morning. Cheryl took Mary to school so she didn't have to carry it on the bus.

From what I heard later on, the dress was a big success at school.  I suppose that means it earned her lots of brownie points.