Peonies and Petticoat-Challenges

It's the tail-end of peony season around these parts. Every year I'm bowled over by how boisterous and exuberant their blooms are. You have to love a plant that asks so little, yet gives so generously.

In Petticoat-Challenge news: hemming the skirt took far more time than I would have imagined. The ever-patient Davis marked it for me with only a few grumbles (he had my sympathy - measuring the length of a skirt with a gazillion folds that's hanging on a twitchy and impatient me is quite a challenge), but the pressing of the hem took an eternity, and then it had to be hand-sewn to prevent the ugly rippling that sewing by machine would have given it (believe me, I tried to do it by machine, but it was immediately obvious this was a bad idea). If I had to guess, I'd say that the pressing and hemming took about 6 hours. It's now entirely wearable, and I'm fairly happy with how it has turned out.
My plans for spiffing it up a bit have been foiled - the pockets I designed are too stiff to work with all the folds of the skirt (there's one shown below that hasn't been sewn down). I really love them, though, so perhaps I'll put them on an apron in the future. This was my first attempt at sewing scallops - what a pain!- but I'd do it all over again because I'm such a sucker for them.
The skirt really does need a little something more, so it's back to the drawing board. Julia Pequlia's comment last week makes me think that getting a Bedazzler might be the way to go (I'm kidding....sort of...is it wrong that I kind of want one?).



Morris has found all of this sewing to be quite fascinating. I managed to get a photo of him looking in my sewing box, making sure that I had the correct size needle for the job. I don't know how I'd manage without him.



eta: Haloscan seems to be on the fritz, so the comment section has been coming and going of its own accord. Hopefully it will fix itself shortly.