Sermon and Alteration Kudos To Gertie and Sandra

It is Sunday, and we listened to Rev. Hagee this morning.  The sermon was AWESOME and so intense, I will listen to it again.  It is about blood covenant and WHY the blood of Jesus is so important and what meaning it has to us.  I was taking notes for you, but the doorbell rang, and it was Betty Jane.  We invited her in, of course, and we talked for a few minutes, and then I had to play catch up on the sermon.  I hope you will visit www.jhm.org and go to GETV and watch it for yourself.  It is advanced Bible education for most, but I was raised on this stuff.  My Dad often taught us Bible lessons, and he was especially interested in Bible prophecy.  A "blood" covenant is the strongest covenant there is -- stronger than brother and sister or parent and child.  Jesus gave himself so we could be blood covenant partners with HIM -- a joint heir -- able to do all the things he did AND MORE.  Christians just don't realize -- mostly because they aren't properly taught in their churches -- who they really are when they accept Christ as their Savior.

I get so low and downhearted because of what is happening in America, that I have to be constantly fed by these men of God to bring my spirit back to the knowledge of who I am in Christ. 

I am not of this world, but I have to live in it -- for now -- but that will all change one of these days.  How I long for that day when EVERY knee shall bow!  

I am back at my own house at the moment, and Jerry is here with me until tomorrow OR until his Mom wakes up at 3 AM and decides she is going to BREAK OUT through the window at Countrywood after she tears the blinds down, like she did last night.  Jerry had just been there at 10 PM to calm her down after she tried to smack the entire staff around for trying to give her medicine to her.

I think this is one of life's hardest tests for me, even though it is poor Leanida who is sick.  I can't rest for worrying about what COULD happen next, and what we will do if it does.  Jerry has to go back to work, and I understand that but the only other help I have is 85-year-old Betty Jane.  I feel terrible asking her to help me.  Phylly would help me at 3 AM or any other AM, but she has to work also.  God is going to have to help me, and that is all there is to it.  He has never let me down before, and I know He won't now.  I'm not very good with stress, but I'm sure He knows that.

Other than my MIL issues, I am still on my ever-learning journey to perfect my fitting issues.  I decided last week to try to make a dress, mainly because I am tired of making blouses.  I think dresses always look very strange on me, and the reason I think that is because they DO look strange on me. 

I subscribe to Powersewing.com with Sandra Betzina and Ron Collins, and they have a recent video that shows several alterations.  One of them is what to do when you need more room at the BOTTOM, but not at the top.  That is always the case with my body even though my boobs and my butt are the same measurement.  You can't have fabric wrapping around your body like shrink wrap, can you?!  Anyway, Sandra showed that you can't just add all the fabric on the SIDE of the garment.  Too bad I didn't watch that BEFORE I fixed my pattern because that is exactly what I did.  Here is a picture of the BACK of the pattern the way I fixed it the first time.  Note the sway back correction and the upper round correction.

Notice above how I added ALL of the extra width I thought I needed at the side seam.  Guess where it ended up when I finished the dress??? 

YEP!  There it is -- all sticking out at the sides.  I look like a giant bell.  I decided I didn't need all that extra room, so I took practically all of that back out of the side seam later.  The dress looks OKAY, I suppose, but I want to try to do it the right way -- now that I know the "right" way.

Here it is on the left after I took it in on both sides.  It has five little tucks up at the top center front, but you can't see them in this picture.

I have cut this pattern out again tonight with the NEW alterations that I learned from Sandra's video adding the extra width in the middle of the pattern piece.

I also did the sway back differently.  I just received Gertie's new book which is extremely well done and jam-packed full of information.  I just want to cry every time I see that beautiful skin of hers covered with tattoos, but I am trying to adjust my sensitivity in that area.  I think if my skin was as beautiful as hers, I would enter my skin in a beauty pageant -- not cover it with tattoos!  Sorry Gertie.  I'm from the olden days when ladies not only wore those beautiful dresses, they didn't get tattoos.  Regardless, the book is wonderful and so is Gertie! 

ANYWAY, in the book, I was delighted to see that Gertie does the sway back differently than I have ever seen before, and I've seen A LOT, believe me!  Here is the back of my pattern AFTER Gertie and Sandra:

You can see between the long red line and the black edge of the pattern piece where the sway back correction is.  Gerties's way is to add the straight line rather than cutting the sharp curve into the pattern.

Can you "see" Cynthia Guffey about to have a nervous breakdown while proclaiming that "You CANNOT put a straight line on a curved object!"?

Sandra's fix is shown by the two green lines where I cut on the green lines and then spread the pattern 1/2" at each cut.  The green lines at the waist area end at HINGES allowing me to swivel the bottom out 1/2".

You can see right away that this is going to work out way better than adding that big triangle of fabric onto the sides.  I will sew the 2nd version of this dress tomorrow and show you more pics.  I took the little tucks out at the top of the dress because they give me too much fullness in my upper chest cave. 

I'm beginning to think I will NEVER know all there is to know about sewing and fitting. 

Phylly found a class for us to go to in February.  It is 3 or 4 days long and is by Louise Cutting.  I thought Phylly was going to hyperventilate from excitement!  She said she has heard that her seminars are really great.  I couldn't find any information on them.  I LOVE to learn new things, and I love to sew, so I'm sure I will love the seminar.  

I've got to call Countrywood and check on Leanida.  Hopefully, she isn't swinging from the chandeliers or something equally as shocking.  It doesn't seem possible that she could even get out of her bed and walk over to the window -- and into two other resident's rooms -- when she could not even move her feet yesterday morning.  She would be absolutely horrified if she had any idea that she is behaving this way.  It is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of how she really is.

Phylly is coming tomorrow.  If we are really lucky, I may get a picture of her finished couture red linen dress from way back when.  I believe it was February when I last got a picture of that project.  She is putting the lining in it now.

I better go see if my husband needs me or something.  He won't be here much longer. 

Hugs, Joy