New (almost) Dress, McCall's 6346

I did a foolish thing last night that I've done about two or three other times, and even knowing that I would likely regret it, I still made the same mistake!  I started sewing a dress for myself in the evening, thinking it was an easy pattern and would be completed by midnight.  Then I stayed up until 2!  And the sad thing was, I wasn't even able to finish it for church like I wanted to.

 

Here is the dress (at 2 am, as you can see from my tired eyes):

 

 I cut out two patterns yesterday, and I took much more care than normal to make sure I was making correct adjustments so that both patterns would fit me.  I tried it on me several times during the process and made even more adjustments.  The result is that the skirt fits great.  Though looking at these picture, I may need to take it in a little more right at my natural waist.  I have a problem in that I am so short waisted that it's really hard to emphasize the narrowest part of my waist!  There's about 4 inches  or less from the top of my hip to my ribs.

So, the biggest problem with this dress is the bodice.  It was impossible for me to tell until I put in all the elastic that the bodice is just too small.  The sleeves in particular are a problem.  They are really little, and so I can barely cover my underwear.  Also, when measuring for sleece elastic, I measured my upper arm at the place I thought the sleeves would hit, but since they hit higher, the sleeves feel a bit snug.  The dress doesn't look too low in this picture, but in actuality all I have to do is bend a little and with it being quite snug too, everything poureth over! :]

So I was pretty disappointed that this won't work.  I even did a bunch of neat little tricks with adding a lining in the bodice and making sure all seams are enclosed so that it can be as professional and neat as possible.  But, sigh, I need to take it all apart and cut out a new bodice.  I used some pretty fabric with white dots, but you can barely see the dots anyway, so I'll just use some plain white cotton for the new bodice.  I'm hoping I can adjust it well enough to wear for next Sunday.  Oh, and I am debating about whether to add a ruffle or not on the bottom.  The pattern has it as an option and I might do that just for a little extra length.  I like below the knee and this one is the right length but hasn't been hemmed, so it will be shorter. 

Week of salads, Days 3-6

Days 3-6 of our week of salads.  Here is the link to Days 1-2.

Day 3: Roquefort Pear Salad.  This one was interesting.  The combination of flavors was really interesting.  In the past I haven't been a real fan of bleu cheese, so I decided to pick something else at the store.  Knowing basically nothing about cheese, I just looked for something crumbly.  I picked Gorgonzola.  Whew! Smelling it later on, I was pretty nervous, since it smelled like urine, yuck.  I ended up using it anyway, and it was so strong that all of us struggled to eat the salad.  It was almost good!  The mustard dressing was also strong too.  I'd like to try this again without the cheese or with different cheese.  The kids barely touched it.

Day 4: Taking pity on Katrina who had asked, "Can you please make something yummy that I like?" I made Layered Salad, a favorite in our family.  I use about half the recommended dressing and switch out red bell peppers for tomatoes for Adam's sake.  The kids like it, though Daniel only eats the peas and eggs.  Adam and I like it too, but truthfully we are a bit tired of it.

Day 5: Chicken Curry Salad. This is something my mom used to make, so we have had it off and on over the years.  I make it with almonds instead of pecans like this recipe.  I also use normal raisins.  This time I put in some sour cream and salt and pepper as well. Sometimes I use less chicken and put some pasta in it instead, but not this time.  This salad is better when it is chilled, but I usually make it right before we eat. The kids refused to eat it.

Day 6. Broccoli Bacon salad.  This is pretty good.  I used red wine vinegar instead of white on the recommendation of some of the commenters, and I added grapes, which really was a good addition.  Katrina ate it with great reluctance.  Danie kept saying, "I love broccoli" and then spitting it out. We served it with watermelon, which they did eat.

Huge sigh.  This was not a successful week.  I am honestly at a loss.  I enjoyed 5 out of the 6 meals and would love to have salads for dinner every single night.  Adam is pretty neutral about the experience.  He wasn't thrilled with the dinners but enjoyed them well enough--he just is used to something with more substance.  But the biggest is problem is that the kids won't eat any of it.  Katrina can be convinced to eat most things if we are firm enough.  Daniel just plain refuses and there is nothing we can do about it.  The thing that bothers me most is that he loves most of the ingredients of these, but when I put them together he won't touch them.  I'm not sure if it's the dressing or the fact that they are mixed together.  And I have no idea why they eat the layered salad but not the other ones with very similar dressing.  Adam is fine with me continuing to do this, so I think I'll keep trying salads until I find some that maybe the kids will like.  It's just such a dilemma.  Do I put my own weight loss ahead of my kids' wishes?  My mom used to eat completely different dinners than us when we were growing up.  I just don't want to do that.  If I make something heavy in carbs, then I will eat it.  I just don't have the self-control to go eat a salad instead.  But if I only make healthy things, then that's what I eat!  Sigh again.  I just hope my kids loosen up soon and start enjoying the healthy things I make them.

Week of salads

I've been trying to lose weight for awhile and it's just sticking on there.  I have a small breakfast, usually of kashi cereal, for lunch I have primarily fruits and veggies and yogurt.  For dinner we have whatever, and then I try to not eat after the kids go to bed.  And it doesn't work!  The weight does not want to move.  Obviously I need to exercise as well, but it's hard to get the motivation for that, so right now I'm just focusing on food.

I decided that I wanted to try having salads for dinner for a week.  I figured since my kids refuse to eat what I make them most of the time anyway (except calzones or pasta), they wouldn't care. And Adam said he was willing to try it (though he wasn't too excited, I'll admit.)  So we've had two days so far.

Day 1: Basic mixed greens/vinaigrette salad.  Spinach, mixed lettuce, strawberries, raspberries, raisins, (grapes? can't remember), pecans, raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing.  I also made pillsbury crescent rolls to accompany it.  I always love eating this salad, since I think it's delicious.  Adam likes it well enough too.  The kids aet the rolls, nibbled the salad, and there was much weeping and wailing and stress. Sigh.

Day 2: Grape salad.  This one was more of a dessert or side salad than a main dish.  But it looked yummy, so I tried it.  Green and red grapes, cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla, pecans.  Basically grape cheesecake!  It is delicious.  Yum yum yum.  The kids refused to touch it until we forced them.  More weeping and wailing.  Of course, today they wanted mine when I was having it for lunch.  Adam was recovering from a migraine and didn't want something sugary.  We also wanted to support Chick-fil-a so after everyone watched me eat my salad, we drove there, but the line was too long so we got other fast food instead.  Sigh.

I have four more salads to make this week and Adam will cook one day.  I will report on them later.  Tonight will probably be Roquefort Pear salad.