Golden Tulip and a Princess!

Golden Tulip is ready to go. The gang's all here:

The pattern, the cut pieces, the lining, the thread, and the lace all showed up.

Candle suggested that I use a contrasting fabric for the collar and pockets, an idea I loved. I rummaged around and found an almost perfect tiny little yellow check. If I had more of it, it would have been completely perfect. Alas, only 1/4 yard. And since the nearest fabric store is almost an hour away from here, I had to go with what I had.

I cut the collar and pocket flaps out of the same fabric as the dress. After more digging around, I found 5 yards of a mid-weight crochet edging. Although it looks pure white in the photos, it is actually more of an antique white. I'm using it on the collar and pockets. I used the fusible knit interfacing for these pieces. Then I basted the trim around the edges, going very slow and pivoting at the corners:

Next, I put the lining pieces on it, pinning it on the interfacing side. I did it this way so that with the next line of stitching I can stitch exactly on the first basting line. And I do mean exactly. I start out in the first hole of the first basting stitch, and I baste these pieces together:

And, yes, I do need a manicure, but the nail place doesn't exist anymore.....

Anyway, by basting exactly in the exact same holes as the previous basting, I end up in the corners at the exact same place I did the first time around. It is amazing how well this works. If you go 1/2 a stitch beyond the corner, you will get an ugly little pucker when you turn the corner inside out. I don't have that problem anymore, since it finally dawned on me to do it this way. Yes, I am exactly that picky about my sewing.

That's all I have so far, because The Princess arrived, and she was wearing Purple Passion! Here she is with The Grandfather of All Firearms:

Here she is practicing the Royal Curtsy:

The dress actually hits her about mid-calf, but it's hard to tell with all this jumping going on.

Her favorite thing about Purple Passion? It' a great dress for Peek-A-Boo!

Here's the back view, which also shows the source of Baby Neck Sugar:

And what did The Princess do during the tornado? Why, she decided to cut her first tooth! And immediately followed it with Tooth Number Two.

After a great deal of eyelash fluttering and eyeball rolling, she gave out a great sigh and consented to the Tornado Teeth photo: