rag doll day

the last couple of days have been a bit swampy. by that i mean, we've done very little but loll about in our humid house not feeling so swell. tashi has had a stomach bug since sunday. i kept her home today for safe keeping. she seemed fine by the end of the day but now i'm feeling on the edge of something. this bug has been taking down just about everyone in her classroom, parents included.



something i did accomplish today is finally completing a dress for tashi's little rag doll. would you believe that tashi got this little rag doll kit for christmas. oh but not the most recent christmas. yea, the second most recent christmas. i thought it would be something tashi could make, but she didn't feel very good about the idea. so i finally sewed up the doll, oh, maybe last summer? but the dress. oh the dress. i saw that the dress was to gather at the waist and thought that an impossible task. i gave up on the idea immediately and tashi dressed the poor thing in groovy girl clothes for a year.



well tomorrow tashi's class is having a "colonial trip" to ashlawn highland, home of former president, james monroe (sculpted above). the kids are going to wear simple colonial style clothes, eat simple colonial style food, play colonial games and do colonial crafts. tashi asked today if she could bring along her rag doll, in its proper dress, because after all, it looks kinda colonial. i shuddered at the thought of somehow making the skirt of the dress "gather". i picked up the directions and read the mysterious lines about making a basting stitch and pulling the string. and so i did it. omg, this is what i had been avoiding for over a year???? it was nothing but the simplest of stitches, the pull of a string, and like magic, the fabric gathers. can i just say, duh? oh, and the apron. it's my first ever. had to gather that too.



so now tashi is set with colonial doll for a colonial trip. and i've had one more sewing mystery demystified. not such a swampy day after all.


(tashi requested that we leave the doll's face blank)

dan and i are going to be chaperones on the colonial trip, along with some other parents. there will be camping in tents on the ashlawn grounds. this will be our first camp out of the season! yea, with 16 fourth graders. and peacocks. there are some big peacocks at ashlawn highland.

it was mating season when tashi and i went last summer.