I found the material for my apron pretty easily. A gorgeous two tone green upholstery fabric with leaves on it. It was and is, at least in my mind- gorgeous. Plus it matches well with the green seat upholstery on my cart. Yay!
Then I needed something to go with the apron, but bring color to the top of the ensemble. I had originally picked out a light shade of solid green which went beautifully with the leaves, but it was too green and the leafy fabric was a shade more teal... The lady at the cutting table said- "Let's go see what else we can find." So we did and we found a more teal shade of cotton fabric. I figured I would make the shirt and hatband from that and call it good. Then I headed over to the craft section to find flowers or something??? to dress up the hat and add some 'flair' to it.
Front of the hat....
I found the most beautiful clip/pin that matched the shade of teal of the shirt/hatband fabric- P.E.R.F.E.C.T.L.Y! Big sigh of relief. It would clip on and hold everything in place or I could pin it if things needed more security.
I also thought the plain shirt under the jacket needed something a little bit 'more'. It was just too plain. So I wandered around the bead section and found one or two strands that were pretty, matched and looked great, but I would need 3 strands to make what I needed... As I was beginning to feel anxious and frustrated again- I found the perfect answer. A long string of beads that turned out to match the apron fabric perfectly. There were plenty there, looped around several times, to make a necklace of a few strands to wrap together. It turned out there were some left over and I was able to make earrings to match too.
(Earrings are the loops on the bottom hanging down off the necklace.)
Now I just had to go home and sew it all together... (Which happened the weekend before the event.) The 'shirt' was originally going to be just a piece of fabric that attached to the inside of the coat and allowed me to wear a tank top or t-shirt underneath. But then I got creative and grabbed one of my t-shirts from the closet to use as a pattern and whipped out a complete top. I figured- why not? Then I could wear it with other things at other times as needed. It's pretty enough, so now I have more to hang in the closet...
I still needed to order a protective vest for Section E of the marathon. It is a requirement, as is the medical info armband and slow moving vehicle sign... None of which- I had. Carriage Driving Essentials offered a 5-10% discount to all competitors and threw in free shipping. I also needed gloves for the dressage portion. So I placed my order and everything arrived on Wednesday. Whew!
Jeffers happened to be running a sale on their protective vests. They too offered free shipping on orders over a certain amount. I ordered mine on Friday and it came in the following Thursday, just in time as I needed to have it Saturday. Another Whew! moment.
Thursday before the event I still needed to make a number holder. I had gotten up at 4:30 am to run across town and pick up my cart from work where they had finished the modifications to the shafts (and prayed like Hell all the way home that they were going to work!)... Which they did because I hooked him later that morning to be sure. Hooray!
Round 2 on the number holder and that was completed and off the list. My mom was adding two more button holes to the front of the coat and I still needed to coordinate picking it up, but was waiting to hear that the vest had been delivered...
To add to the whirlwind of things needing to be done, getting stuff organized and packed up, planning what time we would be leaving and all of this- my daughter was home getting ready herself to leave for her trip to Germany. Yeah, talk about crazy days at our place. I was to drop her off Friday morning, then head down to feed Kat, get checked in and walk the dressage course. That was how I planned to pull it off anyways.... She's in Germany now and comes home Sunday night. I hope she is having as much fun as I did over the weekend.
2 comments:
It all came together beautifully! well done.
Pictures!!!!!!! Sounds so pretty, can't wait to see you and the beautiful Kat all dolled up!
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