Monday, RA and eyes.

 

Well, the eye problem is directly related to my rheumatoid arthritis. It is rare but it does happen. It is just that RA usually took people out in their 50's from heart failure but with all the new treatments it is now showing up in the eyes.  Anywhere there is connective tissue, RA can rear it's ugly head.  Or send out blood vessels to destroy tissue.  Lucky me.

Fortunately, it responds well to medication which is very cheap. $2.00 a month.  I was almost pain-free by Friday morning. My eye feels tight but not painful.  I will have to be treated the rest of my life, but this is doable. One more doctor visit. One more specialist.

Spent several hours as Lil sis's pool this weekend and it was lovely and relaxing.

I had that wedding dress appointment on Friday that I scheduled. It was for a very, very hard alteration that I had been dreading. I had pulled the dress out several times and put it back.  I drew pictures of it.  I made patterns and finally realized I just needed her body here while I did the alteration.  I asked her which day she could come and just sit in the shop in a bathrobe.  She chose Friday and even though it is my day off, I needed to get that dress out.  It was causing me sleepless stress.

So, she shows up at 1 o'clock and we get started. I had already ripped all the narrow ribbon off and was ready to start cutting. First, I took darts in the back, so the waist was snug.  I was not going to mess with removing the invisible zipper. She tried dress on and that worked.  Then I took in the sides of the lace to make it fit the curve of the waist and she tried it on again.  Now that was done.  I had to remove the cap sleeves and cut a huge chunk out of the bust area, which was scary.  But I had her hold the dress up to her chest so it could see what needed to be removed, and then zig zagged the arms pieces back into chest area.  The seams were all covered by 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon. Fun to sew on and remove (not). Then she tried it on again.  Now I had to take underarm seams in and match up. Another try on.  Then the shoulders seams had to come up 1 1/2 inches. and another try on. We were getting somewhere. Now all the grosgrain had to be replaced.  I did the criss cross on the bust first as that would stabilize the shoulders.  Then a try on. That gave a snug fit so I replace the rest of the ribbon. The ribbon acted as a stabilizer for the lace. Now we had a perfect fit and I added two sets of breast pads, one thin and one heavier to fill out cup. It was perfect except for the hem. I just took a pleat seam in the hem from the side to the side in front as there was a scallop on the bottom and I was not going to embroider that crap back on.  But she loved it.  It took 3 3/4 hours.  She left happy and I was so relieved.

That was a bad one may I never get another, but it is gone!  SO happy.

I have two dresses to get out today.

Kim is back!