Chemise progress

The chemise is almost finished, just the buttons, button loops and hem to go.  Unfortunately I can't find any suitable buttons in my stash, they're all too yellow to look right with the off-white sheeting.   Tomorrow I'll have to drop into Spotlight (ick).    I hate the place, but it's the only place this side of town now with a semi-decent button collection, wish me luck.

Today I did the gathering, I ignored what the pattern said and used my method using crochet cotton and zig-zag stitch.    I took a photo of how I do this just to give you an idea; I find it's much more effective than the double line of gathering stitches I used to do.

Using my pintuck foot the cord goes under the middle groove and I've put the ball of thread over my knee-lift to keep control of it.

Close up shot of how it looks as you're going.   Results in more even gathering too.

And my chemise on Bonnie:

I need to sew the edge of the lace down on the neckline, this is on Bonnie back to front though.

In other news we got approved for a Red Cross Grant for the boys from the Christchurch Earthquake Fund.    When we applied we said we'd be getting the boys new bikes to replace their current ones which have rusted a lot due to not being able to be kept in weathertight conditions.   Obviously they were ok with that, though I wasn't sure if they would be.  The funds arrived overnight, the budget has now been adjusted to make sure I keep the money there and don't spend it on anything else as it's for the boys only.   The bikes will wait till the garage is up as otherwise they'll go rusty too which would defeat the point of the whole thing.
We're thinking we'll also get an annual pass to Orana Park when their year rolls around in July, both boys love that sort of thing so they'll get full value and all these things come under the recreation heading that we applied under.
Still haven't heard anything about the garage so I've emailed EQC to find out how much longer until we're approved.    George is desperate for his own room, we're getting pretty desperate too!

Not much more knitting done today, too busy on the chemise and cleaning.  Spinning tomorrow, still trying to work out what to take along to spin!    Hoping to finish the chemise tomorrow, and am about to do more knitting tonight.