Saturday, July 29, 2006

I just wanted to pop in again today to post about a pattern alteration I did that is really easy and helpful. Captain Chaos has grown since last year when we got the pattern for the capris pants pjs. I didn't want to have to buy a new pattern so I decided to alter the pattern we already had. The pants would fit her, but she would loose the 4 inch easy built into the pattern. Since they are for wearing to bed I thought she needed that easy to be comfortable. The pattern consist of two pieces and you cut four pieces out of fabric. Since I wanted to add four inches I distributed this over all four pieces by adding one inch inserts to both pattern pieces.

I folded the pattern over and cut down the fold. Then I cut out a one inch strip from brown pattern paper. I taped this to the pattern.

















Here is a picture of the purple capris pjs. I thought about making a top to go with them, but I am considering just getting a t-shirt to wear with them. She will be going to camp in a couple of weeks and needs some new pjs. I think I will make a couple more bottoms and buy matching t's.

Sew Long for Now!
I have had such a busy week and haven't been here much. We started easing back into school this week. I had a doctor's appt. I had a serger class. It was vacation Bible school at our church. We had all the preparations for our oldest leaving on a mission trip. I can't think what all else, but it seemed very busy.

Captain Cool left last night with a group from our church going on a mission trip. A doctor and a couple of nurses from our church went with the group and they took a lot of medical supplies. Captain Cool is giving a message in Spainish to the teens one of the nights. Our teens also took baseball supplies and they will do an outreach baseball game in a small town. They will give away all the gloves, balls, and bats they brought after the game. We are praying for him and that all they do glorify God.

Captain Kitty and Captain Chaos went to the neighborhood Bible time at our church this week. Captain Kitty said the most memory verses for the week, over 30. She won two tickets to the local baseball game tonight. Building 429 will be having a concert after the game. The General and I are going to take the two of them.

I have gotten some sewing done this week. I have almost finished the fourth piece of clothing for a customer. I have almost completed some capris pj pants for Captain Kitty. I have almost finished a baby blanket I am making for some one. I did hem a jacket. Today I have to run and mail our notice of intent to the school board. It is due Wednesday, nothing like cutting it close. Then the rest of day until game time is going to be committed to finishing all those things.

a close up of the decorative serged edge on the baby blanket.
















The "mysterious sunflower" that appeared under our tree.

















A close-up, isn't it gorgeous!




Sew Long for Now!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

My sewing has not been anything exciting the last two days. Just alterations. I am headed to a class on using my serger this morning. So hopefully I will have some fun stuff soon.

Our garden has been doing well. I have picked beans (blue lake), cucumbers, our first tomato, cucumbers, cucumbers, zuchini, squash, and cucumbers. For some reason our cucumbers have done great. I stopped at the downtown market Monday and bought peaches, yum.

Our oldest ds who is 17 is headed to the Dominion Republic Friday for a short mission trip. He still had to come up with $300 for this trip. Last night about 9:30 the phone rang. Some one from church called to say they had some extra money this money and they would like to give it to him for his trip...$300. God is so cool!

Sew Long for Now!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

The dresses have been picked up. I decided to finish my "purple project" before starting any more sewing for customers.

Tada....


You knew it was going to be a bag! I did a few things different with this one. The first thing I did different is that I didn't angle the strips as much. This gave a wider opening. It also made it possible to put bigger pockets in it. This bag has 6 big pockets on the inside. I used a different stabilizer. I usually use tailor's fusible interfacing. This time I used craft fusible interfacing. It gave it the same stability, but not as thick.












I don't know if you can see in this photo, I didn't do straight quilting. Instead I used a decorative stitch on my machine and free motioned it. The stitch is a leave design to go along with the embroidery.









I found the best button. It has the same checked pattern as the material.

Sew Long for Now!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Things here have been hectic lately and I haven't had much computer time. Forgive me. I altered a bathing suit for some one last night. I have also finished three of the dresses for a wedding.



Here is one of the smaller dresses with the rosettes attached.
















Here is one of the larger girl's dresses




Well, I must run. I have to make my bed, do a load of laundry, get the children up, make breakfast, pick some veggies in the garden before it gets too hot, deliver the bathing suit, take the children by the library on the way to swimming lessons, etc., etc. You get the picture! Hope your day is calmer than mine.

Sew Long for Now!

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Ok, I will play along.

You know you are crazy about fabric when:

you have ten 30 gallon rubber maid totes of it under the tables in your sewing room.

You use every coupon JoAnn's or Hancock's send you to buy more.

You look at other people's blogs to see what the fabric they use looks like and wonder where they got it and can you buy some.

It takes you hours to decide what fabric to use on a project because you don't want to use up all you have of any one kind.

Commentors on your blog even notice how many trips you make to the fabric store a week.

Friday, July 14, 2006

I got the younger two children into the doctor today. Captain Kitty was miserable. She did not sleep at all last night. He gave them antibiotic ear drops with some type of pain reliever in it. He looked at the homopathic ear drops that I used and said that they would have worked if it hadn't got as far as it did before I caught it. The General bought them both ear plugs to wear to finish up their swimming lessons.

I got the smallest dress almost finished today. I need to sew on the buttons and rosettes.



This dress is a size 3-6 months. I think I am going to make the panties that go with it. I will make it out of brown and I have some pink lace that will match and I can put that on the back.









This is a rosette I made with the ribbon. I am going to look for a pink button to use in the center and put these rosettes on both straps of all four dresses. I think this will make them even cuter!

Sew Long for Now!

Thursday, July 13, 2006

What a day. We missed swimming lessons because Captains Kitty and Chaos have ear aches. I tried to get them in to see the doctor, but, no go. I have to try back in the a.m.

I went to JoAnn's and picked up the last pattern and the zippers. I put the zipper in the dress in yesterday's picture. I sewed some on one of the smaller dresses. While making straps out of the ribbon I realized there was not enough ribbon for four dresses and ran to the store to get some more. I bought the last 4 yards they had. When I returned home the ill captains requested me to read to them. We finished The Penderwicks. I came back to the sewing room and worked some more on one of the dresses. I hurriedly made supper because tonight was Sewing Guild. I thought about not going, but the General thought I needed to go and get out since the captains were a bit whiney.

Sewing Guild was interesting. A lady spoke on Fung Shuing (not sure of the spelling) and setting up your space using this so things felt better and you could work more peacefully. I didn't understand a lot of it. I would have to do a bit more reading up on it to understand it.

Sew Long for Now.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

I have the first of the four dresses almost completed.

I need to buy a zipper to put in and then finish attaching the straps for the arms, hem it and it will be done. Until I get the zipper I will be working on two of the other dresses that I have cut out. I really thought this was a cute dress. I ask Captain Kitty about it. She liked the style ok, but, was not so crazy about the brown and pink. I like the color combination, I would have prefered some type of print in the pink and maybe the brown be dotted. I don't know about all the solid. I also embroiderd a riding collar for a girl to wear in competition this week. I finished some stitching on the purple surprise. This morning we had swimming lessons again. After lunch we spent a lot of time reading a loud. I am reading The Penderwicks a loud to the children. This book is a very cute story. It has what we call "the typical Disney plot" of motherless children who practically raise themselves, but there are some funny parts in the book. I need to start looking around for another book to read out loud after we finish this one. We have started Robinson Cruiseo several times, but found something we wanted to read more pressing. Maybe we should finally finish that one. Tomorrow after swimming I need to take Captian Cool shopping. He ruined his last pair of shorts over the weekend and is headed out of town this weekend for a week long missions training course.

Sew Long for Now!
My friend Linda at Craft apple tagged me for the game of freezer tag. So for you Linda, here is my freezers.


The lovely sylver canister has homemade peach ice cream in it. We made that in honor of National Ice Cream month. The extra bag of ice is left over from the ice cream making.











This lovely picture is of the door. The plastic bag has whole wheat floor in it. It just dawned on me that there has to be a container some where in this house that could hold that. Those frosted mugs, they are never used! They have been in there for years. We never use them, I don't know why.








This is my chest freezer in the basement. It is bare because the garden is just starting to produce. Those items you see are the oldest thing in either freezer. They are last years tomato crop. Looking at this picture I realize one of the bags has burst. I better throw those out and clean that out before harvesting this years crop.

Sew Long for Now!








Monday, July 10, 2006

I was looking at my post for yesteday. Either y'all except me as the true Southerner I am or no one cares what bad grammar I used in that first sentence.

Swimming lessons started for the youngest two this week. I have 4 dresses to make for children in a wedding this week. The grandmother who brought me the material didn't bring me the right size pattern for one. After spending time over the weekend cutting the other three patterns apart, I decided to work on those dresses and go to JoAnn's on Thursday morning and get the last pattern on sale. My goal for the first three dresses was to cut out all the pieces today. I accomplished this before leaving to take the children to swim lessons.

All the dresses basically will have brown bodices with pink skirts. This brown ribbon with pink dots will be the straps for the arms. I think they are going to be very cute.


I was excited because I also got one of the bodices together tonight. I found out she didn't bring me the zippers needed for them also. The smallest two don't need zippers, but the bigger two do. I will put the smaller two together and what I can of the larger one I have cut out and then try to wait until Thursday to pick up the zippers.

Captain Cool helped me clean and rearrange our three floor to ceiling bookshelves. They are chocked full. Actually, overflowing. I took 10 boxes of books last year to the library sale. He helped me pack away a huge rubbermaid tote of school books to sell. We still couldn't fit all the books on the shelves. It does look neater though and I can get to things easier. A friend came over this afternoon and I helped her with some card making. We also browsed recipe books. I had a yard full of children swimming in our small pool. After supper the youngest two and I worked in the garden. I was able to bring in some more cucumbers and a mess of rhubarb. The General is in bed sick with the virus I had last week.

Sew Long for Now!

Sunday, July 09, 2006

I got the shirt almost done. I am only lacking putting the buttons on. I will do that when they lady I am making these for comes over for a fitting. I have a sundress to make for her and then she will come and I can fit the shirt for button placement, the dress and skirts for hem length.



















I having been rereading The Hidden Art of Homemaking. In one chapter she talks about fresh flowers and how they brighten a home. I can grow vegetables, but, I am not the best at growing flowers. I have two pots of flowers on my front porch and I struggle to keep these alive. My husband used to bring me flowers alot. I got him to stop. You see I have this tendency to be over practical. Flowers cost money, money that could be used for other things. In THAoH she mentions people in the Netherlands and how even the poor use a little to get fresh flowers for their homes. I remembered a year or two ago when my husband brought me flowers again after many years. I remembered how happy those flowers made me. So, while at the store yesterday I picked up some flowers. Now, mind you I bought the marked down ones! LOL.

All this to say, they did brighten up last nights supper. I think sometimes I can be over practical. I might have to do this more often.

Sew Long for Now!

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Look what we found in our garden last night!

And they tasted sooooo good. I don't know why, but home grown to me just tastes better.

I didn't get any sewing done yesterday. I was feeling better and so I had to catch up on some house stuff. We also went to the movies in the afternoon. I need to do a lot today!

Sew Long for Now!

P.S. That plate needs a nice ribbon around it doesn't it? I better find something!

Thursday, July 06, 2006

I finished the suit and am now putting together a shirt for a lady. It is going to be so cute. I will post a picture when I finish. It is sleeveless with a flounce around the bottom. She choose this cute fabric covered in embroidered roses. I am still dealing with the stomach virus.

Sew Long for Now!

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

I finally got all my trip pictures downloaded and saved on a CD. I embroidered my surprise.


Here's a sneek peek.











I did this Monday evening. I did not get to the suit I needed to work on. Tuesday morning I got up early to work on the suit while the gang slept in. I took apart the sleeve lining and had to take the buttons off the sleeve and move them since I was raising the hem 1 inch. It took a bit of time because of the sleeve vent and moving both the sleeve and lining. Then I had to sew the buttons back on. A little over an hour for the first sleeve. When I finished this my family was up and wanted breakfast. I went to make breakfast and felt chilled. I thought maybe the a/c was just on too low. By the time everyone had eaten I was covered and goose bumps and felt terribly sick. We were suppose to go to a cookout at a friends. The General took the children and went, I went to bed. I alternated being chilled and burning up all day. Today I feel a little better, just very weak. I have to take it easy, but I hope to finish the suit jacket's other sleeve today. Some who read here know of my continuing health issues. I have had 4 surgeries in three years. A year ago the surgery left me with an open wound and I had to have home health for 7 months. I went to the surgeon again last week and now I face another surgery. I have my 11th hernia. I told the surgeon I did not want to have surgery until late August or September. He was fine with that because he knows I am struggling with the fact of having it again. I have had a total of 9 surgeries on my stomach. My brother-in-law, who is a doctor, is not happy with me for putting it off. The year before last my intestines got strangulated and I lost some of them. He is afraid that will happen again. My GP is ok as long as I take it easy and don't put it off much longer than that. He is afraid the tears will get a lot bigger. That happened one time and I had surgery and then it didn't hold and the next week I was back and had to have the whole process repeated on an emergency basis. Sigh, I keep telling myself God does not give you more than you can handle. I have tried to keep an upbeat attitude through all this, sometimes though it just gets you down. Oh, well. If you feel led please pray that through all this God will be glorified.

Sew Long for Now!

Monday, July 03, 2006

My life has been a bit disorganized lately. With all the changes of peoples schedules around the house I haven't been able to settle in a routine. Hence I have not gotten a lot accomplished. Yesterday I did sew the purple strips together. I also embroidered a quilt square for some friends whose son died suddenly last year. He was 42 and died suddenly of a heart attack. There is a foundation that has something to do with young and middle age people dieing of heart disease and they are making a quilt to promote awareness. I don't remember the name of the group though. I embroidered a rainbow trout jumping out of water in the middle because he loved to fish. Then I embroidered his name in an arch over the top. In an arch underneath I embroidered his birthday and date of death.

This evening I hope to hem suite pants and a suit jacket for a friend's son who is going off to college soon. I hope to embroider on my surprise. I hope to cut out a project. I need to change my sheets and clean my room. I never did finish uploading our trip pictures. Tomorrow afternoon we are going to a cookout and firewords display. Happy Independence Day! Happy belated Canada Day to all my friends up North! (Smile you know who you are!)

Sew Long for Now!