Sewing Challenge - Day 5

Whew! The last few days have been hectic.

Wednesday I was able to do some pinning on my fabric, but not much else.

Yesterday (Thursday), I started sewing and then I had to hit the brakes because I made a mistake with the pattern. It took me about an hour to figure out where I went wrong. I decided to try to work with it, but my toddler would not cooperate in trying on what I had so far to make sure it would due. My frustration level was extremely high due to all the running around the last few days, some middle schooler attitudes, a feisty toddler, and the heat. So, I decided to call it quits for the night.

After sleeping last night and resting most of the day today, if you call reorganizing things resting, I decided to fix the pattern and re-cut the fabric. After fixing the pattern, I found out that I did not have as much fabric as I thought. Then I was only left with using what I had. After finally convincing Charlie to try the darn thing on (found out she was scared of the pins...lol) I saw light at the end of the tunnel. 

Tonight I got loads done on the project. I am not a complete rule follower and pinking shears sure makes it easy to skip some steps sometimes. All I have left now is hemming the shorts and adding the elastic, buttons and button holes.


 




I realize the best part of sewing clothes for your child is you can adapt it to their body type. Charlie is rather long and thin which makes it hard to find pants, shorts and skirts. If I buy the size that fits her waist, then they are too short or vice-verse.

Garden Discoveries

I went out to my garden after our mini rain storm this evening to check things out. Kairah's bed is starting to get a few sprouts from her second planting of the season. All of a sudden Kairah shouts "look mom, our pineapples are growing." Sure enough, what once looked like sad little decaying pineapple tops, now look like pineapple plants. It will take at least 20 months to get pineapples, but I am just so darn excited that some of my kitchen scraps are going to good use.

I also discovered that our, late in the season, planted grape vines are finally recovering thanks to all the good rain we have been getting. I hope to have some grapes next year.


I love how well my garden is turning out. It is not perfect, but I am having so much fun learning and discovering.

Happy Gardening!

Sewing Challenge - Day 2

I have to admit, I sort of cheated on day 2. I had some free time....I know! What is that!?...last night and I worked a bit on my project.

I pinned my pattern to my fabric last night. I had a hard time reading where to put the pattern and I even had to refresh my memory on what a selvage is. The pattern showed the selvage on the top and right of the fabric, until I realized they had folded the fabric and could not label the bottom of the fabric that was folded up...whew! Then I had a hard time fitting the pattern on the way the picture showed, but I made it work.

Charlie likes to get into my sewing box(es) while I am working. Last night she decided to "measure [her] leg." It was quite comical to watch her and listen to her count.

Next, I cut out my pattern. I paid close attention to what I call the little tabby things (pictured to the right). About two years ago I invested in some really nice scissors (they were on sale) and I am so happy I did. My cuts are crisp and clean. If anyone even tries to use my sewing scissors, they get in big trouble ;)

While I was cutting, Charlie decided to help me pin the unused fabric (I always buy more than I need). She is very good at it I think. Look how she really tries hard. She is always by my side when I sew.

Anyhow, today I just marked my fabric that I cut based on the pattern. I had button holes, buttons, triangles, dots, lines etc to mark. I used a new tool that I bought and it is really light, so pictures would not have done much good. I also wrote the number of each piece with a fabric pencil.

I have used a fabric marker and pencil to mark everything before...it just takes patience and flipping the pattern up and down a bunch of times.

I do not think I will be getting much done tomorrow on this project since it is my errands day, but we will see.

Sewing Challenge - Day 1

I have challenged myself this week to complete an entire sewing project in 7 days.

Today, I spent about an hour cutting out my pattern, ironing it, tracing it, and cutting it out again. I also washed and dried my fabric. The reason I trace my pattern is because I like to use my patterns more than once and for many sizes. There are other ways of reusing patterns, this is just what works for me.
Let me explain.

 
I cut out the pattern that I bought from the sewing store. These patterns are really wrinkled, so I ironed it to make sure I do not missing anything when I trace my pattern. I made sure that my iron was on a low setting. I also ironed the tracing paper I chose to use. I think what I use is actually interfacing, but it was on sale, see through and a decent weight.

 





I then put my pattern pieces on the tracing paper, upside down. I pined them very well to make sure they did not move while I traced them. I also made sure that my pins were not close to any lines I need to trace.

Then I turned the tracing paper over and started tracing. I had plenty of light to help me see through the paper. I also looked under at the pattern to help me identify important things I needed to mark like where button holes go. I did not trace everything. Only what I needed for the size I was doing.

After I traced all of my pieces, I unpinned the original pattern and cut out the new pattern. This is how it looked when I was done.


A big thanks to my daughter Kairah for taking the pictures today. :D

Canning Chicken Soup

I have found a new love....CANNING! As if I need more things to put on my plate...I figure I can tell myself that it saves my family money and allows us to eat healthier. Yeah, that is how I justify this new obsession.

I tried my luck at canning chicken soup since my children have been asking for it forever. It is hard for us to find any soup that is without MSG and Gluten, so we have to avoided it. Not anymore!




The first night (since I have to break my projects up into pieces to be able to manage them) I made chicken stock out of a chicken, celery, onion and some seasoning....how ever you like to make stock is fine.

Tonight I made the soup. You can use whatever recipe you like, but I used the one out of the Ball Blue Book. I had to use some extra stock I had in the freezer to supplement what I made last night. I used the chicken that I had left from making the stock also. I added some celery and carrots. I did not have to add seasoning because I seasoned my stock.

After cooking the soup for 30 minutes I prepared the jars and got to canning. I filled each jar a little under half full with the goodies (meat, carrots, and celery) and then filled it up the rest of the way with the stock to 1 inch from the top of the jar. I am pressure canning the jars as I type for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I am so excited to have chicken soup at the ready that is healthy for my family.

What a difference a seam makes...

I have been teaching myself to sew off and on for about 8 years. The last 2 years I have really learned a lot. I love making my toddler the crisscross back dresses with bloomers. While surfin' pinterest.com I saw this pin about a french seam. I was curious. It looked super simple and I thought I should try it. I wanted to share this tip in case anyone else would like to try this type of seam.

Here is a pair of bloomers that I made about a year ago. This is a regular seam like the directions called for. It is frayed and looks messy.

Here is the pair I just finished tonight. There are no exposed edges to fray and it just looks beautiful to me.

I also started using a piece of cardboard to measure my hems when I was ironing them. I got the idea from this pin on pinterest. It was so much easier and the hems are all uniform and awesome looking.

Marked measurements on the cardboard with pencil

First Installment of Gardening Information "posters"

I am working on making informational posters about taking care of my yard and garden so I do not have to keep going to the web. I plan on putting these in frames and hanging them in my garage near my lawn and garden equipment. Here is the first one I have finished. It took me almost three weeks to find all of this information.

I want to make these downloadable, so if anyone can help me with that, please comment. Thanks