Take a peak at some gorgeous dresses and suits designed by Irene Lentz-Gibbons on her great-niece Karlyn’s website. Irene – a master!!! yes,yes,yes.

Karlyn and Greg Lavoi – THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

Before I share that here’s some fun:

Did you know you too could own a Zoom-O bobbin winder? You can play AND wind a bobbin for the cost of only 10.00 at Wally World!

Of course, the kids might fight you for it!

Speaking of kids. Here are pics of my ‘unsuccessful’ attempt at sneaking downstairs today. The three J’s followed me down. It was too cold for them to play outside for long and Daddy needed to concentrate. His “if you want to keep your job” project is due in the morning, so he was feeling just a ‘little’ pressure today.

I keep boxes (color-coded) under my cutting tables of scraps from previous projects. The kids and I pull from them when we wanna play. Today – they decided to tailor some clothing for the family while I cutting.

After making small stapled pockets and purses – they turned their attention to their favorite fit model, Stitches!

I’m not sure he appreciated his new clothes – but his outfits were stunning!

Now for the Pattern Notes:
Let me say right off that I DO like this pattern. It seems these ladies have some notion of pattern making – more so than a big three pattern.
What I like:
I like the white paper, the overall pattern making skills shown, and the handwritten labeling (nice touch).
What I don’t like:
There were some things I’d like different, for instance nesting the sizes.
If not nesting – then at least color coded lines for cutting. It was hard to follow sizing lines.

See what I mean from the above picture? It’s confusing to figure out which one is for your size. Do-able obviously, but still, confusing. If you want to make multiple sizes and keep your pattern readable – you MUST trace it – not cut it.

Since I make clothes for family (different sizes) it’s a pain to trace – that’s why I don’t just haul out my drafting blocks and make my own patterns all the time. Sometimes, I just wanna pay 12 to 20 bucks and be able to cut it with a few minor changes. I don’t think I should have to pay for all the extra paper or to interface the pattern to keep separate sizes.

With that said, I am willing to pay more for a pattern I liked, like this one, if the pattern-maker could make it in different colors or it took more pages. At least when patterns are nested, I can save the cut pieces and just tape on the next size in two minutes and be ready to go. Not to mention that it seems every two years, I am making the next size up for all of us!

— okay —- enough of that

In the following photos, I show my own personal block I made a few months ago, compared to the pattern. My block is not drafted with easements or seam allowances. Mine is shown in the following photos underneath the pattern tissue. It aids in addressing changes I need to make.

In general, this pattern is drafted more accurately than most of the patterns I’ve run into. The shoulder extensions tho do seem a bit longer, tho for both front and back. I’m not sure that my underarm won’t end up parallel to my bust point.

The usual changes I need to make for the front are:
My shoulder ridge slopes more than the average – an extra 1 1/4″. In order to be more comfortable, I also like a deeper armsyce. Not too many pattern-makers get the armsyce correct for the average figure. This one came the closest. At least there is a definite difference between front and back!

Here are the differences on the back piece:

—- Okay – one more complaint here (even tho minor) —-
See – they spoiled me because they made a full pattern piece for the front. The back tho, is a half-back. I don’t know why that was done – other than for clarification on the front placket piece, but I’d like to have the full back too. lol. See here:

I liked the sleeve draft. The biggest issue again, was lack of cutting line clarification. I almost cut the wrong sleeve size at the top, but caught myself an 1/8″ into the wrong cut and was able to fix it back easily enough.

The Sleeve length was spot on! Way to Go!

Now, it is difficult – really difficult, to hand draft those scallops and have them neatly line up. I’ve done it for a bedjacket I sell. So – for the scallops I give great big kudos!!!

The pattern / fabric layout reference sheet only shows front / back and sleeves. It doesn’t show the 5 additional pieces, like these (not a big deal for me because I knew there should be something else there, but a novice might be really caught off guard on that one) BTW – These pieces ARE accounted for in the yardage requirements. So you won’t get caught on that.

Speaking of getting caught off guard. I buy most of the family’s clothing fabric needs at bargain bins, so I do expect problems. I hadn’t noticed this one before tho. The kitty fabric (2.00 a yard at Wal-Mart), was sold as 44/45″ yardage, but in actuality it measured 42 and 1/2″ wide, which really messed up the scalloping at the lowest edge for me (YES – the big girl size!)

So, if you make this pattern – it’s probably a good idea to either set yourself up to have to deal with by adding some, changing the pattern, or heck – just go out and buy yourself some of that really nice fabric! After all, when you buy a top of the line pattern for yourself – why not treat it to some gorgeous – evenly woven – fabric!

I cut a rosey pink solid flannel (44″ btw) with changes to the armsyce and shoulder ridge – and this kitty cat flannel using the unmodified original pattern. I couldn’t get to sewing it up today and have to be at Mom’s the next couple of days, but when I get them sewn, I’ll report back on the fit. Besides being a record for me, I hope this helps another soul out there.

UPDATE: 10/01/09 It only took me 9 months to get around to sewing these (all great things take 9 months, right?) and another month to take pictures of them (sheesh – sounds more and more like newborns), but here they are.

I disliked the placket instructions but beared with them for the pink gown. When I got to the kitty gown however, I just went my own way. I used a velvet ribbon trim from Walmart for the neckline. It’s worked out well and looks beautiful despite constant washings.

On this one, you can really see where the shortage of a few inches really affected the scallops. Next time, I’ll just cut them off like I did for the pink gown. Even tho I was not short on the pink flannel, I had lost time and patience with sewing, turning, and pressing scallops. Enter – Big Sheers and a more peaceful day of sewing.

They are super comfy and I have already purchased enough cottons to make 3 more for next summer, after all in August it will be 9 more months….. Here’s hoping!

This pattern is from the paisleypincushion.com Slobo bought it for me out of the newark_dress_supply catalog as a birthday present. It came in the mail today which couldn’t have been timed better! After digging up the garden today – sick with a head cold, hiding out in the sewing room tommorrow will be a welcome relief. Cuddling up in my new nightgown tommorrow night – priceless!

I can’t wait to get started.

J3 grew like a weed this summer. After cleaning out his dresser, I realized he was down to 3 pairs of PJ’s that actually fit him. So I made him some more (with room to grow through the winter). The flannel and fleece fabrics are from Walmart. The tops took 1 1/2 yd, fleece bottoms 1 yd. for size 10. The dk blue cotton knit is Carter’s 12″ tubular knit I bought from Fabric Club a couple of years ago. I still have 20 yards of the stuff and it doesn’t seem I’ll ever find the end of the roll. Sometimes it’s probably not a good idea to go overboard even if the fabric is really a great price! The other knits are cotton knits picked up when I can find them. For some odd reason, it’s really hard to find a cotton knit in Georgia. Remember when cotton was king? sorry . j/k.

Simplicity 9499 I use this one for the raglan t-shirts for the boys. The neck does tend to be a bit large. When I forget to cut it smaller, I use a wider knit neckband with lycra in it for memory retention. (The fabric – not me. lol)

There is another set of these with a lt. blue cotton knit top and cotton woven sleeping pants with a cowboy print. One thing to note is my boys are really rough on knit pj bottoms. When I do the flannels and Woven bottoms, if I add an extra layer of fabric to the inside at the knees. If I don’t, within 6 months the fabric will be worn and ripping there. I think if I add some fusi-knit to the knees of the knits, it might help wearability, but haven’t tried it yet.

McCalls M9206 – basic sleep / play pants and t-shirts pattern.

Puppy dogs and paw prints

Monkeys and cuddle pants

I’ve used this pattern since the boys were toddlers. I just change up pockets depending on what I’m making. Great basic pattern. The pockets on the fleece bottoms are lined with the matching flannel from the tops. I find they like lots of pockets, so I put two on the front of the tops and two on the legs – one on each side.

I often recycle knit neckbands and cuffs from old clothes. If you turn them inside out – as long as they have retained their shape, it works well – especially when you need just that perfect color – like pale yellow. It can be difficult to find pastel rib knits especially. I also save zippers, fun fasteners and appliques in freezer ziploc bags. Those items can really run up the price of making a garment and I don’t see any reason to not keep them if they are in good shape. All – in – all, J3′s PJ’s cost about 23.00 to make (5 pairs). He gets new warm PJ’s from fabric he picked and as he puts it – love sewn in the stitches! Anyway, I hope you found this useful in a sharing sort of way.

Now to tackle Doc’s birthday! He’s going to be 9 in 10 days Didn’t we just do this???

I’ve been playing around with pattern drafting again. Unlike the disastrous sleeves two years ago, I’ve now got pants and a bodice – With Sleeves No Less – that fits! WooHoo….. This time, I drafted the pants from Threads magazine – wanting to see how accurate they were – and a foundation top from Moore’s book on pattern making. I had to make several changes for them to fit me, sloping shoulders – sway back – longer stride etc. I also found that my left side is almost a whole 2″‘s bigger than my right side! One would think using my right hand on the mouse and calculators these past few years would have hiked my right side up a bit more than that! I’ll just have to walk around like Igor a bit longer, I suppose.

The muslin was cut from a nice stable cotton with a grid print (looks a lot like graph paper. I used wash-able markers to make changes that were needed, changed my block patterns and then sewed it up into a really comfortable pair of pj’s. I had left 1″ S.A.’s all around, so I could add ease for pj’s, used up some pretty trims I had, added a peplum (the short bodice to my short waistline just wasn’t modest enough!) Shameless to say, I just took them off to wash them after 3 days….. I know, but they were so comfortable, I wanted to live in them!!!

Anyway, I’ve been using Open Office’s drawing program to get some of my ‘garment components’ like pockets, collars and misc. facings drafted. I started using Open Office with a pretty Manila folder color printed when my tag board ran out. I’ll add the following under manuals but ’til then, here’s some new schtuff:

1. Page 1 and Page 2 of Table of Aliquot Parts – the handy chart to figure out what 1/4 of 38″ is?

(The vintagesewing.info site has one, as does my Moore’s pattern making book but I needed higher and sometimes lower numbers, so Slobo helped me get an openoffice formula running to formulate it automatically.)

Here is the .ods or Open Office spreadsheet file and the
.xls or Excel spreadsheet file in case ya’ll wanna change things around.

2. Inch to Decimal Equivalent Chart.

The chart comes from seoconsultants.com website. I made it a jpg just for ease of printing. For some reason, the latest version of Firefox doesn’t seem to understand how to print a web page anymore. Until I can get it fixed, and in case others have the same problem, I offer the jpg.

This conversion table is handy when I’m at the Fashion Incubator. When Kathleen gives the measurements for some of her kewl gizmo jigs, welt and paper jig tutorial., I can punch in the measurements (which she so generously provides) and print out a nifty neat little gizmo jig too. One that is much more accurate than I can hand draft especially when she includes those very important measurements like bend allowances.

That’s really all the playing for now. Hopefully in the next few days, I’ll see ya’ll again with some newer – clean – threads on!

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I went on a shopping trip one evening with the family in search of “something pretty”. I told Slobo I didn’t know what I wanted to buy, just something to brighten up the house. Yeah, I had that ole’ spring bug again. We visited 2 or 3 stores, much to the chagrin of the kids. I don’t know why, but they just don’t like to look at girly stuff!

After looking at towels, a quilt, some containers, etc. everything just said to me, “Don’t buy me – you can make me if you really wanted me!” or “Rethink me, you’ll have to dust me!” The quandry was I wanted something pretty that as I passed by it each day I would think, “That’s pretty!” and not “Look how dirty I am – Don’t you ever clean me?”. Silly females!

Well, after not finding that “something pretty”, I was at Hobby Lobby the next day to get some fabric for Aunt Charl’s things and found this fabric. I fell in love with it! Sure I’d have to make something with it, but Hobby Lobby has McCall patterns at 99 cents and I needed something to keep my knitting stuff in. The temptation was too great, so I bought a couple of yards and with a little grain fudging, was able to make these three cases from it. Slobo went back and suprised me and bought the rest of what they had (about 2 1/4 yds) of each and now I have enough to make the other project case and tote bag to go with them! Isn’t he kewl?.

So, I spent the last couple of nights with my little Italian friend, Necchi, and made these cases: A 3 pouch craft project organizer, knitting needles case, and crochet needles case. The pattern is McCall’s M4728.

I fell in love with my Necchi Supernova all over again.

I got him and his singer cabinet, from a fellow Necchi lover in Tenn. I met her from the Necchi Yahoo Group.

So inspired by my new ‘something pretty’, I fixed my love’s tension assembly and replaced his motor to fix some broken toggle switches, thanks to a parts machine that was willing to sacrifice it’s life so that it’s relatives could live.

Using hs bobbin winder as a mini-lathe, I even shaved down a stretch winder belt with the edge of scissor blades, so the bobbin would work fast again. (Of course, after doing so and making a mess to clean up, I discovered the parts machine had a good bobbin winder belt on it. Hey! At least I know I can use it as a lathe when needed! Makes me wonder if my industrials’ bobbin winder that runs on a treadle belt would carve some mini bowls for a Barbie house?)

The parts machine also has the parts for his sister, my pink Necchi Supernova Ultra. You may remember her from a post in 2006. My sweet MIL gave her to me a few years ago and even paid to have her trucked to me. She needs a new bobbin case and misc. parts along with a tension assembly fixin’.

Shucks, feels like I’m playing with my Ken and Barbies again! Even my fabric is made by Brother and Sister Craft Studios. DON’T YOU JUST LOVE SPRING!

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Our Lil’ Entertainer wanted a ‘flag’ themed birthday. His two favorite images in life, the Cross and the American Flag. At first he wanted a Curious George / Construction theme and had his cake all figured out. We would do a triangle cake – one side Curious George, the other Construction workers with a pile of crackers to dig like last year. But when he got to Party City and saw the Red/White/Blue Uncle Sam sequins hat he completely changed his theme to a Flag Birthday party! (Thank goodness! lol). A flag cake is much easier to make.

His birthday wish list consisted of:

Anything Curious George
A worker man set with wrenches, screw drivers, etc.
A Flag pole – one that he can put in the yard and see from his bed
A jacket like that guy that danced on the cieling (Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding)
A black bowtie
manual typewriter
and Boxing Gloves.

Thanks to Grandma’s and Stimulus checks – he got everything on his list! lol

I made him a tuxedo with tails (Grandma bought him a boutonniere for it), curious george sleeping shorts and pants and a pig in a blanket. The blanket has a crocheted pig head, crocheted pig feet attached on either side of the head and at opposite corner of the blanket – and a really fun curly-q pig tail crocheted and sewn to the bottom corner. It has minky polka-dot fabric on one side and polka-dot cotton on the other. I made a matching round minky pillow to go with it (the belly).

He had a really great birthday and now Daddy just has to get a clear day to ‘plant’ the 20ft flagpole! lol

Here’s the images from his birthday with one of his baby pictures. Oh, I miss cuddling those sweet, drooling little babies. *sniff* Still, what wonderful young people they are to be with!

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He wanted a Dr. Gregory House birthday party.
Solution?

Little guests in “Doctor in Training” suits

rubber gloves as party bags filled with:
first aid items, hugs and kisses candy (because you know you need lots of those when your dealing with House)
tic-tac “Vicadin” (should have heard the kids wondering aloud what they would use for Vicadin at the local CVS – just a few eyebrows raised)
laser pens and blank notepads for writing prescriptions.

We forgot the squishy balls to throw against the wall (okay – Mommy just ‘conveniently’ forgot).

Here’s the table:

And the handsome attendings:

Stetson’s birthday wish list had:

A cane like House’s
A tiperiter
ponchin bag
cowboy shirt
and a jene jakit
and red suspenders.

He got everything on his list +some! The cane and typewriter are from our local antique store. I painted them with black testor paint. I painted the flame design on the end of the cane with red, yellow, and gold. The typewriter is a Royal manual typewriter in excellent condition. I made the cowboy shirt from cotton and embroidered the cowboy, feather, and spurs using free patterns from AnntheGran.com ‘s website. That was alot of fun. Slobo found pearl ‘snap looking’ buttons Thank Goodness! I couldn’t find pearl snaps anywhere and was really glad not to have to worry with putting real snaps on it. The shirt has a secret – I interfaced the white broadcloth with a white muslin iron-on interfacing and accidentally embroidered the interfacing side – Teach ME to use my glasses! LOL. He doesn’t know – and I’m not telling! It was the night before his birthday and I didn’t have enough white broadcloth to cut new pieces – soooooooooo If I couldn’t tell – he shouldn’t be able to. Oh well mom…..

Next birthday in two weeks – Little Dr. Chase turns 7!

*Sniff* they are growing up tooooooooo fast!

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I only had the money for the autumn leaves fabric on the back (lower right) and the bear – cabin in the woods 1/4 yd at the bottom and the cotton batting. So, the image itself is made up of left over blocks and scraps from previous quilts. There was also a time crunch to get it done in time for gift giving, so I did not take the time I should have on the tree and sunlight. I was happy with the deer, brook and crunchy leaves and I thought the dragonflies in the air above him was kind of fun.

The idea was to show the base of an old tree with a forest canopy above and dappled sunlight coming down onto the deer, sipping at the brook. Even tho it was clumsy, it still wasn’t half bad for a first attempt and lots of scrappy fabrics. Of course, Dad loved it anyway!

My dad has often woke up from his slumber in the deer stand only to see a deer watching him, lol. I wanted him to have a buck he could take home and look at too!

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Dorothy Moore’s Pattern Drafting and Dressmaking

First, I made the foundation top from his measurements, then drafted the overcoat pattern.

Here’s my cowboy complete with his herd dog Sylvester Squiggle Stitches

Materials:

• The fabric is a khaki (kind of) twill found at Walmart for 1.00/yd.
• I already had some cream sunline lining. Cost would have been abt. 4.00/yd.
• The buttons were the most expensive part. 2.50/pack of two for the larger buttons, 1.75/pack of three for the smaller buttons at Hobby Lobby. The pkg said genuine 24k gold, yet they have the weight of a plastic button and look a bit tarnished. Things you couldn’t really tell in their blister card packaging. Still, he wanted them because they are gold eagles and reminded him of his heroes, our soldiers.
• I used some crinoline (for lack of anything better on hand) as an interlining. The interfacing was pellon med. wt.which I used in the jacket from the shoulder, extended to the underarm and curving toward the front facing. There are shoulder pads along with sleeve headers of fuzzy white felt (leftover from Christmas stocking making).

Jacket Details:

• Fully lined with a cream lining.
• There is a ‘kick pleat’ (I know that’s a skirt term… what is it called on a man’s jacket?) in the center back. That was a new trick for me since the lining had to go around it.
• There are double welted pockets with flaps on the lower front
• Single welt pocket at the top
• Inside double welt pocket on the left. (That inside welt was supposed to go on the right, but alas, I got my left and right’s mixed up)

Searching for pictures of my last attempt at a jacket, I was suprised to find it was two years ago almost to the month. My mother needed a new suit to attend my brother’s graduation. Here it is two years later, the same brother is graduating with his Masters next month, and I’m making another jacket. Hmmm… Maybe my muse is graduation ceremonies.

The pros - it was fun to try drafting again. I’m anxious to try it again and since my 6 yr. old has requested a blazer like his brothers, I’ll get my chance again soon!

The cons - I had to take the jacket apart after having sewn TWO no less rows of stitching on all the lines, because I kept putting the sleeves in backwards – I’ve learned I need to really mark those fabrics – especially the ones that look the same on both sides – better!

I also realized why the sleeves were coming out so huge on previous attempts – Silly – I only needed to measure for “HALF” a sleeve when doing a two piece. lol.

My last problem to deal with is why the back came out so large. I suspect the book’s overcoat drafting instructions included a much larger easement than a child can use for a jacket – not to mention – that it was for an “OVERCOAT”! One day I’ll learn to take it a little slower and be more mindful of the “key” terms. lol.

Pattern Drafting is really fun – and I’m anxious to do it all over again! Hopefully with fewer mistakes this time.

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I used the naugha patent leather from one of our son’s old costume boots . It was backed with foam, which I peeled away – as it made it too thick. The liner was the black nylon that was backing it. I would recommend a cotton muslin tho. The pattern with instructions is from sewing.org I used the adult size pattern (no scaling). In case their site is down, here is the bean bag pattern gif . I cut open a beanbag chair we had in hopes it had the little beads in it… but alas … the thing was filled with shredded egg cartons and paper pulp! WHO KNEW! Since the chunks were too large to use in this small beanie, I used the only small dried beans I had in the pantry – Lentils with a garlic herb scent. LOL. Now when Slobo lies in bed to watch his videos at night – he gets hungry! Hey – At least no vampires will get him!

If you make this pattern, I would suggest making it about a 1/4″ larger on all sides so that you end up with a beanie that’s a little bigger. Also, prepare to hand sew the circles on top and bottom. They are too small to get into a sewing machine and chew lots of licorice while trying to see to hand sew them. They are a bit of a booger.

Also – I highly suggest using the poly beads. The beans come out to a bit of a stiff bag. Might even want to use some cotton fabric too, as the nylons / polysters etc. can transmit a static charge which we all know can be deadly to an electronic circuit. The patent leather turned out to not be needed for grip as the bag settles down to conform to the shape anyway.

Think I’ll knit him another one – it might be great practice for some short row shaping skills.

The pattern has a two piece sleeve which I really like. I added the lining (cutting it just about a 1/4″ larger than the jacket itself) and the inside welted pocket. I also added the knit ribbing ‘hipband’ and cuffs.

The younger kids jackets, I used the same slant welt pocket pieces for their jackets, but the main jackets were a pullover childrens’ pattern to which I cut down the center and added a seperating zipper, cut the front and back outer pieces so that I could add a piping to the bodice pieces, and bias binding to the zipper and collar edges. I also added inside ‘secret’ pockets because they wanted them. I added the flannel lining on these also, cutting a 1/4″ larger.

It is alot of fun mixing and matching pattern pieces and added and taking away. The best advice I ever heard was to find basic patterns (ex: pants, shirts, jacket) that have as many pieces as you can get, then you will have lots to play with. This is true. Even tho the jacket pattern cost about 8-9 $, it beats buying several different ones for 1-2 $ on sale and still not getting a comfortable fit…

Just food for thought – or bobbins to wind your brains around…….

Slobo got him and the kids a camera that does video. It is so neat. You can take a color sample of an image area and it will take the pic in black and white except wherever the color you picked shows up. It will do macro pics – he got a really awesome pic of a yellowjacket on apple cores yesterday and a very pretty butterfly. With an extra card he can take over 600 pics and an hour of video. His is the Canon Powershot. He also got a Canon Powershot SD1000 for our nephew in Iraq.

Chris is stationed over at Camp Cupcake (Al Asad) AFB. It’s about 120 miles from the center of Baghdad. He said they have been under sniper attacks and one of the guys was killed a few days ago. (See how little the news media reports?). The fighting is intense over there. Soldier’s Angels Germany has been getting 100′s of guys at the hospitals a day. Don’t hear about that on the news magazines either. We just sent 12 lbs of candy and the cam as a suprise for him and his buddies. My brother and sis-in-law just sent him 21 lbs. of candy and three motorola hand helds so he and his two best friends can communicate without getting into full gear to visit eachother’s pod.

He said the heat was unbearable – well over 105 and in full gear – they are getting over heated quick. The kids and I sewed up 30 cooling scarfs and sent them in his box for now, but have well over 180 more cut out, ready to stuff and send. They will have to wait til Thursday’s payday. But at least he and 20 or so of his closest friends will be cooler. lol.

The kids and Slobo love the cooling scarves. (Pssst…. great for menopausal hot flashes too….lol) We kept the four samples we made. We are going to make 7″ discs of these for the guys to put in their helmets and later on, when stateside, baseball caps. The medical teams use them and cooling vests to aid heat stroke victims over there, as well.

The websites are selling them for about 6$ each, but we were able to make over 200 for $40. JoAnne’s has khaki cotton for 2.00 a yard (Made in the USA – Yeah) and we only used 3 very small bags of water crystals from Michael’s (1/2 tsp. each). One bag will make 34 scarves. When we used 1tsp – they bulged and it was like having an italian sausage hanging around your neck. The lady at Michael’s recommended testing the amount because some of the guys were complaining about how hard they were when they hydrated – she was right! 1 tsp is way too stiff. Here are the kids making them – and if you want to make some – here is a pattern. Again – I caution you on the amount of crystals – a little does go a very long way!

As for the canning / gardening update:

Our garden has stopped producing anything except rust fungus so we will be tearing it out and replanting this next week.
I’ve started a compost heap and it seems to be working really good. I had a grocery cart from when I lived in Simi Valley, CA. It’s a metal wire frame on wheels. I lined it with hardware cloth and put layers of newspaper in the bottom. Then stack the veggie parts, etc layered with meadow grass clippings (hay). It’s 3/4 full already after just two weeks, so I need to make another, much larger version. Hopefully this will all decompose nicely for next years garden – which will be about 40 x 60 ft.

We purchased 3 bushels of apples from the Collins’ Brother’s Farms at the State Market last weekend. One bushel of Rome’s has made 14 quarts of applesauce. 7 of which are cinnamon (the kids love that one).
Today, I’ll make the apple butter – yummy – from a mix of Romes and Granny Smiths. Then the final bushel of Romes and Granny Smith’s will be used on Monday to make Apple Pie Filling.
I absolutely am in love with the apple corer / slicer. The whole family never tires of taking turns peeling and coring apples. It is just such a fun and helpful invention!

Slobo and the kids will finish going through the last of the donate bags today and I’ll start scrubbing the classroom and bathroom before Tommorrow. Tommorrow the kids get to move back into their classroom – and they are very excited! They have donated 3/4 of their toys, helped organize and finish up seasonal chores. The two youngest have already packed their backpacks with books and bandaids in anticipation. They will be late getting started full-time, but they are so enthusiastic about it, I don’t think it will matter at all. They’ve learned measurements just in the last couple of weeks helping to can and have been studying birds, bugs and wildlife while setting up habitats last week. It’s amazing how they absorb so much information just from every day life. They’ve already mastered basic fractions and basic multiplications like 2′s, 5′s, 10′s, just helping to count veggies. Still – they want their classroom with their new supplies and the best of all – Great Snacks and New Books! lol.

Til next time……. Hope you are enjoying cool, breezy, crisp days too………

Time has flown by so fast. J2 was born beet red, kicking and screaming (which he didn’t stop until he was 6 months old). He would cry until 4 in the morning. For the first 6 months, he and I slept in a rocking chair in the living room so that the rest of the house could attempt some sleep in between and everytime Daddy tried to pick him up he would scream which made Daddy cry! I would beg the pediatrician to help me figure out what was wrong. He did not seem to have gas pains, I gave him enough Mylicon to de-gas Chevron!

When he was born, the OB feared he was in distress and hooked a fetal monitor wire just under his scalp. The poor baby still has a small bump on top of his head from the experience. Even tho the docs don’t believe it, I still think the reason he cried like that is he must have had such terrible pain from it. As he aged, his favorite way to fall asleep was to have his head gently rubbed. I’ll always remember that heavenly look of his when I would rub his head and his eyes would roll back in his head. Now, at 8, he still asks for his head to be rubbed!

After his first six months, he turned into the sweetest, most loveable boy! Happy all the time and he has a great sense of humor! He and Daddy have been inseperable ever since! (There are so many wonderful pics of you smiling that I had a hard time to pick, but this is one of my favorites! My Very Own Little Elfin!)

We held his Birthday Party on Saturday. He requested a Spiderman / Star Trek Birthday. Walmart was out of Spiderman cakes, so we bought the Wilton cake pan for Spiderman. It was alot of fun but I was up until 4 AM on Friday night trying to mix black icing! Not a pretty sight. I luckily had a bottle of black dye from our oldest’s Power Puff Birthday – He loved the green one until he got old enough to realize they were girls! lol. My fingers are still a bluish purple color, but it was a great deal of fun to make! I also baked an oval cake in a casserole dish and decorated it with the Star Trek Voyager Logo in tan and gold icing. Which I then covered in web as if the spiderman had caught the logo in his web. Originally I printed the Star Trek Voyager Ship blueprints and was going to attempt to make the ship, but alas, at midnight, I had enough sense not to even go there!

Here is the cake:

Note: The foundation icing was supposed to be light blue, but when you mix light blue dye with buttercream frosting you get a Tiffany Blue! I thought it was pretty and he didn’t seem to mind. Makes me want a Tiffany Box cake for my birthday!!!! (Ahem… Slobo?)

As part of the party gifts, I made the kids Star Trek Costumes. They are made of black knit from JoAnne’s (they have costume knit now at 3.95 a yard) I used a bias cut satin for the colors at the top and embroidered the Star Trek Logo on a muslin in gold and tan thread for the communicator logos. I used Steam a Seam to apply them to the costumes and then just top stitched around to secure them permanently.

The jumpsuits for the two smaller ones are from an astronaut jumpsuit pattern and the oldest ones’ is just a pant and long sleeve top pattern joined. I used a 12-14″ invisible zipper on the fronts. I didn’t get them hemmed in time, but the kids don’t care – and hey – most halloween costumes aren’t hemmed anyway, so I think I’ll leave them that way! The only thing I wish I had done different was to crop the sleeve satin shorter. I used a mirror of the sleeve scye on them and wish I had just cut them straight across. But – who knew! I should’ve been watching Voyager so I would know these things!

Here’s a pic of the Voyager Crew (L to R) Tom Paris, Tuvok and the Holographic Doctor:

No matter what side of the fence you are on about the war, our heroes NEED US to provide them with the comforts we would afford our own family members. Often, as with anyone facing serious medical care, kindness, love and hope can be some of the best medicine!

Soldier’s Angels’ send out an urgent request yesterday for Blankets of Hope:

Your ongoing support is needed! The number of patients being medevac’d to Germany is at its highest level since the Battle of Falluja in 2004. See this article at the SA Germany blog for more information:

http://soldiersangelsgermany.blogspot.com/2007/07/busy-here.html

Any help anyone can provide would be great. If you would like to contribute fabric or batting or money to purchase them, you can email me at gidget at allsewnup.com or contact the Soldiers Angels organization.

Technorati Tags: Soldier’s Angels, Blankets of Hope, Troops

We’ve been writing to a nurse at the hospital in Germany after she sent us a really nice email thanking the boys for the quilts they had made. It turns out she was a patient in her hospital for a short time and received one of the blankets on a particularly chilly night. Even tho it’s warm over there, the hospital rooms get cold just like here.

Our oldest son had been at Scottish Rite hospital for a week last year when his appendix ruptured. The blankets they give out are these skinny cotton coverlets. They are warm, I’m not knocking them, but it’s a glimpse of understanding how good it must make those so far from home right now, feel, when they receive one of the blankets from Soldier’s Angels. Tammy had mentioned how much the children love getting the quilts from other kids, when they have to be admitted to the army hospital. Knowing how much our kids still trail around with their toddler blankets – it’s good to know someone else a half a world away – receives the same comfort.

Won’t you remember the Soldier’s Angels organization and do what you can – even if it’s writing letters – to the men, women and children – who fight on so many different fronts.

Anyway, here are the pics of the first sample. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Comments please……….. Good or Bad… Anything Constructive……..

It’s a 3/4 length gown with long sleeves:

It has crocheted edging at the neckline, scalloped front and gathered elasticized sleeves with a lace detail at the sleeves and bottom hemline.

This is a closeup of the sleeves. I love the way they lie and feel. There is a 1/4″ self-casing holding 1/8″ elastic. 1 inch down from there is a stretch lace.

Happy Belated Birthday, Mother’s Day and Just Because Day………………….