The Fair

We have been hard at work here the last few weeks getting ready for the local fair. The last couple of years we have entered a few things in the fair but this year Hannah went crazy. I gave her the list and she picked out what she was going to do. I had to help as far as making sure she had supplies and overseeing some projects and framing everything but other than that all of this is her own work. I'm proud of how diligently she worked and I hope she does well. They award cash prizes for each category--$3 for first place, $2 for second, and $1 for third. Grace also did her share of entries and really put time and effort into what she chose to do. In the picture above she is painting a little ceramic pot. And below, the girls are decorating t-shirts. The pots that they painted and the decorated t-shirts came from kits that they got for Christmas.

Here Grace works on her pillow, she's a good little seamstress. And below, Hannah makes chocolate chip butterscotch bars.

Above, Grace folding origami and below, Hannah picks out fabric for a pillow.

Above, Grace is displaying her chocolate chip banana bread, it was really good despite her adding a cup of milk too much to the recipe. :0) Below, Hannah is displaying her pillow and cookie bars.

Above, Grace with all her stuff. She did a great job! I especially love the pillow and watercolor painting. Below, Hannah with all her stuff. She did some really nice art as well as some sewing and a couple of collage style crafts that you can't really see. Good luck to my little ladies!!

Finished!!

We finished our "Downy Quilts for Kids!" This is such a great thing--they send you the fabric already cut and a pattern and directions and you make the quilt and then mail it back to them. The quilt then is given to a child who is in the hospital. The girls and I both had a lot of fun making them and they turned out pretty good. Grace's has a few (well, more than a few) issues but she did the best she could and it's cute. After all, she is only 8 years old and has a very non-perfectionist momma so...
In the picture above, Hannah is holding up my quilt and in the picture below she has her quilt.

A Long Day and Other Random Thoughts

This picture sums up my day. I had a big ol' long to do list and was feeling overwhelmed--throw in a couple of catty girls, one hyper overstimulated boy, and one Monday and well, the picture above says it all. I recovered tonight by babysitting a sweet newborn and just holding and rocking and watching two episodes of Grey's Anatomy. I feel refreshed and ready for another day....Now for some random...
These are the two books I got the experiments from. We did the 101 one first and did about 75 of the experiments. The other book had a lot of repeats from the first book but had some pretty neat new ones as well. It's hard to say whether I'd recommend them or not--a lot of the experiments didn't actually work which I think is common with elementary science projects. If I were to recommend a book I think I'd recommend the Usborne Science Experiments book. We used that with My Father's World and the experiments were better and used more common household supplies.
I love this picture of Joe--not sure why but I just do.
I spent a good part of Saturday making a crinoline to go under this poodle skirt. "Grease" is coming up in just a couple of weeks and Hannah has about 4 costume changes. I think we've got it all together now. The crinoline was miserable work and it is crappola but it should survive four shows.
This was our breakfast the other day and let me say that it was delicious! For real. This is a homemade Lara bar topped with bananas and cashew cream and flax seeds and chia seeds. The kids and I all had this and we all loved it. To make the cashew cream you just soak about a cup of raw cashews in water for about 20 to 30 minutes. Then you blend them with some of the soaking water, a little bit of lemon juice, honey, and vanilla. It makes a creamy topping for the breakfast "sundae."
I also made another raw bar that is just as good as the Lara bar. It's a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip bar. Here's how to make it--
1 ripe banana, mashed
1 1/2 cups oats
1/2 c. raisins or other dried fruit (I left this out)
1/2 c. chocolate chips
1/2 c. maple syrup
1/2 c. nut butter
optional--2 to 4 scoops of protein powder
2 Tbsp. flax seeds
2 Tbsp. chia seeds
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix it all together and press into a cookie sheet and chill or freeze until hard. Cut into bars and keep in the fridge.
We are trying to eat more raw foods. I will not go completely raw but I am trying to eat at least one raw meal a day. The other night for dinner I made a big pot of pinto beans and refried them for the rest of the family and then left some whole and made a salad with spring mix, beans, and then the toppings below. The rest of the family had the toppings with their refried beans. It was a good and filling meal. I am not much of a salad eater but I really liked this.

I got myself two new tie dye t-shirts--I love them! Here's one of them. I also bought Grace one too that matches the one in the picture. She and I have similar taste in clothes--we both like lots of color and we both will trade fashion for comfort. Below is her new "Life is Good," t-shirt. I found it at Goodwill the other day and I just had to get it for her. Now if I could just find one that is my size at Goodwill. I have been wanting a "Life is Good, " t-shirt for years but just can't bring myself to spend $25 on a t-shirt.

Grace and I spent well over an hour today cranking out her quilt. She has one problem after another and so I have to sit with her even though she does all the work. She really wants to enter it in the fair before we send it off so I am insisting that she do all of the work herself. It is taking forever and I can't wait for her to bed done. Hannah only has about 20 to 30 more minutes of work on hers and it will be done. Woohoo!!
Here's to a better day tomorrow--I have already decided that I will be more relaxed if it kills me. :0)

Patch Shorts Tutorial

It's ten til' one in the morning--told you I'd be burning the midnight oil. I am just starting to get tired but I don't think I could sleep yet so I may as well blog right? I have had plans to make these patch shorts for two weeks now and at 10:45 tonight I decided to tackle them. I also decided to take pictures along the way so that I could do a tutorial here on the blog. Aren't you happy? I must give a disclaimer here--I am NOT a perfectionist. Not even close. I will not be able to give exact measurements in this tutorial because I didn't do much measuring. This is one of those sewing crafts that you just fudge your way through.
This is what you need--an old pair of jeans or shorts--too small or too big is best. These cheapo jeans from Target work great since I've bought multiple pairs the last two years and EVERY pair has a big hole in the knee or knees. You also need some fabric scraps and it helps to have a rotary cutter but not necessary.
First of all decide how big you want your fabric pieces. You are going to make strips that you will then put in the seams of your shorts. For the first pair that I did I made 2 in. by 2 in. blocks. They were pretty small but I thought that would give the best look in the end. For the patch shorts I made for myself last year I think my blocks were 3 by 3. For the pair I made after this pair I made 2 by 4 rectangles. You decide what you want here. Cut out your pieces and then sew them into strips. Again I didn't measure but made them to be a little longer than the shorts they were going into. You'll need two strips of approximately equal length. Iron them when you are done sewing them.

Now it's time to disassemble your shorts. Cut right up the seam on the side and right back down and take out that whole seam. About an inch's worth of the denim. If you are making a pair of shorts that are too small for you bigger, don't cut as much out of the waistline, if you are trying to make a pair that are too big for you smaller, cut more--make sense? When you are done with both sides your shorts (or jeans) will be connected only through the crotch.

Now we sew. Take your strip and line it up right sides together and sew. Then turn the shorts inside out and sew down the other side. If your strip is too short, trim the shorts, if your strip is too long, trim the strip. Simple as that! Then do the other side and wala--you have a pair of patch shorts. I fringed the bottoms on these two pair. I had thought about doing some sort of ruffle but didn't feel like dealing with it.

And here are the two pair I made in about an hour and a half. The second pair was faster because I had longer fabric pieces so I didn't have to do much sewing on that part. I love both pairs! I love the batiked circles and the other one is frogs. I can't wait for Gracie to wake up and see them (and try them on...). My next project will be revamping my favorite denim skirt that is now too big. It was actually a little big on me when I bought it but I've since lost 20 pounds. I hate to give it up so I'm going to fix it I hope. I've got some great tan, brown, and navy blue corduroy. I'll post pics when I get it done. I'm not putting my sewing machine away until I do!

How to Make a Tiered Skirt

Okay--

1. Measure the waist of whoever you are making the skirt for. Also measure from the waist down to the length you want the skirt to be.
2. Decide how many tiers you want the skirt to be and take your length plus an inch per tier plus 2 more inches and divide by how many tiers you want to have to see how wide your tiers need to be. For example--If you want a 40 inch skirt and you want 4 tiers then first add 6 to 40. This allows for seam allowances, hem, and elastic. So then we divide 46 by 4 and get approximately an 11 inch tier give or take. You decide. You could go for a 12 inch tier. Remember people--I am a non-perfectionist and I sew by the seat of my pants. So, these measurements are not going to be exact. Your skirt will likely be a little longer or shorter than you originally planned. No big deal. Really.
3. Take the waist size and 1 1/2 it and cut your first tier that long. For example if your waist is 24 then you would cut a strip that is 24 + 12 (1/2 of 24) = 36. So, 36 inches long and however wide you decided. Cut a piece of elastic about a half inch or so shorter than the waist size depending on how snug you want it.
4. Sew a little pocket for the elastic in the first tier and thread the elastic through and sew a short stitch on both ends to tack it down. And you have your first tier


5. Now, for your second tier--you need to double length of the first tier. Again, this is not exact. Depending on our pleats you may end up needing more or less. More on that later. Cut your fabric, twice as long as above and the same width. You will likely have to sew two pieces together to get the right length for this, it won't be noticeable on the skirt. Now we start the pleating. You can gather instead if you would rather but I prefer making pleats. Put your fabric right side up under the presser foot and sew a little, stop, fold a little pleat, sew over it, stop, fold a little pleat, sew over it, stop, fold a little pleat, sew over it, repeat until you reach the end. The more you pleat and the bigger your pleats the more fabric you will use and the fuller the skirt will be.
6. Once you have it pleated you then sew it to the first tier, right sides together making sure that your seam allowance is wide enough to go over the pleating stitch. You are done with your second tier.

7. For the third and subsequent tiers just follow the above steps, doubling the length each row. Now--about needing more or less. If you have too long of a strip of pleated tier then it's easy--you cut off the excess. If you don't have enough, you should notice before you get to the end--take it out of the machine. Cut some more fabric and sew it onto your tier and then pleat it and then continue sewing it on.
8. Once you have finished all your tiers. Hem the bottom and then sew the two sides together. Of course, my sides almost never match up tier for tier and often when I get to the bottom of the skirt it's a little off. What do I do? I fudge it! Fold it up a little so it matches or just let it be off by a little.

Since you've already seen the finished product of Hannah's skirt--here's a picture of the one I made for Grace. I love the fabric and she does too! You can't tell from the picture but the little red dots are ladybugs.