Dog Sweater

This is a Christmas present for my Mother-in-law. She likes to take her dog for a walk in the evenings and this should help keep them warm. My husband and I originally looked to the internet to find matching sweatshirts. And what a Void there is. Note to anyone looking for a niche, with all of the pet apparel available we could not find people/pet clothes. S0-oo you know how the story goes, buy 2, rip 1 apart and sew it back together.

T-Shirt Pillow Case

Basically fabric stores have zilch that would inspire a 16 year old boy, and after searching far and wide for something to cover the new pillow that my son is getting for Christmas, I decided that this t-shirt was what I was needing. I snipped off the arms, stitched some fabric into the neck hole and closed up the sides.

The Purr-fect Apron

This is the purr-fect apron for child #3 being modeled by child #1. I wanted to make a matching oven mitt and towel but I have to move on because it IS December 23rd and I have more to make..........................

Lurking Softy

Something is lurking around my sewing room. ............Its a finished present for a man child!

Whole Wheat Bread with Flaxseed

2 TBS. yeast
2-1/2 cups warm water
4 TBS. honey
2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup oil
1/4 - 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 - 1/2 cup whole flaxseed
6+ cups whole wheat flour

mix warm water, tsp. honey and yeast. Let set for 10 min or so. Add oil, honey and salt then add 3 cups of flour, I mix well for about 5 minutes, then add the flax, mix well for a few more minutes ( I find that all this extra mixing/strengthening the gluten holds the bread together better ) the flax tends to make the finished bread fall apart when you slice it. Add more flour and knead 10 min. I let my dough rise for 1 hour, punch it down and rise for 1 more hour. Place in loaf pans and let rise (about 30 min). Bake 350 for 35 minutes. makes 2 loaves. I usually double this recipe for 4 loaves and freeze it. This is the staple bread in our house, once I started adding the flax seed the family would not let me make bread any other way. I think you could add it to any bread recipe, It will just use a little less flour.

Food Freak

I think there are a few people who think I have lost my marbles because I have stopped making my cookie trays and started finding healthier alternatives. This year I made jam and bread (whole wheat with flax and local wildflower honey). Click Here to see the vast array of sweets from Christmas pasts. But.... My marbles are all there, well at least all the ones I started out with anyways. I remember a few years ago (before I got serious about eating better) coming across people who were strict with thier diet and anal about what they would put in thier body..........I believe my reaction was something like P-f-f-t *food freaks*. Well I have willingly signed on to that bandwagon.

Proof of life

When I scoot past my blog to get to my dashboard I am constantly reminded that I have NOT posted anything since last month. I like to keep myself updated so I have a visual of all I have been doing. Since most of that has been top secret and I cant post pictures, here is a note to self: Coffee mug on corner of table = .50 thriftstore find of the season and when filled with coffee a reason to get out of bed in the a.m. Cream colored paint on wall freshly done (Caution to self = dont wait till December to paint the living room). Jar of "purple goop" = failure to make grape jelly on the first try, although if anyone ever wants a grape gummybear recipe I think I found it.
Jelly-Jam-Preserves Success! as well as tags and bows for all and I feel a little less guilty about having NONE of my Christmas shopping done.
And the icing on the cake...........I won good stuff at the SewMamaSew giveaway day! I won these Moda Charms as well as some other goodies over at D is for Dovey . I will be daydreaming about what I am going to make whilst I prepare for Christmas.

100% Recycled 100th Post

For my 100th post I have been trying to find something extra special. The other night I had the mother of all headaches and decided that supper would be from a can, beef chow mien to be precise. As I was washing out the cans for recycling I was noticeing how shiney and clean they were and since my can opener removes the lid with out rough edges I was popping it on and off as I was waiting for supper to heat up. The light bulb went on (advil must have kicked in) and I thought it would be cute to make coasters that would fit in the can! So the next day I pulled out some recycled supplies: the fabric was a skirt in its former life, the cotton towel was a rescue from the thrift store, the paper on top of the can was the inside of a junk-mail envelope and of coarse the can! that beautiful CAN :)

Seed Sack (part 1)

Okay, I bought these hideous linen pants at the thrift store last year, NOT because I wanted to wear them but because of the cute embroidered seed packets on them. I was cleaning out my sewing cupboard the other day and decided to make something. It all looks well in the picture, but it ended up to small to hold actual seed packets, my machine was not threaded right and I had bad stitches and I found out that burlap is not so fun to sew. I will be trying this again with different fabric.

Ready for Winter

I actually took pictures of this scarf to do a tutorial but I'm too lazy to upload all those photos and add directions, so Its just the finished product. I LOVE this quilted scarf, I made it last month and we have had a few days that were cold enough to enjoy it. I bought my first jellyroll of fabric to make this and only used half. The inspiration for the scarf was this coat I found at a yard sale this summer. Yup! I'm ready for winter

Did Someone Say Chicken?

Before the little green swine, I was dabbling with this chicken. I could not find a good pattern that I liked so I ventured into the scarry land of MAKE YOUR OWN. This is the result. It has some serious beek issures and lets just say that I had to rip and re-sew its chest 4 times to get it where I wanted it to be. The wings are actually pockets that are suppost to hold eggs or chicks but I have not gotten that far and I may never because around that time I found the pig and got sidetracked. I have Attention Defecit Hyper-sewing Dissorder.

Pig Softie

With all the talk of Swine flu, I thought it would be good to get cozy with a safer variety. This is a pattern which was origanally made from felted wool on MarthaStewart.com but I had different ideas, I re-eally wanted him to have spots along with his flowers but I could not get friendly with the french knot and I was too lazy to google "french knots for dummies" . I think I may have to make another one because my son grabbed up on him to put in his locker at school?!?... well thats what he said, but I have been around long enough to know that 16 yr old guys don't just keep cute things in there lockers unless they plan on giving it to someone?? hmmm

UpCycle Wool Mittens Tutorial

With what is left of the sweater from the Wool Hat Tutorial I made matching mittens. I found the Pattern Here and enlarged it 330%. The pattern fits a womens large but could be adjusted to fit other sizes depending on how much you enlarge. I found the directions on the website with the pattern to be very helpful but there were two flaws in the pattern/directions. 1. one side of the thumb is bigger than the other and is very apparent when you match up your cut pieces so I just trimmed the larger one the same size as the smaller. 2. they also call for 4-1/2 inch pieces of elastic, I used 4 inch and liked the fit better.

Cut pieces out of felted sweater, making sure you have a right hand and a left hand. (ask me how I know this is important? you could end up with 2 gloves that fit one hand! not fun) I used pins and paper to identify each peice so this would not happen again. I also took advantage of the ribbing on this particular sweater and made sure that my cuff pieces butted up against it.

Cut 4 piece of elastic 4 inches long and zig zag stitch it to the wrist of the gloves. You will need to stretch it gently as you sew.

Stitch the top thumb/palm piece to the bottom thumb/palm piece

Stitch down the small palm seam.

1. Use a scrap piece of fabric 2-1/2 inch X 1-1/2 inch and fold in long edges 1/4 of the way then in half, it will look like quilt binding or bias tape. 2. Stitch around edges and fold in half. 3. Tack in place on finished side of glove at the elastic line, this will give the option of clipping the gloves together and also adds a touch of flare. 4. Stitch front and back together starting at the cuff and stopping at the thumb. Cut thread and start stitching on the other side of thumb finishing with the opposite side of the cuff. (not sure if that makes sense but that was the best way I could describe it)

There it is a nice cozy glove. You may notice that I added a lining to them in the very first photo, this was just for extra comfort, you make the exact thing from a soft stretchy fabric ( I use a cotten shirt) and insert into the glove stitching together at cuff.

UpCycle Wool Hat Tutorial

Cut the hood off of a felted wool hooded sweater. I found this one at the thrift store for .99 cents and felted it in my washer/dryer.

trim the cut side to match the uncut side like above

stitch together

Stitch each side of your seam down, this will give a nice finished look on the outside of the hat as well as making it less lumpy on the inside.

Use a piece of scrap fabric roughly 2 -1/2 inch by 1-1/2 inch and fold sides in 1/4 of the way, them fold in half (just like quilt binding or bias tape). Stitch around edges. Fold ends in 1/8 inch and stitch to hat, this leaves an opening so you can hang your hat on a hook as well as giving it a little flair.

and there you have it! One very cheap AND warm wooly winter hat.

Cheap Wool

I am exploring a new found love for wool, and the fact that I can find it cheap at second hand stores. I'm going to start collecting and felting wool sweaters for various projects. The older I get the colder my feet seem to be. I remember when I was younger being able to walk around the house in the winter in my bare feet and thinking nothing of it, I may have even ran out to the mailbox barefoot in the snow. NOT anymore! I have to have something on my feet all time. I found this pattern on MarthaStewart.com very simple and got the job done.

NightShade the Fox

Once again J. can't resist taking a pile of scraps and making something awsome. She has not yet submitted to the idea of using an existing pattern, so this was made completely off the cuff and from her imagination! I love seeing her ideas come to life.

Zebra Softy

I couldnt resist playing with the leftovers from the baby quilt that I just finished. I really wanted this to have ribbon tags for its mane and tail, but did not have the right color on hand so I used strips of the fabric from the backside of the quilt.

Baby Quilt

My daughters friend is expecting a baby soon, so we combined out skills and designed this quilt. Click here to see the last quilt we did together. We spent a total of $12.00 for the fabric, she wanted something "sassy" that both Mother and Baby could enjoy as well as gender neutral. I believe we achieved that!

Laptop Case

Another laptop case, my son just bought a laptop and requested a soft and sturdy case for it. He picked the camoflauge canvas fabric. I think I had about $7.00 worth of material and supplies into it with lots of leftovers for other projects.

Asphalt Canvas

I have gotten way behind on my pictures. These are from the end of summer, the girls were expressing themselves on the road in front of the house.

A Mighty Muffin

It is a mighty muffin indeed that has my husband requesting it and bragging about it! In my pursuit of all things healthy I decided to buy some Millet. I found this muffin recipe on Allrecipes.com and gave it a try, despite the snickers from certain members of my family who doubted that I could make bird food taste good.............. Well no one is laughing now, their faces are too full of muffins.

2-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup millet
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk (I use skim milk w/ 1 tsp. vinegar)
1 egg
1/2 cup oil ( I use applesauce)
1/2 cup honey

bake in greased muffin pans at 400 degrees for 15 minutes

So Ugly its Cute!

During one of my many "pounces" on Etsy.com I came across some very interesting dolls made by "Junker Jane" . After repeated exposure to these misfits I fell in love with them. I couldnt resist. THIS was so fun and easy to do, I think I will have to do some more experimenting :) I know, I know, its a little "dark" but come on its so darn cute!

My daughter saw me sewing and came up with her own idea. I love the pocket on the back with the removable kitty (made from old socks) what a great way to re-purpose! good job J!

Chicken Tractor

Has it really been 5 months since I created something worthy of posting? I am certain I have been doing something in that time frame.........................?? Anyways, this is my summer fling. I am back in the chicken business, seeing all of the chicken tractors on the Web, and in magazines I couldnt help but experiment :) This is the new house for my Silkie hen and her chicks. Not quite as fun as sewing but just as rewarding.

A Softie

I love to look at all of the softies on Etsy.com since Valentines Day was coming up I made this Softie of a Guinea Pig for my Daughter. Actually it looks more like a calico cat. But she doesnt mind ( its supposed to look like her "Piggy" Marisol.)

The Purr-fect Pouch

It's cold, I was bored AND I needed a creative outlet. End of story :)

Slippers

Nostalgia

A friend Emailed this to me and it reminded me of my Grandmother click here to see her aprons

The History of Aprons
I don't think our kids know what an apron is.
The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a pot holder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.
And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in Apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes.
Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma's aprons.
REMEMBER: Grandma used her apron to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her Granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.
They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron--except love.

Are your electronics covered?

My daughter wanted me to make her a laptop cover while she was home on break, I wish I could take total credit, but on occasion my ideas stem from somewhere else. We scouted around Etsy.com and found a case we loved....and went fabric shopping. We found the same fabric and saved alot of $$$$ making it ourselves. I also made a matching Ipod case and a bag to hold all of her cords.

Trash to Treasure

A dear friend of mine was packing up to move away this past summer. While going through things she came across this old wooden sewing notions case. She asked me how much I would give her for it ? and I am not proud to say that I offered her $3.00 which she did accept, okay it is true....I am cheap.... and my friend is kind, but this is the result! I sanded it down lightly to brighten it up and with new fabric and olive jars I now have an amazing notions case.

I have looked on the internet to try to see if it is hand made or something that was mass produced. The only thing that I have is a cardboard insert from the early 1940's that says The Royal Tailors, Chicago Ill. I am not sure if someone randomly placed it in there when they made it or if it was purchased. Either way it is handy to have and I am grateful to someone elses creative whimsy.