Organizing-Life

back to school

Today is back to school for Mini Mister. In the pouring rain. He is a big-boy kindergartner. This first day of school is something he has been wanting since last December. He told his daddy this morning, “daddy, I got up early so I can go to work with you.” Daddy said, “today is your first day of kindergarten. Do you want to go?” Mini Mister rephrased, “I got up early so I can go to kindergarten!”

I didn’t have my camera but I will probably always remember that small face, with big squeezable cheeks, looking back at me this morning as he disembarked the van. “Bye mama. See you later!” What a big boy he is! I felt so proud, happy, and filled with love. (Instead of the worried, sad, teary wreck I thought I might be.)

What would the beginning of school be without a bit of sewing? Our Montessori school uses washcloths to dry small hands. We were instructed to send in six. One for each day of the week and one to spare. I didn’t feel quite right sending these along without a personal touch. Some custom seam binding made from the last bit of stashed away cars fabric made these clothes more like the little-big-boy I dropped off at school this morning. A classroom parent takes home all the laundry once a week and returns these little cloths clean and folded on Monday.

The second project I needed to fashion was a placemat for lunch time. At first I thought packing a lunch every day would be such an arduous task. And not that it isn’t, but I like to look on the bright side of things. Public school lunches are wheat based. Pizza, hot dogs, mac and cheese, sub sandwiches, grilled cheese….wheat, wheat, wheat. Mini Mister might just benefit from a home-packed lunch that contains healthier items without wheat that he’ll actually eat. And of course he’ll be less likely to eat anything if he is playing “racing cars” on his placemat. Mama, what were you thinking?

This was a first try. A little reverse applique, a little bit of machine embroidery, and a whole lot of fudging. I am not that satisfied with it and plan to do a second attempt. Mini Mister seemed to like it just fine. I also thought it needed a few racing cars. (But I couldn’t decide how to do “flat” wheels. I felt buttons would be lumpy.) But Mini Mister instructed me that he doesn’t want any vehicles on it. So, I guess that will be that. This kindergartner knows what he wants.

sewing something new from something old

I love thrifting, though I haven’t been in quite a while. One needs a keen eye to cut through the clutter and find those diamonds in the rough. My mind needs to be in creative-mode to be able to envision the reinvented polished piece instead of simply seeing the wrinkled, slightly stained, pile of fabric tossed before me. Fewer kids in my cart basket helps keep me in that creative-mode.

Maybe thrifting was bred into me. I remember many childhood afternoons wandering the cluttered aisles of dusty, musty ”antiques.” It was so boring. I think I was into new and shiny back then. My parents wandered to and fro, searching each shop for that gem waiting to be discovered. Occasionally, they’d make a purchase, lug it home to be dusted off, refinished, and placed in that special corner of our rather eclectic home. I mean, were else but a mostly forgotten antique shop would you find a wooden toilet seat to adorn the walls of my parent’s home?

Antiques in these parts of Virginia are “real”, thrift stores many times give you the same feeling that you are hunting for a hidden treasure. As an adult living in the suburbs, I’ve found thrift stores are one of the best places to purchase fabrics for making items for the home. This blue and taupe striped cotton fabric was a curtain in a former life. I needed dish towels and this pattern looked homey enough. This fabric is the perfect weight to be draped over bread rising in the oven, cover pastry dough, and dry off dishes.

I cut rectangles, folded the edges and folded them again to sew a large finished edge; and presto, some ultra cheap kitchen towels.

A couple of pointers about this project…

*If you were to make your own dish towels, search for linen or cotton fabrics. Look at the tag to check the fiber content. When in doubt, scrunch the fabric in your hand. If it wrinkles, it is a natural fiber. If it flattens out, it is likely a synthetic polyester.

*Be aware of the colors of your home decor. Don’t simply pick up that fabric because it is a good price. Buy it because you would love to see it hanging in your home.

*To create repurposed dishtowels, stick to curtains, table cloths, and perhaps think blankets. There is a lot of fabric yardage per the price.

*Sew on a loop to one corner, or use a grommet, to hang your dish towel creation.

*Always, always, always launder your fabrics well as soon as you bring them into your home.

This project should only take a couple of hours to complete. It took me six months because…well, I was pregnant and had a baby, and because usually you can’t clothe a baby in a dish towel.

P/S

That biscuit is not a gluten free biscuit, so don’t ask. Pillsbury has got the recipe and it was for a family who just had a baby and we were bringing them dinner. But my kiddos got to it first. And yes, the fabric was laundered clean before the biscuit was placed there.

crafty for baby

Making things for a baby is just so much fun. And I am such a perfectionist.

This is my very first patchwork anything attempt. I didn’t have a clue about how to get all the points to match up…so I just went along blindly, and lo and behold, the points totally didn’t match up. I went on-line, found a YouTube video that shows how to make the points match up, took out my seam ripper, inhale deeply, and start dismantling all those mismatched 2 1/2 inch woven squares. I sewed them back together, the way they were supposed to be, and presto, pretty darn near perfect patchworking. Amazing where a little technique will get you.

This is Anna Maria Horner’s Baby’s Sleep Sack. Tedious yes a bit. But the result is amazing. With all the money saving, and money earning thoughts running through my head, I was so pleased with myself that this entire piece came from scraps in my fabric stash pile. Even the seam binding! Hence, this entire project is free. (Or already paid for, if you want to look at it that way.)

And these are the cutest things ever. I never thought about making booties, but they are actually so quick and easy, you almost don’t get bored making the second one like you do with socks. Unfortunately, I don’t think that Pie Pie is ready for fall weather since he doesn’t seem to want to wear these on his feet yet. Barefooted in the summer is where we are right now. Just you wait Pie Pie, the cooler weather is right around the corner. The pattern is from this book I have called The Knitter’s Bible and the yarn was from the stash. Free knitting. I love it.

bits here and there

A bit of sewing…not perfect, but I am slowly starting to accept “not perfect.”

A bit of knitting here for Little Miss…again not perfect, but am going out on a limb here, using a pattern as a guide, and then going the “make your own” route.

And a bit of knitting here for Pie-Pie. This looks extra cute on him, but his head…it just keeps growing and growing, and I think it might just grow out of this before any cold weather hits that might necessitate something wool on one’s head. Oh, well. We know some smaller baby boys.

And a bit of experimental knitting here for charity.

So many projects (more of each of them to follow) and so little time in the day to work on each. I feel as though I am continually shifting from one thing to the next, quietly, easily, and softly. Some of this in-and-out schedule is because of new baby nursing. Some is that we are summer bound. Bare feet, loose flexible schedules, no where you have to be, improvisational meals–like popcorn dinner appetizers, and “okay, let’s just do it” are all what is going on in this summer family home.

The planner in me has itchy fingers. I keep re-copying, updating, and refining my to-do list in my planning book. All the while wishing there where more hours in the day and feeling glad to just be enjoying what I am doing right now. One foot in front of the other. Slow breaths. Remember to enjoy just this moment. Giving thanks. And working each day with love from the heart.

dresses for Haiti

A couple of weeks ago the church bulletin ran a notice calling for donations of simple sewn dresses. Part of the Operation Starfish Mission, these dress donations will be shipped to Haiti in the fall and given to girls still living in the devistation the earthquake left that destroyed all they owned more than a year ago.

It amazes me that there have been so many catastrophic natural disasters in the news lately. And it also amazed me how quickly I forget about these tonradoes, floods, famine, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes that have left behind such dramatic distruction and loss of life. I am also astounded at the progress reports I am hearing and how much unfinished work is left to truly rebuild and heal.

I was surprised to see a donation can at my local sushi restaurant still appealing for funds to help the earthquake and tsunami victims. (That giant wave swept away the lives of so many less than five months ago.) I was “reminded” by a recent episode of “19 Kids and Counting” about the devestation in Joplin Missouri. (That tornado flattened a swath of life six miles long just a few months ago in May.) After reading the church bulletin, I actually Googled “Haiti 2010″ to remember that it was an earthquake that affected more than 3 million people.)

So, my resolve is now to keep remembering. That isn’t to say dwell in the past, but rather, to keep abreast of what is current. After reading papers like this one, published by British Charitable group Oxfam, I’d say it is safe to say that there is a lot more work to be done to help clean up and rebuild all that was destroyed in Haiti in January, 2010.

These are the dresses I sewed this spring for my daughter to wear to church. She refused to don either. Yes, even the Hello Kitty one. And so, they were lovingly folded and packed into a bag to be sent to Haiti so another girl may have a dress for church.

Our church is accepting donations from anyone who sews. To find out more about Operation Starfish and how to send a dress, check here.

I feel most uplifted when I am helping someone who greatly needs assistance. How better to show care, concern, and empathy than to share from your own possession. Maybe if everyone cared about one another enough to remember and give with love, this world would be a better place.

itchy crafting fingers

There are times when I just want to GET GOING already! Mostly those times come when I am in the shower and remember that ONE thing I need to write down in my planner to-do list. Or, before falling asleep at night when my mind is still running, but my legs have given out. But this time it is because I just need that one thing to start that particular project. It makes my crafting fingers itchy.

Before I can delve in and make this not-so-red-velvet cake….

I need to clean this up.

Before I cast on stitches for this wonderful soon-to-be sweet summer infant sweater…

I need the right sized needles.

Before I cast on this Easter sweater, bound for Little Miss…

I again, need the right sized needles.

And before I can cut and start to stitch these intensely cute green and yellow cotton prints…

I need to pre-wash them, iron them, and locate my pattern which is somewhere in my stack of stuff.

I tell myself, start slowly. Triage. Those phone calls about kindergarten are more urgent than casting on anything at the moment. And maybe so is making that egg-salad sandwich for this pregnant mama!

tiny pants

Occasionally my sewing machine gets a little attention. (I think it is feeling a bit neglected lately with some much action on the other kind of needles.)

Maybe this is what they describe as the “nesting period” in one’s pregnancy. Somehow I never felt this during my first two. It is kind of nice really. Be creative. Forget what it was you were going to create. Day dream. Eat something. Browse for baby patterns, prints, and particulars. Eat something. And day dream a bit more.

This time, it was Anna Maria Horner’s Quick Change Trousers from her most recent book, Handmade Beginnings: 24 Sewing Projects to Welcome Baby, that inspired my sewing foot to get going.

Back when I had dreamy aspirations of making Mini Mister a quilted duvet cover, I purchased these oh-so-cute patterned cotton fabrics. (Sorry, sorry, I don’t remember what they were called, but I do remember I purchased them about a year ago. I.e. old prints.) Since I tend to hoard fabrics, especially more expensive ones with very cute patterns on them, this stayed un-cut in my stash for a while.

Mini Mister got older. He grew out of baby giraffes and I needed to redefine my next baby-print fabric project. Tiny pants. Perfect.

Great pattern by the way. These pants are reversible, so if you get spills on one side…oh, well. Flip ‘em and presto, a clean pair of pants.

Mini Mister picked these up and laid them across his waist. He declared his legs to be “to long.” And then demanded a pair of mama-made “fabric pants” in his size.

organic fabric stores

I am so sad that one of my favorite go-to on-line shops for organic fabrics is closing. Modern Organic Fabrics, you supplied my daughter with almost a complete summer-to-be-hand-sewn wardrobe! I loved their prices, customer service, and the fact that the owner is a work-at-home-mom just like I aspire to be one of these days. Modern Organic Fabrics, you will be missed.

So, where am I to get organic fabric yardage now? The Modern Organic Fabrics site has a wonderful list of other on-line stores that carry organic fabrics. (You can find the full list here.)

After going through a few, these seem to be places I might shop in the near future.

And Modern Organic Fabrics still is on Etsy here.

Okay, after all that, I am still wondering, will I still be buying organic fabric? Is organic worth it? Is it worth the price tag to spend that much on fabric to make my little girl a dress that will last just one season? (And also to feel good that we are trying to do our part to not pollute the environment with all the pesticides and fertilizers used to produce cotton.)

Well I think three things. First, I think sale, sale, sale. I never buy $16/yd fabric full price. The on-line stores I noted above, had a “Sale” page link on their home page so it is simple to see what has been discounted. Second, I think budget, budget, budget. Before I hit that “Buy” button, I make certain that my purchase fits into our spending budget. Discretionary spending that is. Yes, it could be construed as “clothing,” but who are we kidding. It should probably be labeled “sewing machine entertainment for mama.”

And thirdly, think ahead and stretch your dollar. I thought a bit ahead and purchased enough yardage, in adult prints, to make something beautiful for myself. I suspect that my size will not change as rapidly as the kids’ sizes. (Or, well, I hope not.) With a simply cut pattern, that allows large swaths of fabric, like a skirt, I can always cut it up cut up and make something new if it’s wonderment starts to fade. Way to make that dollar stretch!

So when that shoe fits, I plan to buy organics.

So thank you Modern Organic Fabrics for being such a wonderful source, and I think this year, I need to use up the organic fabrics in my stash before purchasing new ones.

eco-friendly gift wrapping

Oh it is one of the most wonderful times of year! (Isn’t that in a song?) Time for gift making, gift acquiring, gift giving, and gift wrapping. I always lamented the big balls of paper that go out to the trash curb after a festive morn’ of present rummaging. As a kid, I was the kind to smooth each piece of wrapping paper and save it in my closet. For what I don’t remember. But what to do with the scrappy scrapps my sister left tearing through each sheet of paper that enclosed her next present surprise? Even at 8 years old, balls of wrapping paper in the trash was like money down the drain.

In my first few years with the new business title of “homemaker” I did my best to emulate that good Martha Stewart, and adorn my pretty, monochromatic paper-wrapped gifts with plastic ornaments, mini kitchen utensils, jingle bells, and lavish ribbons and bows. Because really, isn’t a gorgeous package just that much more exciting than the plain old paper gift bag with colored tissue paper hanging out the top? And then two kids, not enough hours in the day, and a limited budget reality set in…and maybe a bit of eco-friendly green-ness settled in too…and I made a switch to wrapping our gifts in pretty fabrics.

So honestly, I never knew what people made with those crazy holiday fabrics in the store. Who would want to wear an entire skirt made of fabric printed with little pink snowmen with orange mittens and purple kittens on it? Well, maybe you’d buy a yard of that colorful fabric at 50% off to wrap that gift for your niece. (Note, I’ve made up that fabric print and I don’t have a niece. But if I did, I’d imagine that that is the kind of thing I’d do for her.) For our family, I’ve acquired a gold and white scroll pattern, a red and white swirl pattern, a red and white snowman pattern and a green tree pattern to wrap our gifties this year. And, in a take-it-easy-holiday fashion, I’ve managed to wrap each gift WITHOUT sewing a stitch. So if you don’t sew, or don’t have time to sew, this re-usable gift wrapping tip is for you!

A couple of notes before I show how I did all this.

Get your fabric on SALE! It can get expensive. Watch for coupons that say 20% off your entire purchase and couple that with a store-wide sale of 30% off holiday prints. And after-the-holiday clearance sales are key winners too!
I used quilting weight cottons (think light weight.) You can also used gorgeous home decor fabrics which are heavier, more expensive, but a bit more showy. Oh, and don’t be afraid to try velor, repurposed-felted cashmere, or even something already made like a linen dishtowel. (Use a linen dishtowel tied up with kitchen twine to wrap up those homemade freezer rolls you plan to give!)
Buy an extra yard of fabric. Just in case.
Think of this endeavor as a bit of an investment of both time and money. Wrapping with fabric does take a little more time than wrapping with paper. Next year, you’ll already have a stash lined up. Keep in mind that as you give these away, you’ll need to create a few more to replace them!
Think about the fabric patterns an colors you select. You’ll want some to coordinate so you can use these patterns as ties to adorn, and hold fast, your packages.
You’ll need an iron and a pair of pinking shears.

1. Shall we get started? Measure the fabric around the gift, just as you would with paper. Use a pinking shears (important!) to cut your wrapping fabric to size. You’ll want just enough fabric on the sides to fold the “triangle ends” down to the back side of the package. I suggest using pinking shears because then you don’t have to hem the fabric to keep it from fraying. But, if you’d rather, simply roll hem the edges and machine stitch in place!

2. With pinking shears, cut a length of contrasting fabric for the tie. (I liked 3″ wide, by how-ever long. A yard or more long seemed to be enough to tie up a medium sized box.) Fold in thirds, wrong-sides together, and press flat. (I didn’t bother to “finish” the ends, I just cut them off with the pinking shears, so they wouldn’t fray.)

3. Fold the fabric around your present. To make crisp folds use an iron. Just hold that baby up to the fabric-wrapped cardboard carton and give it a puff of steam. CAUTION: don’t use an iron when the package underneath is shrink wrapped or could otherwise be damaged by high heat and steam!! Wrap your coordinating tie fabric around the gift and tie it in a bow to the front.