What's the Point....

 ...of having these stitches, if you never use them.  I rarely use the decorative stitches on my machine.  I don't own an embroidery machine for two reasons: 1.  I'd rather hand embroider, and 2.  the cost of the machines!!!!

 

I finished Miss K's dress for Easter, using the pattern below.  I made the view of the pink one in the center of the pattern front.  It looked a little "grannyish" to me, though.    So.......

I embellished this white satin ribbon with a machine decorative stitch and then added the blue satin ribbon bow.  I definitely think this "youngs" it up a little.  Afterall, Miss K is not quite 11 yet.  She liked this pattern and fabric, though.  The fabric isn't photographing exactly as it really looks.

Here's a little closer look at the ribbon.  The only gathers in this dress are in the sleeve caps.  The front and back skirt, as well as the sleeve hems are pleated.

A close up of the back zipper.  I rarely put in zippers in my kids' clothing, but this dress called for it and I thought it worked.  I usually just add a little fabric to the center back to accommodate the button overlap when a pattern calls for a zipper.

Below is the hat that I showed you in my last post.  But, now it is all taken apart to use as a pattern.

Someone asked what fabric I am using.  This is a heavy and fairly stiff cotton herringbone that I had in my stash.  I think that if I add a few layers of interfacing and have two layers of the fabric for the brim, it will be plenty stiff enough.  I think I have figured out how to make the back of the brim curl up.  It may not work, but if it does, I'll show you how I did it.  I will adjust the size as I go along.  This was a woman's hat, by the way.  I don't think it would be a whole lot too big for our Big Little Man.  I'm not sure what kind of hat I'll be making for Little Little Man.

Go See the Pay It Forward Post on my other blog Baby Girl's Observations.  Just click here.

What We Fed the Church Kids (Nutritious????) And A Hat

We take turns at our church feeding the kids and their families on Wednesday nights.  This was our week.  We don't go for gourmet or healthy, as you will see.           

  A Variety of Delicious Chips.  There is a running joke about having to have cheese puffs of some sort at every church event.

 Grapes - Okay these have nutritional value!

 Carbonated Drinks??????????  Well, at least we offered green tea, but there were no takers!

 Salad - We have one vegetarian adult teacher, so we always have something she can eat.

 

Corn Dogs!!!  I gave up bread for Lent, and let me tell you, a corn dog without the cornbread is not very tasty.  It's not like eating a regular hotdog.  Yuk, but the kids love 'em!

 Cupcakes with green sugar sprinkles for Saint Patrick's Day!

 This lady is one of my favorite all time people in the world!  The kids are pretty cool, too!

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 I'm going to take this hat apart to use as a pattern for Big Little Man.  I'll have to make it a little smaller.  This was on sale for $3 so it was cheaper than a pattern.  I couldn't find a pattern like this anyway.  I've already taken the band off that was on here.

Miss K's dress is almost finished.  It isn't photographing very well, but I'll see if I can get at least one photo that I can post.

Pants and ties to go with shirts

Big Little Man's shirt, tie, and pants.

Little Little Man's version of the same.

                                                

Sadness Is A State of Mind

Sadness Is A State of Mind

Sadness is a state of mind
And of body and soul, I find.

If all I see is darkness and gloom
and sadness in my life, it will consume.

So, when things just aren't right
I must look around and seek the light.

It is all around me every day,
Even in just a smile that comes my way.

I need to let the warmth of love come in
And fill my heart to let happiness win.

Without happiness there cannot be success.
I sometimes forget this, I must confess.

I will try harder to remember this
When things don't go as I wish.

JR  March 2011

After finishing my grandmother's journals, I felt very sad.  I'm glad I've had the opportunity to read them, but it saddened me to realize how lonesome she was the last couple of years of her life.  We were all too busy to see it.  I could have spent more time with her.  I'm not going to beat myself up over it, because I didn't know.  I hope this will help me to see that sadness in other people's eyes, and perhaps I can bring a little joy to them with a smile, an extra "hello", a note, a card, a phone call, or a visit.

Motivation for Spring Cleaning!

Invite Guests to Dinner!!!!  That's what we did last week.  We got the house clean (well most of it anyway!) and had a great time with our friends.  Not to mention the wonderful meal my husband cooked with only a LITTLE help from me.  He did the pork tenderloin and potatoes.  All I did was the broccoli casserole and bread.  He also made these awesome appetizers with figs, goat cheese, bacon, and maple syrup!!!  We got that recipe on the Food Channel!!!!  Oh yeah, we have Marie Callander (sp?)to thank for our scrumptious lemon pie for dessert!  I didn't take any photos.  I was having too much fun. 

Bloomers!

 

I made bloomers to go with this dress for Lil'B since she is in the crawling stage.  We wouldn't want her Pampers or Huggies to show, now would we?

I didn't have enough of the fabric left to cut the pattern pieces in whole, so I pieced the top with the bottom portion.  I had to hide the seam, so after making a french seam inside out, I added the ribbon and lace.

 

Here's how I tied the bow.  When I sewed the ribbon on, positioned it so that the ends would meet at the back center seam.  I made a right angle fold on each ends of the ribbon, one going up and the other down. I stitched all the way around the top and bottom edges of the ribbon, catching in the lace.

 

I made a loop with the top ribbon going over and with the bottom ribbon going under.

 

I crossed the top loop over the bottom loop, then went around the bottom with the top one and put the bottom loop through the "rabbit hole" as we used to call it when I taught Kindergartens how to tie their shoes.

 

I pulled the loop through, and pulled tightly.  I then stitched a little bitty zigzag to hold it in place.  This could be done to be hidden.

I have found that when tying ribbon that is to be sewn onto something first, it is easiest to make a pretty bow if you sew the ribbon up and down, so the bow will end up across.  Does this make sense?

Boys' shirts done!

Shirts for Big Little Man and Little Little Man are done.  I had fits with these because of my sewing machine needing a check up.  I think I took out as much as I put in big Little Man's shirt because the tension needed adjusting.  I kept adjusting and adjusting till finally, I got it right.  Little Little Man's shirt went much more smoothly.  As you see, I made him like a onesie so it will stay tucked in. 

 

I included all the details that  a Little MAN'S shirt should have, like button down collars, cuffs with plackets, and yokes across the back with FRUIT LOOPS!  If you are my age, you probably remember pulling the fruit loops (the little loop on the back of a boy's shirt) and keeping them.  If you really liked a boy, you made sure to get his.  Some of the boy's, and I'm sure their moms, weren't too happy when their shirts got ripped.  I don't think I ripped anyone's.  I do remember some girl in my high school really ripping, not just the seam, but the fabric of some boy's shirt.  I think that's when the announcement came over the INTERCOM that NO MORE FRUIT LOOPS WERE TO BE PULLED OFF BOYS' SHIRTS, PERIOD!!!!!  Okay, so it wasn't such a great idea in the first place.

Next, it's the boys' pants, which are already cut out, ties, for which I've already found the fabric, and sweater vests that I'm going to knit.  Remember me posting that I was going to challenge myself to learn something new each month.  I never did get the cable knitting done.  One of these sweater vests will have cable knit stitching, that is , I HOPE it does!  That's the plan.
Last month I learned how to do the Boutis Technique of Quilting.  To learn more about this go to Donna's blog, Comin' Home.  She has done a beautiful post that explains the technique way better than I did.  She really knows how to do this.
I didn't learn to do drawn thread work, exactly, because I had done it before, but it was so long ago, that I really had to relearn how to do it.  I used this technique on my middle daughter's Christening Gown, 31 years ago.