I'm a Teacher

I have sung the praises of my planning book, and it continues to make life easier for all of us.  I've been really digging this super organized Melissa chick.  So new and unexpected and effective!  I was out on my own the other day and someone asked me, "Are you a teacher?"  I was a little unsure how to answer.  I asked why and she said I just look like a teacher.  I am a teacher, since I home school.  I do lesson plans, grade papers, calculate scores, and encourage.  I also have discipline problems in my school, disruptive students, and my janitor leaves much to be desired, to say the least!

And I put off grading papers on Saturday to sew!  I made some skirts for my girls out of embroidered pinwale corduroy which are just too cute, if I do say so myself!  A longer one for Mini Me:

And this (For Baby Jane), of the remnant, to which I added violet gingham to make it long enough and ruffly!

This one only took me about an hour from start to finish, but I have to put in elastic still.  They were both just rectangles and ruffles, super easy to cut and just throw together.  No rice paper to pin, no markings to make, no zippers to wrestle with, and super cute!

Fall is the season for making clothes...

When it starts to get cooler, I come out of a summer hibernation... OK, I'm not really hibernating, but summer always makes me feel as though I'm going to die of exhaustion very, very soon. I think this is a thing... otherwise, why would there be a song called, "There Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Blues," or something.  Aaaanyway, moving rooms around to make a study for my older students to keep their schoolwork and sewing toddler free, I have been evaluating my fabric stash... which grows even faster than my yarn stash, because I'm always knitting, but sewing often takes a back seat, hence, giant, humongous fabric stash.  Actually I inherited some fabric from my husband's grandmother, who owned a fabric store at one time, was a home economics teacher, and was also a force of nature.  She made my wedding dress of beautiful shantung and Venetian lace and, I totally could have worn it inside out and it was perfectly fitted to me.  So, I've been sewing today, and last week, and I've been taking pictures, so here we go!

I think it's rather fetching!  My favorite blue, and a plaid skirt... I didn't match up the plaid at the side seams all that well, but I forgot to buy extra fabric so that I could do that, and I was cutting it awfully close to make my minimum skirt length.  Do you have an ideal skirt length?  Mine is at the narrowest part of my leg under my knee...  Anyway, I spent some extra time making this skirt nice inside, too.  I bound every exposed seam in bias tape and used a hem tape to maximize the length, though the pattern called for a narrow hem, this works beautifully, I think.

New Year, New Skirt

I've caved... I used to think I hated grey on me... that it didn't match my colors... but I've found that I've changed my mind. I love grey now. I love it as a contrast to my colors, and it really does set a good red orange off perfectly... anyway... I found a beautiful warm medium weight wool at JoAnne's and bought it with a coupon to make Butterick 5249, et voila!

It was, by far, the most complicated skirt pattern I've ever attempted. I'm a little nervous about making fitted, zip-up skirts because of my apple body shape issues, but this turned out fine, I think! See how nice it looks with my orange purse! Hmmm... not exactly a fashion model, but...

More Sewing

Fair warning: There may be a lot of sewing projects to come, as I'm a little fabric crazy lately, and I want new summer clothes. I've had some $3 a yard taffeta for a long time that I'd planned to make spring dresses out of for years. I decided to go ahead and cut a skirt for myself. I'd made the pattern before out of a toile cotton print, which I like a lot, but the pattern definitely lends itself to a heavier, dressier fabric. Plus the extra fabric at the back and A shape is flattering on an apple like me. I shortened it by quite a lot, though I had planned to use the fabric to make the floor length version originally. In an ideal world, I'd have a place to wear a floor length, silky, ruffly skirt... but this is not an ideal world, boo! Anyway, the leftover fabric can make some sweet skirts or dresses for my girls, perhaps.

Just as I was typing that last word (isn't it funny how these things happen!), I heard a delivery truck drive up and plop a box onto my front stoop! So, of course I had to unpack the box from Fabric.com and show you what I bought... it was a big sale, I got most of it at least half off! The top two weren't in the box, they're leftover curtain fabric from the living room, and a printed organza(?) I'm making into a kimono blouse, but you get the idea!

Hmmmm... the colors seem to have a sort of theme on this blog, don't they! Should I start labeling posts "orange"? Go ahead and drool, I haven't washed them yet!

Some Sewing

Well, I've been enthralled by this wonderful book that I purchased recently: Weekend Sewing. If you're interested in her blog, take a look at Weekend by Heather Ross. She recently had a really cool contest where people made sort of "Show and Tell" boards for their ideas for a summer wardrobe using the patterns from her book.

Here is the Oh, So, Cute wrap skirt I made (like the one on the cover of the book)... Of course, it's too small for me... so I may have to sell it or something, or use it for an apron, or something... This photo is a two-fer, because in the background you see my latest home improvement project, the Workroom! It used to be the guest room, but I decided a school/project room is in order since we only have one living area and it already does triple duty, without it being a schoolroom.

Here is a detail of the hand sewn rolled edge hem. I'm very proud of that!

Our latest school handiwork project is a memory quilt of all our firsts here on the farm. I remembered this great article on applique in an old Martha Stewart Baby magazine and got it out for inspiration. We're going to make blocks for all sorts of things, but the first is a block with little hens in the colors of our flock. The second is a block inspired by my square foot vegetable garden. I picked up a few fat quarters at a local fabric store in appropriate colors and got started:

Here's our first chicken:

I can't wait to see it finished!

Spring is Springing

Have you noticed? It's a big thing for me, you know... We have a follower to the blog! Yay! If you want to follow and be alerted whenever I post anew or whatever, just scroll all the way to the bottom and click "Follow This Blog". School is just humming along right now... of course, I have totally dropped Latin. But otherwise, we're running on all cylinders right now. We should be done with the 3 R's sometime in May, and then, boy howdy, we're gonna farm like we've never farmed before! I'm soooo excited for the garden this year. Not just the food, either, I'm excited for the daffodils and tulips I planted, and the herbs, and lilies, and roses, and lavender I bought for the children. We were planning on some feeder calves, but haven't yet obtained any, and we're putting out feelers for a family cow, but that's not falling into place, either, so we're just focusing on what we CAN do... We can garden. We can tend our little flock of chickens. We can make things at home...

Speaking of that: I've been sewing. I bought some patterns for simple, classic clothes (Common Sense Patterns) for the Prairie Princess. She is such a Luddite. I've finished (except for buttons and holes) a very pretty ruffled collar, long sleeved blouse for her in white cotton with printed golden orangey and metallic silver polka dots. She tried it on after the sleeves were attached to talk about buttons with me:

"Oh, Mommy! I just love it! Especially since it's handmade!" the Prairie Princess gushes, and when I say gush, I mean it.

She's very gratifying to make things for. Really. She talks like she's Anne of Green Gables most of the time. I mean she speaks with all the emotion and emphasis and vocabulary. But she's not really a talkative person. She can't be when she's got two little sisters with "tongues hung in the middle."

Speaking of orange, again... I bought the fabric for my living room curtains. I know, I said I'd let you all give your input, but I couldn't wait. Orange, again. Shocking.

Busy, Busy Me

My projects at the moment:


I've been knitting socks in the Embossed Leaves pattern from Favorite Socks, in this beautiful mauvy berry smoothie Panda Silk. I don't know how durable they will be, but as they are meant to be rather dressy, perhaps that doesn't matter so much. It's really pretty shimmery, sproingy yarn... merino, bamboo, and silk, but slippery, I'd suggest bamboo or wood or something instead of slippery needles. I'm knitting a sweater for one of my girls in a mulberry hue, with a round Fair Isle Yoke, a la Elizabeth Zimmerman's Percentage System using various DK weight superwash wools. I'm also knitting wool vest/undershirts for my girls to keep them warm in our chilly, old house inspired by a pattern called a Child's Shetland Vest in Weldon's Practical Needlework Volume One. Stripes for the smaller girls out of a merino fingering weight wool, some alpaca, and some sock leftovers. For my oldest daughter I've chosen a pale grey fingering wool, with sky blue accents (Knit Picks Palette). These seem to be knitting up really fast on size 5 needles.


As for sewing, I'm making costumes for the Nutcracker my girls will be in. I initially volunteered to sew some and somehow became in charge of five or six dresses. Yeowch. Fortunately, the goal is durability, and not beautiful details, so I can put them together rather quickly. I'm using this pattern from Sense and Sensibility Patterns by Jennie Chancey. I love these because they are printed on nice thick paper and include all the sizes one could wish for and she even provides supplements for busty gals and online tutorials for altering the patterns. I would like to get more basic patterns in this sort of format, too, in the future. I love the Nutcracker. I just never get tired of the music or the magic or the yummy treats it is inspired by.....


In the kitchen, I used the book Fix, Freeze, Feast to make a very large batch of red sauce this morning, and used 12 cups of it to make the Classic Chili recipe, I cooked one quarter of the recipe for lunch today and froze the other three portions in gallon freezer bags for future meals. My husband really liked it, though I decided to add some cumin to the recipe for next time. I really have liked this book so far (unlike recipes from other Freezer Cooking books I've used) and find it a real time saver at the end of very tiring and productive days to have the main dish all put together, marinated, and ready to cook. Plus, it's inspiring me to make up my own recipes in larger amounts for freezing for later. Like my cornbread recipe, put into single recipe bags, like Melissa's Corn Bread Mix, or something... I wonder if I could locate sealable paper bags instead of plastic??? I'm so over plastic.

Farmhouse Apron

I've been inspired by the farm to make a couple of aprons... I love this apron pattern, as one should at least look as good as possible while canning quarts of tomatos, right?!

I've canned before, namely lots of apple butter, which I and the kids enjoy. I wish I had more vintage canning jars in good shape, because they are soooo pretty. Still new ones always look nice, too, once filled with good things grown in my garden!