Getting Settled

So ... we moved, again. This makes four houses in ten years. Marc says never again. This time I think I agree. We knew the last house - a tract house in a new neighborhood in the city - was temporary. We weren't sure about where we wanted to go when we sold the country property so we took some time to think it over. We finally decided and made the move. We moved to the Ozarks of northern Arkansas. We looked at property for about a year and a half before making a decision. We ended up buying a place I liked from the beginning and Marc hated. We have 32 acres of mixed pasture and timber, a beautiful large pond and two smaller ones, two houses and various outbuildings. The property was owned by a young Amish Mennonite family. We ended up only buying half of their land (they had 64 acres) and as it turns out they moved to the adjacent 32 acres and are now our neighbors. We allowed the sellers to remain in the house for two weeks after closing so they could harvest their corn. We unloaded our moving truck into the smaller, unoccupied house. Meanwhile I was all set to enjoy a nice two week vacation camping at Lake Norfork. The first couple of nights in the camper Felix howled incessantly and Tiger tried to get out every time the door was opened. I was a nervous wreck and wanted them both to be boarded for the duration. One evening I was just getting out of the shower when an alarm went off. I thought it was the smoke alarm, in which I had recently installed new batteries, but still didn't work when I pressed the test button. I figured it was malfunctioning, but then realized it was the GAS LEAK detector. That had never gone off before. We'd had some issues with the water heater so Marc turned it off and the alarm went off. Not sure if the gas leak was due to the water heater alone or something else, I had Marc disconnect the gas tanks completely. I was a nervous wreck. Thereafter, all (hot) showers had to be taken at the campground bath house. I have an aversion to public restrooms so that was not a lot of fun. Furthermore, we had to do all cooking on the grill. It rained quite a bit during those two weeks and one night in particular, my phone beeped with an alert from The Weather Channel advising that a sever storm with winds in excess of 60 miles per hour were expected. I panicked and said we had to go to a hotel. I quickly made a reservation. Did I mention that we had three cats with us? Originally we'd planned to board one of the cats (the one that won't get along with the other two) but we never did, so we had all three - in a 21 foot camper. So Marc puts each cat in his/her carrier and we throw some stuff in the truck and head to the Hampton Inn. It's raining cats and dogs and Marc can barely see. We get into town and notice that the traffic lights are out, along with most of the power in town. We get to the hotel and since I'd already made a reservation they had prepared our pass cards already, but the power was out in the hotel. Our room would be dark the clerk said. For whatever reason we got a handicap accessible room on the first floor which is right by the side door. This was perfect, since we had to sneak three cats into a non-pet-friendly hotel, along with their litter boxes. Ok, so after lugging in two of the cats (and mind you it's still pitch dark in our room) Marc says he doesn't want to bring Felix (the bad one) in yet cause he is crying in the truck, and how will we keep him quiet in the hotel. We hash this out and I find a different hotel that IS pet friendly and we load everyone and everything back in the truck and head over there. Did I mention that we'd already paid $110 for the Hampton Inn? I quickly took all the shampoo, conditioner and lotion before leaving. So we get to the other hotel and the clerk asks me how much the pets weigh. I said I don't know, just an average cat. He points to a brass plaque which says No Cats, Snakes or Rats. Great, now what? I get back in the truck and said, let's just go back to the camper (along with some choice expletives I might add) - at this point I don't even care if I'm killed in a severe storm, it couldn't be much worse that the last hour or so. As we're driving back to the camper Marc pointed out that the storm had passed. When we got back to the campsite we noticed that all the stuff we had lying around the camper hadn't moved an inch. So much for the accuracy of The Weather Channel's predictions. We enjoyed Lake Norfork. Our camper was out on a peninsula with almost 360 deg. views of the water. We bought some floats and went down to the swimming beach and ventured out into the clear, cool water. It was very relaxing. We tried a little fishing which was fun, but we didn't catch anything. I knew that after we took possession of the property we would find some things that the home inspection didn't disclose but we didn't expect to find that the house was Filthy, with a capital F. So bad in fact that I just wanted to turn and run away. But as Marc pointed out, it's ours now. Before noon on the first day after we took possession of the property, Marc had already ripped out the carpeting in the living room and master bedroom. In just a few days we painted and installed new laminate flooring in the master bedroom. It felt great to move our furniture into the bedroom after sleeping on an air mattress in the camper for over two weeks. We'd never installed laminate flooring before and frankly I was worried about doing it. I thought we would have a lot of trouble getting it down and end up with a not so attractive result. I was wrong. Other than sore knees, it was super easy. It looks way better than I expected too! Next we had a new roof put on. We ordered a refrigerator but it hasn't come in yet so we've been cooking outside and using the frige in the camper. I wanted to remodel a bathroom next, but tired of the makeshift camp kitchen, Marc turned his attention to the kitchen. We decided that we couldn't just slap a coat of paint on the cabinets and move on. We had to gut the kitchen entirely. In one day all the cabinets, countertops, vent hood, dishwasher and sink were in the front yard. The dishwasher had died years ago yet was full of stagnant water. Removing it and the sink cabinet were two of the most disgusting home renovation projects I've ever encountered. Marc burned the cabinets and that was that. The upcoming week will involve purchasing cabinets and painting them (guess who gets that project), cleaning all the walls, ceiling and flooring in the kitchen, putting down a new floor (probably vinyl) and installing the cabinets. Next the countertop, sink and dishwasher will go in. I really, really want a wood cook stove and I'm trying to figure out how to fit it in. I think I've gotten more exercise in the last week than I did all last year. It's not all hard work though. We have walked over some but not all of the property. We walked to the eastern boundary line to the back of the property. The back part is densely wooded. We fished in the big pond and each caught two bass. The pond has a peninsula jutting out to the middle, which is a great spot from which to fish. We are looking forward to gardening again. Marc is looking forward to having chickens again. There are two good size gardens already in place and a few blueberry and raspberry plants, and a few fruit trees. The scenery here is so pretty. The hills are so dramatic and there are beautiful rock outcroppings every where. The trees are different as well as some of the wild life. The property has some huge pine trees that spread quite wide, unlike the tall thin pines we're used to seeing in Texas. There are oak trees with large leaves - a variety with which I'm not familiar, cedar and black walnut trees. (I need to figure out how to crack the walnuts) There are bluebirds everywhere, quail, and hummingbirds. We have only seen a few deer, but they are quite large. We had a taste of cooler weather when we first arrived and we are looking forward to our first fall in the Ozarks. We're told that due to the summer rains the fall colors will be spectacular.

What I am Reading Today

Back in the very early 80's I bought a book called "Carla Emery's Old Fashioned Recipe Book" (now it is called The Encyclopedia of Country Living).  I've read and re-read this book so many times that the front and back covers, as well as the first six pages of the book are long gone. 

The author writes about all manner of old fashioned farming and housekeeping topics.  She kind of rambles in the book so by the time you're done you know all about her personal life as well.  She said that the book idea started back in the 70's when she put an ad in the classified section of The Mother Earth News.  She didn't think she would get much response and hadn't started the book yet.

She was bombarded with orders, and checks in payment.  She hadn't even started the book yet, but she cashed the checks and started typing.  This was back before personal computers so she actually typed everything up on a typewriter and mimeographed (no home copiers either...) copies.  She realized it was more work than she thought and she got a few chapters done and sent them with a promise of more to come.  She eventually finished the book and sold it to a publisher.  My copy has 520 pages of tiny type.  That must have been a lot of work.  I can barely manage a blog entry per week.

A few years back Carla Emery was on a speaking tour, and she was slated to speak at a farm close to where we lived.  I was thinking I would go and have her autograph my old copy and buy a new version (she's updated it through the years).  She died of a heart attack right before that speaking engagement.

I'm reading it again for inspiration as we have a contract on our "city" house and we'll be moving to the "sticks" soon.  We have a contract to purchase a 32 acre farm in the Ozarks (we're buying part of a larger tract) from a young Mennonite farming family.  This property is about half pasture and half woods.  We are looking forward to having the woods to explore.  The current owners grow all of their own food in the large gardens and raise meat goats.  They asked to stay on the place until they harvest the corn.  While none of the buildings are what I would call picturesque, they have most of the outbuildings that we will need, including a well house, a goat barn (possibly to become a poultry house), a shop, a small multi-purpose barn, and others.  The house is what they call on HGTV a "fixer".  Livable as it is, but definitely in need of updating.  We have scheduled inspections on the farm and hope that we don't find anything that will be a deal breaker.  I can already see myself living there and don't want to have to start the house hunting process again!

Hearts and Flowers Sweatshirt Jacket Transformation

This jacket was a lot more involved than the past couple of projects I have posted on.  I used the method whereby you cut off the sleeves, then cut out an actual sleeve pattern piece and sew it all back together.  The fit is much better using this method. 

If you wonder why even start with a sweatshirt, why not buy fabric?  Buying a sweatshirt is usually cheaper than hunting down the fabric if you can even find the color fabric you want.  Plus you get the color-mtched ribbings to use on your project or save for another use (for kids' projects for example). 

I didn't have a pattern for the jacket, but I did find some on the internet to use as inspiration. 

I have a machine embroidery design set which I used for the heart/flower applique called "Best Friends Forever" by Friend Folks.  It was pricey - $39.99 - by far the most expensive machine embroidery design set I've bought.  I knew that I wanted to use it for this jacket project the minute I saw it.  I also have in mind that I will make a quilt.  There are 9 different designs.  The only thing I don't like is that there's only one size - 6x10, so you can't size it smaller for kids outfits for instance.  Oh, one other thing, the pictures show quilting but the design disk does NOT include the quilting stitches, which I find to be a little deceptive.  The quilt pattern and instructions are included on the disk.  Even without the quilting stitches, I love the way they turned out. I had some buttons which I used as the flower centers.  The designer sells matching buttons, but I just didn't want to spend any more money.

This jacket morphed as I went along.  Since I didn't have a pattern I kept thinking of things I wanted to add.  I decided I wanted a collar, and ruffled edges, and so on.  I didn't have a pattern for the collor.  I just drew one freehand using the sweatshirt neck as my guide.  I used minky for the collar and cuffs.  The collar is lined in pink cotton and the cuffs are lined in minky.  I got hung up on the sleeve cuffs and tore them out and changed my mind a couple of times before I finally ended up with the plain cuff.

Sweatshirt to Vest Transformation in Aqua, Grey and Red

Here's another Sweatshirt Transformation project I made at Christmas.  For this one, in the interest of time, I decided to make a vest.  I had bought a jellly roll in taupe, grey, aqua, red and green at the Quilt Festival.  It's called Blitzen by Moda.  (I hoarded that jelly roll but couldn't bring myself to open it up for a long time.) 

I wanted a plain grey sweatshirt as the base, which I didn't have on hand (pink, brown, slate blue, etc etc. I have, but plain grey, no) so I went to wally world for a cheapie.  I found an aqua one, which turned out to be perfect for this project!  I think I paid $5 for it.  I prewashed and dried it, cut off the ribbing and sleeves,  then ironed on stabilizer tapes on the cut edges.  I tried it on inside out and marked and trimmed the arm openings till they looked like what I wanted.   I then cut open the side seams.

I started applying the jelly roll strips in the center back.  I just stitched it down.  Then I added a strip on each side till I had the back covered.  I did the same on the front, starting in the center front. I did 'audition' the strips and had an idea of where I wanted each to go before stitching.  After the strips were stitched on, I stitched up the side seams and serged.  I  made foldover trim for the neck and arm openings out of one strip so they would all match.  No, I didn't make bias strips - I only had jelly roll strips to work with, no yardage and anyway, I'm pretty lazy so even if I had the yardage I wouldn't have made bias tape.  For the bottom edge, I combined a few strips of a similar color to make a long enough piece.  (If anyone wants detailed info on the construction process let me know.)

In the picture above you may note the patch on the back, under the neckline.  The sweatshirt had a label ironed on right there and I didn't want to see "Hanes Size XXXX" so I cut a piece of a strip to fit, turned under the raw edges and used Wonder Under or Heat N Bond to fuse it in place.  Looks a lot better to me.

The bottom edge is shown below.  I used a stitch in the ditch method to finish off the foldover trim.  On the left side you can see the inside of the sweatshirt.  I used a matching thread in the bobbin and a taupe in the needle.

Sweatshirt to Jacket Transformation in Slate Blue and Grey

For some reason I am enamored with transforming a sweatshirt to a jacket.  I have no idea why.  In the hot Texas climate I don't even get to wear them much.  Nancy's Notions had a sale a while back on sweatshirts so I bought several, which have been languishing in the fabric stash closet.  I hoard fabrics and supplies until a project worthy of their use comes along (silly to say that about a sweatshirt I know).

We had a trip planned to Arkansas the day after Christmas and I knew the weather would be really cold (in fact it snowed and we drove through an ice storm) so I thought it would be the perfect time to make some sweatshirt jackets.  The one pictured here is so fast to make I literally made it on Christmas Day, after we celebrated Christmas and before I had to pack for our trip.

In a nutshell, when making a quick sweatshirt jacket, you pre-wash everything and dry first of all.  Then cut off all ribbing, apply two strips of iron on stabilizer to center front and neck edge, cut open the front and try on, inside out.  I then pink under the arm to take up the excess fabric so that it fits better.  This is the easiest way to convert a sweatshirt into a jacket.  The other way involves cutting off the sleeves and reconstructing it, which is more work but it fits better.

After the jacket fits, apply the fashion fabrics.  It's basically a quilt as you go method.  I started with the lighter strip at the bottom of the jacket and stitched it directly to the sweatshirt, on the top and bottom of the strip.  I then took the dark grey strip, turned under the raw edges and pressed and then opened out one edge and pinned it, right sides together, over the raw edge of the bottom strip, and then stitched in the crease.  I finished off the top edge with a blanket stitch.  (If anyone wants more detailed info on construction let me know.)

To encase the raw edges I made double fold strips out of another fabric.  I know I SHOULD have made bias, but I was in a big hurry.  The only place this is really an issue is the neckline but for a quick project I just didn't want to invest the time.  I bound the neck edge and sleeve edges first, then the bottom edge, and finally the front.  I had a cool oversize wooden button that I wanted to use and for the button loop I used a brown hair elastic.  I have gotten so many comments on this jacket and the funny thing is it cost about $15 and took about 2 hours!  It works great to layer over a turtleneck but isn't so bulky that I can't wear a coat over it as well. 

Sewing for Me - Nightgowns

There was a time when home sewing was much cheaper than buying store-bought clothes, but with the prices of fabric these days and so many mass produced clothing items from China available, that's not always the case any more.  So I plan my fabric and pattern shopping when patterns are 99 cents each and fabric is on sale or I have a coupon.  I can sometimes find fabric at yard sales also.

I went to a yard sale of a former crafter, a lady who had a small home based business, and she had TONS of fabric, among other things, for sale.  It was in huge boxes, all mixed together.  She wanted to sell it all in lots so I had to take what was in the box.  One fabric in the mix was a lacey knit in a hot pink print.  I couldn't imagine that I would ever find a use for it, but eventually I realized it would be perfect for a nightgown.  I had some hot pink stretch lace that I'd ordered off the internet for another project which matched perfectly.

At another yard sale I found some batik fabrics which were about $2 per yard.  She had quite a bit for sale but wouldn't bargain on it so I only got two pieces of about 2 yards each cause I really didn't want to pay that much.  I made a top out of one piece (I'll show it in a later post) and used the other for a comfortable nightgown.  I washed the batik and machine dried it so that I wouldn't have to worry about shrinkage later.

I used McCalls 5248 for both of the nightgowns pictured. The pattern calls for lace trim at bodice top so I followed the pattern directions for the pink one. When I was done and tried it on I realized it was too big (gapped in the back but ok everywhere else) so I made a casing and added a piece of 1/4" elastic to the back, which took care of that issue. 

For the batik nightgown, I didn't have any matching lace so I made a bias tape and enclosed the raw edge of the bodice front with it and used it for the straps.  I like the way the stretch lace on the pink nightgown 'gives' for the straps much better than the straps made from the fabric.  I already knew this batik nightgown would be too big in the back but decided to add rows of shirring instead of the elastic.  Because this nightgown is cut on the bias you're supposed to hang it up to set the bias and hem it the next day, but after serging the bottom edge I just didn't feel like it was necessary to hem it. 

Finished edges - stretch lace and bias tape

Back finish

New Handbags

Turquoise Faux Tooled Leather

Brown/Ecru Tweed

Brown Boucle with Leopard Cross Applique

I have been on a purse making tangent lately.  Here are a few that I have made and listed for sale on Etsy. 

When I go to the fabric store I always look in the remnant bin and it seems like I always find something that would work well for a purse so I pick it up for pennies on the dollar.  Now if only I could sell some to help fund my fabric and pattern buying addiction . . .