Pirate pants (creating my son's halloween costume)

This has nothing to do with the Cereal Box but I thought I'd go ahead and share the other project I'm working on. 

Purchase pattern on discount sale 

Cut pattern pieces out for each item and place them with the color fabric you'll use.

Muslin - top

Brown- pants

Red - vest

Green - sash

Try to keep Kiwi from chewing on the important parts of the pattern.

He had zero interest in the pattern pieces that were scraps.  Only what I had in my hands.

But I sure do love my sweet little parrot. 

Maybe he knows he is going to be hanging out with a pirate.

Pin pattern to fabric

Cut fabric

Stitch part of the pants after pinning 

 Open, arrange next to each other, pin both pieces in the center, and stitch more.

Flip and now it almost has legs. Pin and sew outside edges together 

Iron seems open. Fold and iron waist band and bottoms of pant legs. 

Pull elastic through, sew together, and stitch to close up the waist. 

Hang pants up and wait for him to get home from school so I can do the final fitting on the pant legs.

Canning, Sewing, Gardening - Summertime fun for me!

So how do you photograph the details of your life? Like I've said before, I have a hard time photographing in public places when I'm not on a paid photo shoot.  I have yet to take my camera into the grocery store with me.  I have photographed my kids at the library but that's about it.  What to you enjoy photographing and what is a stretch for you?

So here is another first - bottling green beans for the first time.  I'll post the peaches soon. Last year I bottled peaches for the first time - 23 quarts.  This year we have 45 so far.  We need more to get us through an entire year.  My husband is really the only one who eats the peaches. I just noticed how frayed my kitchen towel is.  Time to update - these can go to the garage.

This is the first casual dress that I've sewn for my daughter from a pattern.  The pattern is from Simplicity. If you watch the JoAnn or Hobby Lobby ads, they often have $1 pattern sales. We stock up then. I put one sleeve on 3 times trying to get it right and it wasn't the first sleeve.  Rule of Sewing - don't sew when you're exhausted.  Oh wait, then I'd never get anything done!

We've also started picking these pumpkins.  Be sure to leave them on until their color is nice.  Then pick them and stick them in a window.  The plants will continue to produce more and more.  I seem to have good luck with this brand and the Spirit Bush pumpkins.  We might even get a few jack-be-littles if we are lucky.  I've really got to amend my soil.

Now I better get the invites ready for the Primary Pizza Party. See you in a day or two again.

S ... is for sewing

And there has been a lot of it this year.  Hand sewing and machine sewing.  Now truth be told, I made a skirt during high school with help from my mom and a tree skirt during my senior year.  I sewed simple curtains for the kids rooms in our last house and made window seat cushions (I used safety pins instead of a zipper because I couldn't figure out what a zipper foot was). Recently I made my daughter's baptism dress.  This time we picked a simple pattern.  Simplicity Sewing for Dummies. This time we moved one of our big white lifetime tables in front of the TV.  We don't have cable or dish or antenna but we do watch movies.  We watched a few baby einstein videos, and then Incredibles, oh and Cinderella 3 while we worked.  We moved the ironing board downstairs too. My son had a blast playing with his slide with us nearby.

I cut out the pattern and ironed - that was it - oh and I made my own larger apron while she made her child size apron.  She did an excellent job and only had to pick out one spot.  

The rest was up to her.  She placed the pattern on the fabric and pinned it into place.  Then she cut it out and marked it. She pinned the pockets on. We added ribbon at the top of each pocket for fun.

She reinforced the tops of the pockets.

I was so nervous about her sewing. But she was really careful and did wonderfully.

I had her top stitch the ties so that they'll stay nicer looking after this thing gets washed.

I love her tiny little fingers in these photos.

Here she is learning to keep the fabric straight.  

We used D rings for easy adjustments.

Cute pockets for tiny hands!

Where the ties attach

The perfect bow and ties that ended up upright after all (on HER apron).

And here you can see the finished product. She was so pleased with it.  Daddy couldn't believe that I let her use my sewing machine and that she completed the entire project herself.  I could hardly believe that it went so smoothly.  My apron wasn't completed so easily.

I added ribbon at the top to cover up all the picking I had to do.  I got the completed apron on and guess what?! It was too wide at the top! I even chose the child size 18-20. It was a great length and the pockets were in the right place.  So I had to pick out all the ties and d-rings and cut the arm holes and re-sew almost everything.

And guess what, I sewed the lower ties on upside down!  I'm leaving them as a reminder to check the pattern on myself first before I stitch anything.  And so - here we are together with our cute aprons.

Her apron is hanging in the closet until the fair and then she can wear it. I wore mine last night while making wheat free crepes from Irresistibly Gluten Free. And I am grateful for a daughter who enjoys time with her mom.  I feel like we have really reconnected this summer - for the first time since I finished chemo.  I feel so much better and she has become such a big helped which gives us a little more time to work on projects like this one.

I've also decided when I finish my next ReneePearson.com class, I'm going to take a beginning quilting class.  I love cute fabric and I love creating simple things just for the beauty of it. So now I better finish editing my class.

Another dress

I sewed up another dress for my daughter.  I was at the fabric store the other day along with my 50% off coupon for one cut of fabric and I knew I had to make this dress for my daughter.  She loves lady bugs and looks great in black and red.  Besides who can argue with 20 minutes of sewing and a $5 dress perfect for summer?