Summer Sewing School {make pajama pants}



Note:  If you're wondering how to sewing and not break your budget, I've written a guest post for Money Saving Mom titled Five Ways to Save Money on Sewing Supplies.  There are some great ideas in the comments so be sure to read those also.





In the hustle and bustle of getting ready for children's camp and then being gone, I seem to have gotten my weeks mixed up.  After I got all the pictures up for the pajama pants and was copying and pasting the supply list, I realized we are supposed to be making totes this week.  For a brief moment, I thought about whipping up a tote.  Then I came back to my senses and thought you guys might, just might, be okay if we made pajama pants this week and the tote next week. 

Week 4 {Supplies}Pattern for pajama pants (pj pants are all pretty much constructed the same, so you can chose to use the instructions that come in the package or the ones I give in the tutorial)
1 - 1 1/2 yards of cotton or flannel fabric (I like to use vintage and flannel sheets for pj pants)
1/2" to 1" inch wide elastic (1/4" if making toddler pants)
Thread
Scissors
Straight pins

Safety pin
Seam Ripper
Ruler or measuring tape
Rotary Cutter (optional)
Cutting Mat (optional)

Week 4 {Skills Learned}: cutting out a pattern and inserting elastic

• Pin pattern to fabric and cut out along the line for the size you want.  Make sure to cut out the notches - which are the little triangles along the edges.
• I used a flannel sheet so I put the leg bottoms all the way to the edge (which was the top of the sheet) so that I will not have hem them.  

•  Pin the outside seam (the one on the outside of the leg) right sides together
• Sew the seam using a 5/8" seam allowance (I usually start from the bottom and sew up to the waist line just in case the ends don't quite match up when I'm done.)



• Finish the seam using a zigzag stitch off the edge.  This will keep the fabric from fraying.  You can also use pinking shears (zigzag scissors) and cut away about 1/4" of the seam allowance.
• Do this for both legs
• Now that the outside seam is sewn and finished, you need to decide if you are going to embellish the bottoms of the pants with ric rac or ribbon.  I use ric rac 2 different way on pajama pants (shown in the next two graphics)

• If the pants do not need to be hemmed because I've used sheets, I like to sew some ric rac or ribbon a few inches up from the bottom - usually along the hem seam.

• If the pants will need to be hemmed (and by the way, I hate hemming) I will add ric rac to the very bottom of the pants by (1) zig zagging off the edge (2) sewing the ric rac along the bottom of the right side of the fabric and (3) flipping the ric rac over so that it hangs off the bottom and stitching close to the edge of the fabric

• Pin the inside of the leg together and sew a 5/8" seam allowance and then zig zag or use pinking shears to finish the seam.  This is just like you did for the outside seam.  Do this to both legs.
• You should now have 2 legs that are not attached to each other, but that look pretty good.

•  Turn one leg right side out

• Put the leg that you turned right side out inside the other leg

•  Match up the seam and the notches and pin

• Sew the seam using a 5/8" seam allowance.  Reinforce the crotch area by sewing over the first seam. 
• Finish the seam with either a zig zag or pinking shears

•  To make the casing for the elastic, fold over the top about 1 1/2" (2" if you are using 3/4" or 1" elastic) and iron  (if your pattern calls for a drawstring, you can follow those instructions or you can substitute elastic and not worry with the buttonholes)
• Open and then fold over top until it touches the crease you just made.  Iron.  Fold that part down on the original crease.
• Pin and sew very close to the edge leaving about 2" unsewn to put in the elastic. 
• I like to add a piece of ribbon or of fabric that I have folded over as a tag for the back.

•  Cut a piece of elastic that is a couple of inches smaller than your waist (you will need to actually measure your waist for this and then write it down so you don't have to do it next time you want to make pj pants)
• To insert the elastic, put a safety pin on one end
• Gently feed the safety pin to the unsewn part of the casing.  Continue moving the safety pin through the casing until you come to the unsewn part again.  Sometimes it will get hung up in the seams, just back it out a little and try again. 
• Over lap the 2 ends and sew them together.
• Put pull the waistband so that the last bit of the elastic goes into it and then stitch the opening shut. 

• If you need to hem your pants, turn them inside out and follow the instructions for making the elastic casing only don't leave an opening to insert elastic.  (It really very easy, I'm not sure why I hate hemming)

• Now that you have some pretty comfy pjs, celebrate with some ice cream.

getting ready for camp

Monday we'll be going to children's camp-  Phoebe and Benjamin as campers, me as a teacher, Gabriel as a helper and Esther...well, we'll just consider her our group's mascot.

One thing I'm really excited about is that my friend Katie of Always Simply Begin wrote the curriculum.  As a teacher I really appreciate that all the parts of her curriculum are relevant to the focus points.  That is not the case with all curriculum.  Katie is a very gifted writer and has some great devotionals on her blog.  If you are really wanting to think deeply about your walk with Christ I would suggest subscribing to her blog. 

I had hoped to get up some scheduled blog posts, but with canning and mothering and helping some friends move and mothering and canning and packing and being a wife... well, you get the picture...I'm a slacker on the blog posts.  So go on over and read some of Katie's posts and come back on Thursday for the Summer Sewing School post. 

Have a great beginning to your week!

::this week::

This week we are...

...loving the almost 2 inches of rain we have gotten
...cooking lots and lots of salsa
...smelling like we live in a Mexican Food Restaurant - even the post office lady made a comment when I had to "run ever so quickly" to mail wedding shower invites.

 ...wondering how quarter pound tomatoes can be grown from a seed labeled "cherry tomatoes"?
...thanking a friend who gave the boys a riding lawn mower and a daddy who helped them get it running
...getting ready for children's camp next week

...feeling very grateful for the tomatoes from one friend and the peppers from another
...shaking my head whenever the kids say "Guess what?" and have taught Esther to say "chicken butt"
...appreciating my children for all the help they have given me

...canning grape jelly and plum jam
...missing Christian and Josiah - they are halfway through a 65 mile hike in New Mexico
...wanting them to come home soon
...wishing you a very wonderful weekend!

Summer Sewing School {make a super easy hotpad}

I hope you guys had fun making your pincushions last week.  We had a great time and everyone finished their project here at the house.  So, now that we have your pins and needles all organized we're going get on with another useful project.  Making hotpads. 

There are a million and one ways to make a hotpad.  This is just one of them and a super easy one at that.  These would also make a great Christmas gift. 

{Supplies you need}
1/4 yard cotton fabric - something you would like in your kitchen (this can be one or two pieces of fabric)
Thread
Scissors
Batting or thermal batting (or both)
Straight Pins
Seam Ripper
Ruler or measuring tape
Paper
Fabric Crayons or Markers (optional)
Rotary Cutter (optional)
Cutting Mat (optional)

{Skills Learned}: circular sewing, stacking and flipping

How to make a super easy hotpad: 

• Make a pattern on a peice of  paper (I used freezer paper) of a circle with an 8 inch diameter (across)
• Cut it out - with your paper cutting scissors

• Cut 4 fabric circles (2 of each fabric if you are using two different fabrics).  Two will be for the inside and the outside and two will be for your pockets. 
• Cut 1 circle from Thermal Batting and 1 circle from cotton batting - or 2 from cotton batting (the thermal is great for not catching on fire, but it really needs the extra thickness of some cotton batting)

• Iron the 2 peices for your pockets in half

• Iron the outside peice in half and then open up
• Lay the 2 pocket peices about 1/2 inch away from the crease of the outside peice
• Pin the pockets to the outside peice along the straight edge.

• Flip the pocket and outside pieces over and trim off the area of the pockets that is hanging over the inside piece.

• Iron over one side of the inside piece - about 1 inch in. 

• Cut a piece of fabric 2 1/2 inches by 4 inches
• Fold in half lengthwise and iron
• Open and fold in one edge up to the crease and iron.  Fold in other side up to crease and iron
• Fold in half and iron.  Congratulations, you have just made *bias tape or binding.

• Sew along edge of binding

• Stack your circles in this order - cotton batting, thermal batting, inside fabric piece with right side facing up and pockets pinned to it.  Fold binding piece in half and pin to inside piece between the 2 pockets.  Cover with inside piece with right side of fabric facing down.  The folded piece should be on one the left or right side, not top or bottom.
• Pin all layers together

• Using a 1/4 inch seam, stitch all around the circle using your top fabric as your guide.

• Either zigzag the edges or use pinking shears to cut away some of the seam allowance
• Notice the hole on the right hand side of our hotpad

• Open that hole and turn the hot pad right side out - make sure that the pockets are on the correct side.  If you can still see the turning hole then flip your pocket over to the other side.

• You can use your handy dandy chopstick to gently push out the edges

• voila!  Pretty easy, right? 

• Your thumb and fingers go into the pockets - kind of like a hand puppet - when you use it.

Once your done admiring your handy work eat some chocolate and then get a head start on your Christmas gifts.

By the way, I'm having some issues with the flickr group.  If any of you know how to make a badge for our sewing school group and you let me know? 

In the garden... potato, garlic and onion harvest

When we began digging the potatoes the neighbor's cows began to come to the fence and watch us. 
They are so funny.  I'm sure they think the same thing about us.

Notice those things hanging in the sky in the picture above. Those are clouds and rumor has it that they hold rain. Rain is this amazing water that falls from the sky, bringing life to the parched earth. Oh, you've heard of it?  Even experienced it?  Lucky you! 

We are supposed to experience it tonight and tomorrow.  We'll see.  The last 2 times it has rained here, it poured in town and not a drop at our place.  We've only had about 3" of rain since the beginning of February. 


I had planned on harvesting the rest of our onions, garlic and our potatoes on Saturday.  But with the prospect of rain we decided to go ahead and harvest them now.  Even though we really have many other things to be doing, like making salsa, washing clothes, mopping floors.  But, hey, no sense in taking chances. 

Never knew digging potatoes could be so much fun!

We found 5 toads living in with our potatoes. The ground was amazingly moist. 

We planted a 10 pound bag of potatoes from the grocery store that were growing by the
time we got around to them.  We harvested 30 pounds of potatoes.
Next year we'll use seed potatoes.

Gabriel with his prized garlic.

We pulled 53 more onions today.  There's no picture because the batteries died in my camera.  (Actually, it's my sister's camera since apparently my issues with my camera are not user error.)  I don't think we will have any for storage.  It looks like they will all be used for salsa and spaghetti sauce.

For a look at what others are growing check out  Around the Farm, Tuesday Garden Party and Frugal Gardening 101.

wild grape jelly

This weekend Carl and the boys went grape hunting.  Usually there are mustang grapes growing all along the country roads out here.  Last year they picked 6 five gallon buckets in just an hour or so.  Not this year.  With the drought none of the vines they picked last year are producing grapes.

A friend's dad has some vines on his property and graciously let us pick the few grapes he has.  They were growing up in trees and there was some poison ivy hanging around so it wasn't quite as easy as its been in years past.  However, they still managed to pick about two and a half gallons.  So we spent Monday making grape jelly.  Our friend's son came to help us pick and then again today to help with the jelly, it was fun.

So how do you make grape jelly?  

Pour the grapes on the table.  Sit or stand around the table or on the table and pull the grapes off the stems.
Mustang grapes can make your skin itch, so wear gloves - or not.  If you are a 9 year old boy, as you pull the grapes off the stems, kind of squish them to make the insides come out and make all kinds of gross remarks about what it looks like.

When mom can no longer take the silliness, rinse the grapes and put them back in the pot.  Add a couple of inches of water and put on the stove to boil.

While they are boiling, stand on a stool and use a bean masher to smash the grapes.  Make more silly comments.

When grapes cool, strain through a colander.  Then strain through a jelly strainer and finally through some new, just out of the package, knee hi nylons.  Make lots of silly talk and have contests to see who can be the fastest, the best or the coolest as you strain the juice.

When all the juice is strained and mom has had enough of the silly talk get a box of pectin, open it up and follow the directions for making grape jelly.  It goes something like mix 5 cups juice, box of pectin and 7 cups sugar.  Boil for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and put into sterile jars.  Process in water bath for 10 minutes.

Make some biscuits or scones and enjoy!

For more great recipes, check out Tasty Tuesday and Canning Week 2011.

childhood memories

A few months ago I got a package from one of my dad's sisters and inside was a copy of some of my granny's recipe's cards.  Along with the bread and butter pickle recipe was a recipe that my mom gave my granny for chocolate cake.  It's amazing how meaningful those few photocopies are to me.

So for Father's Day, we made Carl a chocolate cake using my mom's old recipe.  The great thing about these handwritten recipes is that they are written just like my granny spoke.  There's no list of ingredients.  It just starts off with "Bring to a boil..." So you have to read the whole recipe just to get the ingredient list. hmmm, maybe that was intentional?

We did change one thing, we didn't use oleo (margarine).  Normally, I would just substitute butter.  However, I was out of butter and so used coconut oil.  It gave it a slight coconutty taste.  mmmmm.

Old Fashion Chocolate Cake
1 stick oleo (margarine or butter)
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup oil (okay, I left this out - didn't even see it when I read the recipe the first 5 times)
1 cup water
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk

Bring oleo,cocoa, oil and water to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Mix flour and sugar. Pour oleo mixture over flour and sugar.  Mix in eggs, baking soda and buttermilk. Pour into 9X13 pan.  Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes.

Chocolate Frosting
1 stick oleo
4 Tbsp. cocoa
3 Tbsp. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 box (1 pound) powdered sugar

Bring oleo, coco and buttermilk to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Add vanilla and using a mixer add 1 box powdered sugar. 

Pour a glass of milk and enjoy!

For more great recipes, check out Tasty Tuesday.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. (Amanda Soule)





hunting for melons in the volunteer watermelon patch



Summer Sewing School {make a pincushion}

I hope you had a great time last week making your needlebooks.  We had 8 girls, a couple of moms and 7 boys who played Risk and Clue!  We had a really great time.  We didn't quite finish the books, so the girls took them home to finish them.  I can't wait to see them. 

For our second project, we will make a pin cushion to keep all your straight pins and safety pin tidy.  You will learn how to make a 4 patch square, sew a slip stitch and sew on a button.

Week 2 {Supplies}:
1/4 yard cotton fabric (this can be one fabric or several fabrics, you can even use fabric from the scrap bucket for this project)
Thread
Scissors
Button
Batting or Polyfil
Straight Pins
Ruler or measuring tape
Seam Ripper
Rotary Cutter (optional)
Cutting Mat (optional)
1/4' Ribbon (optional)

Here's how to make your pin cushion: 
All seams will be a 1/4" seam - it doesn't have to be exact, just be consistent.

• Cut 4 squares from two different fabrics that are 3 1/2" by 3 1/2" and cut 2 rectangles that are 6" by 3 1/4" ( the rectangles can be from a third fabric or from one of the other 2 fabrics)

•  Pin 2 squares together (one of each fabric) right sides together and stitch down one side
•  Take the other 2 squares and sew them together like the first 2

•  Press your seams to one side - we did it to the dark side on both pieces.  This will keep the seam from being bulky.
• Pin your two new rectangles with right sides together and stitch.
• If you look at the picture yo can see how we lined up the seams - the brown will just touch each other and the pink will just touch each other - this is called "locking in your seams".



• Press the seam to one side - it doesn't matter which side.  This is the top of your pincushion.

• Mark your triangles at 2" and 4" from the top.  We used a disappearing ink pen but you can use whatever you want - just make it light so it doesn't go through the fabric. 

• Sew the first 2 inches and stop at your 2" mark, then sew the bottom 2 inches starting at your 4" mark.

• Press the seam open - notice the "hole" in the middle between the marks?  This is the bottom of your pincushion. 

 

• Pin the top to the bottom and stitch all around. (If you notice that for some reason your top and your bottom pieces are not the same size, just trim the larger one to fit the smaller one. Before you stitch.)

 

• Pull the top out through the hole in the bottom so that the right sides of the fabric are out.

•  We used a chopstick to poke the corner a little bit.  We keep on in our sewing stuff - you never know when you might need a chopstick when you're sewing.

• Stuff your pin cushion will polyfil or batting.  We used batting scraps because it is what we have and just tore it into small pieces.  (that won't work well for a pillow, but for a pincushion it will be just fine.)  Use your chopstick to make sure you get into the corners. Stuff it pretty full - you want it to be firm.

• To close the pincushion you will use a slip stitch.  Start your stitch just like you started them for the needlebook.  Thread the needle with both ends of the thread so that you have a loop at one end.  Put your needle into the fabric right near the opening one one side of seam and come up directly across on the other side of the seam.  Put your needle through the loop to make your knot. 
• Slip your needle inside the fold on one side of the seam
• Bring your needle out through the folded edge about 1/8" from where you put your needle in.
• Now, put your needle in the other fold - directly across from where you came up and then bring it out about 1/8" from where you started.  
• Continue snaking through the folds, crossing from side to side, until you reach the end of the hole. 
• When you come up for the last time, put your needle directly across on the other side and make a loop for your knot.  Put your needle through the loop three times and pull.  Just like when you are sewing on a button.  
  
• After you make your knot, put the needle back into the fabric and come up about and inch away from your knot. 
• Clip the thread.  

• Sew on a button - pulling the thread tight so that the button dips in some.  If you want to, you can lay ribbon over your seams on the top and secure the ends and then hide them by sewing the button on top of them.

•  Eat chocolate and admire your hard work.  Don't for get to add your pictures to the flickr group!

 If you have any questions or tips feel free to leave them in the comments.  Happy Sewing!