Sewing and hanging out

I dont like blogging without pictures bc I love other peoples pictures! I am disappointed when someone blogs with no visual aids... How juvenile of me!

Yesterday I made nathalie a new outfit, she needed something darker. I end up using more spray n wash than you can imagine every time we are near clay. My best friend in Ga has plenty of this orange junk, and now Nathalie has something that wont be ruined by it! I had the mauve interlock and ribbing that matched, just a leftover pc in my fabric stock. The denim is a soft hand with flower embroidery that my mom bought on sale last winter. I made the pants with mock fly, hidden front pockets, back pockets, ribbed waistband, tons of topstitching (makes them look so store bought, and I mean from a nice store!) and the shirt is just a long sleeve t. I make hers with ribbed bands at the sleeves so they dont get all wet at the sink.

They spent an hr lounging, my mom left yesterday and we were all a bit bummed. They watched a movie in the living room, afterwards when I asked them to clean up, Nathalie obliged by cleaning her brother up from the floor. She pushed him all the way to his room in this fashion! He is wearing his new wooly pants, 100 % washable wool terry that feels amazing! They make great gym pants, pj pants, house pants... Her hair in the first pic looks neat going to one side, I caught her in the picture sitting up fast.

I will blog the pants later, I have had some requests on how to make the ribbed waistband on most of their pants, and also on mock fly.

Another day

Nothing very interesting here, I have a new phone and so finally can stop missing calls... My old cell was needing to be updated as it wouldnt charge anymore. It was a free update so that is nice.

Frank is on leave getting ready for warrant officer school, he leaves next week! I am sad and overall just not looking forward to it. After 2 long years of being a drill sgt, he is having a lot of much needed time off, and I am grateful for this time. He is finishing up the house stuff, working in the yard and catching up on reading. Oh, and seeing us!

Today is bread day, we are completely out and after talking to Franks dad, my bread is rising much better! He is the guru on all things to know, Frank insists his dad has read several different sets of encyclopedias which I can believe. He is one of those people that knows the answers to everything and you have to stop and wonder, why would someone know where grain weevils come from? I mean I know what they eat, and how they multiply. But did you know they come like to inhabit paper bags? Like the paper flour comes in? So just move your flour to plastic bins, thats what we have done.

I have been making clothes for my store now that my children are outfited. So far so good! Wool and hemp are good sellers. More later on life, and pictures as well. Have some good ones of the kids helping out. Must go punch the bread!

Long Johns

These are the long johns I made for the kids. I made 2 pr so far, I have a pr for sale in my store.
The fabric is 100 % washable and dryable wool interlock-t shirt material. It feels really soft, you would never know its is wool! These are great under her dresses or pants.

Sewing and cooking!

These are pictures of some of my day, yesterday and this morning. I have been in a clothes sewing mood, usually its diapers. I have made a lot for the children and some for us, and more cloth for our home of course. Now I have found a good use for my scraps, the green onesie is made from washable wool fabric that was leftover after making long johns for the kids and for my ebay store. The onesie is a sz 56, which I think is a 0-3 mo?

Last night, Tad complained that he had no clean pjs. Well this is twofold, one I cant seem to get them to stop putting them in the hamper after 1 or 2 wears. They bathe before bed! They reuse their towel, and only change sheets once a wk. So I made him a pr of pj pants! I didn't have quite enough for a shirt too but the pants are cute. I cut them from a little girls shorts pattern, and just made it bigger and longer! They were a bit lower than I like, but he loves them! This soft flannel was a pc my grammie gave me that she bought years ago.

Last night we had pork chops, new potatoes boiled and broccoli. The pork chops were a family pack, bc it was cheaper that way. I didn't want the meat to go bad, so I cut it into pcs this morning, put them in the crock pot with cut up new potatoes, some frozen peas and carrots which my family love, 4 cups of beef broth made with bullion cubes, cut up onion, fresh minced garlic, some seasoning and there you go! Homemade provencial stew. I think its pretty in the crock pot. We will eat it tomorrow for dinner and have enough leftovers to freeze for a lunch for Frank. We are buying a freezer, hopefully today. I want to do freezer meals, I have learned that double zip lock bags do great with freezer meals, though I would love a small machine for the freezing job. The freezer comes first obviously! I have read on other peoples blogs lately about having a cooking day and freezing meals. Its a wonderful idea, we have been doing that some but don't have a big enough freezer.

Lastly, I have a great way to not waste veggies! I have a bad habit of buying too many fresh ones and then they go bad. So now, I have been blanching and freezing them, onions, zucchini, yellow squash etc. Then I can take them out later and steam them, its the same as buying frozen veggies. Only they taste better bc they are more fresh and this way they don't rot in the fridge bin before we get to them! This is also a great thing to do when veggies are on sale. Buy fresh fruit like this and freeze it and you have smoothie ingredients. Our grocery bill has gotten lower and lower since we stopped buying junk, disposable items, cleaners and started making homemade foods more. We feel healthier and I am loving cooking days!

Next I have to make banana bread. I bought a lot of bananas on sale and have let them turn brown on purpose!

More pants!

So here is the next pr, I made these for her today. She loves this handmedown shirt but had nothing to wear with it yet, and so was wearing it with her pink flowered pants... So here is a perfect pr! The light blue is a very lightweight denim, with contrast medium blue stitching and the waistband is medium blue. I really like this pattern! I have 1 more pr cut out for her and I will blog the making process next wk. Also, I have a pr of jeans cut out for him and I will blog the zipper.

Nathalie's Winter Wardrobe

Some of these pictures of Nathalie make me laugh, she has such a sense of style! The shirt with purple and white is not one I made, but it looks nicer with the purple jeans than the camo shirt!
The purple jeans are a lightweight denim pc my mom purchased. The ribbed waistband is very comfi and soft, the tan pants have the same waistband in pink. The tan pants are a 3 % lycra stretch cotton twill. They dont wrinkle! They were made from a modified ottobre pattern for an older girl.
The purple denim were made with no pattern and are a bit too big. The long sleeve pink tee with the tan pants is a bamboo blend, its very soft and drapey. She wore this for halloween with a matching pink skirt and white leggings, oh I didnt take a picture with that... I will get to that!
The stripey shirt with the print pink pants is NOT I repeat NOT an appropriated outfit! The shirt was a hand me down and the pants I did make, they are really cute with her blue turtle neck. The blue turtle neck needs to be handwashed now, I think she is probably child number 8 wearing it, except my mom bought it used so it may be even more.
The blue pants are 100 % washable wool, its the most wonderful fabric! Its a terry so its smooth on one side and loopy on the other. I bought another 10 yards after the first 2 its so nice. I want to make pants for my mom, and myself. Oh and Frank wants a pr... She wears these to bed, under dresses, over leotards, Tad wears them to gym and today I cut out his pr!
The long sleeve blue print dress is last years, I saw this type dress in lands end kids for 28 $ so I started making them for her. I made her a green washable wool one this year, but it was too big and was a perfect fit on my God daughter so she is wearing it this year.
The pink wooly gown was cut down from a lands end womens wool henley. Mom bought it and it was too small for both her and me under the arms so we cut it down for Nathalie and made her a "wooly gown." She loves wool, anything wool gets named wooly, wooly dress, wooly gown and just woolies for her pants. Its the one fabric she can detect right away. She will love Kansas winters!
The pink gown is on its 3rd year for her so like the blue dress is a bit short in the sleeves. The wooly gown was mid calf the first year and we had to roll the sleeve!
Thats it so far, new leotards are cut out, 2 more pr pants need to be cut and 2 shirts. And she has chosen a pc of striped fabric for a new long sleeve t shirt dress.

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Tad's Winter Wardrobe

These are the clothes I have made for Tad so far this season, I have at least 1 more pr of pants to go!
My sister sent me a nice piece of camo, I have cut out a pr out of the camo just like these green pants. I will list them when they are done!
The olive green pants and jacket were for his halloween costume. The jacket has US Army and his last name as well as E6 rank from one of Franks old BDU tops. The pockets on the top are gusseted for more space. The pants pockets are the same on the legs, the back pockets are flat. The top of the pants are made like blue jeans, internal pockets and a zipper. I dont have a denim button so the button part isnt finished yet. The long sleeve shirt is an oatmeal interlock, this is the softest I have felt! This shirt is his and Nathalies, they share all gender neutral shirts and some pants as they are almost the same size.
The brown and black pants are the same pattern, an ottobre short pant pattern modified for winter. The pockets are gusseted and they are both a topstitching masterpiece! They both have a wide ribbed waistband for comfort with 2 inch elastic. They report that this feels very good on their waist, they never have elastic marks and the pants are really easy on/off.
The shirts match the pants for both of these outfits, the camo matches the brown and the red shirt matches the ribbing and topstitching on the black. The brown pants are organic bamboo cotton twill and the black is organic cotton. The shirts are all made from fabric purchased from sewzannes.com, she sells the best kids knits!
The army clothes were made from a piece of lightweight denim/heavy twill that my mom had leftover from years ago. It was a wonderful weight for winter, I have lots left and plan to use it more. It softens in the wash quickly and doesnt wrinkle quite as much as the black!
Yes, these are wrinkled bc I dont iron, its why I like to sew with knits!
Next I will post Nathalies clothes so far!

Todays school

This is todays school. Well, not quite. I didnt photo the math and reading books! We were up at 6 this morning, Nathalie and I and Tad was up by 8.

I have wanted for some time to make several meals in one day, to be ahead on work. It seems like evening is the most stressful time for me. Last night we have beef stew that was in the crock pot by 10 am. That was so easy, I did it again!

I made a large skillet of spaghetti sauce at 10 and it cooked all day which makes it very tasty so says Frank. I dont eat it... Then I made chicken noodle soup for tomorrow night, once again the crock pot helped me out on this one. Lastly I made Amish White Bread, it made the whole house smell great! Didnt rise as much as it should, but this is a problem that I have with bread.

Tad and Nathalie were through with school by 10 am. Tad proceeded to teach her how to ride his chopper bicycle which has no training wheels. She was so proud of herself and he was very complimentery.

Next they built a 2 legged table as they called it. Pictured are the tools of choice... Tad would add that he pulled the nails from something else in order to build this.

I finished a custom order today for a woman in Ga., these are so pretty! And unintentionally, they sort of match up. I also made 2 diapers and a pull up, but those are gone and were not photographed.

The picture of Tad sitting on the couch is taken with his ghost. He used a ball, a blanket, and an Iraqi ammo belt(for arms) to create a ghost. Then he used his army hat and his favorite vest to dress him! He towed him around for hrs and the ghost sleeps on his bed now... The vest was made by my mom for my brother Grayson, who is 24 now and over 6 ft tall! I cant imagine him so little, he looked like tad, light hair and blue eyes and he was such fun. He is back from Iraq now and stationed in Germany still, he has traveled to almost every European country during his 2 + years there.

All in all, a good homeschool day. We had a great time, read interesting and funny books, jumped on the trampoline, swung as high as we could-obviously they higher than I as they cant push as well as I can. We rode bikes, we learned to tell time, we learned 8 new french words and 6 new signs... I love this life, being with my children instead of sending them away for me to miss.