turkey feathers

Give & Take

Despite the dubious thoughts expressed in that last post, I'm really not singing any swan song yet.  Goodness no, I'm having too much fun.  Thanks though, for reminding me why I blog.  This path has lead to some amazing friendships as well as endless creative inspiration along the way, and I never take any of it for granted.  I've been sitting here for nearly an hour reading comments, and am so touched by your heartfelt thoughts;  all of which, sent me happily sobbing into my hankie. Oh, how I wish I could offer you all a cupcake and a cup of tea, but since that's not possible, let me just say, thank you for being there, thank you for listening, and thank you for caring! 

Just a snippet of sewing to share, to (hopefully) brighten your day.  As you do mine.  I finished my apron-smock and can't wait to make more.  The fabric looks familiar because it was salvaged from the same duvet I used to make the sewing chair slip-cover.  Now we're twins!  Can't tell where I start and the chair ends.  Scary.  And if the rain doesn't stop I'll be making a sewing-machine cozy to match!  Still have lots of fabric left, especially the polka-dot, so it's a good thing I really like it.  Perfect for making garden & kitchen smocks anyway.  The style may also look familiar because it's one I blogged about way back here.  But what's exciting is that Simplicity reprinted this pattern again as #2950 under 'Misses Retro Aprons'.  I was so happy when I found out (thanks again, Bethany), because the one I had was just one size:  very small.  Which no longer worked for me. (ahem)  Anyway.  I got this one online from the website, wasn't able to grab a link, the site has a search-box though.  It was interesting that they added the ties, which was how I always made this.  You can still seam up the back and leave an opening large enough to slip this over your head if you prefer to wear it as a top though.   I definitely need one of these in the polka-dots now.  And a hat to match.  No.  Just kidding.  About the hat.

Oh-Susanna Apron

"Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

I'm still basking in the after-glow of birthday love that keeps trickling in on this blog and I am ever grateful for it.   What we do in our lives can have a tremendous ripple effect when we reach out to others.  Thank you for those rays of sunshine. I may be getting older, but I will always be a child at heart!

Anyway. . . I told you about how I was sewing up a storm last week with the gift of time placed in my hands, and here's one of the sweet things I finally got around to making.    Isn't this the most darling apron?  (see side view here)  I've been calling it my, "Oh Susanna" apron because it was a free download from Susan Branch and when I finished it, I stood back and exclaimed, "OH Susan! You wonderful doll you!"   She talks about it being her favorite apron because it fits everyone.  And it really does!  It's amazing.  (I'm using Miss Violette here to model for me.)  I've never constructed anything like it, kind of weird how the pieces are sewn wrong sides together and joined with the bias binding (seven yards of it) but not all at once, so it's not like you're sewing miles and miles of trim without coming up for air.   Rather, it's sewn in an interesting succession of layers.  You have to print out and tape the pattern pieces together, but I didn't find that difficult at all, and everything went together perfectly.  Her instructions were clear and easy to follow as well.  So if you're up to the challenge of trying something new, there you have it.  Don't forget to check out her new fabric line and more free patterns here.  And all the other wonderful things on her website.  She's gotten a lot of ink lately in various quilting magazines too.  I'll be looking for them now.  Find which ones here. 

Wednesday Wonders

There's been a parade of deer through the yard today.  One group after another, mostly does with fawns trotting behind.  They're always wandering through, but usually not this many in short succession.  I'd already counted eleven before anyone else was out of bed.  Three were grazing in the grass outside my office window a few minutes ago.  I love watching them.  One of the fawns wandered away from it's mama and starting digging in a huge pile of shredded landscape bark that we have sitting at the end of the driveway.  Yes, I said digging with his little hoof.  It reminded me of a cat using a litter box, and I thought, surely he's not going to do THAT!  I kept watching.  He continued digging for several more minutes.  When he was quite satisfied, he curled up in the hole he'd made.  Apparently, even deer have their own particular creature comforts.

Deer are such scatty things and will bolt at the slightest movement.   Somehow I managed to get a decent picture of him through window blinds and the screen, using a zoom.  Look at that face.  OK, I guess I can forgive you for chomping the Lady's Mantle we carelessly planted out in the open and didn't spray.  The only thing we forgot to spray with the magic concoction---that's still working btw.  Alright.  Enough about the crazy deer...

Back to fun biz here... I want to talk about this pattern.   I've always wondered how these traditional peasant style garments were made.  Searched around for years in fact trying to discover the secret behind them.  So I was really excited when I found this website from the Mexican Dress Lady herself, with a download for $5.  Can you believe this is constructed from a square and four rectangles?  Well, it is!  It's so simple, it's brilliant.  Maybe I'm the last to know, but after I made this, I was amazed.  You can make a blouse or a dress.  It's all measured out to fit your size.  I made a little blouse for Ginger, (who is ten) to start with, just to make sure I was on the right path.   I just couldn't believe it was that simple.  She designed the yoke and I did the embroidery.   It's a project I'm pretty sure she can do herself next time, with a little help, but I wanted to make one first, before she put forth all the effort, just in case of disappointment. 

We're both really happy with how it turned out though.  I used a good quality unbleached muslin.  The only thing I did differently was to cut out two yoke pieces, instead of roll-hemming the neck edge.  I used one as a facing to hide raw edges and cover the back of the embroidery, which finished it quite neatly and made a nicer edge for the blanket-stitching.    There are going to be a lot more of these in my future.

Garden Threads

Our summer weather sure made a quick comeback.  I practically live in my gardening shirts and smocks when it warms up, which is easy and comfy but they aren't the most attractive things either. So one way I like to doll them up is to replace the old buttons with buttons covered in different fabrics.  Sometimes I trim the sleeves with fabric scraps like this one, or chop the bottom of the shirt and add a ruffle, or do a little embroidery on it.    Rick-rack and woven trim tapes are always fun to experiment with too.    Take note:  the covered buttons should be slightly smaller than the buttons you remove.  In other words, make sure they fit through the button-holes before you sew them on.   I learned this the hard way, and I'm passing it on, so now you know too.

Grace saw what I was doing and decided to alter a linen blouse.  I love how it turned out. 

Doesn't it look great with her skirt?

Easy Does It

I didn't think I had anything to post about today, but after I read about the November Tie-One-On Apron theme over at angry chicken I remembered that, I not only had an apron to share, but also (another quiche) recipe! 

So there ya go. 

Grace is modeling an apron I made recently, that went to this dear blog friend.  It looks vintage, but actually it was made from a new pattern from Indygo Junction, called Cook's Cover-Up #IJ733.   I recognized their redwork border from an old Vogart pattern I have.  Interesting how the old patterns get recycled, isn't it? 

The rose fabric was purchased from Shabby Fabrics, one of the most comprehensive websites I've found that just deals primarily with pretty florals.  The service is great too!   I can't exactly recall the name of this fabric I used, but if you ask Jennifer I know she'll remember.

Ok. So now for my recipe.  Continuing on here with my personal A-Z quiche challenge; over the busy weeked it was E for EASY!  I had fresh bay shrimp on hand, that really needed to be consumed (and fast before it became cat food) but discovered at the very last moment that we were out of eggs.  Yes, it did cross my mind that I could TRY and make this Eggless quiche, but I was also sorely lacking many of those ingredients as well, so the Mister good naturedly ran out to the corner market and picked up the eggs for me and I tossed it together:

Easy Shrimp Quiche

3/4 pound cooked shrimp
1/4 cup chopped green onions and tops
4 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup light cream
1/2  teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
1  cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

In large bowl, combine eggs, cream, salt, dry mustard. Fold in shrimp and onions. Pour mixture into pie shell; top with cheese. Tent with foil if desired.  For confection oven, bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or conventional oven for about an hour at 400 degrees. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings.

Enjoy!

3 Easy Pieces

Honestly, I don't think there's anything I enjoy more than making little girl's dresses.  This little ensemble was finished just in time for my granddaughter's second birthday.  We spent the day in Portland yesterday, and it was great seeing friends and faces we haven't seen in a while.  Our little birthday girl got so much loot in the form of toys (and I just knew she would) so I made her this jumper dress and bag instead.  And of coarse, a Stitchette, from one of Hillary's cute patterns, to go along with it.  Which turned out SO cute and it even looks like her!  I like how she fits perfectly in the pocket and the bag.  The  bag idea probably came from this Japanese craft book (page 44) although I didn't exactly follow any directions.  I just realized that it was similar after I made it and started flipping through it again.  Anyway, it's a fun chunky little bag that's easy for a small person to get things in and out of without too much fiddling and frustration.  The jumper pattern I've had for a long time though, and it's one I've sewn many times over the years.  It's one of my favorites because "it's SO EASY" just like the pattern envelope says.  And you know, that's just NOT always the case with patterns that make those claims, but this one really lives up to that and it's simple enough so you can embellish anyway you want, or use just about any kind of fabric.  I'd forgotten that I had this yummy pink and red candy stripe cotton and when I came across it again, I knew this was perfect for what I had in mind.  A little white rick-rack adds a fresh note and a vintage look at the same time, but I left this on the plain side with just a simple "applique" for fun.  I really like deep hems too, they make most things hang nicer and you can let them out later to add length after a growth spurt.  The other fabric is Flea Market Fancy (Denyse Schmidt).   This jumper is only three pieces to pin and cut out, with a bodice that doubles as the facing, so all raw edges are nicely tucked away.  In a most *tidy* fashion.  Gotta love that.

Flower Garland Apron

I'm pretty happy with this linen garden smock, made for this sweet gal.  She's making me a little art piece in exchange.  I love her work and was really excited when she agreed to a swap.  Lauren's blog (Alice Lands) is no more, boo-hoo...but hopefully she'll resume things once she's found more time for it.  (These blog updates do take a fair amount of time.)  We are also missing Amber's blog.  This is my oldest daughter who lives abroad. Awhile ago, she was doing a little editing on it and accidentally deleted the whole thing.  (Don't you just hate when that happens?)  No telling when she'll get it back up either because soon she'll be headed to Shanghai for a month of Chinese lessons, then a trip to Beijing after that, and in the meantime a few short scuba diving trips in Taiwan. Yes, we do live vicariously through her travels.  Amber keeps a wonderful online photo journal of the places she visits though, so we can at least follow her journey across distant lands.  So.  I guess I should explain a little more about this apron smock, which is just another one of these, with tucks instead of gathers, and with the addition of an embroidered garland of flowers that I sketched out and embroidered using a satin-stitch. For the straps and armholes I used 1-inch wide cotton twill tape folded in half.  The back is open and ties at the neck.  And there's a big pocket on one side.  Which you can see is empty.  But not for long...I will be including a little surprise inside it now that I outted this!

Granny Smock

Ya know, I just had to make another one of these.  For this one, I gathered the front just a little and used a machine blanket-stitch around the yoke-binding.  If your sewing machine has built-in decorative stitches this is a great place to have some fun with them.  For the armholes and straps I used a continuous bias strip cut from the same fabric this time.  The technique is a little tricky but really something worth mastering because you can get an incredible amount of bias trim from a small square of fabric.   I always feel like I'm doing a magic trick when I start cutting and yards and yards of trim keep reeling off that tube.  BTW *thank you* to everybody who stopped by and left comments about my other aprons too.  Some of you have asked about the pattern I used for Ginger's garden smock so here's a little more about it.   This is crazy, but I've had this pattern since 1972 and it was my all-time favorite pattern for years.  Still is actually, but I'm having trouble with the notion that something I bought new is now considered vintage. (ahem!)   The original pattern was sewn with a closed back, but I started making these with ties instead,  inspired by the traditional Japanese "mama-san" apron : : follow this link for a really cute one. I think the coolest thing about this though, is the facing.  It's turned out instead of in.  So you can make a contrasting yoke and facing all in one.  And what could be easier than dolman sleeves? 

Mother's Helper

"Adopt the pace of nature: Her secret is patience." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson I don't think anything teaches patience more gently and naturally to a child than tending one's own little spot of earth.   So, back in the enchanted garden to check up on things.  All's well-watered... mostly thanks to the Mister placing auto-drip irrigation around.  Flowers are growing.  Had to stop and make a garden smock for my dear little helper here and had this lovely Susan Branch fabric called, Language of the Flowers that seemed just perfect for it.  I'm not sure if it's available anymore, purchased it through mail-order when it first came out quite a few years ago.  The pink gingham is something I already had too.  By coincidence, this project seems to tie right in with the Heart of the Home  store opening on this Mother's Day Weekend.  I would love to go, but crazy women mob scenes make me go weak in the knees, so I plan to wait until things quiet down and then clear the highway!  I may check out that cute little farmstand while I'm in town too. 

Fanciful Apron

I've been thinking about garden smocks again and came up with this one. No pattern, but pretty simple to make.  I like it because it's loose-fitting and can be slipped-on over the head.  I used a light-weight linen and fabric scraps for contrast.  These fabric flowers are fun to make, pinned on like a corsage.  They're basically a gathered ruffle that's drawn up into a circle.  The straps and armhole facings are double-wide bias-binding, which was also used for the hem and ties. Ruffles & rick-rack were added on a whim.  These were also bits and bobs left-over from other projects and perhaps turned this a bit more fanciful than I had originally intended, but there ya have it.  More pictures here.