Apron-Wearing WIFD Day Four

Today is a day we have to go out of the house, lots. Olivia and I are both wearing Edwardian apron patterns from S&S. Olivia's dress is her Christmas dress I made for her last year, and this apron was made to go with that dress. You can read more about that, in this thread. Pattern for the dress is the Girls' Regency Dress Pattern

Both of our aprons are made from cotton so they can be washed easily. My apron has not been changed to a crisscross back, which I desperately need, so after I finish wearing my apron, today, it's going into the pile to be changed over. Once I have that alternation done, I will wear this apron more often. :) You can see how this apron, as is, does not accommodate my bulky sweater, underneath. By switching this over to an adjustable, crisscross back, it will work much better. :D

Apron-Wearing WIFD Day Three

Today we are having another snow day, so I have eager hands to go outside and shovel the lovely white stuff. :)

Olivia and I are wearing fun aprons. My apron is from a very dear sewing friend, who drew up the pattern and made me this lovely, lovely apron. It is made out of a linen/rayon blend with some beautiful antique lace and ribbon. Then, to top it off, she sent me the pattern, too. How blessed am I? I am incredibly blessed and every time I put this apron on, I think of this wonderful friend and pray for her. The joys of having gifts, made by dear friends, nothing compares to that.

I do not wear half aprons, very often, but this one I really, really like. The lovely flounce gives this apron a really fun and feminine feel to it. I definitely don't like getting this apron dirty, so I can't be doing too much work in it. Since my plan is to do a bit of sewing, this is a perfect apron for that.

Olivia is wearing her "Valentine's Day" apron that I made her over 2.5 years ago. My how she has grown. I use to be able to use this apron as a summer dress, but I can't any more. She still pulls this one out of the closet, a lot, when it comes time to cooking. Here are a few pictures of when she first started wearing the apron, to now. Hasn't she grown? The pattern I used is a vintage McCall's pattern number 1921. I have found this pattern in sizes from 2 to 12 and I plan to make many more for her, over the years, Lord willing. :)




I decided to add a picture of big brother Stephen as he wanted to give his little sister a big hug and she adores the attention. Stephen wears aprons, every day he goes to work, but at home, he rarely wears one.


If you look behind us in the picture, you can see my sewing machine on the table and a few piles of fabric, needing some attention. ;)

Now......time to do some sewing, I hope. :)

Carol

Apron-Wearing WIFD Day Two or is it Merry Christmas?!

Today we woke up to winter! We have cold temperatures and snow! I decided to dress warmly, thinking I would not need to go out of the house, but I was wrong. With the road conditions being perfect for all kinds of accidents, I needed to do a bit of driving. I was already dressed for the day, before realizing I was going to have to go outside in this stuff.

I am wearing my my S&S Romantic Dress that I made from embroidered linen/cotton nearly two years ago. I have my cotton, half petticoat underneath to help keep me warm. Olivia is wearing her S&S Girls' Regency Dress made out of swiss dot cotton, that's not very swiss ;). It was her Easter Dress 1.5 years ago. We are both wearing Edwardian aprons made from the S&S Patterns They are both made from cotton and most enjoyable to wear and clean. :) Yes, I wore my apron, with my dress, out of the house to do my errands. I was nice and warm. :D

I don't typically wear my hair down, especially when I am working with food, but since I was going out in the snow and cold, and I wanted to wear my warm snugly hat, to stay warm, I needed more of my hair down, than up.

Here are a couple more pictures of Olivia, working with the grain we are grinding for our bread.

I hope you all are warmly, tucked away, in your homes. :)

Carol

Apron-Wearing WIFD Day one

Today is day one of Apron-wearing, WIFD (Week In Feminine Dress) over at the Sense and Sensibility site. Diane had suggested this lovely idea, since so many of us wear aprons and it's always fun to see what everyone else has in their apron collection. It's also a time to encourage some of us to try and make some new ones. I have some new ones I want to make, and are in the process of being made, but they always get put on the back burner when other projects need more attention.

I am wearing an old apron, made from a Daisy Kingdom pattern. My apron had worn out in the belly area, so I learned how to use the free stitching feature on my machine and quilted a piece of fabric, from underneath, to bring a bit of new life to a favourite apron.

Olivia is wearing a very old apron, passed down from her sister. I made this when Merissa was younger then Olivia is now. You make it with a tea towel and potholder, a button and some ribbon. A quick, easy apron, for a little girl. Please excuse the lovely mismatched colours she is wearing....I know it's not correct fashion. :)

Today was a work day, getting some things done. I had planned to do more cleaning work, but I have ended up with more cooking work. I am working on a turkey soup, from a stock I had cooking overnight. I simply adore my roasting oven we purchased last year. My 30 lb turkey did very well, and having my soup stock cook overnight was a big help. I have lots of meals waiting to be made from the meat and stock that are now put away in the freezer and a little leftover for a few meals, this week.

Here are a few more pictures in our working aprons.

Skirt Makeover

A couple of years ago, Anna published a tutorial on how to make a simple girly skirt. My daughter, Merissa, made my younger daughter, Olivia, three new skirts from this pattern. We altered the pattern by making it an elastic waist skirt, rather than a drawstring type closure. It's a simple circle skirt design, which worked wonderfully.



Olivia keeps getting taller and taller, and only slighter wider, which allows her to wear her clothes for a long time. Merissa gave a good length to the skirt, which has allowed Olivia lots of time to wear these skirts. However, it is now time to fix the skirts to make them so they are not as snug. The length is still fine and she could get lots more use out of these skirts, so I decided to take the skirt apart and make news ones from them. First, I unpicked the seam, then I took out the elastic.



Next, I added some a decorative, cotton, embroidered tape, where the seam had been. I overlapped the edges to give a wrap appearance to the skirt. Once the tape was sewn on, I then sewed the skirt shut, from the bottom to about 3 inches below the waist, so that Olivia could get in and out of the skirt. The waistband is closed with a hook and eye.



A Faux wrap skirt. :)

Josties coming to town

On September 15th, our local homeschool group will be having Dale and Lisa Jost sharing with us. Dale will be speaking on "being a Christian man in a post-Christian world and how to model it for our kids”. Lisa will be speaking on "building character into our children". Since these topics appeal to all parents, we would like to invite those who homeschool and those who do not, to join us for an evening of learning and growing.

On Wednesday, September 16th, the Josties will be sharing their musical talents with us. They will have just started their Western tour, and we are thrilled they will be stopping by to bless us. The concert will be held at Grace Baptist Church in, Airdrie at 7:00 p.m. Please come join us for a wonderful evening.

If you have any question about either event, please feel free to contact me.

Carol

Sewing Class projects

I know as a mum, we often times feel we need to do everything. I fall into that camp from time to time, especially when it comes to sewing projects. I find myself not wanting to purchase things that I know I can sew, but then, I don't have the time to actually make it, so then nothing ever gets done.

This same thing happens when it comes to teaching my own boys sewing. Sad? Maybe, but I can't teach everything. I have to pick and choose what I am going to teach and then allow others to help in the teaching process. I have taught my boys *some* sewing. They have used my machines and I have taught them how to trace out their patterns, onto trace-a-pattern interfacing, label their pieces and to store them. We all know, there's more to sewing then just that. They need to know about fabric and whether or not it has nap, one way direction, width of fabric, selvage edge etc. Well, I did teach them about selvage edge, but never had them actually cut their fabric out. So, this past week, I put them in a sewing camp with a wonderful instructor. Alison has so much energy and my boys really like her. On top of that, Alison has a lovely store, she offers great classes and has a wonderful assortment of fine fabrics and is expanding into more fabrics. I want to support her business, so putting my boys in her class was a win win situation. My boys learned how to use different machines and played with different features. Their class was for two hours a day for four days, since Monday was a holiday, otherwise it would have been 5 classes. My boys enjoyed themselves so much. They are eager to start more projects.

My boys learned how read their pattern instructions, follow instructions from their teacher, finish their raw edges, add pockets, insert elastic into the back of their pants, and all the other fine details that come with making a project. Alison allowed them to choose whatever project they wanted. This was a great first project for them.

Here are pictures of Samuel and Joel in their new pj bottoms. Samuel made pj shorts and Joel made pj pants. These are made from flannelet fabric with the camouflage print. Their shirts they are wearing don't match the pj's but that's OK.

I am eager to have my boys work on more projects, and sew ;) are they.