A Jennuine Life's Lost Art Series

Today we are over at A Jennuine Life sharing in her.....

series!

See you over at Jenn's!!!

And if you haven't already, don't forget to go HERE and enter to win an brand new LG Easy Clean Oven.  (All you have to do is leave us a comment telling us about your favorite messy recipe!)

How to Add Fringe to a Hem for $5 Friday

This is a shirt that I actually made for Gracie's spring Look Book...but Ruth has commandeered it and wears it as a crazy dress/tunic thingy ma bobber.

 

Here's a photo of a sad Grace wearing her stolen shirt.

I told her I'd make her another one after I buy some more fringe but that wasn't helping on picture day.  Not one little bit.

 

Anyway...this post isn't about our sibling shirt rivalry it's about how to add fringe to the hem of a shirt so let's get to it.

 

The first thing you do is pin your fringe to your garment (right sides together) with the fringe pointing up instead of down.

 Next baste (or sew) your fringe to the garment exactly how you pinned it on.

And finally if your garment is lined just pin on your lining then sew, flip, and top stitch as you usually would.

 However, if your garment isn't lined then you can simply fold your fringe down, iron, and top stitch.

It's an easy way to add character and whimsy to any item.

 Just be careful if you have a fringe loving little sister...

In that case you may want to save the fringe...or make two of the same garment!

-liZ

 

PS---The fringe that I used is just the faux fringe trim that you can buy by the yard at places like JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby.  (And for this shirt I used exactly one yard of it.)  It's inexpensive (less than $5 per yard) and washes well. 

(I wash items with this fringe on cold and then lay flat or hang to dry.)

A Pink Swing Dress

 

(Sorry for the pictures being so light on this dress....we were working on a time crunch and full sunlight and some seriously, crazy wind.  And these were the best we got.)

 

I have a girl who is getting tall and all of the handmade dresses I have made are too short.  So, last week I cut out a couple dresses and I sewed this light pink swing dress up yesterday.  I used the pattern below but added 1.5 inches to the hem (although I should have done more, but she wasn't home at the time---so I didn't know how short it was going to be). I am hoping it will last through the season, or at least maybe I can add some trim to it but it gets too short.

 

 

 

Other than adding to the hem I followed the pattern exactly...and she loves the light pink color.  The fabric is a vintage linen "look-alike" that I found at an estate sale, although I can tell it has a lot of rayon in it, which is great for the wrinkly factor.   And the three white buttons are from the same estate sale.....

One dress down, one to go for summer!

 

Any summer sewing at your house?

~Elizabeth

Smoking Pizzas and Exploding Potatoes

 

I have this problem...I can't bake any number of potatoes without at least one of them exploding in my oven.  This is true. 

Here are the facts:

1.  We have baked potatoes with our dinner at least once a week.

2.  I always cook at least one extra potato because I KNOW that at least one of my little spuds is bound to turn itself inside out all over the interior of my oven.

3.  I am forever cleaning potato guts out of my oven.

4.  No, I don't wrap my potatoes in aluminum foil...but I know I should...it would help contain my catastrophes.

 

Now that you know my, um, potato problem let's move onto the smoking pizza.

 

Awhile back my husband and I invited all my siblings over for a pizza and game night.  Two of my siblings were bringing their "significant others" over for the first time and I wanted the night to be perfect. 

 

I selected a pile of games to choose from, a variety of drinks, a selection of treats...and of course the pizza.  That would be perfect to.  Everyone was going to make their own...I had the dough and the sauce ready...several different cheeses, and every topping I could think of.

 

There were so many choices of what to eat and things to do I just knew that everyone would be happy and the night would go off without a hitch. 

 

Everyone arrived, chatted and got busy making their pizzas...creating them just so.  It was a lot of fun.  Once we were finished I loaded them into the oven and we started with games.  Everything was indeed going perfectly until my sister checked on the pizzas....

 

As soon as she opened the door the kitchen filled with smoke and inside my oven...right there on the bottom...my poor pathetic attempts at baked potatoes were going up in flames, literally.

 

Doors and windows were opened.  Fire alarms went off.  Flames were dowsed.  And our perfectly planned and executed pizzas were destroyed.

 

Since then "smoking pizzas" have become a regular tradition around here...and one of the significant others from that night is now a beloved sister in law.  (She's obviously a brave soul.)

 

My only regret is that I didn't (and still don't) have an LG’s EasyClean™ Double Oven Range...after everyone went home that night all I would have had to do is spray the interior with water and then twenty minutes later just wipe away the grime.  Instead...well...let's just say the cleanup took a lot longer than twenty minutes!

 

We're messy around here.  We just are...between the exploding potatoes, rouge pizza toppings, bubbly lasagnas, and kid filled muffin cups our oven gets down right messy.  And that's OK.  That's part of the program...but I wouldn't mind one of those LG EasyClean Ovens...the idea of twenty minutes and no chemicals is oh so appealing. 

 

(And if it sounds appealing to you---you can read all about them right HERE!)

Now it’s your turn to tell me - what is YOUR favorite recipe that leaves your oven messy? Let me know in the comments for your chance to win your own LG EasyClean™ Double Oven Range!

 

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The Art of Homemaking: Ordinary Days

(I am still binding away....)

 



It's about this time every year (I think it is the smell of Spring in the air) when I am reminded of my life seven years ago, when things were very different.  All in about 3 months time, I had had surgery, found out I had thyroid cancer, gone off all thyroid meds, had radiation treatments, and was just working my way back up to "normal" life. 

 

And for those weeks when I was on the couch, all I longed for was an "ordinary day."  I longed to get up and take care of my kids, to make cinnamon toast for breakfast, to play trains on the floor, or to just have enough energy to vacuum one room of the house. 

 

It wasn't a trip to Disneyland I missed; it was making lunches, or folding a load of laundry, or even reading a book to my 18 month old.  It was the everyday, plain-old, ordinary tasks that I wanted back so badly.

 

And now it's so funny to me of how all these years later, it seems like some of those same "ordinary days" are the hardest. Those simple tasks of motherhood can be monotonous, or exhausting, or just plain not fun.  But those are the ones I missed most when I couldn't do them.....

 

And so, even though I sometimes complain about those "ordinary days"---I still feel so blessed to have them. 

 

So, here's to an ordinary day!  Have a wonderful one......

~Elizabeth

Indie Chic Circle Quilt: A Bulls Eye Quilt Tutorial

Hello!  Today I'm sharing a tutorial that I originally posted over at Riley Blake Designs.  It's a quilt that I made a few months ago that was really a lot of fun to put together!
I made it for family movie nights...and I'm so glad that I did! 

 

Here's the materials that I used:

A Fat Quarter Bundle of the AWESOME Indie Chic line and some yardage of the coordinating Whisper White and Lemon solid fabrics.

 

And here's the instructions for how I put the blocks together:

 

Step #1-  Cut out your solid squares.  (They chose to make their squares 9 inches by 9 inches and out of the Whisper White fabric.  Their quilt is also 7 squares wide by 7 squares long, which means they needed to cut out 49 squares.)



Step #2.  Cut out your circles.  You will need a small, medium, and large circle for each square in your quilt.  (They used 2 plates and 1 bowl for their circle templates..the small size being about 4 inches wide, the medium being 5 and 1/2 inches, and the largest measuring in at 7 inches wide.)
*NOTE:  There are circle rulers available so that you don't have to make templates MacGyver style from what ever you can find in your kitchen.   Lori Holt has some wonderful ones and a great demo on how to use them that you can check out HERE.

Step #3.  Center a large circle on one of your squares (pin it if you like) and sew it on.  Just like that.  Your stitch line will be about 1/4 of an inch inside your circle and you will have raw edges.  (These will fray and get softer and cuter the more that you wash your quilt.)

Step #4.  Center your medium circle in the middle of your large circle (pin if you like) and sew it on just like you did the large circle.  Easy.

Step #5.  Center your smallest circle in the middle of your medium circle (pin it if you like) and sew it on exactly the way you did the other two circles.  (Now repeat the process 48 more times! :)  Don't worry it sounds like a lot but it goes fast.)

Step #6.  Cut each of your circled squares exactly in half vertically and horizontaly

Stpe #7.  Now begin to assemble your finished 4 square blocks.  Do this by choosing 4 different pattern pieces. (As is shown in the picture below.)

Step #8.  Placing your squares right sides together sew your top two squares together and your bottom two squares together.  (Like in the picture below.)

Step #9.  Now place these two rectangles right sides together and sew them together so that you have a finished block that looks like the one in the picture below.

Repeat this process until you've reconstructed all of your blocks.

 

Then assemble your quilt in the style of your choice.

This was such a fun and easy way to make a quilt that is perfect for family movie nights!

 

And if you want to make a 10 minute pillow case to go with your movie night quilt, then you can just click here:

Easy 10 Minute Pillowcase Tutorial

 

Have a good Monday everyone!

-liZ

Teacher Appreciation....a simple gift.

Last week I shared the chevron baby quilt I made for a teacher appreciation gift and today I am sharing the last one.  My oldest son's teacher is an avid reader and has a kindle, so I thought a gift certificate for more e-reader books and a handmade case were the perfect gift for her. 

 

It got to her a bit behind teacher appreciation week (I told you I am behind in everything right now) but hopefully it will get used this summer.

And my favorite wrapping has always been brown paper packages (tied up with ribbons).  I used to be able to buy them in bulk at a paper supply store, but it has since gone out of business.  I have resorted to dollar store ones (which are actually good quality) but I need to be on the lookout for a bulk place again.  They are my favorite--simple, white tissue paper and a ribbon from the stash.  I actually keep some in my glove box for last minute things with a stack of blank cards and ribbon (yes I am so weird, I know.)

 

What did you do for teacher appreciation gifts this year?  Anything that was super well-received that we should all pin for next year?

 

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

~Elizabeth