The children are required to wear uniforms, which is fine by me since it means I don’t have to spend more money for school clothes. Private schools can be pricey. Throughout the year, the school has “casual days” it’s a chance for students to wear “regular clothes” at school. It’s quite popular and most students take advantage of these days even when they have to pay ($2.00) on some of the casual clothes.
Contrary to some peoples beliefs not all private schools (or those who attend them) are “rolling in money.” Various fund raisers are given throughout to assist with teachers salaries and the general maintenance, equipment and upkeep that goes on at a typical school
Sewing: daughter’s jacket
Tomorrow is casual day at my daughter’s school and since I’ve finished sewing her jacket yesterday she asked could she wear it tomorrow. I’m not thrilled about this fabric, but my daughter likes it… As you can see she’s already chosen the outfit she’ll wear it with tomorrow and I think she did a nice job matching up the dots and pinstripes. If you look closely, you can see the leggings peeking through the top of her dress.
Sewing, back of jacket
I still need to press the jacket and use a smaller hanger next time I take a picture. You see how the hanger has pulled up one side of the jacket? These pictures were taken immediately after it was washed yesterday so it had some wrinkles, but once it’s pressed I’ll hang it on a much smaller hanger and give it to my daughter.
I’ve always found working with my hands to be soothing, even in stressful situations.
Yesterday, I started sewing a simple 100% cotton jacket for my nine-year old daughter. It’s a simple bolero jacket and I drafted my own pattern. I used my newest sewing machines for this project; the Brother Pc-420 to sew the seams and I used my Brother 1034D aka serger/overlock machine to finish the raw edges. I love these sewing machines!
All my fabric is washed before I use the material. The main reason is because the bolts can get dusty sitting on the shelves and it can be handled by a lot of people before it reaches me. Yuck! Another reason (although minor) is that some fabric will shrink after it’s been washed. I’ve had some fabric that wasn’t supposed to shrink, but the material shrank after it was washed! Good thing, I prewash fabric, right? Otherwise I’d have had an outfit that might not fit. Because of those experiences, I don’t always believe fabric labels. 🙂
One key to making professional items is to press each seam right after it’s sewn… while it adds to the total production time, the end result more than makes up for the additional time that’s added.
Sewing: Bolero jacket
Adding a lining is another way to add to an outfits longevity. In the above picture, I’d just sewed the lining to the jacket. I’ve placed the garment on the ironing board and am about to press the seams. I usually like really wild fabric linings, but my “wild fabrics” are being used for a few other projects and so I selected plain fabric for this garment. Yawns, ho hum…My daughter chose the dotted fabric and was thrilled when I told her I was going to make part of it into a jacket. The background color perfectly matches a long dress that she has.
Freshly sewn sleeve. Time to serge and press
After finishing the body I moved on to the sleeves. I use double seams on most outfits and this jacket was no exception. And although the raw edges are hidden (because of the lining) I serged all edges.
I’m thrilled to say that her jacket is complete and once the outfit is washed, I’ll take a picture and post it on Celebrate Life.
Friday evening my daughter told me “I had a lumpy letter with lots of stamps…”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but promised her I’d take a look as soon as I was finished cleaning.
As soon as I walked towards the package I knew who it was from, Suituapui’s! He lives in Malaysia!
If you haven’t strolled over to Suituapui’s virtual planet, you’re really missing out. He has a very active community and he keeps his readers entertained with all the delicious foods and the entertaining stories that accompany them.
My daughter and I loved the items that were included. Thank you, Suituapui! I’m going to laminate the poems so they can be “bookmarks.” My daughter and I read a lot, and this way we’ll always have something to remind us of our Malaysian blogging pal. My daughter saw the turtle magnet and promptly claimed it for her own. She loves turtles. She’s already added the postcard to her scrapbook.
When I first heard that suituapui lived in Sibu I instantly thought of the Song of the Cebu. I was pronouncing “Sibu” as “Cebu”. When my daughter was younger it was one of her favorite Veggie Tales songs.
Thanks so much suituapui, for the lovely items, you added a bright spark to my already sparkling day!
Last evening, I was thrilled when I stumbled upon this vintage Collins skirt maker.
The item I won is in like new condition and comes with a yardstick, hand pump, and chalk to mark the hemline. This one was probably made in 1950 or 1960s. I’ll know once it arrives to my house. These were used for making perfect hems and while they still make them now, I much prefer using the vintage design. First you need to mark where you want your hemline to fall with the ruler, then as you turn, you press the pump this ‘marks’ the skirt by marking the area with a thin line of chalk.
Collins Skirt Marker
When it comes to sewing clothes, I mainly used disappearing ink pens but recently I purchased a tailors chalk marker from Joann Fabrics. I love them! The serrated wheel in the tip of the chalk markers makes a very fine chalk line. I most likely will still use the disappearing ink pens for delicate fabrics since I’d be worried about snagging, but for everything else I most likely will be using a tailors chalk marker.
The only thing I was disappointed about was the actual marker. It’s cheaply made and I can already see a crack in the container that holds the chalk. I purchased it this past Saturday!
Chakoner – chalk marker
After a bit of research I found the Chakoner. It’s in the shape of a heart, how cool is that? It has received excellent reviews. Yesterday I purchased one for myself. The powdered chalk should be enough to mark fabric for several years. Even better, I purchased my chakoner from a local lady and she has published a book about tailoring and she also offers advanced sewing classes. So, I most likely will take one of her classes sometime this year.
Last evening, I drafted one costume for the upcoming Passion Play, so this afternoon I most likely will start sewing Mary Magdalene’s costume.
Let’s see…Friday my brother was in town and he stayed the entire weekend. I also received a package from far away, I took pictures of the contents and will do a virtual thank you to one of my favorite bloggers in a later post.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”-Psalm 30:5
This past December my aunt (my mothers sister) found out that she had a brain tumor. The family has supported her and her husband during this time through prayer, supplying the meals so she doesn’t have to cook, cleaning the house, etc., It’s a huge change seeing my aunt going from someone who was always on the go (she was involved with a few outreach ministries with her church) to being unable to drive and in bed most of the time.
A few days ago we learned that she most likely doesn’t have that much longer to live. I haven’t had too many people that are close to me die. I’m forty-two and have only lost two people that I had a close relationship with. And yes, I know that I’m really fortunate to be able to say that when compared to some people. This instance is different in that we know that she most likely won’t make it, the only thing left to do is wait. Sounds a bit morbid, you know? I’m still trying to get used to the fact that she might not be around too much longer.
I do know that she is a Christian and although the statement is overused she truly is an great example of how a Christian should be.
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.”
Matthew 7:13
I always liked that she hasn’t changed the Bible to make it palatable for “today’s society.” After all, who’s she to change Gods word? But yet many of us attempt to do that. I was one of them, and created a mishmash of different religions that suited my “style” to make it more palatable for myself and those around me… even though I knew what I was doing was wrong on so many levels. I firmly put on my blinders. Thankfully I stopped doing that. I do appreciate that my aunt doesn’t make excuses about her faith she does try to be the best Christian she can be… which is how it should be you know? Why some Christians are content to just slip into heaven or make excuses for their faith is something I simply can’t understand.
If she doesn’t have much longer on this earth, I will miss her. But I’m comforted when I realize that I’ll see her again in heaven. The reality is, that our physical life is small compared to the eternal life we will all experience whether our final destination is heaven or hell…
Green Day: Time of Your Life
Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don’t ask why
It’s not a question, but a lesson learned in time
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right,
I hope you had the time of your life.
So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it’s worth it was worth all the while.
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right,
I hope you had the time of your life.
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right,
I hope you had the time of your life
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right,
I hope you had the time of your life.
WP-Blackcheck did an excellent job of eliminating the trackback/pingback spam I receive, don’t you think? It blocked 2,309 trackback spam comments. As you can see, seven spam comments actually made it into my spam folder. However that spam was manually entered by a person. Anti-spam plugins won’t stop a real person from leaving a spammy comment. However since a persons first comments are always moderated on this site, they won’t ever make an appearance on Celebrate Life.
If I want to check out the Blocked comments this is what I see.
I most likely will test out a few other Plugins that do a similar job and keep the one that I like the most. I could always disable trackbacks completely, but presently I’m unsure if that’s what I want to do.
For non-trackback spam, I could use Captcha to catch the autospammers… but I think Captcha is annoying! Don’t get me started on the illegible Captcha codes! I really dislike seeing it on sites that I follow! So why in the world would I add it to mine? Nope, not happening. Leaving a comment on a Captcha site, means one more thing I have to fill out just to comment on a persons site! Why oh why do some people want others to jump through extra hoops just to comment? Oh my goodness, don’t they know how annoying that can be?
I must say it’s a huge relief not seeing a whole bunch of spam waiting for me when I log into the admin panel.
Updating my theme
I use paid themes for my business sites, but haven’t gotten around to making the switch with this site, but that’s about to change. I’m really impressed with the FlexSqueeze theme. Sire has mentioned it a lot on his blog and I’ve decided to purchase it at the end of this month which will be about the time that I’ll be setting up a small site for my daughter so she can have a place to show her stop motion videos.
My daughter loves tomato soup, simple to make but oh so flavorful…
Homemade tomato soup
After school, my daughter said she wasn’t that hungry so I made her a light meal. Since I know tomato soup is one of her favorite soups and she hasn’t had it in a while, I surprised her with a flavorful bowl of tomato soup.
The tomatoes were grown in our garden, they’d been harvested and stashed away in the freezer. Freshly juiced carrot juice was added to the soup, along with fresh lemon juice (to taste). A few cloves of garlic/ginger were ground. I let that simmer for a bit and then added some seasonings and a few chunks of her favorite cheddar cheese. Since the soup was hot, the cheese melted quickly and it was ready for her to eat. A simple meal but my daughter loves it, and it never lasts.
