10/29/2013 1 Comment How to Sew a Sleeve Vent in a ShirtRaise your hand if you have ever sewed a sleeve vent in a shirt before. Those of you who raised your hand, please make your way to my house. I will need you in the future. Those of you who didn't raise your hand, stay tune and I'll show you how I figured out how to sew one all by myself! (with a little help from the internet that is :) To start off you have your two pieces; your sleeve and vent facing: (for demonstration purposes I drew a letter "R" with a fabric safe washable marker so you can tell which side is which) Pin the RIGHT side of your vent facing to the WRONG side of your sleeve vent. Line up the raw edges together but leave a .5 inch gap between the middle of your sleeve and the vent like so: Sew, coming close to the edge of the shirt fabric near the middle of the slit. Iron the seam towards the facing. Next, you'll want to press the opposite edge of the facing 1/4 inch down on the wrong side of the fabric. Fold over and pin encasing the seam. I went back and added a drop or two of No-Fray to the part of the seam in the middle where the shirt fabric just barely meets the facing. Just as a safety precaution. This step is optional. Sew encasing the seam. Fold your facing in half to where it sticks out on the INSIDE of the sleeve... ...and stitch a diagonal line from the top corner down about a 1/4 inch. (I guessed at this part) Iron the facing so it lays flat and faces the back of the sleeve. View from the WRONG side. TADA! And there you have it! A beautiful sleeve vent! All you need now is a cuff and you're all set!
Now I know what you all are thinking... "What was she making in the first place that required a sleeve vent?" Well... It's a surprise. So I can't tell you, yet... :) Love, Susan
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10/16/2013 4 Comments If myWebsite had a Theme Song......This would be it! WASN'T THAT CUTE?!?!?!??????
But seriously, To the guys who made this video, Thanks so much! I know as a girl myself, I do sometimes wonder if all my efforts to dress modestly and cover myself go unnoticed and if it really is of any help to you all. By taking time to make this video and thanking us, you show that you are thankful and that we are making a difference in your life. I think I speak for all of your sisters in the LORD when I say thank you for the encouragement! We need it more than you know. Keep up the good work! Love, Susan P.S. Sorry, just had to ask. Why a football field? I mean, it's not a very girly location. Just wondering.... We did it! We did it? WE DID IT! YAY! Andrew Peterson has reached over and above his goals to publish The Warden and the Wolf King!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that means... HE'S GOING TO PUBLISH THE CREATUREPEDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even though the maximum goal has been reached, you can still donate money to help Andrew out! Just click above to go to his Kickstarter page. Now the big question is: what will Andrew do with all that extra money? Some people (like my brother Jonathan) think that, since he is a musician, he should come out with a soundtrack to all the books. That would be cool... But I think he should do what another guy commented and have a "meet-and-greet" with Andrew then afterwards go on a toothy cow hunt with Pete the Sock Man! ...Or one lucky girl gets a date with Artham Wingfeather.
Like, um, ME! 'Cus I'm going to marry him one of these days,(since my cousin Rachel took Captain America already) and it would be nice to meet him in person first. You know, so I can get a good look at him and make sure I imagined him correctly with his six pack, perfect white teeth, booming "I-am-alpha-dog" voice, kind loving smile, and long flowing black hair that has no split ends. :) Love, Susan I client of mine asked me to repair a ripped buttonhole in a shirt of his. I had never repaired a buttonhole before so this was a whole new learning experience for me. (BEFORE) First thing I did was rip out the previous buttonhole and trim the threads away from the hole. Then I cut the hole to make it more rectangular instead of the funky shape it was and put a little fray-check along the edges. Next, I cut little indentions into the corners so I could fold the edges of the hole to the inside like so. After that, I took a needle and thread and carefully sewed the facing of the shirt to the actual shirt creating a patch of sorts. (don't you love my professional way of explaining things? :) The last thing to do was make a new button hole over where the previous one was originally. And I'm done! (AFTER) This only worked because the shirt I was working with had a facing on the inside. If it didn't, I would have had to cut a patch out of the shirt from another area that didn't matter (like a pocket) or that wouldn't be seen in order for it to blend in. Other than that, all the other steps are the same.
Love, Susan 10/7/2013 0 Comments My Mom Wants to Win ThisSorry, this isn't Susan and she isn't running a blog marathon by having three posts all in one day. This is her mom. And I want to win this:
http://www.mommypotamus.com/giveaway-le-creuset-signature-cast-iron-5-piece-cookware-set-400-value/ Don't you? Finally, after weeks of procrastinating, I got off my lazy bum and started working on my cousin's veil. It's not that I didn't want to do it, it's just that in order to round off the edges for the front and back/train I basically needed the whole dining room floor for a cutting table. (or cutting floor :) When your family is a homeschooling family like mine, that needs the dinner table for school work, it can be quite difficult to access. So when I finally got my hands on it, the first thing Mom and I did was round off the edges that would be next to the bride's face. That way there will be no hard, sharp, pointy edges (very unattractive). We did this using a french curve. (sorry forgot to get a picture :( ) Next came probably the hardest part: shaping the train. (dum dum dum!) To be honest, I had NO CLUE as to how to do this! So I turned to my second secret weapon that never fails to help sort out all my sewing dilemmas.... The internet. This is where I found out how to do what I was wanting to do. I love you. Start off by measuring the width of you fabric and dividing that number in half. My fabric was 57 and 3/4 inches so half was 28 and 1/4 inches. Wrap a long piece of string around a fabric safe disappearing marker and measure whatever half of your fabric was then cut the string. It MUST be a DISAPPEARING FABRIC SAFE marker because you will not be washing this fabric! (The fabric layed out on a flannal quilt to help keep it in place while we worked) Fold your fabric in half long ways making sure the edges match up perfectly. Check every so often while you work to see if the fabric has moved (because trust me IT WILLL!!!!) and correct if need be. Hold the pen at the center edge (where the fold of your fabric is) and then have someone pull the string towards the center of your fabric to form a 90 degree angle with the bottom edge of the fabric. The string needs to be taunt. Move the pen around in an arc to mark the cutting line. Cut. When you open your fabric it should look something like this. Just imagine that trailing down a church aisle! *dreamy sigh* Now that the veil was cut out, I could move on to hemming! Shelby wanted what is called a shell hem around the outside of her veil. You can achieve this by ether hand or machine sewing. If you want to do this by machine, (which is what I did) you will need a rolled hemmer foot (mine is 3 mm) that looks like this: Of course the way the foot looks like will vary depending on what kind a machine you have. I have a Huskvarna Sapphire Quilt 875 and I got my foot from My Sewing Machine Parts for about $25. Attach the hemmer foot to your machine and thread your machine with some fine thread used for light weight fabrics like chiffon to match your fabric. (I used Coats & Clark Dual Duty) Set your machine to do a shell edge stitch. (#18 on my machine) If you notice in the picture above there is a tiny strip of metal in the center of the foot. Your fabric will wrap around this piece of metal causing the fabric to fold over creating a hem. So this is what it looks like as you're sewing. (the finished look) One phone conversation with Shelby and 3 1/2 yards of chiffon later...(which is really 7 yards of hemming!) ... the veil is completely hemmed!!!! Of course, this isn't exactly how it will be placed on her head, but you get the point for now. (And yes, I am well aware of the fact that there is a hand on top of my head. Please ignore it. That is just my brother being helpful. Just imagine it is a halo or crown or something.)
I CAN'T WAIT to see how this turns out!!! Shelby is going to be one BEA-U-TI-FUL bride(even with no veil!) and I can't wait to see it on her! Love, Susan 10/7/2013 3 Comments Morning Mood SwingsHappiness is waking up to discover that in one of your refrigerators, there is a party tray full of Chick-fil-a minis.
Depression is looking in the second refrigerator, and seeing that you and your family have drank all of the raw milk you had and now you have to settle for the pasteurized store bought kind. (which is not nearly as good in comparison.) Morning mood swings. Don't ya love 'em? Love, Susan 10/1/2013 0 Comments Most AWESOME book series EVER! I love books! Reading has been a favorite past time for me, so whenever I find a book (or a book series) that I really enjoy I tell people about it! I have been blessed with a wonderful dad who takes time out of his evening to sit down with his family and read to them. Night after night, my brothers and I rush to get ready for bed and then curl up on the couch where we wait for Daddy to transport us into another world filled with wonder and excitement; then quickly beg for "just one more chapter Daddy! PLEEEEEEEAAAAAAAZZZZZZZE!". We've read through many great series such as: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis The Terrestria Chronicles by Ed Dunlop (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!) The Wilder King Trilogy by Jonathan Rogers (Still in the process of finishing the last one but defiantly an EPIC READ!) And arguably, our all time favorite: (drum roll please) The Wingfeather Saga (by the all wise, all knowing Andrew Peterson) The Wingfeather Saga is about three siblings, Janner (the oldest), Tink (the second born), and Lee Lee Igiby (the youngest and only girl). Together with their courageous mother Nia, heroic grandfather Podo, (who was a former pirate!) book scolar Oskar N. Reteep and Pete the Sock man the children have grand adventures that include, but are not limited to: escaping The Fangs of Dang, hearing the song of the dragons, eating cheesy chowder, enduring the dreaded Fork Factory (woe!) and surviving the Green Hollows! Along the way, they learn lessons of courage, love and ultimely, the willingness to accept and fulfill the Maker's plan for their lives. Andrew Peterson is an O-MAZING singer/songwriter who has released over 9 albums including his latest Light for the Lost Boy. Andrew's music is really cool! How cool you might ask? Cool enough that Brain Masfield (a critic for USA TODAY) chose his (Andrew's) newest album as one of the top 10 albums for 2012! We even entered a contest and made a music video for Andrew's song Rest Easy. Check it out. Andrew wrote and released his first book, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (also the first book in the Wingfeather Saga) in 2008 and then in 2009 the second book in the series North! or be Eaten. Two VERY LONG AGONIZING YEARS later, (and yes, it was THAT dramatic!) his third book came out The Monster in the Hollows. He is now working on publishing the forth and finale book in the series The Warden and the Wolf King. Andrew needs $14,000 in order to publish and if he reaches OVER his goal, he will not only publish it, but publish it in HARDCOVER, PLUS do some other cool things like release an audio book and.... (what I most excited about) a companion book to the series called... wait for it.... WAIT FOR IT.... PEMBRICK'S CREATUREPEDIA a book covering every monster/beast from the series!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SQUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT, that will ONLY happen if he gets $65,000! (or more) So PLEASE, head over to Andrew's Kickstarter page and help this wonderful man of God produce the story laid on his heart plus all of the other exciting goodies! I PROMISE you, your money will not go to waste and you will not regret it! Click Here To Go To His Kickstarter Page
For the Jewels of Annniera! Love, Susan |
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October 2019
Book Review
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