The post below was originally written in April of 2016 but just never got posted to the blog. The thoughts are still relevant today though, so enjoy. In my sewing room (which also doubles as my bedroom :) I have a rolling chair that I sit in whenever I am sewing. Being that it rolls it makes it very convenient to move from my sewing machine to my serger without having to get up every time. One day I noticed that my chair was not doing what it was designed to do. Usually all I have to do is push off from wherever I'm at and since my room is so small, that's all it takes to get me to the other side of my room. But now I basically had to drag myself and the chair over to where I wanted to go. My chair just refused to roll! When you sew, there are going to be threads everywhere, it's just something you have to deal with. I have a trash can next to my work space that I throw away my thread tails and scrap fabric in. But sometimes I get so busy I forget to make sure my trash ends up where it's suppose to end up. Then I roll over it with my chair and the wheels pick it up and wrap it around the inside of the wheels. Sometimes I did this on accident but other times I was just too lazy to bend over and pick it up so I let the chair wheels do it for me. The threads where gone so the problem was solved right? Wrong. What I didn't know was that over time these threads knotted themselves up more and caused strain against the wheels of my chair to where it could no longer function properly. Eventually my chair got to the point where it just could not roll or if it did it rolled only a very little. I knew I had to fix this problem so I turned over my chair and looked inside the bottom of my wheels. What I found surprised me. Do you see that!? Do you see all that thread!? I knew that my chair had to be pretty bad to cause it to slow down as slow as it was but I had no clue it was this bad! And there was only one way to get rid of it all: I was going to have to cut into it until I cleared it away. As I began the long task of cutting and pulling and cutting some more, GOD began to show me something. I began to realize that this was sometimes how sin entered our lives. We get so busy and caught up in living that we don't see the bad habits we are forming or the sin we are allowing to enter our lives. Sometimes, like in the case of my chair, we don't realize the things that have entered our lives. But also like me, either out of laziness or selfishness, or whatever reason, we choose to let it come in and over time it builds up until we can not longer function the way we were designed to. We live in a sinful world. That's something we can not stop. But we can stop sin from entering in our lives if we are careful and alert. I will always have threads in my room, that's just a part of sewing that I can't stop. But I can make sure I throw them away in the trash and make sure they end up in the trash and not on the floor or back into my life! “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:34-36 Just like cutting away at the thread was the only way I could get my chair to function again, so there is only one way to get the sin out of our lives: GOD has to cut it away. As Christians were are designed to reflect and live in a way that shows the world GOD, but we can not do that if we have a bunch of sin in our lives! "You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, who remembers You in Your ways Behold, You were angry, for we sinned, We continued in them a long time; And shall we be saved? For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities." Isaiah 64:5-7 I began to discover too that, while there was a lot of thread caught in my wheels, there was also a lot of small pieces of fabric and hair tangled up in there as well! When we begin to look at our lives, and I mean really look at our lives, we begin to find things in there that we never noticed before. Habits that we didn't know where bad suddenly we are shown just how dangerous they had become. We are shown ways that our sin has not only affected us, but has caused damaged to other people in our lives, more often than not, to the ones we love most. "Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar." Psalms 51
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If you were to ask me how many brothers I have I would tell you I had three. But the more you talked to me the more you would discover that I actually have seven, but only three share the same DNA as me. My family is real good friends with this other family that consist of only boys (not counting the mother). These guys are practically family to us and half of them all but live in our basement. They have all the family privileges; eating our food, getting to see us dirty and stinky, staying over 'til midnight etc... and the wonderful privilege of Mom and I telling them what to do at times Like dressing up as dwarfs so I can be Snow White. Because I didn't want to spend much money on this costume I scoured the house and used some supplies and patterns I already had on hand. The only things I actually ended buying was the fabric for my bodice (which was a marked down remnant piece), the bodice trim, fabric for my skirt waist band, ribbon for my hair, shoes, and my make up. I'm really proud of how much I saved on this costume! (These are the patterns I based my design on) Here is the Disney version of Snow White And here's mine I made the skirt out of an elastic waisted one we used as an extra costume in BOO! by ripping out the elastic and cutting the skirt into more of an a-line. Then I drafted a waist band and added a hook-and-eye closer. I got my shoes for a dollar (as in $1.00) at a thrift store and after I cleaned them up really good painted them a darker shade of red to match my trim. The original bodice pattern called for a zipper in the back, but I added a modesty panel and lacing instead. I ended up drafting the sleeves myself using the sleeve pattern from Simplicity 1771 as a guide. The neckerchief is detachable from the bodice and was made out of some lace given to me by I don't remember who (but who ever you are thank you!) Every good princess needs an animal to play with, don't ya think?
10/19/2014 12 Comments One Year Later...HI EVERYONE! I'M BACK!!!!! Did you miss me? So sorry about my absence here on the blog but I'm *finally* able to catch up now so hang on to your hats! 'Cuz I've got some exciting news! So I've come to the realization that I've had this little blog for a whole year now! One year, one month and ten days to be exact. All through September I had been suspecting it but my life as of late has been like this: *Repeat* So thus, I missed it (sad face). BUT... That's not going to stop me from celebrating now! So after washing a load of dishes (giving me a moment to think of something I could do), I thought that first I'd do a flash back to where I've come from since my first post then I'll move on to a giveaway (sneaky sneaky). Since this is a sewing blog (that I throw in a bit of my personal life here and there) one of my goals was to document my sewing journey. Since I first started blogging I've: Learned to sew with knit materials (see a dress I made here) Learned to crochet Learned a bit of alteration skills (see here where I altered my first dress) Costumed half of a web series Made my first dog costume (you can view the cutie modeling it at The Athens' Regional Cancer Center in Athens TN) Created a wedding veil from scratch Sewed with terry cloth for the first time (see the apron I made here) and learned how to sew a vent in a sleeve (see a tutorial I made here) And I've also done a bit of business throughout the year (as in, projects I've gotten paid for! YAY!). I hope to double that amount of knowledge by this time next year, but we'll see... So what's in store for the upcoming year? What projects are next? Well hopefully if all goes as planned (which is never in my case) I'll be taking a few more online classes to increase my sewing skills and I have a few projects that I want to do on the side as well like: Sew a coat for the first time (I've never worked with wool before so I'd like to give it a shot) Add some new skirts and dresses to my wardrobe (because who doesn't want new clothes especially ones you made yourself?) Some tee shirts Doll costumes A new medieval gown for me (because for some reason I do not have a princess gown in my costumes stash. What's wrong with me?!?) More crochet and knitting projects A dress that I already bought fabric for (just haven't made yet...) and maybe some other things as well! We'll see as the year goes by! On the non-sewing related side, I'll still be sharing bits of my crazy life with you all including more book reviews and something else I'm working on. I can't tell you now but just know it's a part of my business and ministry. Hopefully, I'll *finally* start working on some of the other aspects of my website and this will become a part of that. If it helps, no one in my family but my brother Jonathan knows what it is either. But I hope to start posting about it soon. Okay, now onto the giveaway! Now that you all have gotten to know me over the past year I would like to get to know you! What's your name? Where are you from? Do you like Charlie Brown (I mean who doesn't?)? So here's how the giveaway works! Leave a comment on this post answering these questions: 1: What's your first name + gender? 2: What's your age? 3: What's your favorite part about this blog? and 4: Do you sew? Then give at least one question you would like to ask me and I'll answer them (within reason) in another post after the giveaway is closed. It's that easy! What's that? What do you win? Oh yeah! Well be patient, I'm getting there... The giveaway will close exactly two weeks from today (Nov 2nd). You can comment as many times as you want, but you'll only be eligible to enter once. In other words, you can leave six comments with different questions for me but you'll only be put in the drawing one time and only if you answer the four questions above about yourself. Make sense? Good! I know, I know, I'm getting there! Just be patient (it's a virtue ya know)... The winner will be selected at random the ole' fashion way, I'll write all the entries down on a slip of paper and have one of my handsome brothers draw a name out of a hat. Hey, remember this is my first anniversary party to throw! Give me a break! But y'all trust me right? ;) Okay, okay, OKAY! FINE! I'll tell you what the prize is now! If you'll remember I mentioned above (for those of you that skipped that part and moved on down to the giveaway) that one of the skills I learned this year was crocheting. So in celebration of all my achievements, I'm giving away a pair of crochet earrings that I made with me own two hands! Ain't they purdy? And if for some reason a guy is following this blog, (which would be slightly creepy...) if you win, I'll make a handmade bow tie that is an exact replica of the one Mr. News wears in S.C. TreeHouse Productions' Web series Literal: What We Believe. 'Cuz you wouldn't want a pair of earrings now would you? Course not! So I'll be fair. To recap:
Leave a comment before November 2nd answering the following questions: 1: What's your first name+gender? 2: What's your age? 3: What's your favorite part about this blog? 4: Do you sew? and at least ONE question you would like me to answer. You can only be eligible to enter ONCE but feel free to leave as many questions for me to answer. And don't be shy to ask random ones like: "Have you ever ridden a dragon before?" or "Do you have one pink toe?" I'll do my best to answer within reason :). Thank you all soooooo much for following along with me on this journey! I can't wait to see what else my Father and Creator has in store for me and to be able to share it with you all! Now go enter the giveaway quick! Remember, you only have two weeks! Love, Susan 7/31/2014 0 Comments My Hunting DressHave you ever heard the phrase "kill two birds with one stone"? Well I killed multiple birds with this one dress. Not literally, but theoretically. So I've officially dubbed this as my "hunting dress" because sometimes I name my sewing projects epic names. Hey, parents name their children and the way I see it every sewing project I work on is a labor of love, thus these are my children. Call me crazy if you'd like but that's just who I am! :) Bird #1 I've been taking a few sewing classes online as a way of expanding my sewing skills. This is what I've been doing for the moment instead of college. I call it "homeschooling through college". It's not for everyone but it works for me. One of the classes I've been doing is how to sew with knit fabrics (like t-shirt material). This is my final project for the class and definitely my absolute favorite! Bird #2 The fabric I ordered online at Mood Fabric. Before whenever I needed fabric for a project I always got it from either Joann's, Hobby Lobby, my personal stash and occasionally Hancock's. But as I was taking the class the instructor said that the only place to get quality knit fabric is to order it online. The ones in the stores aren't good at all. After trying some I bought at Joann's I decided she was right. One of the places she suggested was Mood Fabrics. The fabric was pretty expensive, the color was darker than I thought it be and the fabric was REALLY clingy and thin! I was not pleased with the overall product but the service was pretty good and the delivery speed was timely. I think I'll try ordering from them again because I ordered some other knits at the same time and they seemed to be really nice. So I'm thinking that maybe this fabric just wasn't that great. But it was a learning experience and I definitely learned a lot from it! Bird #3 I was still in need of one more costume for my character in Literal and since I had yet to make a costume for myself I decided to use this as one of them. Christopher helped me pick out fabric that we both liked for Ann so now I have one more costume. That I made! See if you can spot it in the episodes to come. The dress pattern came with the class so I didn't have to buy it separately. It has an empire waist, quarter length sleeves and an A-line skirt. The dress shape is more or less created by clear elastic sewn into the waistband that helps hold it against the body. You would think that it would be tight but it's really very comfortable. I hemmed the sleeves in a way I've never done before. I cut a band out of the fabric that was the length of the sleeve end and 3/4" wide. I pinned it up underneath the sleeve with just a 1/4" still peeking out then I sewed it in place. After that I sewed up the rest of the sleeve as the directions called for and, because jersey tends to roll, I just let the fabric do its thing creating the effect you see here. Basically I just worked with how the fabric naturally acts to achieve the look I wanted. Even though I loved how the sleeves turned out, they are not my favorite part about this dress. No my favorite part is still yet to come. Wait for it... Wait for iiiit... POCKETS!
Yes that's right, pockets! The pattern did not originally call for pockets but I used a pocket pattern from another pattern from the same class and added it in. See, in my opinion, all skirts and dresses should have pockets. You know just in case the need for one arises. Guys are so lucky because almost every pair of pants out there has pockets. So if you're a girl and want pockets, you're going to have to wear pants. But what if you feel like wearing a skirt? This is a major problem in the clothing industry that I think needs addressing. If anyone is interested in the class I took to make this dress (or the patterns) you can find out about it at Craftsy: Sewing with Knits. I would TOTALLY recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to sew with this tricky material. The instructor is amazing and carefully walks you through every step so you know exactly what to do. Well worth every penny! Love, Susan "Heeeeeey Hoop!" Mr. News Literal If you have been following my brother's google + account you'll have noticed that he has started revealing characters from Literal. For the next 5 weeks, until the first episode premieres, Christopher is going to be revealing a new character at random and I will be doing a blog post on how I costumed that character. For the first "reveal" Christopher shared the character of "Mr. News" (to read his description click here). I'm so excited to share how I costumed this character so let's get started! Mr. News is the main character's best friend so I kinda wanted their costumes to go together as well. As you will learn, Doug's wardrobe is very.... how should I say this?... eccentric, and I wanted Mr. News' costume to mirror that without taking the focus away from Doug. So I decided to go with the "dorky" look for Mr. News. The first thing you'll notice about Mr. News' outfit is his sweater vest. Originally I had wanted an argyle sweater vest but my mom found this one online at Macy's on clearance for $ 21.94 (much cheaper than some of the argyle ones we had seen). The vest buttons up the front and is made of 100% cotton. The color is a grey that almost looks tan in some lighting which I think is pretty cool! The actor for Mr. News likes the fact that the vest has two pockets on the front. The first time he tried it on he stuck his hands in the pockets and went "ooh pockets!" and began flapping around like some retarded bird; thus earning him the nickname "Mr. Flappy". The second thing you'll notice is his smashing-looking bow tie. As you will soon learn I didn't do as much "sewing" for this film as I have in our previous projects due to a lower budget and a modern day setting (which required no period pieces.) So, because I really do like to sew I simply put my foot down on some issues and stated that "I WILL make that!". One of which was Mr. News' bow tie. Mom and I both agreed that he needed a bow tie and an ugly one at that! (then it turned out super cute so we just went with it!) We found some cotton fabric at Hobby Lobby for about $5.59 a yard. I used interfacing I already had on hand and a hook that was $1.99 for two. I'm so pleased with how it turned out and how easy it was! The shirt and pants are actually the actor's own clothes. This helped cut costs because he already had them. I simply asked him if he had a short-sleeve button-up dress shirt and a pair of dress khakis. Isn't it great how G-D makes things work out? (Notice the belt with pink duct tape. That is NOT a part of the costume that I put together. Rather it was the only belt he had to hold his pants up with. Thankfully the flappy vest covers it!) To top off the look, we added a hat that my brother Christopher already owned. All we did was add a card that said "NEWS" to the side and Mr. News was completed! So all in all, here's how much Mr. News' costume cost: Shirt- actor's own $0 Vest-$22.00 Pants-actor's own $0 Hat- ours $0 Bow Tie- $4.50 Shoes-actor's own $0 Socks- $4.00 for three pair TOTAL = $30.50 When I was explaining my vision for Mr. News' costume with the Director and Assistant Costume Director I said that I wanted his outfit to look like he was in his grandfather's attic one day and found all this and thought it looked stylish, (when it really wasn't). When I first showed my dad a picture of the actor in costume he laughed and said the Mr. News looked like he should be sitting on a park bench feeding pigeons. Score! Love, Susan 4/21/2014 2 Comments My First Refashion DressA friend of mine gave me this dress back in January that she didn't want anymore. Because it was super cute (and free) I took it. But the bad new is that it was a little too big and pushing being too short. (Please excuse my odd facial expressions) BEFORE I'll admit, not the most figure flattering dress I've ever put on. I had to wear a tank on underneath in order to get these pictures and still obtain some modesty. As you can see, there were a few problem-os. So with the help of my AMAZING alterations teacher (I call her my Jedi Master) I ripped that thing apart and made a few adjustments (praying the whole time that I wouldn't utterly destroy it in the process!). The first thing I did was to add a ruffle to the bottom of the skirt making it not so short. I found the ruffle at Hancocks in Chattanooga and it matched perfectly! I was so excited! AFTER After that I took up the side seams which fixed the whole gaping arm hole issue which included replacing my first invisible zipper. It turned out to be much easier than I thought so I didn't have to worry! Next came taking up the shoulder seams. Doing this took the neck line up as well and raised the hemline, which is why the ruffle was needed. Once that was done, I made a few more minor adjustments here and there just to get everything to lay right and fit better. So after a lot of ripping out seams, restitching said seams, ripping out some more, sewing some more then realizing "oh wait, that part needs to be fixed as well" I finally finished! Ah... much better! Wouldn't you agree? I so so so pleased with how it turned out especially considering that I had never altered an entire dress before! What do y'all think?
Love, Susan |
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October 2019
Book Review
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