My husband and I have recently begun paying close attention to where our money is going.  Really close attention.  Our goals are to A) live within our means (i.e. to “act our wage“) and B) to become debt free.  I am so grateful that both of us have jobs and that goal A is not really a problem.  We are no strangers to a budget and while we don’t make a lot of money, we make enough to pay our bills.  Goal B is the hard part.  While I don’t expect to pay off our house any time soon, I do believe that if we are very careful with the money we do have, that we can begin to chip away at our other debt (mainly student loans).

So why I am rambling about my personal finances on my sewing blog?  Well, I’ve discovered that sewing is a really good hobby to have when you’re broke (or when you’re choosing to live like you’re broke in order to pay off your debts faster).  It’s wonderful to waltz into your favorite fabric shop and buy whatever suits your fancy.  It’s nice to be able to hop on over to your local craft store to pick up whatever notions you need for your next project.  But these are luxuries, not necessities.  Sewing doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.  In fact, if you are creative, it can end up saving you a lot of money.

Here’s what I found myself doing a few days ago:

I took the mattress pad for my daughters’ bed out of the dryer and discovered that the stretchy part that makes it stay on the mattress had been torn away from the mattress pad during washing.  At first I thought, ugh, I’ve got to buy a new one and then realized that it will stay on the bed just fine if you put a sheet over it.  I was about to throw out the part that fell off when I realized that it was attached to a LOT of 1/2 in. elastic.  Three yards to be exact.  I know that elastic doesn’t cost a lot, but I couldn’t just throw away three yards of elastic now could I?

Well, I finished it a couple of months ago in plenty of time for Christmas. Even though my husband saw me knitting it, I wrapped it up for him and put it under the tree anyway.  I also included a hat, which I did not knit, but bought from this lovely shop.

Here’s a picture of him wearing both the hat and the scarf during our recent snow.

Here’s a picture of him wearing both the hat and the scarf during our recent snow.

I made these P. J.’s to celebrate this sweet boy’s first birthday.

His name is Jacob and the thing is, he wasn’t supposed to have a first birthday, or any birthdays for that matter.  His parents were told that he probably wouldn’t make it past the delivery room.  But God had a different plan for this little boy.   His family and friends have taken to calling him the Amazing Jacob and you can read his full story here.

The truth is, I don’t even know Jacob or his parents personally.  They are just friends of friends.  I heard about Jacob before he was born and have been praying his family and following their blog for the past year.  If there is one thing that I have learned from their blog it’s that Jacob loves life.  Not only has he beaten all odds to live, but it is also clear from his adorable smiling face that he is just as thrilled to be here as we are to have him here.   So when I got the idea to make him some P.J.’s I went to the fabric store to look for some fabric for a little boy who loves life.  When I saw sock monkeys in pajamas I knew I had a winner.

I’m trying to get in the habit of putting sizing tags in children’s clothing.  Here’s what I came up with for these.

As some point I got it in my head that I wanted to make my girls sock monkeys to put in their Christmas stockings.  Well as Christmas drew closer and things got busier, I let go of that dream, but somehow the Sunday before Christmas, I found myself with little to do, so I cranked these babies out at the last minute.

Unfortunately, I went a little overboard buying stocking stuffers, so the monkeys did not make it into the stockings, but the girls seemed to be pretty pleased with them.

There is nothing quiet so satisfying as seeing one of my daughters hug a handmade gift on Christmas morning.

Except, perhaps the sight of one of my daughters kissing a handmade gift on Christmas morning.

We are giving a lot of thought to how and what to teach our girls about Santa.  I have a real problem with the over-commercialization of Christmas in general and find myself drawn much more to the season of Advent.  I like the idea of having a season of reflection on Christ’s coming.  As our preacher said on Sunday (somehow I actually caught a tidbit in the midst of all the toddler-wrestling going on in our pew), the announcement of Christ’s coming is a kind of judgment.  In the same way that the prophets called God’s people to return to God, John the Baptist was sent before Christ “to prepare a people that shall be fit for the Lord.”  (Luke 1.17)  God had to send his Son because of our sins. The fact that He did is certainly a cause for celebration, but quite frankly, I’m not sure how a man in a red suit who brings you stuff is in any way qualified to help us celebrate this event.  I prefer the actions of Saint Nicholas, who gave generously to those who truly needed it.  (You can read more about him here.)  I like the idea of giving gifts as a way to celebrate God’s gift to us, but I have a hard time reconciling the modern-day Santa with anything other than out-and-out greed.  I’m not ready to completely eliminate Santa from our Christmas celebrations and I’m not about to tell a toddler that there is no such thing as Santa, but we are choosing to tell our children the truth about Santa Claus.  That he was a real person who set a wonderful example of giving out of his abundance, just as God so graciously gives to all of us.  Our daughters will awake Christmas morning to stockings filled with goodies, not from Saint Nicholas, but given out of love in honor of Saint Nicholas.  As they get older, we will encourage them to give to each other and to others in the same way.

So why am I babbling about all of this on my crafting blog?  Well, while researching all of this (and by “researching” I mean clicking on all the links my husband pointed out to me), I found this link for a cute craft to turn a chocolate Santa into Chocolate Saint Nicholas.

Here are our results:The before is on the left and the after is on the right.  This year, these will be stocking stuffers, but as the girls get older, I think it will be a good craft to do with them.

I made these stockings with this great tutorial from Fishsticks and Fries.  I lined the bottom part with a white sheet.

Here’s a better picture of the fabrics.

I finished my quilted advent calendar.  I used the tutorial from Oh, Fransson!

This year we are just putting small treats in the pockets for the girls.  Each day of Advent, we plan to read scripture and then the girls get their treat.  We are thinking about ways to make this more meaningful for the girls as they get older.  Any ideas?  We don’t want Advent and Christmas to only be about getting stuff. 

Here is my binding.  I attached the binding with my machine and it was easier than I thought it would be.

 

I actually had the calendar finished and the binding made about a month ago, but I dreaded attaching it.  I really did not feel like I did a good job binding my first quilt and I didn’t want to mess this one up as well.  I used a video from e-how to learn how to do a mitered corner and then a different video to learn how to join the ends. I was much happier with this binding than the binding on my first quilt. (True confession, I didn’t actually have a binding on my first quilt, I just folded over the sheet I used to back it with and sewed it over the top.)

Here’s the back.  I didn’t have a large enough piece of white fabric to back it with, so I added a few strips of patchwork.

We recently had  a new addition to our congregation and I wanted to make her something.  I used two patterns from the Autumn ‘o9 edition of Ottobre.

The “Lullaby” batiste blouse:

and the “Moss” pinafore dress:

Here is a close up of that lovely tree:

The tree and most of the leaves are hand embroidered and the other leaves are appliqued on.   There is supposed to be a bird in the tree.  It’s not that I didn’t try, it’s just that even after several whole-hearted attempts to make a bird, it still looked like this:

That’s right, that turquoise blob is supposed to be a bird, but each time I tried it, it looked less and less like the one on the pattern.  I couldn’t decide whether to leave it or just start over and in the middle of my indecision, I did this:

I accidentally ironed on about 4 square inches of iron-on adhesive to the right side of the front panel and this is what it looked like after about a half hour of me trying to get it off.  So my decision was kind of made for me.  I could live with a bird that didn’t look like a bird, but I couldn’t live with the adhesive mess.  I had just enough gray chord fabric left over to cut another front panel so I started over.  This time I just put in an extra leaf and left off the bird.

I am very pleased with the whole outfit.  Here is a close up of my favorite part:I just love those little tucks and the sweet frill around the neck.

Once again, I loved using Ottobre’s patterns.  A really enjoy the lack of detailed instructions.  It forces me to think ahead when I am sewing and I feel like it is pushing me to become a more knowledgeable seamstress, even with the lack of a teacher.

Here are a couple of things I learned while making this outfit:

1) Because I used baby chord fabric (which has a definite nap)instead of the linen that the pattern called for and because Ottobre does not provide a cutting layout, I had to think about the best way to lay out the pattern pieces for cutting.  Not only did I want all the pieces to fit on the fabric, but I also wanted to make sure that my finished dress didn’t  look like it was made out of two different shades of gray.  Fortunately, this is not one of those “I learned from my mistakes” stories.  I actually thought about all of this before I begun to cut out my pieces.  See Mrs. Reese, I was listening.

2) I learned what a raglan sleeves are.  At first when I read the sewing instructions I had no idea what to do.  The first sentence reads: “Pin sleeves to front and back panels, right sides together and stitch raglan seams.”  Huh? Since I didn’t know what raglan seams were, I looked it up in a basic sewing book I have and learned that they were similar to Kimono sleeves.  And if you remember, a couple of months ago, I made a pair of p.j.s for Lila that had Kimono sleeves so I just put this top together like did the top for the p.j.s only backwards.  Here is a picture of the back of the blouse, which fastens just like a Kimono:

3) I learned how to use this nifty little foot:This is my overcasting foot and it can turn this:

into this:

Here’s a picture of it in action:

It folds the edge over and zig-zags on top of the folded edge.  It’s not nearly a serger quality finish, but it sure beats cutting the edges with pinking shears.

I am excited to see the sweet baby in her sweet little outfit, but I will have to wait a little while.  She is so tiny right now it will be several months before she can wear it.

I had to show you these photos.  Chris and I went to a costume party last night.  I went as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

And Chris went as the Scarecrow.

(Please ignore the “munchkin in this photo.  She thinks that any time I hold a camera up,  it must be for her.)

Both of these costumes were pretty easy to make and the best thing about making adult costumes is that we won’t outgrow them before next year so we can use them again.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to on of my friends at church about knitting.  She mentioned that when she first started knitting, she added a bunch of stitches without knowing it.  I laughed and said “hmm, I wonder how you did that.” and then didn’t give it much thought until a few days later when I decided on a whim to count my stitches.  I had started my scarf with 25 stitches in a row.  When I counted them, I had 38.  I had somehow added 13 stitches without knowing it.  I then talked to another knitter who told me how to take stitches out.  I thought if I just took a few stitches out here and there it would not be noticeable. Well, I was wrong.

So I did what I should have done when I first realized the mistake.

I ripped it all out.  I have started again and am very happy with it so far.  I can’t wait to post pictures of the finished product.