The Cole Homestead

It's all in how you look at it

Our local Wal Mart is small and pretty well out of date.  But it's major draw for our community was its craft dept.  There is no other place for crafts and fabric for over an hour away.  Well they announced Monday that they are taking the whole craft dept out to make room for, get this... frozen foods.  We have 2 major grocery stores in our town, another 10 minutes away, another 20.  We need fabric and crafts.  So many quilters, dress makers and even the kids need this.  No where else to get yarn, craft paints, knitting needles, or even thread.  How sad.  My niece just received her first sewing machine this Christmas.  We don't have a lot of money to drive and hour away for a bit of fabric and thread.  How many others will not learn because there is not the tools needed?

But there is an up side.  Everything has an upside it just depends on how you look at it.  Since the dept is leaving all of their fabric is 1/2 off.  So I bought this years fabric and next years too.  Enough for 20 dresses for daughter and 10 skirts for me and enough flannel for wipes, pads and PJ's.  I will try not to think how much it will cost me in 2011.  Here is a pic of my sewing table.

To wet to play so I'll make dresses

I was really hoping to work inthe garden today and start fixing up the outside of the chicken coop but the weather did not cooperate with me.  We had a pretty good thunderstorm around here earlier and now everything is wet and it is so humid out.  Not to worry though, there are always something to do.  The kids are playing with their toys and behaving themselves so I am starting the dresses for my daughter and a few for her best friend.  I am hoping that I can finish a few nightgowns too before the weather improves.  WhenI make her dresses I normally wait and do them all in one shot.  I seem to work best when I mass produce.  Luckily the dress pattern I use is pretty simple to cut and construct.  I make them pretty wide around the middle so that they fit longer and are not too tight.  I also hem the skirt up in layers.  This way the dress can be let a few times to conform to my daughters ever growing height!  This dress can be cut and sewn in about 1/2 hour.  Unfortuantly I normally make about 20 at a time and now is the time.

Here is an example of my daughters dress.  In the winter she wears a long sleeved shirt underneath and some time bloomers or sweatpants underneath.

Getting the hang of it!