Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

My sewing projects never ends.....

10:45, Tuesday, August 15, 2006 .. Posted in Sewing Room .. 2 comments .. Link

Today, we had more rain which kept the temperatures cooler than they have been in recent weeks. What a blessing! Even though the temps reached the high 90's, it still felt better that the 100* + temps we had before.

Last night, my beloved was able to come home for a few hours. He was on a delivery that gave him more than enough time to stop by the house on his way through and still make his appointment this morning. We were able to have dinner together, watch a DVD and then get some sleep before he had to get up and start down the road. While he was watching the DVD, I baked him a batch of one of his favorites: peanut butter cookies to take on the truck with him. He emailed me tonight to let me know that he has been enjoying having them to snack on. It was such a blessing to have the house cool enough that I was able to bake those for him. I have missed baking breads and such. Not having air conditioning (with the exception of the small one in our baby's bedroom) has made it hard to do any baking. The house never is cool enough to be comfortable with the kitchen oven in use. I am enjoying being able to bake now in the early morning or late evening when the temperature is cooler.

Today, I worked abit more on our bedroom. Joe is going to be putting a large table in there to give me a place to sew and work on my crafting projects. Mainly the sewing for now. The room gets pretty hot during the day, so I only work on it alittle at a time. We have discovered that the heat causes my Fibromyalgia to flare up and cause pain throughout my entire body. In the cooler times of day, I am noticing that I am more pain-free. I am also not having to take medication or use linoments on the painful areas nearly as often when the temps are cooler. I will be interested to see how winter will be this year. Joe is already talking about making sure next summer to have more air conditioners in the house or some type of cooling system so that I won't have the problems with pain that I have had this year.

I have been sewing more of the cloth handkerchiefs for Joe and I. I am also going to try and learn to crochet a border of lace onto mine. I found a wonderful 100% cotton fabric at the store that is extremely soft once it is washed. I may go back and buy more of it this week. Joe is using the cloth and kerchiefs alot right now on the truck. We both prefer them in place of the paper tissues. He also is using them to wipe off the sweat from his face and neck after tarping or strapping down a load on his flatbed trailer. Come winter, we will both be using them alot. We have found that your nose doesn't get as tender and sore as they do when using the paper tissues.

My other sewing projects have been making more headcoverings and also some boxer shorts for Joe. I also have fabric set aside for making Abigail 3 more outfits and a flannel crib quilt. A friend of our is restoring a baby crib to give to us. What a blessing! Abbie has out-grown her bassinet, so the crib will be a wonderful gift.

I have been searching for modest dress and skirt patterns. I want to make my own clothing as much as possible as it costs so much less to make your own!   I have found patterns for clothing for Joe and Abigail, which I have ready to use. Recently, I finally found a couple of places where I have been able to find the type of clothing for myself that I have been wanting to make.

"Buckaroo Bobbins" (http://www.buckaroobobbins.com) is a business that sells both patterns and premade items.   They specialize in historical western clothing (old west style) for both men and women. Many who wear their clothing styles are people who do re-eneactments. Their patterns are historically correct. One pattern that they sell that I am going to be ordering is the women's "Frillies" pattern set. It is basically the patterns for camisoles (with or without sleeves); petticoat and panteloons. I love this set! I already have a similar set for Abigail that I bought from McCalls (#M4505). Only thing her set includes that mine won't have is a full slip. I will be easily able to adapt the patterns in the Frillies set to make the full slip though. Buckaroo Bobbins also has a prairie style dress called the "Overland Trail Dress" that I am considering. The dress has 4 variations and also comes with 3 variations of aprons to wear over it.    I love this dress. I have worn one similar to it before and they are very comfortable. The only change I make is to make a straight skirt instead of having the wide ruffle hem.   There are many other patterns available for both men and women. My beloved also loves the true western style of clothing. For him, I am wanting to order the patterns for their Trailblazer Shirt, Vest, Range Coat, Broadfall Pants, Western Heritage Shirt, and the Gentleman's Frock Coat. Joe and I have a DVD (Trace Adkin's Video Hits) and Joe loved the western style clothing Trace wore in several of the videos.   Several of the patterns I listed are similar to the clothing in the video. It is my goal to have enough patterns for each of us, that I can make all of our clothing, with the exception of the jeans that Joe has to wear when working at his job.

Abigail's clothing is jokingly referred to by some people as looking very "Little House on the Prairie" in style. I have a pattern (Simplicity #4262) that includes a dress, bloomers and hat. I didn't like the way the bloomers ride up the leg, so I removed the elastic to turn the bloomers into panteloons. I may add a longer length of elastic to gather the legs slightly. I am going to add alittle lace to the panteloons to dress them up abit. I am also making her a dress from McCalls #2053 which has a short sleeved dress variation. I will have the panteloons under it. The Simplicity pattern can be used to make a pinafore to wear over the McCalls dress. My next pattern for her is going to be an actual Prairie style outfit that has the underdress, pinafore, panteloons and sun bonnet.

There is alot of sewing projects ahead of me. I still need to get the winter clothing sewn for Abbie and I. Also some clothing for all of us for when we go to church or on outings. I am also needing to make window quilts, a quilt for our bed, Abbie's flannel crib quilt, and a quilt for my beloved to use in the sleeper of the truck. I think that if I had nothing to do except sewing, I would still be busy until winter! I am enjoying it though. It gives me such a feeling of accomplishment to be able to make my family's clothing. I am so grateful that I had people in my life who encouraged me when I was growing up to learn to sew and also the other homecraft skills that I was taught. I remember the first sewing machine I ever used was my Grandma's tredle machine.   I will always have a soft spot in my heart for those days. I actually miss using a tredle machine sometimes.

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02:49, Wednesday, August 16, 2006 .. Posted by kayinpa
How great to do something special for your man! My girls would love to have LHOTP dresses, unfortunately I dont really like to sew (much to my mothers dissappointment), so do it as little as possible!

good ideas

09:19, Wednesday, August 16, 2006 .. Posted by deedee06
Paula, thanks for the sewing pattern ideas. They sound so cute. My husband wants a camo shirt for bow hunting and I told him I will make one if he likes. He is tall and not easy to fit. I just finished pajamas with a Sesame street soccer theme and a horse patterned bathrobe for Jonathan (age 5). He's never had a bathrobe before and wondered why I made it for him. I assured him that he will love it when he gets out of the bathtub during the winter months! May you be blessed.........Denise (prairiemom)

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Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

My sewing projects never ends.....

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good ideas

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