Friday, December 30, 2011

Kassidy Sews...

Today I thought I would show you what Kassidy made her friends for Christmas.
For those of you who might not know...
Kassidy is my 12 year old daughter
and my baby!

She has been sewing with me since she was very young and got her first sewing machine
when she turned 9.
We have regular "Sew Nite's" together so that we can play with fabric, have fun together and improve on her sewing skills...which I think are important for a young girl to have!

The winters here in Utah are so very cold so she decided she wanted to make hoodie scarves.
We saw some at Target that were way cute but at 20 dollars each...that wasn't going to happen as she has 8 friends
that she wanted to sew for....
so she decided we could make our own.

We took a trip to JoAnn's and she picked out
3 colors of nice thick fluffy fleece.
It was 10.00 per yard but was 50% off...and each scarf needed 3/4 yards...so I say that was a pretty good deal!


Fleece is so fun and easy to sew with because it doesn't fray and so there is no hemming needed...so these scarfs went together quick....no need for a pattern...just a scarf with a hood sewn to the top center.
She made the scarf extra long so that she could fold each end up twice and stitch down the sides for pockets....
and cut fringe on the ends.

We used muslin to design and cut out a test pattern shape for the hood before
 cutting into the fleece.


Kassidy made 9 scarves total...
8 for her friends and 1 for herself.
She did a great job...thay turned out really cute and the girls all loved them!

We also made additional little gifts to go with the scarves that I will post about later.

When I was a girl growing up in a large family with lots of sisters, we would sew most of our own clothes.
My mom taught us all how to sew when we were young and it seemed that her tan Singer sewing machine was always set up on the kitchen table....we would always have to put the sewing away to set the table for dinner and then it would go right back on after the dishes were done!
We made some cute outfits and lots of cute dresses for church.
My sister Tammy who is a year older
than I...was the real seamstress...
what a talent!
She could sew anything but depended on me to choose the fabrics and styles and coordinate the outfits because that 
just happened to be my talent.

Mom would take us girls to the mall to check out all the good stuff...
my sisters and I would find what we liked and then I would sketch them.
Then we would go look for patterns that looked like what I had sketched ...alot of times Tammy would combine two or three patterns for a certain look.
I would choose all of the fabric and coordinate the outfits...
and even do some designing!
 My sisters would pick out the outfits that they wanted (but we all shared anyway as we were all pretty much the same size) 
Each sister was in charge of cutting out her own outfit from the pattern pieces and marking them ...and then Tammy would sew them
and make them fit us.
We always got compliments on our clothes and were always asked where we got them.

I'm proud that I have a mother who 
taught me to sew.
Thanks MOM! 
 I am taking her example and passing it on
to my daughter.
I love the fact that Kassidy saw something in a store and decided to make her own...
a continuation of a family tradition:)

xx
Lori



Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A Big Project at the Cottage!...

Well hello cute people...it's been awhile!
I took a small break from blogging but now I'm back to my regularly scheduled program:)
Can you see the reason for my little bloggy break in the above photo?...
YEP!
We have been painting at my little cottage!


So far we have the kitchen walls painted....
when I say "we"...I mean Mr. Honey and I.
Kassidy and Sterling have been helping out too which makes it a family project...a big one!

The walls above the beadboard have been butter yellow for 9 years and now they are aqua!
We are installing wood flooring
throughout the house...
and so I decided it was time for a change all around and that the perfect time to do it would be during the long winter months ahead.


The cupboards, doors, beadboard and trim have been white for 9 years too and are still in great shape ...but while we were at it it...we put a fresh coat on them too.
I'm letting the paint cure for a few days before putting the handles and knobs back on. 

I'm also repainting each piece of
furniture in the kitchen...
this is my vintage little girl's cupboard
now painted yellow.
It used to be a jadeite green.

 I love my little cupboard...
I bought it years ago while thrifting
and have always kept it in my kitchen.

When the kids were little I kept playdough, crayons, coloring books, paper,
colored pencils and art supplies in it
so they could sit up to the table and be creative while I was in the kitchen.
Now I keep my baking supplies inside:)  

I'll show you what it looks like inside when I put everything back together!

I hope you had a lovely Christmas...we did!
I did take some time to do a
little bit of sewing for gifts...
I took plenty of pictures and I will show you everything I made in my upcoming posts.
It's good to be back...I have missed you!
xx
Lori