Christmas Sewing

I have been busy sewing for Christmas. My first year with a sewing room and fabric to sew with.



Stella found some patterns in the trash can at the laundry and sent me some. So I made this jacket for Rayana. It has a fitted elastic waist.I didn't have a jacket pattern and this one is really cute. It was perfect to match with a pair of grey pants. Look at how old the pattern looks. The fabric is really heavy, so I removed the collar and added elastic at the sleeves to give it more of a sweater look. I sewed on silver trim and orange buttons to give it a fun look and not so dressy. I might put an applique on it. I am ready to start on a princess dress for her and cut the pattern out yesterday. I have been spending so much time in the sewing room that Wed night she was crying because she doesn't want only clothes for Christmas and we had to assure her that she would have toys also, just so we could get her to go to bed without crying.






For Mario I have sewn an army shirt( check out the flag buttons), with fabric he picked out this summer and a pair of flannel pjs. I added Smith on the pocket. He loves dress up shirts so I have ordered a pattern with a stand up collar and a book on shirt making, so hopefully I can do some dress shirts for him and Greg.

 Well I have been busy with other things but can't post them until after Christmas. I am going to move Mitch to the small green room and I am taking the big room for my sewing. I have already outgrown the little room (Rayana's old bedroom).

Tansi and David have been coming over on Wed. and sewing, or I should say David has been sewing. I am trying to get him started on a quilt that is already cut out for him and Tansi. He made a tree skirt and a table cloth so far. He loves the serger and is trying to get Tansi to let him get one. Lindsay has been coming but she was sick this week. Mitch is at Robotics club at that time, so it works out well.

I am just not in to decorating for Christmas and was glad I have the excuse of letting the little kids do it. We can't keep Isaac and Sean away from the tree, so we have more bulbs on the floor than the tree. It is a good thing the bulbs are plastic because they have already broke the tops off many of them. Maybe next year we will be able to put the nicer ones out.
Here is a picture of them decorating, even our puppy is excited about it.




Our puppy (Jasper) is growing about 8 lbs now. We have had him for two months, he is still getting shots. He had earmites and worms but is doing much better now. He is just soft and cuddly, even our vet says he looks like a stuffed dog. The UPS driver told me he looked like a toy when he ran out the door. He loves Greg and cries when Greg leaves the room or the house.

We ate out today at the Golden Corral and I think it made me tired so I am going to go take a nap while Isaac is sleeping. Catch ya later!

MORE FABRIC

I have officially decided not to buy anymore fabric! I refuse to even look at it. Two days ago I saw an ad on Craigslist advertising fabric, over 200 yds, I had to look at it. It was $300 and she assured me it was top quality and it was. I always think, where will I ever be able to buy that much for this price. Then she shows me more bags in her sewing room, with everything imaginable, quilt tops, purses, more fabric, quilt blocks already cut out, quilt blocks already embroidered, several baby blankets and patterns to name a few, for $500 she would give me everything. There were 11 white kitchen trash bags full. If you have priced fabric lately, do the math. She believed there was at least $4,000 worth of fabric. She had been a quilter for years and had broken her shoulder three years ago, she could no longer deal with the weight of a quilt. She had decided to only do paper piecing blocks and sell them, things that were small and light. Well I bought it all, here are some pictures.

Can you tell how nice this fabric is?

Bags of fabric, beautiful colors.

King quilt top

21

Quilt top

These are blocks already done, if you look at my hand you can see how many there are.

 

Now when I got home the bad news was that I could smell cigarette smoke on the fabric. So I began to wash about 40 yds and then got the idea to air it out. So I put it all over the porch. Next day the smell was gone but I put it in the dryer with a wash cloth wet with odor ban on it and dried the fabric on low, the fabric came out very nice smelling, so maybe the smoke isn't that bad. I'm glad I don't have to wash it all, Inez told me they quilt and then wash, so I hate that I already had washed 40 yds before I found that out. So here are pictures of my porch.

FABRIC TO FINISH MOM'S QUILT TOP

It started with me wanting to buy fabric to finish Mom's quilt top (in the center). I bought the two fabrics, on the sides, one peach and one teal (it has pineapples on it). (75% off by the way). And now it has turned into the following:

New fabric at 75% off. I can sew for a long time. I plan on beginning when it starts snowing!

Poly thread for embroidery, I got at a reduced price because thay aren't full.

Rayon for embroidery, it is beautiful and silky . (75% off)

More poly at 75% off. Some wooly nylon for serger .

Serger and coverstitch machines and new sewing table.

  I have been busy organizing my sewing room. Everything is 75% off at a going out of business sale. So I'm stocking up on fabric as it is 2.50 or less a yard. And the first thing I made yesterday was using a recycled shower curtain and turning it into a barber cape. I wonder if I can bring myself to cut my beautiful new fabric!

Next corner, Bernina machine and new fabric (75% off), then Viking machine.  My cutting table (in center) opens up, I let the kids play under it, so I don't step on them. I have shoe strings and beads for them. Notice my pegboard, I have two of them up. I also have zippers hanging to the right of the Bernina, from the mirror I picked up in Georgia. I added gold cup hooks on the bottom.

Buttons, I like the containers. (75% off)

More buttons, that I hung up. And my first machine embroidery piece hanging on the bottom. It is a butterfly and my name.

Quilts and Sewing

Sean and size 3 pjs

First pair

2nd pair

I decided to start sewing again after going to the family reunion and seeing all the beautiful quilts that are being made by my family. So I came home and started looking for a sewing machine because mine was over 35yrs old, an old  Kenmore that was pretty basic and I thought I might like to free motion quilt. I found a used Bernina 630 Artista and bought it. I still have two more classes to take. I have only taken one, although I did learn a lot in that class but there is so much more. Hopefully I will be able to learn how to embroidery on it.

Then when I went to put Sean in his pajamas for cold weather, well you can see how much he has grown, it is easy to see he needs new ones. It is okay because Isaac can get these handed down, they are a size 3 and fit him nice. So I decided to use Greg's mother's old serger and sew knit pajamas. I had had the serger cleaned and oiled, but the needle broke after a short time, when I asked the repair man, he said it was just so old and there is a part that he can not replace. So I had to have a new serger to sew the rest of my fabric and I had fallen in love with serging. (Notice in the pictures, one set has black sleeves. I had enough fabric left over from the first pair to make everything except the sleeves, so I purchased just enough black to cut out sleeves.) I had bought all the blue there was on clearance.  It worked out well and now he has two pairs. I gave him growing room also. I used elastic in a cuff on the pants and rolled up the cuffs on the sleeves.

Sean's sweat suit

So off I went to buy a new serger, I already had bought knit fabric for pjs and fleece for a sweat suit. I took a couple of weeks and came up with a choice between a Babylock Enlighten or Bernina serger and coverstitch the 009 and 1150 I believe. The enlighten is so expensive that I decided I had to use my sewing machine with a twin needle to  hem with. Well I decided on the Enlighten and I love it. There is no adjusting the tension and it threads itself. Sean's  pajamas with the black sleeves were made with the new serger. The best is that all my thread works in it just fine. I had heard that the Bernina may be picky with some brands of thread and I also had about 66 large cones of thread already.  So now I have made a sweat suit from camouflage for him, he wore it to school and wouldn't take it off when he came home and the temperature had went up to about 80 degrees.

Pat's

Zach

New serger

Sam's

Hilary has asked me to make her three boys a pair of lounge pants, she said they were $15 a pair in the store. So I found some fleece on clearance for them and an easy pattern. One piece and no side seams. I found some bright fleece in my stash,(can you believe I actually have some?)  that I had bought at a yard sale about a year ago, Sam says he likes it, so I only had to buy enough for two pairs. Here is my bright fabric for Sam. Camo with peace sign for Pat and camo with monkeys for Zach. I left the price on. $6.00 for one and $4 something for the other one. I think Sean would have like the monkeys.

What I have cut for Mario

Mario and Mitchel

Now on to the quilts. This picture is Mitchel and Mario picking out colors from the pieces I bought this summer off Craigslist. Notice Mario has all blues and reds and Mitchel has all patterns. And guess who gets to cut all that fabric because the scissors and Rotary cutter are too sharp for Mario, well this is what I have so far. He is using a 5" size and I'm cutting the rest that is left into smaller sizes, so I won't have to later.

Well that is all for today, catch you later! Hopefully before the year is up!

Catching Up and Adoption Final

I can't believe how many things have changed since I last wrote. So to bring everyone up to date.

We now have only 5 kids. We chose not to adopt the other sibling group of four. Even though they had been here for so long. God brought another family and He made it very clear that they were to adopt the kids. They were adopted in Aug. and began the school year with their new family. The other family has 4 birth children, so they are still in a very large family.

We just met with their family on Mon. at Hacienda for lunch. The kids are doing great and adjusting well, it was a little rough at the beginning but they are doing good now. They can't officially be adopted until they have been there 6 months. They are only about 8 miles from us.
 

We adopted the 2 brothers to the 2, boy and girl, that we already adopted last Oct. We adopted them the end of June. So we have a 1 yr. old boy (Isaac), a 2 yr. old boy (Sean) , a 4 yr. old girl (Rayana) and a 8 yr. old boy (Mario). We also have a 17yr. old grandson living with us (M). So some would say we still have a large family. I can use their names, now that they are adopted.

Foster Care rules have changed in our state this year. We are only allowed to have five children and that includes our own, in our home. That means our home is full and I can't take anymore foster children. It is a little hard to believe that we will not have anymore large sibling groups in our home.

It is great having our four adopted, not having to worry about someone taking them away. Our two little ones will be 2 and 3yrs old in March and April. And Rayana will turn 5 and start K. this fall.

Were working on potty training with Sean, but I think I'm doing all the work. He will go if we take him but he doesn't initiate it. So I am trying to get a little more motivated to take him.

I haven't started on Isaac yet because I only wanted to do one at a time, it just sounded easier. Although yesterday Isaac asked to go potty, he didn't do anything but it was a start.

I want to post a picture of Rayana sleeping on an ottoman. This is a kid who rolls off a toddler bed at night and yet can manage to take naps on just about anything.

And just to share a picture of our four, I can't believe how fast they are growing. we brought home the two youngest from the hospital and Rayana came right after she turned 1 yr. old. Mario our oldest came when he was 4 yr. old.

Well I can't write about everything, but life has been busy.

Catch Ya Later!!