That time of year again

Currently, I sit on my back screened in porch. The past two days it was around 90 and very humid here in the Midwest. The heat has finally subsided; however, my classroom has no ac. It is near sweltering. For the past three days, people have come into my room, stayed five minutes and then asked me how I wasn’t sweating. I commented that, it must be because I spent the majority of my summer in knee socks, a corset, and three layers on top and five layers on the bottom while working over a wood stove in 90 degree heat, so no this isn’t really that hot. If my ancestors suffered, so can I. Therefore, a cool breeze – in fact the perfect end of summer cool breeze – drifts gently through the window on my right. I could not ask for a better evening on the porch.

I’ve hardly written at all this summer and I thought I would write a lot more, but I guess when it came down to it, I felt I didn’t have all that much to say. Oh well. School is starting again and that always brings up lots of new and interesting topics.

I did not complete any of my sewing projects. That’s not very exciting. I’m close to finishing one. I want to wear it this weekend too, but I’m not sure how I will finish it besides taking it with me to the event and finishing it there, which isn’t a bad idea. I made a bedgown. I’m fairly happy with it. Though, when I showed my mom my progress, she thought I had sewn the fabric inside out. But it’s woven cotton. Is there a right side? Not sure. But if I line most of the inside, and no one ever sees it, I’m not sure it matters all that much. So ha!

I also did not paint the upstairs “man’s” bathroom. My husband specifically went out of town for four days so I would have the house free to myself to paint merrily away without distractions. At the time, I totally forgot that had been our plan at the start of the summer!!!!!!! hahaha again. He was only mildly amused about my forgetfulness. Heh. So now my excuse is that I’m waiting for a cooler autumn day! It’s a tiny bathroom and I’d rather not paint upstairs with poor ventilation.

Since reading Better Homes and Gardens (which began when I was probably in middle school or some other young-ish age), I’ve always been on the look out for “my” bedroom. I see various color combos and types of furniture. But this one has neutral walls which I didn’t really think I liked all that much (though I would be open to changing them, and it was the perfect color of purple pillows – literally the shade of purple I have been searching for my entire life! I couldn’t believe it. My husband and I have been talking about the possibilities of moving vs. adding on to our current house. I told him either way, this was what I wanted our room to look like. I even interrupted his video game (which is un-pausible) to show him the picture. (I don’t think he really “got” it though. Heh).

In other decorating news, I’m the type of person who every so many months would rearrange my dorm room for no apparent reason. I like the little changes in life. Currently, I don’t have the time to rearrange entire rooms in my house (though I did rearrange the screened porch this spring) mainly because grading and coaching controls 9 months of my life.  In my previous school district, even though my room was not that much bigger than my current one, the furniture was much more flexible. I changed the layout each quarter. It was always refreshing for my students and me. It was never that time consuming or cumbersome either because I just told myself, today is the day I change it, no matter what! And that was that. Well after being in the same classroom for 3 years at the new district, I have had the same configuration. I really like my students to chat with partners a lot or to work in small groups. So my desk layout/seating arrangement accounted for this. In the back of my mind, I kept wondering, would it work if I moved the desks this way? I never had the time to change it during the year last year because, well, paperwork kind of explodes around my room to put it nicely. Well, this Monday, I had help and I said, we are moving the room to this new layout. And it TOTALLY works!!!!! I’m soooooo excited. I think it will be a wee bit different for students and first, but I will at least enjoy the change.

Lastly, Aug 24 was my last day at Old World Wisconsin. I truly enjoyed my time there and met the most wonderful people. I wish I could work with them forever. Honestly. Everyone is that amazing. When I got home on my second to last day, I forced my husband to take photos of me while I still had my hat on. So here are a few to share………

The bustle era is now my new favorite era. I desperately want to make a million bustle dresses!!! Why? To wear them. For fun. Because I can. 🙂

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School is almost over and I just can’t wait

Tags

home made crafts, quilted jumps, reading, school

Around the beginning of May, I begin to read books for fun again – voraciously read; devouring everything. I can read about 250 – 300 pages in five days. I love it. The problem – I still have essays to grade. Yet, I sit on the back porch in the sun content to finish my book and accomplish nothing else. This is how I functioned in the summer since I could read chapter books.

Summers were spent at the family built cottage in the Eastern end of the UP. My sister and I did not care that it was remote. We stockpiled our reading books for the summer, made frequent trips to the little library in town when we finished our own books, and then when we were old enough, started reading more adult books that belonged to my mom. Now all this reading was in between running through the woods, swimming/playing endless games on the beach, playing card/board games, putting puzzles together and playing paper dolls. The cottage was the best because it felt like a house that was actually “lived in,” unlike our city house in the Detroit area at the time which had sparse decoration and had an “everything in its place mentality.” The only time we were required to clean the cottage was before company arrived and the entire family happily pitched in to achieve a tidy house. But oh to sit around and read books.

My sister and I would have races to see who could finish books first. I remember staying up until 2 or 3 a.m. (with our door closed so the light would not bother anyone) just to finish. Whoever fell asleep first undoubtedly lost the contest because the the person usually finished the book that night.

Now when I read, that’s how I feel. I sit in my own little nest of blankets on the porch couch or if it’s warm enough, lay outside on a blanket and just plow through books. I want to hurry up and finish one book so I can immerse myself in the next. I’m usually pretty disciplined about forcing myself to get school work done first before I do anything else. But this time of year, I’m like the kids; nothing else matters but the summer.

And the worst part is my husband’s school is done THIS WEEK (June 7) and I have another two weeks!!!! I’m not done until June 12! Are you kidding me?!!!

When I’m tired of reading, I’ve been starting multiple sewing projects.

One – I turned an old t-shirt of my sister’s into a pillow. I cut across the top shoulder part of the shirt and sewed the top and arm openings closed. Then I stuffed in the pillow and top stitched along the bottom in a bright yellow embroidery thread that matched part of the design on the shirt. My sister loved it. I will make more of these!

Two – A little bit ago, I posted how I had started making my first 18th cent jacket that I wanted to hand sew. For whatever reason, I was really nervous to put the muslin mock up pattern pieces on the actual fabric I wanted so I thought, why not use some other fabric I had leftover from a petticoat. Okay great. I had about a yard and a quarter (maybe) and I laid it out on the floor. It took me a minute to lay out the pattern pieces so they all fit, but I got it!!! I was super proud of myself. So I go along dum de dum de dum and cut cut cut. And then……..I realized I never cut out the sleeve pieces!!!!!!!!!!! AH!!! Who does that?!! Seriously. I was really hoping to actually do a good job on this first jacket so it was wearable  and now I didn’t have any sleeves! Seriously. I was soooo mad at myself. But then, being the creative person that I am, I remembered seeing a picture of quilted bodices or ‘jumps’ in the Kyoto Fashion Institute book. There is a lot of speculation among groups/people as to whether or  not these are historically accurate. I honestly can’t say for sure. But can I trust this book and that there are actual garments in a well-known museum? I’d like to think so. Either way, jumps are basically a sleeveless jacket…..like a vest. According to my book, they are worn by women either under or over the stays, for warmth and/or comfort when women want to be lazy around their own house and not get entirely dressed for the day. I would like to think that a regular every day working class person would not have the time to just “lay around their house because they don’t feel like getting dressed” therefore, this garment would have been worn for warmth for them. As a result, I, too, will wear mine for warmth. Although I have not been to a ton of events (not where there is snow/cold rain), when the sun goes down at night, I get chilled. While my heavy woolen cloak is warm, my core feels drafty and I want something that is the equivalent of throwing on a comfy warm sweatshirt.

Luckily, I had some natural batting lying around and my mom got me these old muslin bed sheets that are of a pretty sturdy quality. I’m still using my brown striped fabric on the outside, adding one layer of batting, and then lining with white muslin. Here’s the other fun part of this: I’ve never really quilted before. It’s one of those things where I understand the concept, but I’ve never made a quilt (except one teeny quilt square for a colonial days project in 7th grade) so this should be fun!!! As of now, I have the batting attached to the outer fabric and the two back pieces sewn together and I have to cut out the pieces of the lining and attach them to the three sections. then I will quilt the side pieces each and the back piece, then attach the two side pieces to the one giant back piece. I think that will work. The last thing I have to figure out is how to measure the spacing to make eyelets for spiral lacing.

Striped fabric leftover from petticoat

Jacket bodice pieces minus the sleeves

Quick wreath

If you are looking for an easy project that can literally be tailored to any season and any decor, then here is a super easy to make wreath. We made this way back in the day in my Brownie Girl Scout troop when my mom was the leader. If Brownies can make it, anyone can. This literally took an hour and requires no sewing and no gluing.

Here is what I did.

My colors were inspired by fabric I had purchased (quite a while ago for a different project) in a color coordinated bundle from my favorite quilting store, Patched Works, Inc in Elm Grove, WI. (The customer service there is amazing). I’ve been meaning to make a summer wreath for a while now and grading/school related everything has always taken precedence. But because it is Memorial Day weekend and soon to be 4th of July, I went with more patriotic colors. I don’t like super bright “Americana colors” so I opted for a softer vintage/rustic colored pallet.

Then, get an old write hanger. I found there are two types of metal hangers: the one that is INCREDIBLY hard to bend and one that is not hard to bend. Test out your metal hangers until you find one you can easily bend either just with your bare hands or with the help of pliers. Having manly help is awesome, but not necessary. When I was in GS, we made heart shapes.  (I’m pretty sure my dad and my other leader’s husband bent about 18 hangers for us for this project). I really like the heart shape because it’s “homey.” So I chose that shape, but a circle square or anything else works.

Hanger bent into a heart shape

Next, I just “eyeballed” the fabric when I cut it. But I measured it. Cut the fabric into 2 x 6(ish) inch strips. It can be shorter or longer than 6 inches, but I found that around 6 inches was easier to manipulate. Anything smaller would have been cumbersome (at least for me). The bundles I bought were quarter yard fat squares. I cut them down the middle and then cut the strips. The first picture is already the half of the quarter after I cut it.

Cut quarter fat square in half.

Here are the strips.

2 inches wide

Here is a wider shot so you can see how I have the fabric positioned on my cutting mat.

Cut from fabric

Here is my color selection. The solid colored one on the left is worsted wool; the rest are cotton.

Fabric color choices

Next, this is where you can get artsy. I like consistent patterns so I chose blue, white, red repeating. But it does not matter. Your choice!

I started at the top right of the heart, but again it does not matter. You basically fold the fabric in half, making a loop, and then pulling each end through the hole. To achieve the desired result, lay the folded fabric over the wire. Spread the loop, stuff the edges through wrapping it under the wire. Make sure when the fabric is pulled through the loop, the fabric ends go up and out so the fabric is on the “right side.”

Tie the fabric.

Piece number 1

Tying piece #2

Keep tying until you’ve gone all the way around the hanger.

Color scheme.

I had six pieces of fabric so I did two repeating patterns.

Pattern taking shape

A craft project is not complete without an interruption by a cat!

Twiggy helps!

Here is the finished product!!

Finished wreath

And now it’s on our door ready to greet us and whoever visits. The colors are a little off in this picture because it was late afternoon and my camera was being goofy.

Wreath on the door.