Welcome Mr. Pfaff home!

Preface: if you are a "real life friend" who is having a baby in December. And the baby's name starts with an H. Please avert your eyes now. Or you might catch a glimpse of her sweet present! 

Not sure if anyone noticed or if I even mentioned it but Mr. Pfaff (my primary sewing machine) was in the shop for a LONG time. He needed to be cleaned and oiled. Since he is an embroidery machine and computerized I can't do it myself. It took the shop a good 2 weeks to get it done and then another week for me to get up there and get it (it's about an hour drive, yeah we live in the middle of nowhere!).

Yeah...I sew in my living room with LOTS of coffee! While my kids color on the side :)

I had been using Ms. Husqvarna Viking and while she is a good solid sewing machine but she is a bit older, not quite as precise, and doesn't have as many cool features as Mr. Pfaff. So when I got Mr. Pfaff back on Tuesday I was stoked! Only Thanksgiving was coming up and I couldn't set him up until after Turkey Day. I got him out Friday morning and am so excited to have my old friend home!

A few things I learned at the sewing store when picking Mr. Pfaff up that I thought I'd share with you all. They were not initially obvious to me but now that I think about them they totally are!

1. When removing fabric from your machine always pull to the back. Do not pull your fabric toward you to check it out. Pull it completely to the back trim your threads and then look at what you've accomplished.

This will prevent your needle from bending, breaking, and inevitably causing major headaches! You see when you pull the fabric back the needle will not bend or move around at all but when you pull to the front there is some give and while it will give just a bit to the front if you do it over and over it will eventually bend. Resulting in skipped stitches and broken needles. Not fun! Not fun at all!

2. Try to keep your machine as clean as possible. Ok, ok, so I did KNOW this. But the nice lady who was helping me just reinforced it even more. And even showed me how to properly spray air into my machine to clean it out.

My machine has a thread cutter in it. So after I've backstitched a couple times I can hit a little button and it cuts the thread and brings it to the back so that it can be tied off. When it cuts the thread sometimes other little threads get caught in there. If they are not removed it can result in jamming the machine and blocking the motor. Making things a BIG mess to clean up! When spraying air into your machine to help loosen or remove the excess thread/dust spray at an angle away from the bobbin housing. Making it nearly impossible for the extra threads and dust to get back in there and make it all gunky again!

3. Always use an appropriate needle. If you are using knit or anything even remotely stretchy use a stretch or ball point needle. If you are sewing denim or several layers of home decorator weight fabric use a denim needle. Just cotton? Use a universal needle! Again results are less skipped stitches and not nearly as many headaches!

She showed/told me all of these things amongst other machine specific tidbits. If you have a Pfaff 2140 I'd be happy to share. You might already know all of them but I never had any show me how to use my machine I just read my manual and figured out how to do basic stitch functions. I bought it a few years ago off of craigslist for a killer price!

Love and Hugs,

PS. I've been working on a pattern for Bellie's dress for you all! If all goes according to plan I hope to get a full pattern and tutorial up by the end of the week!

Happy Turkey Day!

Today I am thankful for so so many things things. 


First and foremost my family. 


I am thankful that we can afford for me to stay home with our babies and raise them the way we would like them to be raised. 


I am thankful for the roof over our head, food in our bellies, and lots of love! 


I am thankful for two sweet baby girls and two sweet little lambs. 


I am thankful for an amazingly supportive, encouraging, and loving husband.


I am thankful that we have a yard to run and play in. 


I am thankful for infectious belly laughs, alligator tears, and big bear hugs. 


I am thankful we are healthy.


I am thankful to be able to craft and be creative till my little hearts content AND be able to share it with all of you!


This morning my good friend Monica (from this post) and I went to feed the homeless in our own little way. Our children are too young to volunteer at the shelter/food bank so we decided we would do our own thing. We each made about 36 turkey sandwiches, little baggies of pretzels, a bottle of water and a sweet treat to hand out to the homeless. The girls sat down yesterday and decorated the paper bags for us too! 


We stopped at ONE park in South Tucson. Desi (Monica's hubby and I) got out to hand out all the bags. She stayed in the car with the babes. We gave out 72 lunches and still weren't able to give one to everyone. There were at least 20 more people we could see that we hadn't spoken with. But we were all out of lunches. 


When we left we wanted to do more. So next time we will each double what we made and hopefully we can hit a couple more parks and the downtown area. I felt this amazing feeling come over me as we drove away from the park. People said "thank you" with tears in their eyes. As we were walking away from a group of people I overheard a woman say "I love pretzels!". To see their grateful faces truly made my Thanksgiving Day. 


One man said "I knew I'd eat like a pig today!" Which made us think, we really should do this more frequently. And we should do it on days other than major holidays. Because every one else was out this morning giving away food as well. While at the park there was a group cooking a hot fresh breakfast for the homeless. Which was really amazing to see as well! We are going to do this again in just a couple weeks for Christmas. And this time we will do it a day or two before Christmas so that they can have a few good meals. Instead of a bunch in one day. 


And here is what our Thanksgiving menu looked like like:


Turkey (of course!) brined using PW Turkey brine and seasoned using this Giada de Laurentiis recipe
rolls (purchased from this co-op)
mashed potatoes with gravy

sweet potatoes (using this PW recipe, sooo yummy!)

stuffing

roasted carrots

corn

cranberry orange sauce (homemade of course! using my own haphazard recipe)

salad with cranberries and almonds 

pies (apple, cherry, blueberry, peach and pumpkin {fillings made throughout the past couple months} with vanilla bean ice cream and real whipped cream)

a veggie tray to munch

a cheese, meat, cracker tray to munch

Other people brought:

Green been casserole

jello salad (my absolute favorite thing!)

macaroni and cheese

broccoli cheese casserole
cherry cobbler


After making all of this food, sharing it with friends and family, and sending each family home with a significant amount of leftovers. I couldn't help but think of the homeless we fed this morning. How they might like to have some mashed potatoes, carrots, stuffing and all. I had never done anything like that on my own before (well with a friend). I have volunteered at soup kitchens and done other volunteer work. But nothing where I was able to get out there and talk to people and truly connect with them. 


I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know we did!


Love and Hugs, 

White Elephant Wednesday Volume VII

I finally got a chance to do some treasure hunting this week! I don't like to take both kids with me because it gets too crazy with them running in different directions and this thrift store in particular is really really busy! So Belle and I headed over to White Elephant while Hailey was at school. We found some really cool fun things but this is what we ended up getting.

So a couple cool metal candlesticks, a fun jar with closure, 2 zippers (one red, one white), a handful of belt buckles, 3 pillowcases (there are two of the one on the right with pink in it), and a fun remnant of some black, white and red plaid that feel so so soft! I'm thinking of making this scarf from my favorite blogger ever out of the plaid maybe with red pockets!?

I also found some fun sweaters to embellish and make into cardigans.




Inspired by Ms. Kathleen over at Grosgrain who has been making over sweaters all November long. You can check them all out here. You can see all of her sweaters in one spot here.

Total this week we spent $15.25! Not to shabby :) I usually only take $20 with me and this week I came pretty close to spending it all! I only wish I had gotten there right at 9 when they opened. There was this lady walking around with a really cool vintage noisemaker push toy. I admit I followed her around a bit to make sure she didn't change her mind! :) She didn't...oh well! There is always next time!

Love and Hugs,

Baby leg warmers!

Last year I made this hat from Ms. Disney's tutorial. It was originally meant for Hailey but she doesn't care for it. It isn't pink...so I got to keep it! While I was making the hat I thought that it would be a shame to throw away perfectly good sleeves. So I saved them. They went into my "up-cycle" box and sat. For an entire year!

Then last week at ballet we saw this little girl with her cute little leotard, tutu, and ballet slippers. But she had these adorable little knit leg warmers on! And the light bulb went off ::ding ding ding:: in my head and I turned those sleeves into baby leg warmers.

Wanna make some?

All you need is:
an old knit sweater/long sleeved shirt
matching thread
bit of elastic (I used 1" because I had it)

Start by cutting your sleeves off right at the hem where the sleeve meets the sweater (armpit seam). Mine were already cut off otherwise I'd show you exactly where!

Then lob off the diagonal to make the edge straight. I used my cutting mat and rotary cutter but you could eyeball it if you want!

Turn inside out and fold over about an 1 1/4 inches. You cant try to press it. Mine had a bit of angora in it and the angora melted to my iron! AH! So I just pinned the rest of it.

Stitch together using a long zig zag stitch and leaving about an inch opening to work your elastic through. The zig zag will allow the knit to continue to stretch a bit.

Measure you babe's upper thigh and use that length of elastic. I can't remember exactly what Hailey's was I think it was like 10 inches or something. So I cut 10" of elastic and thread it through the opening using a safety pin.

Overlap the elastic about an inch and stitch closed. It is hard to see but I stitch a rectangle and then an X in the middle of the rectangle to make sure nothing goes anywhere. Backstitching at the start and stop of course!

Pull the elastic taught and all the way into the little pocket you made. Then close the opening!

Pop 'em on your little munchkin with her favorite tutu and go play! These little guys are super warm especially when layered over tights.

Hope you try 'em out! Super quick and easy. You could totally bust out about 10 pairs in an afternoon! You could also do this with any long sleeved shirt or even trouser/knee high socks! Anything stretchy and knit. Heck you could even through these on yourself over some leggings if you really wanted too!

Linking up with...

 

Love and Hugs,

Portrait Pieces...3 down accessories to go!

Here is sweet Bellie's dress.

I based it off of this dress and made my own pattern.

I got this dress from Tracie as a hand me down and absolutely love love love the color and different sized polka dots. But the cut is so incredibly cute too! Simple A-line, bib front, and cute gathered sleeve.

I changed it up a bit by moving the closure to the back and adding a bib detail to the front rather than the closure. I thought it would take up too much of my precious print fabric!

I used grey double fold bias tape to finish the neckline and bottom hem of the dress. Best of all this dress only needs about 20" of fabric...less than 2/3 yard!

So, is this something you guys would like to see a tutorial for? I took pics of everything but it is a very very simple dress!

Now I just need to add some fabric to the belt on my dress and hopefully *fingers crossed* I have enough fabric to make each of the puppies a bow! Because seriously there isn't any more of this fabric for sale anywhere online! AH!

Linking up with...

 

Love and Hugs,