The Wicked Witch...

Sometimes I just feel like the wicked witch...

Living with 4 little monsters....

OK--they really aren't monsters...but I loved the idea of this little Halloween decoration that I just couldn't help myself!

I embroidered the saying on orange felt last year, then stashed it away and forgot all about it!  Today when I opened the crate of Halloween fabric I ran out to Micheal's and found a frame in their clearance section that worked!

I think I'll remove the glass...and maybe add a couple of plastic spiders and a spider web or two in the corners...maybe for next year.

For this year--project completed! 

Anti-Procrastination...not so much!

Well…I intended to join my friend Aimee in her 31 Days of Anti-Procrastination…I thought it was such a good idea, and I’ve put off so much to be “done another day”…but I procrastinated too much and it just didn’t happen.

I’m really happy to see at least one of my friends getting their “to do” list done!

Me, well not so good on the “to do” anything lately.  My craft room is a mess (to be fair, it’s ALWAYS a mess).  My creative spark has gone into overdrive, but only in my mind I have yet to start, complete, try any of the ideas I’ve come up with lately.

That being said, I did tackle the monster job of my closet!  I lost about 35 pounds this year (added to the 30 or so I lost last year—let’s hear a big WHOOHOO!) and my fall/winter clothes needed to be tried on. 

The resulting pile:

All the clothes in my closet which are too big.  All the clothes which will leave my house or be repurposed in some way, shape or form.

While I am thrilled to rid myself of all this clothing which is too big and frumpy on me, I am a bit sad about a few pieces.

Like this blouse—which I love!  I have it in black and brown dots on white.  I’m going to deconstruct it and resize it down.  Don’t know when, but you can be sure you’ll see posts about it!

And this dress.  It’s one of my very, very first sewing projects for myself.  I now hate how it looks on me, but I still love the fabric so I think it’s going to be lining in my new bag (stay tuned!)

Now get ready to laugh:  did we all have a dress like this in our closets in the 80s?

It was always too big and frumpy on me, but I loved the color and the fabric, and heck if it’s survived in my closet this long it is definitely going to be reworked!  I’m thinking a long maxi skirt for my oldest daughter and maybe a couple of fuller twirlly skirts for my two youngest girls.

As for the rest of the pile…most will get donated, some will be cut up and put into the fabric stash and a few pieces will just get thrown out. 

Now the clothing in my closet fits, but as soon as a piece is too big it’ll go out so I never have to deal with a task like this again!

Patching Jeans

I get so sick of patching jeans.  Probably why I’ve left them in the mend pile for so long….long enough for my kids to outgrow them and long enough for my husband to assign himself a new pair of “work” jeans.

BUT, now I have a system that seems to work so much better than my old way of patching.  Instead of trying to cover the hole with the smallest patch possible I’m using the biggest piece of scrap I have!

Mr.G's work jeans--one of the smaller holes



Outside of jeans



Inside of Jeans

Notice the inside of the jean?  I just used a zig zag stitch all the way across—almost like I was quilting. The same stitch over and over and over. 

Then I took out the girlie jeans.  Hearts anyone?



Jean 1



Jean 2

 I straight stitched the hearts on over the hole and then applied the same zig zag method—only I tried to keep the spacing between zig zagged rows even.



Jean1

The jeans turned out so cute!  Almost as if the hearts are supposed to be there!

The bonus to patching this way?  The fabric feels smooth so kneeling isn’t a problem.  The hole seems to be better secured and the stressed fabric around it is less likely to rip.

Patching jeans—problem solved!  I now have no more waiting to be patched and if another pair rear their ugly head, I have a quick effective fix for them.