Introducing Sew Alluring

I first taught myself how to sew by hand years ago, when I was still a child. My mother was not a seamstress, but she was able to tell me the basics, and I was able to figure it out. But I didn't develop much skill beyond a basic seam repair for decades.

But a couple years ago, I realized how valuable those skills could be in a survival/low income situation. I began to google tutorials on basic sewing techniques, and experimented with scrap fabrics. I began patching the worn knees on my son's jeans. The more I practiced, the better I grew.

I began to experiment with making things from scratch. I made some bread bags to hold my homemade bread, a kindle cover for myself, a skirt, and many other things. My results began to look professional.

Then I got a sewing machine, and things changed again. Once I figured out how to work it (watching multiple tutorials online), I began to have fun. I made many things that were incredibly useful.

And now I've hit the point where some people actually want to pay me for my creations. So, with some pride (and a little bit of disbelief), I am pleased to announce the opening of my etsy shop Sew Allure.

So far there is only one item on there - a kindle cover. But keep an eye on it. I will be putting more things up there, and would like to know from my readers what kind of items you would like to see in my shop. Bread bags? Kindle covers? Cloth diapers? Reusable flannel sanitary napkins? Just let me know in the comments. Thanks!

Writing Prompt due 2nd of February 2013

One day, while reading your favorite book on the beach, you notice a boat slowly drifting to shore. It eventually lands near your spot. A person, draped in pirate clothes, yells to you from the boat, “I have a treasure map and I need help. Are you in?”

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

It's just a little bit overwhelming....

 I have a lot of projects to get done. Some were supposed to be done before Christmas, but a combination of time constraints, finances, illness, and broken sewing machine needles all conspired to make things very late. Not to mention the cold snaps that came in that made me have to stop my other projects and work on the quilted window panels to seal out the cold!

It's easy to forget what projects I am working on. Right now I am going to outline the sewing projects in this blog post, more as a list for myself so I don't loose track of my projects than anything else.

First major project is the stuffed alphabet that I am making for my niece and nephew. I just picked up some new fabric today for this project - I'm very behind on it and I'm glad to get more fun fabrics for those kiddos. These fabrics are more feminine, since I already have plenty of male patterned fabrics in this household.

The next project is a kindle cover for my mother-in-law. She came and visited last month and I showed her what fabric I have on hand, and she chose the pattern in the picture. I plan on pairing it with the light blue for the inner part of the cover, and the floral pattern for the outer shell. The scraps left over from this project will go in the basket of scraps being used for the alphabet project.

The next project is another quilted window covering - of sorts. The thrift store we went to didn't have any quilts in patterns I felt I could work with, so I grabbed a cheap comforter that I thought would work. It's a soft cream background, slightly marbled, with squares of blue and blue-gray, with pale gold patterns and outlines. It's pretty, in a mild, non-offensive way, and since my husband likes blue and gray, I figured he wouldn't complain about it much at all.

Other sewing projects I have to get done mainly consist of mending - lots and lots of mending. My boys seem to consider it their holy purpose in life to make mending jobs for me. The sheer number of holes in the knees of jeans is enough to make a woman drop to her knees. Add in my husband's inability to put on a belt without ripping the belt loops off his jeans, and my mending pile is nearly up to my waist.

I also have a large collection of old ratty towels that need to be hemmed in some fashion to make rags. I have no idea yet how to do this.

I need to eventually make a kindle cover for my own self.

The dog needs a coat to wear on those bitter cold days. I have a coat that was gifted to me that is far too small, and it's black, so I need to modify it for the dog's frame. He has practically no fur on his underside, and has been known to tremble with the cold after more than a minute. I'm not going to buy a coat for the dog when I can make one with what I have on hand.

I also want to figure out how to make collars for the cats out of leftover fabric.

Lots to do. I think I need to log off the computer and get started!

The Family Secret

 (as mentioned in an earlier post, I occasionally give the children writing assignments. To make it fair, as well as to showcase what kind of writing I expect out of them, I assign the same writing to myself. Today's writing was simple - if you could turn into any animal, be it a real animal or a fictional, mythical animal, what would you turn into?)

"Why did you throw it up there?"

James hung his head and shuffled his feet. "I thought I could throw it hard enough that it would go over the roof and roll down the other side."

"Then I would catch it!" Jacob grinned, bouncing a bit on his feet. "And I would throw it back over!"

Sigh. Parenting could be so frustrating sometimes. The last thing I wanted to do was borrow a ladder from the neighbor so I could get the damn frisbee off the roof.

Then I remembered. I had a way to get up there without a ladder. I motioned for the boys to follow me into the house. "Can you keep a secret? A really big secret, that you can't tell anyone no matter how badly you want to?"

The boys looked at each other, and nodded. I shut the front door behind them and walked towards my room.

"I have a surprise to show you. It's going to really startle you, but trust me, you won't be in any danger. Our family has a big secret. I haven't told you before because I didn't think you were old enough to understand or to keep it secret from your friends. But you boys are getting old enough now, and I think you will understand, when you see this, why you can't tell anyone. Our family can transform into an animal being. Everyone in the family has a different form. My mother, for example, turns into a fox. My sister turns into a hawk. I turn into something rather large...I don't want to rip my clothes when I change, so I'm going into my room to transform. I need you boys to let me out after because I can't turn the doorknob in my animal form. Do you understand?"

Two pairs of blue eyes stared up at me. "What do you turn into?" Jacob asked.

"I think it will be better if I show you. James, I want you to be the one who opens the door, okay? I'll bump the door with my head when I'm ready."

I shut the door on their excited expressions. Setting my clothing neatly on the bed, I took a deep breath and felt the bones in my body soften, re-molding. Muscles stretched, tendons strained, and my tailbone lengthened as fur began to sprout from my skin.

"What do you think she turns into?"

James rolled his eyes. "Duh, she's just playing with us. She doesn't turn into anything. I bet she's going to bump the door, and when I open it, she's gonna jump out and try to tickles us."

Jacob slumped. "Oh."

THUD. The sound of something large bumping up against the other side of the door echoed strangely down the hallway.

 "Get ready to run - unless, of course, you want to be tickled." James whispered, and opened the door as Jacob took a couple of steps back.

The door opened and I watched, amused, as James took one look at me and backpedaled, falling onto his ass with a startled yelp. For some reason, Jacob was already halfway down the hall, but he stopped when he saw me and stared.

I just stood there. I knew the first sight of my animal form would be a surprise, so I gave them some time to get used to it.

Jacob was the first one to get over the shock. "Awesome!" he crowed, and bounded over James to stand in front of me. "Cool! Do you have claws and everything? Fangs?"

I held out a paw and extended my claws, then raised the paw to my mouth and pulled back my lips. I watched as he examined my teeth, and as James shakily rose to his feet and approached. He hesitantly raised his hand and petted my head. I rewarded his bravery with a loud, rumbling purr, and he chuckled, still a bit unsteady, and asked "What are you?"

Pushing past him, I headed for the back door, pawed at the knob, and looked back at the boys. "You want me to open the door?" James asked. I nodded, and he turned the knob. I bounded into the back yard, enjoying the sun on my back as I strode to the garden. Finding a bare patch of dirt, I smoothed it out and then wrote with a single claw, carefully forming the words.

Black Jaguar

"Cool." the boys breathed in tandem. I flicked my tail and then jumped over them, raced to the garden shed, and in one bound leaped to the roof. From there it was an easy six-foot leap to the roof of the carport. I pranced up the curve of the roof, and eventually found the damn frisbee that had started this whole mess. I hung my head off the edge of the roof and dropped it.

Stupid toy.

Welcoming 2014

2013 ended - for me, at least - with a horrible head and chest cold combo. I barely got anything done other than curled up under a blanket, silently cussing at my immune system to shape up. I remember thinking it was an omen of sorts for the coming year.

But when I woke up this morning, I was feeling better. Not 100%, but certainly on the mend. Life was improving. If that's the omen for this year - improvement - then I am content. I could use improvement.

I have many areas of my life I'd like to improve. So here are my goals for this upcoming year!

Goal #1: Adapting to a working routine. I do much better when I am on a schedule, and I have been working the last two weeks on a schedule that allows me to fit everything into each day a little more smoothly.

Goal #2: Regularly updating this blog. I want to have more of a presence here. (I did try updating the look of the blog earlier today and while I'm liking many of the changes I've made, I have a sneaky suspicion that I messed up on the layout, so if you see anything funky please let me know in the comments!)

Goal #3: Be healthy. I struggle with food addiction - and it doesn't help that I am a really good cook and enjoy eating my own food! Right now my current goal is to lose 35 pounds by the 25th of April, and I intend to do that with healthier eating and picking back up with Zumba.

Goal #4: Expand the garden.

I have a few predictions for this upcoming year as well. I think it will be fun to look back and see how close my predictions come to reality.

Prediction #1: Weird weather patterns will continue, with several more "super storms" devastating large regions (be them snow storms, rain storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, what have you).

Prediction #2: The trend towards punishing the poor for being poor in politics will continue. The gap between the poor and the rich will continue to widen.

Prediction #3: Violence in American society was very high last year, and some of that violence hit home pretty hard. I predict that such violence will continue to grow.

Huh. This makes it seem like I don't have a very positive outlook on life. Weird thing is, I feel very positive about my own life - it's society in general I don't feel positive about.

Here is hoping you had a wonderful New Year and that your upcoming months are full of happiness and fulfillment.

I wonder how much I will save now on our heating bills?

In our living room, we have two huge windows. Each window is about three feet wide and six feet tall, and they leak a LOT of air. That is fine in the spring and fall, but in the summer, hot air leaks into the house, and in winter, the cold air comes in.

In winters past, the cold air would come flowing in at such a rate that the heater was constantly running. Even keeping our house at a low 60 degrees would tax our heating system and raise our bill to a couple hundred dollars each month. That is far more than we can afford, and every winter we fall farther and farther behind on our bill. We'd have to play the catch-up game - could we manage to get our tax returns back in time to pay the past due bill before our power and gas would be cut off?

We rent, and our landlord, while awesome in many ways, is also a bit of a negligent home owner. I have a list of things I need him to fix around this house, and the only time he ever does any repairs is right before the township inspects the house - and even then, most of the repairs are temporary ones.

So, this lead to to look at alternate ways of weather-proofing that didn't require repairs or breaking rules the landlord set (example: we aren't allowed to put up plastic over the windows). So I researched and found many suggestions, including the idea of hanging quilted curtains over the windows.

We rarely have any extra money. But in late October I was given $35 to spend as I wished. I managed to buy two quilts, two sweaters, and a flour sifter at a thrift store for $30 of those dollars. The sweaters were modified into mittens and hats. The quilts were modified into window hangings (the blue ones in the picture above are in the living room, the other went on an equally large window in the kitchen).