I am so excited this week, because my parents are coming for a visit! Yeah! Plus, my hubbie and I get to go to the Rodeo and a Dierks Bentley concert. We haven't been to a concert since we had children and we've never been to the Rodeo. Another plus,... Continue reading

Two words (or maybe three?) IRON-ON TRANSFERS!! Ok, so this isn't exactly a sewing entry, but it is crafty and it did require an iron. I have the worst time finding cute shirts for my boys, especially seasonal/holiday ones. I don't want to spend a lot of money on them,... Continue reading

Hi Everyone! I'm finally back! The whole house has been sick with one illness after another, but we seem to be on the mend. While the many illnesses rolled through our house, I was able to finish my project! Can I just say that I had now idea how much... Continue reading

Wow! This month has flown by! I can't believe Christmas has come and gone. We have had such a busy month. We had family visiting and we are spending the holidays in our home state. I can't wait to get home and finish my project though. And I got a... Continue reading

As I write, I realize that my shopping story is dry, but I'm trying to convey the project from beginning to end. I have always had a hard time "putting things together." The whole design (color and accents) is so hard for me to see. Artistry does not come easy... Continue reading

Okay, I’ve been reading Sew and Store by Betty Oppenheimer, which I checked out from the local library. (Our library rocks!) There are so many projects in this book that would be great to work on. I’ve decided that my first project will be the Visor project. So I took... Continue reading

Next day, I get my sewing needle, thread, puppy and detached ear. I’m ready to hand sew! Overall, it was terrible work, but I got the job done. It wasn’t the dreaded task that I was expecting and it was over pretty quick. The best part of the job was... Continue reading

I hope everyone has had a fabulous Thanksgiving today! I have so much to be thankful for that it would take days to list everything, but I'll give it a shot. As a parent to a child with Autism, the things I'm thankful for may seem strange to parents of... Continue reading

Sewing without my mom was way harder than I imagined it to be. My first project on my own was to sew the ear back on my son’s favorite puppy. What a disaster. (BTW, the reason the dog lost his ear is due to our labradoodle thinking the puppy was... Continue reading

I thought I would do a post about My Machine. Yes, I capitalized it. I feel My Machine needs a title or a name and I haven't thought of anything, so I'm sticking with "My Machine." My Machine is the "Wards Signature #278." Also known as, the Signature Lightweight Zigzag... Continue reading

I'm so excited about the changes to the blog's design! The premade theme from Typepad was kind of boring and not really my style. Not that I have much style. As a stay-at-home mom, my outfits usually consists of neutral color shorts or jeans and either a white, gray or... Continue reading

Elastic thread is kind of a chore. I sew the front side and give it to my mom for inspection, but it turns out that I completely mess it up on the last half of the sewing. I caught up too much fabric while sewing and it’s all bunched up.... Continue reading

We open the case and she told me “I bought this machine in 1973 with my first credit card – a Montgomery Ward card.” She still has the original manual in the original plastic cover. Mama showed me how to thread the machine. The online tutorial (http://elleapparel.blogspot.com/2010/09/socialite-skirt.html) for elastic thread,... Continue reading

I don’t have time to start a project this week because I’m getting ready for our first yard sale this weekend. Instead I will recount the tale of my first at home sewing project. My mom had brought her sewing machine from Kentucky in early July. It hadn’t moved from... Continue reading

So, here I am at 34, married to an Active duty solider with two kids, 1 with Autism (Captain Awesome), 1 neurotypical (that's fancy talk for normal, but we don't want to label one normal, because then the other would be "abnormal") who we call (The Entertainer.) I've been at... Continue reading