When I was nine years old, I received a Tammy doll for Christmas. The dolls were manufactured from 1962-1966. Every doll came dressed in a blue one-piece jumpsuit and a pair of white tennis shoes. In addition, a plastic stand was included to support her in a standing position. My mother and I sewed every…

I recently purchased two pairs of bib overalls on eBay. I like them for gardening. Well, I really wear them everywhere. Although I may be wearing more skirts since I devised a simple way to turn a dress into a skirt, but that’s another post. The legs on the overalls were WAY too wide and…

As I was perusing Etsy one day, I ran across this stack of pancakes that was being marketed as a pincushion. Visions immediately began to form of how I might use it for a banner at the top of my blog pages. I contacted Jessica, the Etsy shop’s owner… so sweet, to acquire permission to…

This "Turn-it-All" tube and dowel set is to turn fabric strips right side out (like the apron ties I made for my skirt yesterday). No more struggling, especially with narrow strips. It comes with three different tube diameters and two widths of dowels. I purchased my kit at a local quilt shop. Click on the…

On Saturday my daughter, Jessica, and I enjoyed sharing the day together at an antique sale. This vintage flap pocket apron that she purchased became my inspiration for a sewing project that I completed today. I decided to make a skirt and use supplies that I already had on hand. I initially planned a velcro…

These are my capris. They are my favorite pants right alongside my gardening bibs. As you can see by the tear running from one side seam across to the other, they are in dire need of mending. A simple fix with some wide rickrack that I purchased at a wonderfully fun shop called Parcel in…

On Easter Eve, as a child, my siblings and I would each lay our coat onto the floor so the Easter Bunny could hide candy and dyed eggs in the sleeves and pockets. I don’t know where the practice of using a coat vs. a basket originated… maybe it is a German custom from my…

For Easter, why not have fun with natural egg dyes instead of food coloring? Tumeric powder produces a bright yellow to deep gold color, red cabbage-blue/teal, yellow onion skins-light peach to gold/orange, grape juice-blue to purple, red beets-magenta red, red cabbage and tumeric-green, red cabbage and beet-purple, and red onion skins-pale celadon green. The natural…

The girl in my granddaughter Madigan’s drawing is really in the St. Patrick’s Day spirit with her pretty green complexion… or she’s had one too many bowls of corned beef and cabbage. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I ordered two stacks of these oh, so cute handmade felt pancakes from sewchicgirl's Etsy shop and piled them one on top of another. Miss Flossie tied on her most fashionable scarf  for the occasion. Jessica (aka "sewchicgirl") markets the pancake stacks as pincushions. She was so sweet to work with during the whole process.…