Concert week

Final rehearsals. Sewing and amending costumes. It's all happening again, this week. I've already made several outfits, the final being tails and bows for Mariposa's tap troupe, and the sequencing required also.

Mariposa's tap troupe outfit, with hair bow.

They also have silver dance sticks to set their routine off.

This is the week where the past has already taught us a lesson. That lesson is "Don't try and fit it all in. Ease up and try to relax."

Well, I'm doing just that. Having had a horrid headcold over the weekend, I'm really glad for the rest I had the past couple of days. We've only done a minimal amount of schoolwork today, and now over lunch, my children have been introduced to the tv series I really enjoyed as a child, "The Waltons". We need to fit in some fun this afternoon before the children have their 3.5hr full concert practice. And, if history repeats, then yes, I'll have a few more last minute projects tossed my way.

There are also a few "Must Dos" this week:
* Maestro needs to practice his vocal solo for Musical Theatre. A broken voice and nerves has made this a big deal.
* Menus .. I definitely need to get the menus working. We'll have late nights Monday and Thursday with full rehearsals. A proper picnic lunch and dinner for concert day on the weekend is also essential.
* Make sure all shoes, tights, outfits, accessories, spare safety pins (etc.) are all packed ready for the day.
* Washing MUST be up to date. We won't be able to function if this falls behind.

Hopefully that will be the main things to worry about, and with those things taken care off everything else will run smoothly.

Wordless Wednesday: dresses are done

 

(Sorry for the blurry photo.)

A new term

Yesterday marked the beginning of a new term, a new moon, a new semester of exciting books ... but things didn't all go to plan.

My priorities this week are to finish those 10 little dresses ready this weekend's Soiree. Once I started on the skirts and sewing the lace in place, a mild state of panic arose in me, wondering if I'd have enough lace to finish the job.

So, our new term began right here, at the dining table. Mariposa sat here with me so I could oversee her lessons. Maestro chose to sit elsewhere and bring his work over for me to review after each subject. I kept on sewing!


By the afternoon, all the skirts were completed. What a relief! There was JUST enough lace. This morning I'll be starting on the ribbons.

Yes, I am trying to keep up our lessons at the same time. Read-alouds will be a welcomed break, with a couple being read as bed-time stories. Maestro is now learning about Russia and starting a new reader: Water Sky. We've almost finished reading about Genghis Khan. Mariposa also has some new read-alouds: Door in the Wall, and Listening to Crickets for Science. This is the term she will also begin doing some experiments with her TOPS Science books; growing radishes and corn. I plan on letting the children both have more responsibility in helping grow some of our food in a small plot each, so the timing for these lessons are perfect. But we'll have to get more sewing done before sowing. ☺

Enough time to be domestic again

We have a brief reprieve between dancing competitions for some homely time.  This means I can get this place ship-shape again and not just have to focus on packing lunches and dinners for a day away from home.

The dancing competitions have been going very well.  The children have had a few placings: first, second and honourable mentions.  We start into another round, at another venue, tomorrow through to the end of the week.

Well, I must say, I enjoyed getting stuck into the housework today.  The bathroom is sparkling again, Mt. Washmore (ie: the laundry pile) has been reduced to a hill, but will be gone completely in a few more hours.  The kitchen isn't far away from being organised either, but with some more cooking ideas brewing, it'll be a hub of activity again soon. I have some curried pumpkin soup on the menu, a batch of brownies so we can munch on them tomorrow, and a shepherd's pie planned for dinner.

Mariposa helped prepare a simple breakfast this morning: a banana smoothie (just a banana and cup of milk blended, sprinkled with nutmeg), and some crumpets with jam.  Then it was off to take the dog for a walk, collect the eggs and now a bit of time-out before I start sewing again.

Here's a picture of the dresses I'm making.  Actually, this photo is of a dress used many years ago.  I'm using it as a sample to make a collection of 10 dresses for some very young ladies (ages 5-6yrs).  They're coming along, with bodices and sleeves done as of last night.  My plan is to get the actual dresses completed today, giving me another week to finish the lace and ribbons between more dance competitions.

So, another busy day, but an enjoyable one. We're on school break here too, so no lessons this week.  Hoping your weeks run smoothly too. ☺

Sequinsing for events

It's costume making time again!

The older our children get, the more opportunities they have to dance.  We have two more weeks until the first lot of competitions start in our regional area and once again I'm helping with the costume making.  The dance school doesn't require each parent to make their own costumes.  I help a team of mums, and thus receive a subsidised fee.

This is Mariposa's tap dance costume.  Well, actually, it's another student's costume, but Mariposa's looks just the same.  I still have a small section of sequinsing to complete. The troupe is sure to look wonderful in these outfits.  Gold tasselled skirts are to be added as well. I'm not sure of the title of the music they're using, but it's one from the big band era.  None of the parents have seen them rehearse the dance, so we're really looking forward watching their routine very soon.

Maestro has a very handsome new suit pants and shirt to wear for his tap outfit (all purchased; no sewing here for that!) but we've still got his ballet outfits to make in the areas of contemporary and neo.  The contemporary dance is lots of fun; danced to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/It's a Wonderful World".  This ballet troupe are acting out being in a children's playground, with various games and childish pranks incorporated into the routine. 

After all the competitions are over, we're doing something new at the dance school this year.  All the junior classes are having a soiree (afternoon performance with light refreshments).  The intermediate and seniors are then putting on a caberet evening with a full course meal.  This we did last year and it was so much fun!

But, I've still got lots of sewing to finish.  With the sequinsing completed, I'll move on to making little dresses for the 4yr olds, apparantly to be followed up by lion outfits! (Yes, I take my direction from the costume 'lady in charge').  I like how I'm always challenged with something new.  Remember last year it was hats?  I think this year is playing with some finer handiwork and material.

A new ironing board cover

It's one of those "I'm gonna do it soon .." jobs.  I don't know how many times I've pulled out the ironing board and bemoaned the fact that the cover needs replacing. Well, today was the day to get this task done and it only took a couple of hours.

The op-shop has been a great place to find material, in the form of unwanted single sheets. For $4 I found a pretty double bed sheet, still quite new (or maybe it was new!?), which will suffice for this project plus a few more.

First of all, I folded 1/2 a flannelette sheet into a few layers and literally tacked it onto the ironing board to create some padding, using a doubled thick cotton thread.

Next, take the old ironing cover and lay it onto the fabric .. instant pattern!

Cut it out with a seam allowance (I allowed 1.5")

Next cut 3" strips of fabric on the bias and join all the pieces at an angle (45deg). This forms the casing around the perimeter of the cover.

Fold the casing fabric over and double topstitch into place.

If you have cord, thread this through the casing. Or, what I did was to trim off the side hems from the sheet, fold and sew along the length to create a cord.

Once threaded through, fit the covering onto the ironing board. Voila!
I think I only used about $1 worth of the fabric, so I'll get creative another day to make a few more items, like a peg apron.

Our week's happenings

I know I've been neglecting my blog, but I have managed to remember to take my camera out a few times to keep a visual diary.

Let me share what's been going on here this week.

Mariposa is working on a '3 weeks work, 1 week off' schedule.  This week was a week off, but she's still found plenty to do.  Here she is learning more about sewing whilst her brother is doing his maths.

She's still using the book: Sewing Fun for Kids.  This week we've covered learning the parts of the machine, a few problem solving puzzles, plus sewing with thread.

 

 Maestro's settled well into the Singapore Maths, as well as using the TOPS books for Science.  The experiments have produced some very exciting conversations.

Outside, we've enjoyed the few flowers in bloom at the moment.  These are primarily the belladonnas along the driveway.

 

The pear tree is bearing beautiful big pears.  We started eating these recently. Yumm!!

The chicks had a new little mobile chook tractor made, with lots of help from hubby.  We JUST had enough scrap materials left in the garage to finish this off.

 

The black Australorp chicks are growing very quickly and have happily settled in.

And, finally, the end result of Mariposa's sewing today.

Take one puppy (Midgy) .............

......... an old pillowcase and some imagination, and she's created this cute little coat for him, all by herself!

Chair bags in the learning room

This was one of those quick jobs I kept delaying: making chair bags for each of the children.

I remember having these in primary school.  We could choose our own colour: blue, green, yellow or pink.  They stored all of our stationery and any loose papers ready to take home each night.  At the end of the day, we had to tidy our tables and collect our notices, then the chair bags were emptied of the day's work into our bags before heading home.

Now, I must say that these would have been much better made with a thicker cotton (such as drill), but all I had available was an old single sheet picked up from the op-shop for a couple of dollars.  Even calico would do the trick really well.  So, I'm probably going to have to remake these within a year as the corners could wear really quickly.  No matter, though. 

Oh .. and a plain colour is best for these.  If you used patterned fabric, remember that with these instructions, you'll have the wrong side facing for either the top part of the bag, which could work out okay if that's what you desire.

So, here's a quick summary of what I did to make these:

• I folded the single sheet into quarters and cut (so essentially, I could make 4 chairbags from this $3 sheet).
• Each piece had the shorter ends folded over and seamed.
• Drape the fabric over the chair.  Bring the fabric to where it comfortably sits about 20cm from where the seat starts and pin so it fits on the side seams.  You don't want this too be too snug, so allow 2-3cms each side.
• Sew these side seams.  Invert and slip over the chair to check it fits okay.
• I then did a turned hem on the part that was going to fold back up to form the bag.  Once that is done, fold and pin the bag part up.  Sew together with a double line of topstitching for strength.

You can then applique, or have the children draw a design to decorate/personalise their bags using fabric paints, or like Mariposa did with textas/marker pens.

The children have their pencil cases, diaries and any loose papers in here now, saving space on the shelves and keeping each child's things separate.

More hats!

I have no idea how many glue sticks I've gone through, but I know I've certainly made enough hats to last me a year!

Here are the ones completed today. My children are modelling them but they're actually for other dance students.

Anne Boleyn style hat for the senior ballet troupe, doing a Renaissance ballet:

This was made from an image found on Wikipedia, so no 'pattern' used at all.  I simply traced a plate outline, then cut out the cresent for the curve.  The remaining piece from the circle was used as the anchor or base on the head.  All fabric was glued front and back, with fancy trim then glued to the top rim.



The wolf's headpiece for the "Peter and the Wolf" ballet:

Now this was a fun one (bringing on a mild state of panic!)  A long strip of fur, which was around 30cm wide, was glued onto the front of a cap (ie: moving from front to back). The cap had the front visor removed.  Once I got 1/2 way over the hat, I slit the 'overlap' and left these flaps for the ears. 

The ears were reinforced with stiffening: cut out 2 ear shaped pieces with a 2cm slit on the base. Overlap the slits and glue together to form the ears.  Insert into the fur slit and glue into place on the cap.  Glue the fur 'flap' onto the back of the ear stiffening and let excess overhang for floppy ears.

All the shed fur 'fluff' was then glued to the inside of the ear (to the best of my ability) to cover as much white as possible.  The back of the cap was then glued over with the remaining fur, with excess fur material hanging for the mane.

Silver caps and Rhubarb champagne

I'm having such a busy week, blogging's taking a back seat. You see, it's that time of the year when the dance concert is looming and I help with the costume making. I had a lot of fun making these cute little hats. (Mine is the silver one, copied from the gold original).


Lots more costumes have been done, but I've been unable to photograph any as I've lost my battery recharger ... argh! Oh well, I'll get time to do a better search later.

In the meantime, I was prompted to look for a recipe for Rhubarb Champagne. Seeing as the rhubarb is growing perfusly here at the moment, I'm hoping to make some up this weekend. Here's the page I found, with lots of other recipes for children also.


Have fun cooking .. I need to get back to my sewing. :)

Learning to sew

"Mum, we REALLY want to learn to sew, plllleeeeeasse!!!!"

Well, they see me with the machine out often enough, so they obviously think that it can't be all that difficult. ☺

Actually, Maestro was very interested to know that sewing used to be considered a man's work when the sewing machine was first invented, so there was no holding him back. Mariposa's already trying to decide what clothes she wants to make.

Well, we're starting at the very beginning. I sourced this lovely book which teaches children to sew step by step, with lots of fun activities to help with their practice. It's called "The Best of Sewing Machine Fun for Kids".



These were the pages we worked on today, each child taking their turn.



This was our 3rd lesson, so all I needed to do was set up the machine, hand each child a photocopy of the activity page, go through the safety rules, and they were happy to work away whilst I ironed (and took some photos!)



My machine is very basic: a Janome MyExcel 4018. I especially like how the pedal has a speed adjusting switch, so the children can use it on "Low" whilst learning. Other than needing a needle replaced after sewing on paper, I do hope to get a few good years out it.

Quite thoughts

I know I've been posting quite intermittently lately.
The ideas are there, but the time hasn't permitted with various activities prior to and during the Passover season.

We're spending today quietly together, which means a few minutes to sit and quietly write here too. I'm contemplating getting us all out for a walk today too, but rain's a possibility ~ which is lovely! but means staying indoors.

Term two starts back on Monday and I've been busy writing up a weekly timetable which hopefully will help us fit in all those activities the children want to do. It's always been a struggle to get it all done as I think our 'eyes are bigger than our stomachs'. My intention with homeschooling was to give the children opportunity to learn topics they may miss in school, but choosing which one at any particular time is the fun part. This term, I'm sidetracking a bit with Science and covering Health (incl. food groups, the body, first aid/safety) instead. Social Studies will include learning about mapping for Maestro, whilst Mariposa will focus on 'People in our community' and then 'Australian flags and emblems'.

Maestro is also learning the art of writing reports from research with his English program. He's always been able to competently teach himself the library system, even though we've also worked together re: the Dewey system and cataloging, but this is the next step. I look forward to seeing how it will all come along, showing another step up in his learning.

We've left working on Mariposa's Ruby Doll for a while now, so that's something else we need to work on. She's very keen to practice her sewing skills. I want to help make her a house for her dolls too. I saved this page a while ago on making a fabric doll house. I certainly have enough quilting fabrics to do this, so this should be lots of fun for us to work on together.

Speaking of quilting, I have 2 on the go I need to finish. One is the very first I ever attempted to piece together, so it just needs backing, binding and quilting. Maestro really wants this for his bedroom, so there's some incentive! The second is a Mystery Block of the Month quilt I started but still haven't finished. I think I may have issues finding backing and binding fabrics now as it's been so long ... but hopefully that won't cause too many hassles. I only ever finished one quilt entirely. It was for my Nana's 90th birthday last year:

We were at my aunts' the previous year, celebrating Nana's 89th birthday. She had 3 more great-grandchildren on the way. On drive home, I thought making a quilt with all the names of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren embroidered onto it would make an appropriate gift. So, I headed down to the fabric store the next day and they had a sale!! All quilting fabrics were reduced, so I picked up enough to make a decent sized lap quilt for $40AUD. I then played with designs on graph paper until I had worked out how to fit everybody's names into a box. Well, you can see the result. I was quite happy it worked out so well and now Nana has it at the foot of her bed.

So, lots of plans for these next 3 months. Hopefully we haven't bitten off more than we can chew, but if we have it will only mean relaxing and rescheduling.

Creating new drapes

My efforts in creating soft furnishings have been coming along very slowly after my first major effort to get things completed. However, now that the weather has cooled considerably, we're in full swing trying to complete these drapes.

I was asked to please give a quick description of how I'm making them, as the backing / blockout fabric is attached separately. This is because a sister very generously gave me her remaining fabric after doing her household full of drapes. Well, I'm modelling how I'm making these on other drapes I already have in the house (pre-made). Also, when I went in to purchase the material, I was greatly assisted with information on a new, EASY method for creating the deep pinch pleats with heading tape.

Firstly my window measures 300cm wide x 215cm long. Double the width, allowing for 2.5cm side hems, made a requirement of 5 drops (as the fabric width is 120cm wide). Each length required a 10cm top hem, plus another 10cm bottom hem, making the cut lengths 235cm. ** With the backing fabric, I omitted the 10cm heading hem to minimise bulk with the hanging tape.

Once I CAREFULLY measured (and remeasured a couple more times), the fabric was cut - 2 1/2 drops per side of window. Then they were joined at the side seams. Side hems (of 2.5cm) were sewn. This was repeated for the backing fabric.












With tailor's chalk, measure out the 10cm heading hem line on the reverse side of material.








Pin the backing fabric along the marked line, WRONG sides together.






Carefully, tack the backing in place, then fold over hem.








Measure the length of heading tape (this is deep pleat heading tape). Then find the centre 'panel' or opening. This needs to be placed in the centre of the drape. ENSURE that the opening is facing down, otherwise you won't be able to get your hooks in! Align, then pin into place.




Turn over the ends for a neat finish. Stitch the sides and top of the heading tape in place.







On the bottom of the heading tape (going by how my other drapes were made) leave a gap of 2cm at each seam ... another hook needs to slip in here, keeping the fabric flat, but so it hangs neatly.



Turn the bottom of the seam in as you go along.



Now comes the fun part, when it's all coming together nicely!

Go back and find the centre opening on your heading tape. You need to insert the 4 prong hooks (I used the minus 8mm heading as we're using the wooden poles. If you're using a track, ask which heading tape and hooks you should use.) Okay, leave the centre opening free. Insert a hook into the next 4 openings either side. As you insert the hooks, it gathers it for you. (Yay .. no need to sew fiddly gathered seams!)

Continue along, skipping one opening between each of the four gatherings.


It should look like this from the right side when finished:






All that is left to do is hang the drapes, and voila!!

I've checked the bottom hem again, once hung, before sewing.

With this heading tape, if ever I need to clean the drapes, I just take out all the hooks and the fabric will lie flat. Very happy!!