The Best Way to Handle Family Napkins (at last!)

I have found it, people:  the perfect solution for keeping cloth napkins personalized for more than one meal!  It's easy for children to understand, fun to customize, easy to implement (you probably don't need to buy anything!), and above all, very very very cheap.

The clothespin.

I got the idea here, and while I admire the tags, the fact remains that I already have clothespins in my house and the children can handle them more easily than pins.

Andrea making the special Lebanese dumplings

I told the beach girls this genius idea, so that's what we did for the days we were together.

I have tried several solutions for our family napkins without breaking down and buying personalized metal napkin rings.  I'm tickled with this cheap, effective solution!

Dumplings in their yogurt sauce - I'll pass on the name and the recipe when I get it from Andrea.

Now I'm off to turn out the napkin drawer and get rid of the latest try for napkin rings, whose Sharpie-d initials have been rubbed off.  Pfff.  I've got clothespins now!

Summer Goals for the Children

 I want my children to be equipped with a good work ethic and the skills to live a pleasant, responsible life when they leave home (which seems imminent some days! how quickly they grow!). 

I've noticed, too, that when they have free play time all day, they can get a little crazy and naughty.  So I want to deliberately teach them some more chores this summer, thinking that the school year will be too scheduled to allow for much instruction.  I like this balance of work and play for them.  And I've noticed that friends with older children reap the reward of real help around the house, too.

I might make a new chore chart for these things, or maybe just post the lists where the adults can refer to them. 

What the 6-year-old can do with minimal assistance:
1.  make her bed
2.  sort, fold and put away laundry
3.  iron hankies and napkins
4.  dry dishes
5.  set the table, pour water
6.  wash the bathroom floor
7.  shake rugs
8.  put away toys
9.  dust/wipe the steps

Goals for the 6-year old to learn:
1. clean sinks
2. spray and clean mirrors/windows
3. use sewing machine [I need to find an owner's manual for her machine first]
4. vacuum a room
5. dust a room
6. sweep a sidewalk
7. wipe a counter or table - wringing a cloth
8. organize an area such as a drawer or desk of art supplies

What the 4-year-old can do with minimal assistance:
1.  make his bed
2.  set the table
3.  put away toys
4.  dust baseboards
5.  put away the trashcans
6.  sort laundry

Goals for the 4-year-old
1.  dust/wipe the steps
2.  fold laundry
3.  sweep a sidewalk

So these chores will be put in the day whenever it seems reasonable.  The other structure we have is a one-hour quiet time some time after lunch.  The children are required to be on a bed or sofa with books, no toys.  They may sleep or read or daydream, but they must indubitably be quiet.

I hope this makes a good summer for us!

The Ironing Catch-All

Why didn't I realize that having my sewing machine set up all the time would make me whiz-bang projects out one after another? 

I used to sew at the dining room table - our only table - so I was constantly setting up or taking down my machine.  Now, it's so efficient - I just run up to my machine, sew a few minutes, and run back to whatever.  The birds are waking me up early now, and I can easily sew for a little bit while I sip my tea, turning off my machine whenever I hear roars from the children.

I took an old eyelet dresser scarf and turned it into a catch-all in the laundry room.  Now the hankies and napkins have a decent place to wait for Genevieve, instead of handfuls hanging off the ironing board holder.

Then I took the best scraps from that project and made little soap totes for my etsy shop.  More to come - they're so fun to make.

How I Dye Clothes

I've been doing this off and on, and thought I should write down my method and tips because it is actually a thrifty way to freshen up tired fabric (and because I'm getting so old that I forget my method inbetweentimes).

Things I have dyed:
1.  faded red cloth napkins: RED
2.  Genevieve's stained white school shirt:  LIGHT BLUE
3.  two faded black sweaters:  BLACK
4.  faded tablecloth:  BLUE

Genevieve now has a light blue school shirt with permanent paint stains on it.  I'm going to try dyeing it navy when I get the dye.  The shirt is useless now, so I'm going to see if a few bucks of dye can make it school-worthy again.

1. I dye things in my big enamel canner on the stove.  I heat up 3 gallons of water plus a cup of salt. 
2. Pour in the dye - either liquid or powder. 
3. Separately, wet the cloth thing that you want to dye.  Have a stainless steel spoon nearby to stir, and then lower the wet cloth into the dyebath. 
4. Stir well, being very careful not to splash.  Keep the dyebath hot and stir often for 30-60 minutes.  5. Carefully pour off the hot dye in a stainless steel sink (porcelain or composites could be dyed!).  Use the spoon to get out the hot dyed cloth, or gently dump it in the sink.  Don't splash!!! 
6. Put on latex gloves (unless you fancy your hands dyed).  Rinse the dyed cloth under cool water until the water is mostly clear. 
7. Transfer to the washing machine and wash in cold water.  Dry on high heat to help set the dye.  I have also just run the dyed cloth through the rinse and spin cycle, and then put it in the dryer.
8.  Be careful to wash dyed things with very similar colors the first few times you wash them as some of mine have bled a little bit then.

I accidentally overdyed this toweling when I washed it with my blue tablecloth.  Luckily it turned out nicely!

Teaching a Child to Iron

Genevieve was very excited when I told her the time had come for her to learn to iron.  She is 6-and-a-half, in case you wondered.

The adjustable ironing board made this easy.  I ironed one hanky and then handed the napkins over to her.  Watching my daughter handle a very hot iron was not easy, but she did great!  I stayed nearby and my main directions (with no forethought) were "wiggle and push! wiggle! push down hard!"

A few times I had to remind her to set the iron on its heel instead of burning an iron-print on the ironing-board cover.

But that evening, when I could tell our guests that Genevieve had ironed their napkins, everyone beamed with pride.  It is truly exciting to see a child maturing.

Everyday Life

A stack of pretty hankies and napkins, folded, fresh from the line.  Ben adores his "Jack be nimble" hanky.

My happy boy, absorbed in a new book about cars from Marilou.

And also happy with the "people price."  This is a vintage Fisher Price set from ebay, not from my childhood.  I had to watch and patiently for a long time to get a set at a reasonable price - and that because the A-frame house door is a little broken.

I had some funny cooking trials recently.  Pictured here are "buckeyes" - supposed to be a fried egg in a middle of a pancake.  They were tasty, yes, but difficult to flip and unattractive.  I think my batter should have been thinner so I could have controlled it more when I poured it around the egg.

And one morning I forgot to put baking powder in the Cinnamon Flop.  A true flop.  The children didn't mind, but my husband and I realized we do really prefer a good chemical leavening agent.

The real part of this sewing project was wondering if it was worth it.  My husband had a broken separating zipper in his biking jacket and both of us, confident in my zipper prowess, thought I could fix it.

Ha. It was not easy. 

There was a wind flap behind the zipper.  There were 5 seams holding in each side of the zipper (meaning I had to rip out 10 seams to get the zipper out).  The zipper I got was not as long and also opened on the other side - but I didn't realize that it opened on the other side until I had already put one side in backwards.  (Are you confused?  I was - and disgruntled).

The zipper did get done.  And it does work and look fine.  But I still begrudge all my time in that project - makes me remember my old life where I just threw things away when they broke!

Joining Leila and Rosie's collection of everyday contentment.  An excellent way to look at my days.

A New Dress for the Clothespins

Last Saturday, my clothespin bag finally, truly, broke.  Seeing as the children were with my parents visiting alpacas, I indulged myself and immediately made a new one.

It's a bit wonky.  And I meant to use all lounge-suit polyester for durability, but in my excitement, I grabbed yellow cotton knit.  Oh well.

When it wears out from its heavy load, I'll get another thrill from whipping up a new one.  It's pure fun to make household items that don't have to match my sweaters or a school dress code.

Tucking the Winter Wraps Safely Away

For years I went along never washing my winter wraps - ever.  (I did notice they got a peculiar little skin-contact smell).  Then a moth chewed up a beloved winter coat and I suddenly woke up to the world of Keeping Moths Out and Airing Things.

Now, at the end of a season, I make sure all the clothes and outerwear are clean before they are put away for the final time.  Last week, there was such an abundance of good laundry days that I could spend a whole day putting the winter things through the suds and into the sun.

I'm again ignoring "dry clean only" on blazers, handwashing and then hanging on a hanger to dry.

Washable suede gloves from Lands' End, bought on clearance last year. Smart Lands' End.

Handwashed the knitted scarves and the fur ruff from my coat.  I love this sweater drying rack so much because it is all one piece and collapses into a disc for storage.  I love to discover clever space savers.

I did take some wool things to a drycleaner after I hunted down a coupon online.  Among those things was my father's Irish wool fisherman's sweater, bought on a trip to Ireland in the 70s and passed to me in the 90s.  I think I would cry if a moth got that. 

Folding Clothes

I Stop Writing the Poem

to fold the clothes.  No matter who lives
or who dies, I'm still a woman.
I'll always have plenty to do.
I bring the arms of his shirt
together.  Nothing can stop
our tenderness.  I'll get back
to the poem.  I'll get back to being
a woman.  But for now
there's a shirt, a giant shirt
in my hands, and somewhere a small girl
standing next to her mother
watching to see how it's done.

-- Tess Gallagher (read in Good Poems, ed. Garrison Keillor)

The gift of time, of keeping house with my children beside me.

And a green leaf heart - from Genevieve, "the first gift for your Mother's Day, Mom."

New Color for an Old Tablecloth

I use the good parts of old, stained tablecloths to make hanging hand towels - it's good upcycling for something that is otherwise useless.

But look at this tablecloth:  it used to be lovely navy and white, but after 11 years of hard use, it was an ugly faded purplish taupe.  I couldn't even see using it for its fabric.

But it was a wedding gift from Ten Thousand Villages. . .so I ruminated for a while. . .and hit upon the idea of dying it navy!  I talked to Jacinta for ideas because she dyes her clothing with smashing success.

I bought a clearance bottle of royal blue dye ($2), read the directions obsessively and checked Jacinta's advice again, and set to work.  I did NOT want a blue sink or blue wood floor.

I filled my black enamelware canner with water and kept it at a low simmer on the stove.  Poured in the dye and a cup of salt (why, I don't know - I followed the bottle directions on that).  Put on old latex gloves and lowered the tablecloth into the dye bath.  I poked and stirred at it with a metal spoon over 45 minutes, not continuously as the bottle instructed, but when I thought of it, as Jacinta advised.  Carefully fished out the tablecloth into my stainless steel sink (not the composite laundry sink that could have stained).  Rinsed it with cold water until the water was fairly clear.  Washed it in the washing machine in cold and dried it in the dryer, all to set the dye.

It came out a beautiful shade of cobalt - I love it!  In the middle, there are some lighter patches, so I'm guessing my stirring and poking was not sufficent to evenly distribute the cloth.  However, it looks like the play of sunshine and shadows through my windows (I was actually fooled for a few days), so I'm happy. 

And now I'm thinking of refreshing some black cotton clothes that have gotten a little grey.

Drying Laundry in Winter

I do about a load a day and put it on my creaky drying rack; it's in the kitchen, not pretty, unless I get an all red load like this one.  I shut the rack away in the bedroom if people are coming over so we don't look like the tenement poor, but otherwise, that humidity is good for the dry winter inside air.  When the air is dry, your dry tissue does not keep germs out so well and you are more susceptible to germs.

If the wind is moving outside and the sun is shining, I may brave the cold to hang a load of whites; free bleach, after all.

In this manner, I still avoid using my electric dryer.  Good for us, good for the environment.

Handwashing a Blazer

I don't go to the dry cleaner very often because I handwash the items at home.  I do take the wool coats every spring before I put them away - but I usually find an online coupon for that.  Home Comforts has some excellent advice for deciphering clothing labels.

Occasionally I have washed a non-wool blazer.  Here is one drip drying, a cast off from my Aunt Mim.  And keeping it company is Genevieve's red dress which I also handwashed.  It wasn't terribly dirty and I wanted to be sure the white lace didn't pick up color from the wash water. 

Related, I enjoyed reading this wonderfully clear, expert tutorial on handwashing wool sweaters.  I like details like this!

Now, sort of related, I am hoping you want to play along with Shoestring Chic this Wednesday.  I wanted to post an everyday outfit today, but the photos were junk except for this head shot. . . which doesn't show you my clothes! 

To play along:
1. get dressed
2. take a photo
3. tell us the cost (and the story, if you like) of each piece of clothing
4.  add up the total
5.  blog about it, link to my Wednesday post and. . .
6.  add your blog post to the Mr. Linky here
7. and if you don't have a blog or a camera, play along in the comments please.

Rules of the Game
1.  items that you have owned longer than 10 years are free
2.  handsewn items are the cost of the material and pattern - but discount the pattern if you used it more than once
3.  if you don't exactly remember the price, guesstimate
4.  be proud of our thrift!  We can dress well and look good for pennies.

I'm hoping this is a fun peek into our lives and closets.  I'm hoping we are inspired by others.  I'm excited to see what you all wear!

The Second Consignment

So, I haven't stocked my etsy shop recently because I've gotten another load of scarves out to another local consignment shop. 

See the olive and pale seafoamy green scarf?  That olive linen is the same I used for the giveaway oven towel too.  When I prewashed the linen, it got very raveled on the edge and I had to cut quite a bit off. What a waste!  I want to remember to run a quick zig zag stitch down the raw edges before washing linen yardage.

The tasseled one, my favorite.  There's a bit of Genevieve's plaid mixed in with its flowers.

Hand Washing

Recently I bought a bottle of Woolite for handwashing delicates.  It's always expensive.  Then it occurred to me that I could ask you - maybe there's a better/cheaper detergent I'm missing.  What do you use?