Old Sheets, New Jammies, New Curtains

 I save sheets that have a stain somewhere, a rip, or whose partners were worn to shreds. I use sheets in sets, pretty much, so the orphan sheets go into my fabric stash. 

I made pajamas for myself with a sheet from a Tommy Hilfiger set I bought for Genevieve when she graduated to a big bed. So, that would be about 12 years old now, and that speaks to the quality of the namebrand in this instance. I had a pair of pajamas from Old Navy clearance a few years back that were so floaty and cool, I laid them down on the sheet and used them as a pattern. I also used a length of cotton eyelet to fancy them up a bit.

 

Then, the new bedroom needed some curtains.  I had a lot of fun treating myself to fabric from Spoonflower.

But here's a little word of caution: this was my first time ordering fabric from Spoonflower. I bought 8 yards of their petal cotton, giving myself 2" to spare with all the seam allowances included. I prefer this kind of no-waste sewing because, even though I adore patchwork, my piece bag overfloweth and there are only so many little piecey projects one house needs. 

But when the fabric came, there was a wide white selvage on the sides and both ends. I expected selvage on the sides, but not on the ends! Uneasy, I measured the whole dang yardage and discovered it was 6" shy of 8 yards. When I contacted Spoonflower help in a froth, she said that 1-4% shrinkage is within the range they stated on their website and also that the fabric is cut and measured before the dyeing/printing process and it shrinks after that in its mordant process. She indicated if the fabric was unusable that they would give some kind of refund/discount, but I did not feel right about doing that because I did indeed use the fabric and the shrinkage was what they stated. I did suggest to her that they clarify when the shrinkage happens - as part of the manufacturing process, even before the washing the buyer is going to do at home.  Never have I done measuring and math for shrinkage of commercial fabric I have purchased and washed, but any shrinkage always seemed negligible. Please note that I am not mad at Spoonflower, just newly aware of the differences in purchasing from smaller companies.  

On the plus side, I do not have one single shred of this fabric left over. 

I made the narrowest possible hems on the tops and bottoms, and cut the height as skinchy as possible. I think they turned out well! I used old white sheets as the lining fabric. I do find old sheets really useful. 

What do you do with old sheets? 

Kale-Sauce Pasta

I found this recipe in The New York Times a couple years ago and it has been in regular rotation ever since because

1. It is delicious.

2. It is easy.

3. It uses pantry staples. 

4. It's a complete balanced meal if you need it to be. 

I've used it as a side-dish to fish or grilled meat. Here we are having cold grilled turkey leftover from a birthday dinner. It's great for using up scrappy pieces of kale and if the stems are not too thick, I don't even bother stemming the leaves anyway.

 I've used all kinds of pasta to make this. Sometimes I increase the sauce amounts to use a full pound of pasta because my people eat a lot of food these days. 

I'm also cooking outside on a single-burner induction cooktop to keep the steamy heat out of the house. I keep hotpads and an extension cord right in the drawer there. 

I've made this in kitchens in summer vacation houses - just check first that there's a blender or something like it.  

Kale-Sauce Pasta

1. In large pot of salted boiling water, blanch 1/2-1lb. kale, thick ribs removed.

2. Meanwhile, heat 1/4 cup olive oil in small pan and gently over low heat cook 2-3 garlic cloves, chopped coarsely. When I can smell the delicious garlic scent and small bubbles are forming around the pieces, I pull it off the heat. Definitely do not let it brown!

3. Pour garlic oil with garlic in blender. 

4. Fish kale out of water with tongs and add to blender. 

5. Add 1/4 cup hot kale water. Add 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan. 

6. Puree. It will be a lovely green!
7. Cook 1/2-3/4lb. pasta in the same hot kale water. 

8. Mix kale sauce and hot pasta, adding freshly ground pepper to taste, as well as more salt and Parmesan as desired. 

Summer Clothes with My Small Pieces

Last winter when I was sorting fabric, I realized I had lots of small, pretty pieces, approximately 1-2 yards. More than I would ever need to make Phoebe little girl clothes (and have you seen her recently? She's basically a grown up). 

I printed out the Sorbetto tank top pattern, and was pleased with the resulting tank top (made that laborious pattern printing, taping, cutting process worth it). 

This summer when I pulled it out to wear it, I really wished for a dark denim skirt to go with it. I had another small but pretty piece in my stash, wouldn't you know. So I made a little denim skirt, shorter than I would normally wear, but it was a small piece after all. This is the same pattern I used for my yellow skirt, different view. 

 I used a navy calico inside the waistband and at the hem for a private pretty for me, but also to stretch the denim as far as possible. I always put pockets in the clothing I make, but I literally had a few scraps left from the denim piece. I held them up to the skirt a couple different ways and just made up a pocket! I top stitched the heck out of everything with red thread, and I am really happy with this comfortable skirt. Bonus: it matches the Sorbetto tank! 

Genevieve floated the idea that maybe I could make her a denim skirt and I was all, well, you look in the fabric cupboard and see what you find, but I am sewing down my stash, so good luck.

Our Really Big House

 Living in close quarters through a pandemic changes how we think about our houses, doesn't it? I always liked the open floor plan of our first floor - made it easy to supervise little kids, seemed light and open.  But in the pandemic, we realized we didn't have doors to close on spaces when a number of us needed to be on separate screens, on separate Zooms (oh, Zoom, how we hate and need thee). 

My husband and I crunched the numbers and decided to take over the rest of the second floor apartment. When we bought our three-storey house, each floor was an apartment. When Genevieve was a newborn, we renovated the house to add interior stairs and create a first floor apartment for us that included part of the second floor. Over the years, we have gradually nibbled away at the second floor apartment until 2 weeks ago when we swallowed it entirely. 

Glory be, we added another bedroom, a family room, and a bathroom! Now our girls have separate rooms, which is a wonderful development in their relationship. Now I have an actual desk in our family room instead of just a drawer next to the dining room table. 

It feels incredibly luxe to not have to wait for someone else in the bathroom, to have masses of storage in the new bathroom, to have a second fridge in the apartment kitchen (and sink and stove, but the fridge is what I immediately put into use). We even have a second staircase to access our new space. 

It's disorienting, honestly. The first night in the new bedroom, I kept worrying about my babies, spread out all over this huge house. I'm still a little puzzled about how much desk stuff to take up to my desk and how much to leave in the dining room, which I have realized is the nerve center of the house.

We had to acquire some more furniture and organizing things. I did my best to buy second-hand items from local sources. The way I see it, not only is this cost-effective, but better for the planet than manufacturing new (cheaply made) stuff that is shipped from everywhere. But oh my, I am also now experiencing the big-house effect, where I have doubled the bathroom equipment, added more bedroom furniture for Genevieve, and considering how many duplicate desk supplies I need upstairs that are already in use at other desks. We have another air conditioner in a window, too, now, which I recognize as really helpful in our swampy summers, but hate the enlargement of our carbon footprint. Living in small spaces makes us efficient, for sure. 

Little Red Elephant Shirt

We got an interesting bag of hand-me-downs for dress-up from another family when Genevieve and Ben were small. I pulled out a little appliqued skirt for real clothes because it was so charming. 

I am avoiding buying new fabric, even new-to-me, until I really use up some of what I have. So I poked around what I had and came up with this red-striped fabric. It also starred in the Swedish summer pillow. I used the same shirt pattern from Phoebe's anchor shirt (look how little she is!), and just as I was finishing up the facings, I recalled that I had some vintage elephant buttons that my mother-in-law gave me a while back. Oh, how I love matching up disparate things to make something I love! My brain shuts down at the thought of selecting all the notions and fabric and patterns from the universes available on the internet. Truly. Much easier for me and more fascinating creatively if I poke through my own collections to design a garment. 

So I came up with these two little red elephant buttons and sewed them on the front, and I just love them. It's a whole elephant ensemble, with the appliqued elephants on the skirt.

I forgot to take  a picture of the pretty zipper pull on the vintage zipper. It's a nifty little ring. 

The big sister has requested a dress. I am thrilled - she is not into mom-made clothes much anymore. Stay tuned!

Green and Growing

Last weekend, I was talking to a blogger friend who has also drifted into silence on his blog, and we agreed that we missed writing and then we further vowed that we would blog again. So here I am! 

Let's start with all the green things. The plants are hard to distinguish in the photos. If you're local, come for a tour: we can safely do that again, praise the Lord! My loosestrife did not come back in the cute little olive pot, so I pulled a spider baby off a houseplant and a piece of creeping Jenny from the tree well and poked them in there. It's only been a couple days, but they don't look dead so I'm hopeful.

The big pot has lemongrass, purple basil, apple mint, petunias, marigolds, and creeping jenny. I love mixing edibles and flowers. The nasturtium seeds are germinating unevenly for the second summer in a row. I think I need to buy more and sow more heavily to get a decent amount. That parsley overwintered and surprised me. 

We are making a pea gravel patio in our backyard after talking about it for years. It's coming along and we are using it in its half-completed state, eating supper outside most days on our new dining set before the mosquitoes get going. 

We also made a rain garden to absorb the runoff from our roof after my husband piped the spouting under the patio. Our city has a runoff problem that is polluting nearby waterways, so this is one way we are working at it. We followed directions to blend the soil with compost and sand and dig the bed out to encourage absorption. The native plants can handle soggy roots if needed. We planted a redtwig dogwood, black-eyed susans, Joe Pye weed, turtle heads, and another shrub whose name I don't recall. I loved this project! 

I planted kale last fall and was pleased by the harvest and thought it was done, but it appeared this spring. Bonus! Or maybe that's what kale does? I still have a lot to learn about growing food. 

My sugar peas are just starting and we've been harvesting spinach for a few weeks now. I transplanted 4 tomato seedlings to nurture; we get volunteers every year from the heirlooms planted years ago. It's thrilling, but maybe not advisable for crop rotation and soil diseases.

 We grew okra for the first time last year and it was a huge success: easy to grow, nutritious, popular with the fam. The seeds my husband saved did not germinate, however, so I just bought seed (not really easy to find in the north) and we're trying again. 

The red and black raspberries are going nuts. I lost my hold on a container of organic berry fertilizer this January and whoops, they got overfed. 

The rhubarb is also turning into a bush! That is a little swamp white oak tree next to it, which is finally taller than me. It is a slow growing tree, but I was just reading this spring how oaks are the backbone of the regional tree ecosystem, so I'm pleased to be part of that. 

My family gives rhubarb the side eye, but I love it, so I'm still figuring out how much I can realistically use or preserve and whether I should give it away. I did already freeze some to use as a tart element in winter cooking instead of lemon: got that tip from a friend who also likes to cook with local food. 

How are your plants doing? And how are you? I missed you and plan to keep writing here!

Homeschooling

Here I am, now a homeschooler! Thanks, COVID. I mean that both sarcastically and sincerely. I am homeschooling Phoebe and she is a dear little student. Our school district is currently totally virtual, and it just did not make sense for Phoebe to enter kindergarten on a screen with me trying not to chew my arm off beside her.

I am grateful that I have a flexible schedule and some years of parenting under my belt. The skills that I need are not really the skills I gained as a high school English teacher, but rather the skills I learned through parenting: patience, cheerful matter-of-fact firmness, calmness, and capacity to enjoy my child and enter into her world. 

For curriculum, I queried the homeschool parents I know who have taught their children kindergarten. I read some websites in the manner of surveying the landscape. Our state uses the Common Core standards and since we intend for Phoebe to return to in-person schooling in the future, I read those standards and chose curriculum aligned with them. 

We are using:
Explode the Code Book 1

DK Geography, Kindergarten level

some partially used kindergarten math books from a friend in the district because the Argoprep Introducing Math! Kindergarten book I bought is too advanced.  

Daily, Phoebe draws in a journal and writes the date. We go over the days of the week, the months and seasons, and do some counting as we ascertain the date.  I read out loud to her; currently we are devouring the Little House books. We spend about an hour on homeschool every morning.

Then she plays her heart out and talks our ears off the rest of the day. She keenly misses peers as her older siblings are so much older - another reason we want to send her back to in-person school. 

As for Genevieve and Ben, they are doing their virtual school thing with their district-issued iPads. Each class has two Zooms a week and the rest of the work is asynchronous. Fortunately, they can still play their sports because these are outside and can be mostly socially distant. I'm grateful they have that fresh air, exercise, excitement, and teamwork.