A note on Sewing Fabrics

As I sit here typing this, it is mid-September. For us here in Florida, it is still warm and sunny. Out west in Denver, my daughter has already put her children in long sleeves and wondered if it might snow. The fall colors are beginning their annual performance.


What has this got to do with sewing and the pictures? Everything. It's learning to judge your needs according to what you will wear the most. These shirts above came from three Simplicity patterns, yet each is unique because of the fabric. Design #'s are: 3893, 4552, and 7236 and can be purchased at http://www.simplicity.com/. Yes, they're Plus Sized. I'm not a shrimp. I've learned to ignore the pictures and go straight to the sidebar on the left to look at "Front and Back View" which are line drawings without the distraction of someone else's taste in materials.


Here in Florida, I invariably choose the versatility of a fabric known as broadcloth, a cotton blend that comes in a vast rainbow of colors as shown in the pictures. Broadcloth is lightweight, machine washable, and your choices of color and print are so vast most people can find something they like.


However, the lightweight aspect can be a problem if you life in a climate that is mostly wintery and chill. Fortunately, many of these patterns also allow for jersey, stretch velvet, and knits for those who live where the cold winds blow.


Think what this means, girls. Let's say for example you made one lightweight broadcloth version of #3893, view C. This little bugger is versatile, fits you perfectly, and kept you cool and comfy all summer. However, now it's fall and you've got to think about the holiday parties coming up. You take that same pattern and view and make yourself an elegant stretch velvet version and matching pair of pants from #4789 and maybe a brocade jacket from #4789, and you are set for the holidays!


Now let's assume you are a long term reader of this blog and remember my suggestion to make muslin copies of your patterns and save those delicate tissue patterns. (It's 7/8/08 for those who need to burrow in the archives a bit.) Don't forget this is your permanent pattern, and it's your right and privilege to alter your pattern to suit your unique shape. I had to alter the bottom portion of the shirts in #3893 and #7236 to be just a couple of inches wider at the bottom because my bottom is wider. LOL!

Now listen to Mama Lena carefully. Look at the picture of the green shirt above. Notice the glass bead charms used to enhance a plain old shell top? Take your time and wander around with your chosen material before you buy. Go look at ribbons and buttons. There are goodies there to satisfy every taste from the frou-frou ribbon roses to outrageous buttons and iron-on appliques full of bling. There are cross stitch patterns and fabric paints galore. I once ironed on a bright bling butterfly and then enhanced the design with glow in the dark fabric paint. Can you say show-stopper in a dark night spot?

In this time of tween girls clamoring for expensive names like Hannah Montana and the Cheetah Girls, what's a mother to do? Go to Wal-Mart to get ideas, and then shop at Simplicity, that's what. I can make a hot pink tee shirt with lots of iron-on bling that says Rock Star. I could take Designs #2833 and #2879 and create the $30 shirt in Wal-Mart for under $20 with more quality materials. Puh-leeze.


Don't you think it's about time we took back control of what our kids wear? Sure, I don't mind if they see another tween wearing a new fashion. Let them. I just get to save money by making better quality stuff myself at home where love goes into every stitch.

This Blog is Moving!

I'm moving this blog to a new location: http://Third-Infinity.blogspot.com

Why the change? To get all my blogs on the same dashboard with the same login. I keep neglecting this blog because it's not with the others.

I've already begun to post at the new address. Please follow me there. It isn't pretty yet, but I do try to be informative.

Lena

craft to Craft: Halloween Eyeball Silverware to your Altar Ware

I have lots of Sculpey! Think about this and what fun you can have beyond Halloween. Think of silverware with colorful handles and crystals embedded in them. Or Goddess symbols carved in them.

What about your own bland, boring table? Could you use some silverware made to match your dinnerware? Did you know that, if your glassware can take the heat, you could use Sculpey to make your goblets match too, by wrapping a bit of Sculpey around the base and maybe up the stemware? Are you getting the picture?

Okay, now go one step further. How about that altar? Could your athame use a facelift? How about your bolline? Do we need to go into the offering plate or incense burner? What could you do with Sculpey to make your altar unique?

For the Dumb Feast

I don't do a dumb feast every year. How morbid can you get? However, I see no harm in a remembrance feast. Keep it short, sweet, and simple and your guests will think well of you. Don't forget to set that empty place at the table for our spirited guests, just in case someone does decide to show up.

Lena

Candy Spook House and Halloween Beanbags

Another candy house, just for fun. Kids should enjoy themselves, and I like the kid in me to come out and play.

Cakes and Ale-- Pumpkin Bread

This is my best Samhain bread, made for bread machines. It's easy and delicious. I skip the pumpkin seeds, personally, and just throw in some pecans. What can I say? I'm lazy.

Ghosts and Grave

This grave has the best "post mortem" for after Halloween. Just when you could use a little fresh soil in your garden to wait for spring, all you have to do is drag the tarp to your garden on Nov 1. The tarp can cover any part going fallow, with the new dirt to hold it down until spring. Weed seedlings won't have a chance.

Pumpkin Nog-- For Cakes and Ale

Who says we have to wait for Yule to get a nog? This is even diet! How cool is that.

BTW, if you right click on any image I post, you can use "Save As" to get it so you can have a copy.

Ritual Ideas for Samhain-- Pagans Only

Samhain (October 31st)

8. HISTORY

Samhain to the Celts was their New Year's Eve even. That mysterious moment belonging to neither past nor present, or this world nor the other. It was a time when the herds were slaughtered and the meat salted, which also led to the use of salts in magic ritual as a disinfectant against psychic or spiritual evil. On this night also, the spirits of dead friends sought the warmth of the Samhain fire and communication with a living.

The divinatory aspect of Halloween is understandable for two reasons. First, the psychic climates of the season favored it, and second, the anxiety about the coming winter demanded it. The fertility ritual aspect was reflected in legends of gods and heroes. As such, it was a time of deliberate (and tribally purposeful) sexual freedom. That is primarily a Celtic tradition, as many other superstitions say to refrain from sex for fear that your former (dead) friends would take over your body and you might have A Change Child.

"So, Halloween was on the one hand a time of propitiation, divination, and communication with the dead, and on the other, and uninhibited feast of eating, drinking, and defiant affirmation of life and fertility in the very face of the closing dark." (Witches Bible Complete page 122)

"The feast itself, in the banquet sends, the original food was of course a proportion of the newly slaughtered cattle, roasted in the purifying Halloween fire, and doubtless having the nature of ritually offered first fruits. The fact that the priesthood had first call on the board divinatory purposes and that what they did not use provided a feast for the tribe, points to this." (Witches Bible Complete page 126)

B. THE ALTAR AND CIRCLE

1. Decorate with apples, pomegranates, plug-ins (as he is or cut into jack-o'-lanterns. If using jack-o'-lanterns, let the mark the four corners), squashes, marigolds, and chrysanthemums. The altar cloth and candles should be our range, to symbolize the harvest.

2. Foods-turnips, apples, corn, nuts, gingerbread, pumpkin dishes, meat, pumpkin cookies, candy apples, popcorn, and candy corn.

3. Drinks-cider, the mulled wine, pumpkin nogs and smoothies

4. The cauldron should be in the north quarter, filled with firewood.

See. RITUALS

1. This is the time of reflection, of looking back over the past year and friends who have passed on. Honor them, but do not call them to you. Leave the plate of food outside the home for the souls of the dead. A candle placed in the window guides them to the afterlife, varying apples "feeds" them on their journey.

2. Right on a piece of paper and aspect of your life you wish to be free of. Such as anger, a baneful habits, disease, or misplaced feelings. Burn it in a ritual. (Solitary Practitioner page 142)

3. Past life regressions are sometimes done in CIRCLE.

4. Scry eating into the past or future in CIRCLE

5. Return the corn dollies of last year to the ground. (See Imbolg)

6. Bobbing for apples. There were many divination practices associated with Halloween, many of which dealt with marriage, health, and the weather. Ducking for apples was a marriage divination based on the belief that the first to bite into an Apple would be the first to marry in the coming year. This is similar to the wedding tradition of throwing the bride's bouquet for women and her garter for men. Apple peeling was another type of divination to determine how long one's life would be. The longer the unbroken peel the longer the life of the one peeling it.

7. Have the high priest dress in "Man in Black" costume and charcoal for his space. He leads a chance within the CIRCLE.

8. Divination using tarot cards in CIRCLE.

9. At the close of the Halloween CIRCLE, please extinguish the altar candles to symbolize the dark half of the year now beginning.

10. This is an invocation. Wise one of the waning moon, goddess of the starry night, I create this fire within your cauldron to transform that which is plaguing me. May the energies be reversed; from darkness, light! From bane, good! From death, birth!

11. Carved jack-o'-lanterns

12. Finish any incomplete projects and payoff lingering bills, if possible, to close out the old year and begin the new year fresh.

13. Leave food out for the birds and other wild animals. Make a donation of food or funding to an animal shelter in honor of the spirit of animals who have died for your family's nourishment over the year.

14. Put pictures of ancestors who have passed on your altar for your Sabbat rite. Light a special candle for them. Visit the graves of your ancestors or if this is not possible, the nearest cemetery. Be still there and listen for the voices of those who have passed. Leave offerings of food and drink for them, and for the animals.

15. Have a mask making party in which you create masks to celebrate and represent your ancestry.

D. SYMBOLISM

1. Farewell to the God. The God dies, and prepares to be reborn at Yule.

.2. Time of sacrifice when animals were slaughtered to ensure food throughout the winter.

3. The feast of the dead, when the veil between the worlds is thinnest, sometimes called the Dumb Feast.

Scare up a Haunted House

Who says we can only make candy houses at Halloween? Why not have the kids help with this project? Why not have the coven create them?

Indian Corn Treats-- Delicious!!

Folks, you've just gotta try this tasty treat! YUUUMMM! I'm a sucker for Rice Krispie Treats, and this is close enough to make my mouth water.

A Halloween Stitch to Do

I can no longer do countd cross stitch, so I'm sharing this with all my friends. Enjoy!

Lena

"Moth-eaten" Curtains Craft

"Moth-eaten Curtains" are so easy, you'll laugh. Don't worry if you can't sew. Use fabric glue or spray adhesive for a quick fix with no needles or machine needed.

Mini Bundt Pumpkin Cakes

Mini bundt pans are all you need to create these delectable treats. Go ahead. Right click on the recipe to save it for your own.

Lena

Spider Web Dip and Chips

Even if you don't like the dip, do try the chips. I cut the tortillas using a pizza wheel to make quick wedges and serve with cheese dip or salsa. It's a quick snack people will appreciate any time of year.

Lena

Meringue Bones for your Party

This is easier than you think. Give it a try.

Lena

Cooking Fresh Pumpkins

A little hint or two on how to deal with those sloppy things. I personally use an ice cream scoop to scrape out the nasty stringy bits, and I open my pumpkin from the bottom.

For pies and other recipes, I'll use a tiny pie pumpkin. Those big honking pumpkins for sale as jack-o-lanterns make lousy food. They're grown for size, not taste. Get a pie pumpkin and be sure your recipes will be the very best.

Lena

Halloween Wine Bottles

This is too fun not to do.

Halloween Fun: Specimin Jars

Another thing is to put cooked spaghetti in a bowl with oil mixed with red food color. You'll get something resembling intestines.

Halloween Fun: Silhouette Curtains

Imagine these eerie silhouettes in your windows. Fun, huh?

Lena