Sewing September

 Skirt Alterations, Doll Dresses, and A Pattern for a Little Girl Dress

A lady from Church hired me to make alterations on this denim shirt. She wanted it to have less of a flare. It was hard for me to do because I think the more flare in a skirt the better the skirt. So I took a perfectly good skirt and made it inferior, in my opinion, of course.

After I had made new seams I added topstitching to make the new seams match the old ones.

The lady was happy with these alterations.

I couldn't finish the doll that I started working on in August because I don't have any poly-fil at hand. All my poly-fil is stored in another city. So until I get over there to dig out my poly-fil, I have turned to doll dresses as my handwork project. 

I finished this red one.

I can't help myself from sewing in a way that makes the stitches almost like a to-scale model of a real dress. I don't know if you can see these stitches on the sleeve, but this is what I talking about. Tiny stitches that are totally over kill and definitely not necessary in a practical way.

How do I market this? It doesn't make any sense for me to go into such detail for a dress intended to be a child's toy. On the other hand I hate toys who's purpose isn't to be played with, in other words collectable dolls. Toys should be played with. They should bring joy to children. It's just dumb for an adult to have a child's toy just to put in a case and stare at, in my view. I don't want to offend any doll collectors out there. I have an Aunt who collects dolls and I love her. She's a nice collector. She did always give me and my sisters one of her collectors edition dolls whenever we visited. But, she didn't mind that we opened the packaging and played with the dolls. And I can assure you that they weren't collectors items by the time that we were done with them. She was happy to sacrifice her dolls to bring joy to children.

Sorry about the tangent there. I was wanting to ask if anyone out there can tell me if there is a niche for this type of sewing that isn't a collectible?

I finished all the exposed raw edges with a blanket stitch.

I cut out two more doll dresses.......

And marked the seam allowances for easy hand sewing.

My daughter's birthday is coming up in December, which means that I had better get busy if I want to make a dress for her. Like really busy! 

I cut out the pattern.

This pattern only has two views: long sleeve 

And short sleeve.

I have several really cute fabric options so perhaps I can make more than one dress and try both views.

I can't wait to show you how much I can get done in October!

Pecans!

 

I was so surprised and delighted to find this pecan tree down our lane. It is not on our property but it is close to the road on an empty lot.

When I was a young girl my family would travel to Arkansas just about every October to visit my Great Uncle Tony. Down the street from his house stood a big old pecan tree in a Church yard. Uncle Tony knew the people who attended church there. He said they wouldn't mind if we collected the pecans. 

There were so many pecans on the ground. We'd fill a couple grocery sacks in a few minutes and bring them back north to enjoy for a couple weeks.

It was a special memory. Pecans were a rare treat.

I knew there was a variety of pecan that grows this far north but I had never seen one nor did I expect to. 

I could hardly believe my eyes when, as we drove by one day, I looked out at the nut clusters on this tree and thought, "Those look like pecans. Can it be?"

Yes, it can be! I walked over with the children and we picked up a few handfuls. We cracked them and enjoyed them. What a treat!

Flautas| Recipe

 

To make Flautas I cook up a batch of chicken quarters (usually by boiling) and then pick all the meat off the bones.

For the filling sometimes I use canned green chilies and sometimes I use fresh green chilies. Sometimes I saute the onions and sometimes I don't. So, just do whatever works for you.

To make the tortillas stay closed some people use toothpicks. I learned this trick of using a flour paste to glue the tortilla closed and I really like how it works.

Chicken Flauta Ingredients:

2-3 cups cooked, shredded chicken 

1/2 cup green chilies, diced

1/2 cup onions, diced

1 tsp. Chilli powder 

1/2 tsp. Cumin

Salt and pepper to taste 

Small flour or corn tortillas 

Mix together the chicken, chilies, onion, and spices.

Fill tortillas by adding a spoonful of filling and rolling the tortilla. Then secure the tortilla by a toothpick or flour paste.

This mixture will fill around 20+ Flautas.

Heat 1 inch of cooking oil in a skillet with high enough sides or a pan.

Fry the Flautas for 1-2 minutes per side.

Serve with garnishes like sour cream, salsa, chopped tomatoes, cilantro, or hot sauce.

Enjoy!

Two Authors That I Adore

These two authors wrote children's books, some picture books and some chapter books. They were both artist, too, and illustrated their own works. The authors are Robert Lawson and Lois Lenski.

They both have strong themes in their books of what gives Americans their greatness: qualities like being God revering, having grit, working hard, along with values like equality, freedom, and holding truth and integrity tightly.

Lois Lenski and Robert Lawson are both Newberry Medal winners. Lois Lenski won the Newberry Medal for Strawberry Girl in 1946. Two of her other books were Newberry honor selections.

Lois Lenski wrote and illustrated the Small series of picture books: 

Cowboy Small, 

The Little Auto, 

The Little Airplane, 

The Little Family, 

The Little Farm, 

The Little Fire Engine, 

The Little Sailboat, 

The Little Train, 

Papa Small, 

and Policeman Small.

I really like these Little books. They have a lot of information that young children are capable of learning and understanding about fields and occupations that young children usually find interesting. She tells it in cute stories that are adorable.

She embarked on writing a series of books about the childhoods of children growing up in different regions of the USA. She started with Bayou Suzette in 1943. In 1946 she won a Newberry Medal for Strawberry Girl. It is hard to find the books in this series. 

They include: 

Bayou Suzette, 

Strawberry Girl, 

Blue Ridge Billy, 

Judy's Journey, 

Boom Town Boy, 

Cotton In My Sack, 

Texas Tomboy, 

Prairie School, 

Mama Hattie's Girl, 

Corn Farm Boy, 

San Francisco Boy, 

Flood Friday, 

House Boat Girl, 

Coal Camp Girl, 

Shoo Fly Girl, 

To Be A Logger, 

and Deer Valley Girl. 

Lois Lenski also wrote several historical fictions including: 

Phoebe Fairchild: Her Story (Newberry Honor), 

A-Going to the Westward, 

Bound Girl of Cobble Hill, 

Ocean-Born Mary,  

Blue Berry Corners, 

Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison (Newberry Honor), 

and Puritan Adventure.

Robert Lawson, born in 1892, became an illustrator before he became an author. He illustrated such classics as The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, which is a favorite of mine.

His first book that he wrote was published in 1939: Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos.

He wrote several historical fictions in the same vein as Ben and Me, with pets that tell the story of their significant historical figure pal. Most of these books have been hard for me to find at libraries. They include:

Ben and Me
I Discover Columbus 
Mr. Revere and I
Captain Kidd's Cat

Robert Lawson won the Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in They Were Strong and They Were Good in 1941, which he also wrote. He is the only author to win both the Caldecott Medal and the Newberry Medal. (Caldecott Medals are for illustrations and Newberry Medals are for writing.)

He won the Newberry Medal in 1945 for Rabbit Hill.

His other works include:

Just For Fun: A Collection of Stories and Verses 
Watchwords of Liberty 
Country Colic 
Mr. Wilmer
At That Time
Mr. Twigg's Mistake
Robbut: A Tale of Tails
Dick Whittington and His Cat
The Fabulous Flight
Smeller Martin 
McWhinney's Jaunt
Edward, Hoppy and Joe
The Tough Winter
The Great Wheel 

Having said all that, now I come to the catalyst for writing this blog post. I recently told my dear friend about these two authors that I adore. That following week she found these four books on the discard rack at her local library and she gave them to me!

Just look at these beautiful volumes!

Blue Berry Corners:

Coal Camp Girl:

Boomtown Boy:

Mr. Revere and I:

I am so delighted! Thank God for good friends!

And just so you can see the other Robert Lawson book that I have (my sister gave me this one):

Sources for my information on this post:

Wikipedia Page about the Newberry Medal 

Goodreads Page on Lois Lenski's regional books

Wikipedia Page on Lois Lenski 

Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections Video on Lois Lenski collection 

Open Road Media video on Lois Lenski

Nocloo.com Page about Robert Lawson

Librarything.com page on Robert Lawson

Abqlibrary.org  all the Caldecott Medal winners

Art

 

My mother-in-law bought me a sketch kit for my birthday this week. I was so excited to use it that I started as soon as I opened the package. I made these two drawings for a double baby shower today. I made the cards from these drawings. One of the families is expecting a boy. The other one is expecting a girl. And their due dates are a week apart, I believe. They are going to be close cousins!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and get to enjoy fellowship with believers tomorrow. 

Hebrews 10:24+25

And let us consider one another 

to provoke unto love and to good works:

 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, 

as the manner of some is; 

but exhorting one another: and so much the more, 

as ye see the day approaching.