Sewing Projects In October

 Doll Dress, Doll, and Little Girl Dress

My opportunity came to retrieve Poly-fil from the storage place this month. I was happy to continue progressing on the pioneer doll!

First I finished one of the purple doll dresses.

Then I finished the doll.

The arms and the legs were the first parts to be stuffed. As I always do, I added a second row of stitches to reinforce the appendages. 

These arms and legs are never supposed to come off no matter how much play they endure.

Next to be stuffed was the head and body.

After stuffing, I decided to give her a little wash before sewing the hair on the head. She had accumulated some smudges. It is much easier to wash dolls before they have hair. 

After some cold dunking and swishing she dried in the sunshine. Then I did the hair. Here is a hair tutorial for more details.

I quickly installed some snap buttons on the two doll dresses that I have finished. 

The big question is: how have I fared on the sewing of my daughter's birthday dress?

I am very pleased with the progress that I have made. I was able to finish the pinafore and the dress, barely. I had to publish this post a day late because I wasn't finished yet. I was so close. 

Last night I hemmed the dress. This morning I sewed a button on to the pinafore. Then I went outside and took a couple pictures to show you.

Hopefully, next month I will be able to sew another dress and pinafore. I will try to take more pictures of the process along the way.

Pumpkin Pie Season!

 

We live in an area where a lot of pumpkins are grown. Most are grown for the Libby's brand. Meaning they are not the decorative type, but the really good for pies type. 

I was able to get my hands on this one a month ago. The consignment store in town had a few of these Libby pumpkins out in front of their building with a free sign. I don't know the story of how they got there. I like to fancy that they fell off the truck. Honestly, that is because I have a very poor imagination and can't come up with a more creative story.

Last week I cut the pumpkin up and processed it. I cooked it until soft and scooped out the pulp. Then I blended the pulp in a food processors until it was smooth. I froze most of the pumpkin puree to use later. With some of it I made a large pumpkin pie. And, I roasted the seeds for a snack.

I am so embarrassed to show this picture because of the aluminum pie pan. Not only is it ugly but someone might think that I used a store bought crust- oh, the shame!

I didn't! I didn't! The crust is homemade and the pie pan is salvaged. I wanted to use this pie pan because it is so big. You can't tell by this picture, but this is a 11.5" pie pan. I multiplied the recipe by a small percentage to fill this pan. 

And to bring this post full circle: I used the Libby's pumpkin pie recipe. It is our family's favorite.

Art: Rooting For You Card

 

Here is a little art inspiration. I saw a cute picture on Pinterest that gave me this idea. I added my own vegetables and style to make it my own. 

The message in the card says, "I'm rooting for you!"

It is a pretty easy idea and it will put a smile on someone's face. You can be an encouragement to someone!

Common Buckeye Butterfly

 I have been trying all summer to get a picture of a Common Buckeye Butterfly. They are so skittish, though. Now matter how I tried to sneak up I could never get close enough for a good picture.

I few days ago my son when outside on a chilly morning and found this Common Buckeye Butterfly on the play set. He knew I would be so excited. He was able to handle it and bring it inside for me to see.

Isn't it beautiful!

Common Buckeye caterpillar's host plants include snapdragon and plantain.

Raising Butterflies website has some nice pictures of the eggs and caterpillars at different instars. They say that Common Buckeye Butterflies can be fun to raise. I will keep that in mind. Maybe I'll be able to find an egg to raise next year.

A New Wild Edible For Me!

This is called Autumn Olive. I learned this wild edible from a the website: North East Superfoods. Here is link to the Autumn Olive article on North East Superfoods .com. I recommend that you read their article. They have good pictures and explain how to distinguish Autumn Olive from the poisonous Honeysuckle (pictured below). Once you know what to look for it is hard to confuse the two. They are quite different.

Autumn Olive have one pit. (Like tiny plums.)

Honeysuckle have multiple seeds per berry.

Autumn Olive are speckled.

Honeysuckle have no speckles.

Autumn Olive have red flesh 

Honeysuckle have orange gel.

Those are the main ways to tell the berries apart besides all the differences in leafs.

We liked the flavor of the Autumn Olives. They were tart and mildly sweet. They had a good amount of flavor. They were not bland. If I had to compare it to another fruit I would say it reminded me of a plum, the part of the plum right next to the skin. You know how plum skin has the most flavor? It is like the ratio of skin to flesh on the Autumn Olive lends to it having a more pungent flavor.

If you get a chance, check out the link and hopefully you, too, can try and enjoy Autumn Olive!