Sew Special: Drapes with Grommets and a New Sweater

I am working on another order for curtains. The customer wants suede drapes with grommets, but he did not know exactly how dense, long, and deep he wanted them to be.  So I made this sample set with his guesses and then sent him a bunch of pictures to evaluate.  He wants a lining behind them as well. I used the shower curtain as a sample lining to play around with distances between the 2 rods and test how they would mingle together if they were both pleated with grommets. When I am done with the samples I will put them up for sale in my Etsy shop too. 

I have a new favorite sweater pattern! Hoodie cardigans are the best.  It knit up easily and used up some bits of leftover yarn that were too small to make a whole sweater.  The pattern is called Fawn Hoodie and Leg warmers.  I found that it ran a little bit small.  The size 6 is fits A perfectly.  I am looking forward to making one for brother M.  I added extra buttons (instead of just the 2 in the pattern.  The band around the hood and body is a fun feature and sort of unites all the diverse yarns. 

Family Schooling Summary

We did a little dress-up photo shoot for my new vintage children's clothing Etsy shop.  It was pretty fun and the pictures turned out so cute:

We had all the usual classes this week-- dance, soccer, co-op, joy school. At brother M's Joy School class they talked about feelings and how to handle them.  In her science class A talked about the properties of liquids and made this cool jar where they all separate out at different levels.

In her "Math is a Game" class they did a big treasure hunt and had to solve math problems along the way: 

They also had their last math club meeting and talked about probability using dice and then a giant bingo board with their dice.  Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera for that!

I also wanted to mention one of the series of books that we have been enjoying from the library lately. It is called "You Wouldn't Want to Be a..." and has lots of funny cartoon type illustrations that teach history in a fun way for kids. 

Family Schooling Summary

More great learning projects from their co-op schooling this week:

 A's Science as Art class learned about light and how rainbows are made. They made stained glass type windows with bits of tissue paper.

In her My Amazing Body class they talked about brains and how they work. They made this cool project that shows how different parts of the brain have different jobs.

Baby S turned 2 years old this week! Based on past birthday experiences, no one in our family seems to like cake. Just frosting.  After the party, usually it just sits in the fridge uneaten.  For S we decided to have cheesecake, which has been a great success. I made a berry topping with some of my canned blueberry syrup and some frozen pie cherries from the orchard.

First he opened his cards... Thanks Grandparents!

Then the other presents... like Harold the Helicopter

 We tested out the new toys:

Baby S got all Thomas the Train toys, which they have all spent the week playing with.  It is the first installment of a very large set that we purchased second hand for a great price.  Max will be sooo excited when he sees that he is getting more of the set for his birthday!

They also went outside to "rake leaves" with daddy this week... I think everyone can guess what they spent most of their time doing.

Halloween Night

We had a quick dinner of potatoes with broccoli and cheese (trying to compensate for the sugar rush that I knew was coming soon!)  Then we rushed around getting everyone dressed. 

Baby S only wore one of M's old costumes since he just went to our 2-3 closest neighbors homes and came back.  He already has a little cold and I did not want it to get aggravated.  Brother M and big sister A's costumes with their boots, flannels, and furs were nice and warm.  The temperature was in the upper 40s I think.

 Sven the Reindeer:

 Anna:

Handsome Kristoff:

The cousins came to do "Trick-or-Treating" with us.  Cousin "Elsa" was a perfect match for Anna.

 Here they are back from the cold, comparing their loot: TONS of candy

Sew Special: 22 Valances

I am continuing my efforts to sell homemade things in my Etsy shop (not just vintage finds).  I got another order for custom valances... 22 of them!  All different measurements, but all white sheer triangles. I had to make 2-3 samples to get the design right and approved by the purchaser.
Here is one of the samples:

The fabric she chose is a very tricky sheer polyester which stretched like crazy when cut on the bias. Even with the serger to try to stabilize the edges they were a bit wonky at first:

In the one above (the first picture) I used a narrow ribbon serged into the edges as a stabilizer. But it was kind of unreliable and very tough to work with.

The best solution was suggested on the Coletterie Blog.  

I ordered some spray stabilizer per her recommendations and that seems to be keeping the fabric stiff enough to be cut evenly and also  keeping the bias edges relatively stable. Here is the final version:

6 done; 7 more cut and partially complete; and 9 more to go after that!  It is easiest to do the ones that are the same measurements (use the same template). Then I can do a little assembly line. I have to spray, iron the sprayed fabric, lay out the template, cut, serge all the edges and then iron and hem, iron and hem again.  Quite a project.

Family Schooling Summary

This was "Party Week".  Everywhere we went there was a Halloween party.

At co-op school they had a Halloween Fair.  They started things off with a magic  show. I was impressed with the magician's talent.

Then we had a parade:

All the kids wore their costumes and then rotated in small groups through the various stations at the "fair".  There was scary story telling, cookie decorating, mad science experiments, and pumpkin decorating.

Sven got too hot in his antlers and fur and had to take off his hood:

Mad Scientists made Lava lamps:

And played with slime:

Tasting his newly decorated cookie:

At dance class this week all the girls wore their costumes and brought treats to share after class.  It was a big junk food fest and big sister A got a tummy ache that night.  Good lesson to learn.

We hosted the Joy School Halloween Party at our house.  The kids all came in their costumes and sang their Halloween songs for the moms.  (No pics of that since I was leading the music)

Then we played some games and had pizza for lunch.  Here is A setting up the "Ghost Bowling":

Kiddos waiting for a turn to throw the bean bags at the ghosts:

Then the traditional doughnut eating contest: