love is in the air...

rrrrrruffflllllesssss

thanks to Pinterest, I have been sewing ruffles on lots of things... tops that needed a little "updo", old overcoats that were just "blah", and a recent project- flower girl dresses for a friend's wedding.  I decided to actually document this, just in case I wanted to every figure out how it did it years from now when all our children decide to get married.  I was given some plain white flower girl dresses & had to add some ruffles to match the wedding colors & lengthen them a tad as well.  I also made sashes but did not include this in the tutorial as it seems pretty basic to me.  If you have questions about that part, I can add it on later.

I start with my trusty Gingher scissors, measuring tape & tomato needle cushion- I also usually keep a seam ripper on hand & a smaller pair of gingher scissors & of course, my sewing machine.  The material I used was a shiny, polyester kind that is sort of shimmery & made for perfect ruffles.

My first step was to cut into strips about 6 inches in width & 2 yards in length.  I used 2 of these strips for each dress because you need to so it will be super "ruffly".  Use less, if you don't want something so ruffly.  Also, these were pretty wide b/c I wanted them to add length to the dresses, not just embellishment.  

Then, I folded them in half lengthwise and ironed them....

Ironing them makes the ruffles stay in place & it just looks better, guaranteed. I then sewed each end together to make one long loop. Now it's ready to pin to the dress.

Dress:

Kinda plain, ya?

let's jazz it up a tad...

Using the bottom of the dress as my measuring stick, I laid it out on my bed (sorry- no worktable here, it's my bed or the kitchen table folks!) and stretched it out to full length.  Taking the long loop of pre-ruffled material, I also stretched it to full length just underneath the dress.  This was hard to get a picture of b/c I would have had to be on my ceiling, so I'll just try to explain.  I laid the strip of fabric down horizontally so the dress bottom was centered just above it & then pinned the middle of the strip to the middle bottom of the dress.

this is my attempt at eyeballing the middle of the strip.  It doesn't have to be exact but it does help to do some measuring ahead of time so you don't end up with way too much fabric on one side & not enough on the other.  I have done this before & it's a pain to rip out especially with certain types of material.

After pinning the middle, I pinned the edges, leaving the other side for after this side is all pinned.  Then I just basically divided everything into halves.  I pinned halfway between the middle pin & edge pin on both sides & divided those in half, pinning the middle of those 2 halves until I got down to basically a ruffle-size pin.

You can see the other side of the ruffle here that is for the other side of the dress, it just sat there until I flipped the dress over & did the same thing to the other side.

Then I pinned all the ruffles.  Like I said, it's not an exact science, but just try to keep the ruffles "roughly" (har,har) the same distance apart.

Do same thing to other side and it's ready for the sewing machine.  So I ended up with about 3 inches of ruffle hanging down from each dress.  Whatever length you want your ruffle to be, just make sure it is twice the width you need. 

I didn't document the actual sewing part, but I just put the pinned edge under the needle & took pins out as I sewed along.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

Ruffle...

simple sash...

finished dress!

P.S. note on the sashes- I believe i used the same width of material for the sashes but only one yard in length instead of two.  Simply fold in half (inside-out) and sew along cut edge, turn right side out, finish edged with a French seam & iron flat!

our mantle

thankful...

making flubber....

let me just say... this was a FUN project to do with our kids!

We did it as part of our "Science Class" for our 1st grader & Kindergartener and they absolutely LOVED watching a liquid become a solid-ish substance before their very eyes. I found this original recipe on Pinterest and decided to to make our own with lots of pics as well.

So... to start out with, you need:

3 tsps. Borax

2 cups of Elmer's Glue

Warm water

Food coloring (we used Wilton's b/c I am apparently out of regular food coloring)

I had never bought Borax before (crazy, I know) and I found it in the laundry detergent section at Walmart.  It only came in a big box and the recipe only calls for 3 tsp., I thought that was kinda silly but who knows what else we will end up using it for??  The recipe calls for 2 cups of glue and since that sort of measurement isn't on the bottles, we sort of had to guesstimate it, but 2- 7.625 fl. 0z. bottles of Elmer's was just about right.

So we started out with 2 bowls and got ready to mix:

First we mixed the borax and 1 cup of warm water in a bowl, then in the other bowl we mixed the glue and 1 and half cups of warm water.  Our almost 7 year-old declared that the glue mixture looked like milk except chunkier (I thought that was a very appropriate description):

Stir, stir, stir...

I let both the girls stir while I tried to squeeze out every drop of glue I could.

Then we realized that we wanted to make several colors, so I got out 3 more bowls and divided the glue gunk between the 4 (that's including the original mixing bowl).

Then we added food coloring to each, mixing well.

Last step, (and this was the really cool part) I divided the borax/water mixture between each of the four bowls and let the girls mix away.  It INSTANTLY becomes flubber (no kidding).

becoming flubber-ish....

keep working it over bowls with hands....

it gets stretchy...

and VOILA!! we have FLUBBER!! (no Calley is not eating hers even though it looks like it)

look at the purple mommy!!

Our four colors :)

What to do with flubber besides squish it??

We got our cookie cutters out and the girls enjoyed "cutting" shapes out and them watching them "melt" into each other making new shapes.  Even our older kids (12 &14) enjoyed the flubber and want to make some of their own... well, we certainly have enough Borax for that!!

Homemade applesauce

Tasty fall treat, delish to have on hand for any occasion... applesauce!

We like ours with vanilla ice cream, homemade whipped cream or just warmed in a bowl (great for those chilly fall nights). 

 This recipe is the only one I have ever made, it's the one my mom taught me and is the easiest I know. There is no mushing, mashing, blending, or pureeing.  I use whatever apples I happen to have on hand.  For this batch, I was given apples from 3 different orchards- one in Washington State and 2 in Oregon.   

SO to start out- WASH the apples- even if they are organic, sometimes they can have little friends still hanging around (our oldest daughter also helped to peel them & our little girls helped wash them all beforehand... notice, I could not leave them out :) ) I peel & slice the apples by hand (I tried using a peeler/cutter/slicer thingy once before- be my guest, I didn't like the hugmongous mess it made), and I only cut the apples around the core then cut each section into 3 or 4 slices, so the slices are pretty big. 

Then I piled them in the pot (I have a BIG pot) like so:

As you can see in the above pic, I filled it to overflowing practically, but I made sure I could still squash the lid on- I also had another pot next to it, just as full.  It will cook down- believe me.

I also add:

-water (for this pot I used maybe 2 cups- the apples create a lot of juice themselves, so maybe start with less & then if you need to add more later)

-cinnamon (a WHOLE bunch!!! Sorry I don't use a lot of exact measurements here, but that's just the way I roll...)  I literally just keep adding cinnamon as I add apples to the pot b/c I don't think I ever had too much cinnamon, but I also really like very cinnamony applesauce, so if you don't like as much, then don't add as much.  This is really up to how you like it to taste.

-nutmeg (maybe a 1 tsp for this pot)

-cloves (1/2 tsp)

Then I cook it for a long time and keep stirring on med-low.  Make sure to keep stirring all the way to the bottom and get the apples on to to get to the bottom and cook.  I literally ruined an entire batch once b/c I let it sit too long at too hot (I was in a hurry, imagine that) and this faint burnt apple smell permeated the whole pot- ICK!  Homemade applesauce should not be made when you are in a hurry, it's a let it cook in it's own time sort of thing.

OK! so, eventually all those apples will cook down to a little over half what you started with (slightly disappointing, I realize)

So after an hour or so, it should look like this:

Now, like I said earlier, I do not mash, mush, blend or puree my sauce.  It turns to sauce all by it's little ol' self.  I prefer my sauce to be chunky, it's got more muscle to it.  Blended or pureed applesauce reminds me of baby food and I've made that more times than I care to think about. Plus, it's one less  appliance to mess up.

At this point, you might want to taste it and see if you want to add anymore spices.  I also add brown sugar at this time as well.  I didn't add it earlier b/c it will just make it burn easier.  I added about one cup for the big pot and a 1/2 cup for the smaller pot (8qt).  Then I mix it really well adding anymore spices to taste and let it cook for a few more minutes (or sometimes just turn the heat off and leave the lid on for maybe 10 minutes or so).  Then I stir and let cool enough that I can fill the jars without burning my skin off.

Jars, da da da DAH!

I got about seven, 32 oz. jars out of those 2 pots.  Not too shabby for a day's work, eh?  They make lovely Christmas gifts too :)
Oh yes, and to seal them (if they don't seal themselves), I just use my biggest pot and heat the water to boiling, plop about 3 jars in at a time & turn it down to medium, put a lid on and let them simmer/boil for about 10 minutes.  Take 'em out, let 'em dry, wait for 'em to cool and sealed they be and sealed they stay!
I don't have any canning equipment but feel free to use that or purchase some if you feel better about it.  If I d0 more canning and with acidic things then I may have to as well.  So far, my canning expertise is limited to apples, peaches & blackberries and tomatoes.