Check up...

How are things for you?  Are you feeling the early push and strain of the fall season yet?
Are you adjusting to the rigors of the before school and after school routines in addition to your own before and after work routines?

All of our regular fall programming for the kids is not yet kicked in, and we are already feeling the pace has quickened since the summer.

Time for a check up:
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (New International Version)
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

I think today's blog entry is for myself most of all.  A reminder to take at look at life and make sure things stay on track inside our little home.

As stated in the Bible verse above, there are seasons in life.  Mine is the season of participating in the parenting of two teens.   It can be a busy season.

There is a saying out there that if you aim at nothing you will most certainly hit it.   We don't want to do that with parenting, work, home care or any other part of life. 

Take 5 or 10 minutes and write down a list of top things in your life.  Mine goes something like this:

1. Faith - Spiritual nurture and health of your spirit and your family's.   A commitment to prayer, spiritual growth and living out the precepts of our faith.

2. Family - Hubby, kids, and extended family.  Making your immediate family a top priority.  Ensuring healthy relationships, good family times, and raising up good kids who are grounded in their faith and equipped with the skills they need for life.

3. Work - This one is obvious.  If you don't give your employer proper priority during work hours, you won't have a job for too long.  We all need jobs to pay our bills.  Make sure you continue to strive to raise your value in your boss' eyes.  Don't be satisfied to coast along in your job.

4. Home - Here I am referring to the upkeep and maintenance of a home.  Housekeeping, laundry, groceries, meal planning, calendar management, decorating, yard work, etc.  If the home is a mess, everything starts to unravel because this is your base, the launch pad from which you and your family enter the rest of your day.

5. Friends - Make time for friends, laughter and great memories.

6. Community - The practice of living beyond ourselves.  This opens up your world so much.  If you only live for yourself and your family, you will eventually discover that your world closes in and becomes quite limited. 

Now that I have the list of top values, these will guide the calendar for activity... calendar check up!

I can get sidetracked with many interests.  It is best to take a look at the calendar and ensure the following:

1.  That all the upcoming dates for each family member are on the calendar so that nothing is missed.

2. That activities we find on our calendar support our values.

3. That we schedule time for maintenance and for rest.  Remind yourself to find a routine that works and try your best to stick to it without being too rigid or inflexible.

I don't think any of us ever gets our list perfect.  But if we at least have a list, then we know what we're aiming for and it helps us organize our days.

We can take comfort in the fact that aligning our values and creating reasonable routines gives us a reasonable measure of peace inside.  

You'll be glad you did, and then, maybe you'll feel like this little guy:

Thanks for reading.

Cassie

 Today I am linked up here: 

 

How to Hem Jeans

Here is another sewing project.  How to hem a pair of jeans.  Sometimes we find the perfect pair of jeans, but they are too long on the inseam.  (A common problem in my family).  In this case, my son, who is still growing, found a pair of jeans when we were back to school shopping and they were the colour and style he liked, and fit correctly, but were a bit too long.

No problem, Mom to the rescue!  Time to hem those jeans.

First you need to have the wearer put the jeans on with some shoes and pin the length so that the back of the jean pant is just brushing the floor at the back of the heel.
Then you will have 1 pinned jean leg, like this.

Here is another view.

Next you will want to fold the jeans over and make sure they are PERFECTLY FOLDED IN HALF.

MAKE SURE YOU PLACE PINS ON THE FOLD LINE.  SEE PICTURE BELOW.  You will need these pins later, it is a very important step. 

Look here how I ensure the pocket area is lined up too.

Next you will measure 1 1/8" from the folded line.  This is your cutting line.

Next you will mark this cutting line with tailor's chalk.  This can be bought at your local fabric store for about $2.

Look at this last picture above.   You will see the pants still folded as exactly in half as possible, and your cutting line clearly marked in tailors chalk.  The beauty of tailor's chalk is it brushes away.  There won't be any lasting marks in the fabric.

Now cut on the line you just drew.

Next you will unfold the pinned edge, flip the pants over VERY CAREFULLY TO KEEP THEM LINED UP, and cut the other side to be the same length.  Be sure to leave the pins at the fold mark so you know where you are going to fold the finished edge to.

Now you will fold and pin the pants to the fold line you left with the pins.  Simply use the distance between the cut edge and the pin marked fold line to fold in half and then in half again.

Here is the two pant edges cut together with the pin markings left for the fold line.

Here is the pant edges, fold in half and in half again to meet those pin marked lines.  Sorry this picture turned out blurry.

Once you have pinned both pant legs to match, lay them flat together.  They should look something like this: 

You can use a dark thread to hem, or buy a thread at the fabric store that is sold as a denim coloured thread made by Guiterman threads.  See my thread in this picture:

Next adjust the presser foot pressure on your sewing machine to less than normal.  I have a quilting machine and it looks like this.   See how I reduced the presser foot pressure to less than normal.  

On your machine it is the little knob at the top of your machine over the needle area.  Please check your sewing machine manual for specific directions.

Now you will sew on the inside of the jeans to stitch the hem.  It will look like this:

Stitch in a circle around each pant leg until you have 2 hemmed legs.  You will need to REALLY SLOW DOWN at the thick part of the leg seams.  If your machine is more basic, you will have to hand crank these stitches.  It is worth it to save money if you ask me. On my machine I can back off the pressure when I get to these seams if I think I need to, and I can bring it a bit closer to normal for the other parts of the hem.

Take the time to get to know what your sewing machine can do.  Most machines have A LOT of capabilities if we take the time to learn.  

Your finished jean hem should look like this:

Here is one last picture of the finished job.

There it is!  You can hem your own jeans.  If you own a sewing machine, for the simple investment of some thread and tailor's chalk, you can side step the hemming fee at a local tailor and do the job yourself for less than half the price.  Once you have the thread the chalk, future hemmings are practically for free!

Happy Hemming!

Cassie

I'm getting my Zoom Zoom on...

It's Thursday. There is a link party at the bottom of today's entry.

We all know that cars won't last forever.
I buy used vehicles, and I tend to pick up slightly older models because it fits my budget so well when I do.

This is my old friend.  And it was my very first car ever, all my own.
A 1998 Mazda Protege LX Touring Edition, automatic transmission.

While the body of the car looks ok except for some rust at the back wheel wells, it's the harsh Canadian winters with the salted roads that rot out the underside of the vehicles here.  My car was very old by today's standards.  It was a 14 year old car.  It has served me well and got me to many places safely and comfortably.  It was 8 years old when I bought it, and I enjoyed 6 years with this car.

It was a sad day when my mechanic was reviewing all the things that needed repair due to the under side aging.  We finally hit the point that my mechanic was advising me that it would be unwise to continue to repair this car.  It has finally hit the point that more and more major things can start to go wrong and the repairs cost more than the car is worth.

So I went shopping this week and I found this.

This is my new car to get me all the places I need to be.  Once again it's an older model, it's a 2003.

A 2003, Mazda Protege 5 Hatchback, with all the nice features that come standard on these cars, and it's a manual transmission this time. 

These cars have really great reviews.  I got it for a very fair price too.

Sadly...today I will say goodbye to my old friend, but I am very grateful for that car and how reliable it was.  Now I will get to enjoy my new car and I am sure to get a few good years out of this one too.

Thursdays I offer a link up party with the hopes that others will show me what they are up to also. 

Please feel free to add a link to your blog below.

Thanks for reading.

Cassie

How to patch a pair of jeans

Did you ever notice that jeans today fall apart, sometimes after only a few washings!
It's really annoying.
You find something that looks great and fits great, and between the stretch fabric that most denim is made with today and all the special wash treatments that give the denim that distressed look, the garment is in a compromised state before it even leaves the store.

Our son had a very nice pair of jeans with all the wrinkles at the front pockets that make it look like they are already old, and ALL the wrinkles tore apart after only about 5 washings.  Since we bought them at store that sells name brands for less, the manufacturer would not honour any sort of warranty either.  Disappointing.  These were so bad we couldn't fix them.  The tears were too large, so we had to throw them away.

This is not always the case.  There are lots of pants that can be fixed.  Today, I am going to show you a pair of pants that need repair in the seat area, and because of where the repair is, you don't even notice it when the hubby wears the pants.  Again, these pants are fairly new, and all these cool washes just make the fabrics so weak.

Here is the pants needing repair.

You can see they have already been repaired once.   I pull them out of the dryer and discovered a new area in need of repair.  

Here is how we do the fix… 

Buy some iron on patches in denim colours at your local fabric store.

Cut the patch to a shape and size suitable to the area needing repair. 

I ended up cutting 2 patches to cover the area.  Next heat your iron and turn off the steam function.  Iron the patches into place.

Next you must duplicate this work on the inside of the pant, or it won't be strong enough.  Cut patches to cover the same repair area on the inside of the pant.  Iront those into place too. 

And for the final step, you must stitch this around the edges of the patch.  I recommend doing this from the outside of the pant.  If you don't stitch it, the patch can eventually give way in the laundry.  Stitching the edges of the patch will also further strengthen the repair.

Your finished project should look something like this. 

Now you can see that when I fold the pants, you can't see these repairs.  When my hubby will wear these jeans, the repair really isn't noticeable, unless you're the height of a toddler!  LOL!

Now you can save some money by repairing jeans too.
Supplies needed:

1. Denim in need of repair

2. Iron-on denim patches

3. Scissors to cut the patches

4. Iron and ironing board

5. Sewing machine

6. Either denim thread (yes, you can buy that) or dark coloured thread to match the pant.

Happy mending!

Cassie