Sewing School - A Simple Pillowcase

The Teach a Friend to Sew series continues this week with the first sewing project, a pillowcase.  A timely project as some of mine seem to have disappeared.  I gathered my notions and made sure they are in my sewing basket and now it's time to make an easy, speedy pillowcase to earn my first sewing merit badge.

I feel like I'm in 4-H Club!

I'm a little picky about sheets and pillowcases as I prefer them to be very soft.  Wanting to use fabric that was already in my stash I picked some lovely Imperial Broadcloth that I had bought a while back to smock a nightgown.  It's soft and I know it will wash nicely.  I also wanted to use some Henderson fabric scraps I had from a leftover project to give the pillowcase a fresh modern look.

I added a little gold flange.

The pillowcase seems a little large for my pillow so the next time I sew one I'm going to measure a standard pillowcase for a better fit.  

Sewing School - The Sewing Basket

Sew Mama Sew is conducting a Teach a Friend to Sew Series right now.  I have decided to participate in it because each week there will be a different topic representing a stepping stone to becoming a better seamstress. Each time you achieve one the goals, you earn a virtual sewing merit badge and gain an entry into a drawing for a fabulous sewing machine or a gift certificate to a fabric shop of your choice! 

The first part of the series involved building an efficient sewing tool kit.  There was an excellent post on what one needed in the kit and it gave me a few new ideas of notions that I must add to my existing sewing basket.  Having sewn for years my sewing basket was already nicely equipped but notions had become scattered throughout my storage area so I found this was a great opportunity to conduct a 'notion round up.'  There is nothing more frustrating than needing to mend something and having no idea where your darning needles are!

Two special items in my sewing basket are some Italian embroidery scissors and a little French mint tin.  The Italian embroidery scissors I almost had confiscated many years ago in an airport.  This was long before 9-11.  I was allowed to run back to the check in counter and the ticket agent walked the scissors down to my checked suitcase and put them inside. The French mint tin I bought at a bus stop in France when we were heading back to the ship from Paris.  It houses the sewing feet for my Viking sewing machine.

Another favorite sewing notion are my golden pair of Gingher Dressmaking Shears.  I love them and these babies cut nothing but fabric.  I want to keep them sharp as long as possible since I live a long way from the closes scissor sharpening man!

A Fresh Start

After blogging for over a decade on Knitting in the Rockies where my main theme centered around knitting, I've decided to start afresh.  This new site will be a place to share other adventures, primarily taking place in the Rocky Mountains as that is my home.

Autumn has come to the mountains.  We went on a day trip this week to see the quaking aspen in their gold glory.  I love this time of year.

Cottonwood Lake

Cottonwood Creek that flows down into Buena Vista and the all the way to Colorado Springs

Chalk Cliffs

Hubby brought his fly fishing gear and tried his hand a bit but did not get a single nibble so we decided to drive on up Cottonwood Pass.  It was a beautiful drive and brought back lots of memories of when we lived in the area when our adult daughters were just youngsters.

I've driven this road in early summer with six feet of snow on either side of the road.  Standing where I was, this is in the alpine tundra zone above tree line.  The elevation was 12,126 feet above sea level, about 3,000 feet higher than where we live.  The air is very thin at this elevation and it was easy to get out of breath.

The Hubby

Delicate Tundra

This little alpine lake was much further down than it appears and quite the hike at this elevation.

It was superb getting out of the house to explore.  Our summer has been busy and we haven't had many excursions.  This day reminded us that we need to take more day trips.  The dogs got tuckered out and slept the whole way home.