Second Annual Pioneer Days

The girls enjoyed our Pioneer Days last summer so much that we decided to do them again this year. This time we did it on Pioneer Day, July 24th, and invited a couple of friends over to do it with us. The boys weren't gone on the trek this year and didn't really want to participate, so we limited it to 2 days and only 1 night. We did many of the same things we did last year, but also did some things new, like making corn husk dolls and playing traditional yard games. I did make sure that we spent some time reading some family histories of our pioneer ancestors to them. By candlelight, of course! It was very tiring and I'm thinking every other year might be easier and maintain the specialness of the whole thing.

Relief from the serious photos...



Making butter...



The bathroom facilities...



One of the best things was the food. The pie and bread were tasty, but none of us were to impressed with fried green tomatoes. And, yes, those are Little House on The Prairie Books for reference!



Corn husk dolls. I used to make these when I was a kid. Its funny how you don't forget how to do things sometimes, even when it is decades later before your try again.





An old fashioned sing around the piano.

Low Light Exposure

While we were at the Cape, DH experimented with long, low exposure photos. First, on the flats at night. It created kind of a fun effect, some of the images looked as if they were taken during the day, but the stars are showing.



Then, we decided to head over to the cemetery at night to take some pictures. Yes, that is a little spooky sounding. But, I didn't mind because I had my brave, strong dh with me and I really like cemeteries. I was just slightly nervous when he asked me to take the light meter halfway up this road on my own so he could get a reading.


But, what really got me was when the bats started swooping past our heads. Random swooshing past our ears. The feeling that at any moment one was about to roost on our heads. Aack! I'd rather have the dead bodies, thank you! We headed back to the beach after that.



Reflection of moon in the wet sand.

Sandwich Glass Museum

Sandwich is one of the prettiest towns on the Cape and I've always wanted to visit the glass museum there. At one time Sandwich was the site of one of the most well known glass making manufacturers in the world. Innovators in the industry, they created the method of glass making called pressed glass. This method suddenly made glass making much more efficient and affordable. The Glass works is no longer in operation, but a museum is there to share its history and show off its beautiful glass creations. At the museum we were able to see a glass making demonstration. The girls got to help operate the press and were rewarded at the end with their own hand made glass swan each.



They had a temporary exhibit there of glass paperweight art. It was very beautiful.




We also witnessed the opening of a new exhibit that demonstrated a table set in colonial times with all the glassware laid out, complete with a talking "hologram" to explain it all.



It was created to help visualize how all of the special glass items we no longer use would have been used on a traditional table. Items like celery jars and salts. A light inside would light up each one as it was talked about. In addition, the creator of the exhibit was still there tweaking it and willingly answered our questions about how it was all done and showed us the control panel. He even told us that the cat that breathes on a chair in the corner was a purchase off of eBay.



After the museum we headed over to the pond and saw some geese. There were supposed to be swans, too. But, we didn't see any of them. The kids still thought the geese were fun.



Notice the girls keeping their feet up. The ground was quite goose poopy!

Cemeteries and Sailing Ladies

Over the weekend we got back from our vacation to Cape Cod. It was a fun trip and we did a lot of fun things, some traditional favorites, and some new adventures.

Cyrus is an early riser, often awakening at 5:30 am. So, to let the rest of the family sleep, I started taking him on morning walks, often with one or more of the girls along. We walked along the beach, of course, but also through one of my favorite places, the Brewster Cemetery. It is a huge cemetery full of mostly very old headstones, many of which belong to sailing captains and their families. I love to walk through them and read the names, dates and verses and imagine what they were like.

Last year, Grandpa Tony let me read his copy of "Sail Away Ladies" by Jim Coogan, a book about women who sailed during the great age of sail. It is a fun and fascinating read. A couple of the ladies in the book are laid to rest in the Brewster Cemetery and I was able to find their headstones. One was named Bethia Knowles Mayo Sears.



The daughter of a farmer, at the age of 19, Bethia married Elisha Freeman Sears of Brewster, MA, newly captain of the clipper "Wild Ranger". They set out a month later from Boston for her first sea voyage on a journey to San Francisco and India. The trip held the usual hardships common on sailing vessels at that time: sea sickness, toothaches, sunburn, storms, oppressive heat, frigid cold, hail, water rationing, doldrums (lack of wind)and a sailor going overboard. (He was saved, luckily, as most sailors could not swim.) In spite of the hardships they were a happily married couple and enjoyed pieces of their wedding cake at holiday celebrations, visiting exotic China and India and teaching each other. He taught her to navigate, and she taught him to knit and embroider. She made him molasses candy.

Unfortunately, she became ill as they neared India, and her weakened condition caused her to fall prey to a tropical illness while visiting there, possibly cholera. After languishing for nearly 2 months, she passed away in her husbands arms, just 20 days past their first anniversary. His words are so sad:

"My poor wifey is dead and gone. She laid her head on my shoulder like a child going to sleep and died. Oh, yes, she died. I would not have believed it, no not when they took her away from me cold and stiff in death. Oh, if a mother could have been with her to close her eyes, or a sister to have wept with me- What a comfort it would have been- but no, I was all alone...Oh why did she die- why has she been taken from me-Oh God have mercy."



He transported her body back to Brewster for burial, and he now lays to rest between her and his eventual second wife, with whom he would have 3 children, one of whom would die in infancy.

And we look for and visit her grave.

The idea of sailing on those ships is a romantic one and I've often thought it would have been fun to experience it. But, in reality it was a hard life and I probably wouldn't have liked living it as much as I like reading about it.

(P.S. I now have my own autographed copy of "Sail Away Ladies". Thank you, Tony!)

Easy Peasy Skirt Tutorial

These instructions will make a gathered skirt, using a minimum of fabric. The instructions are long and detailed, not because they are hard to do, but to make them very clear. The fullness of the skirt will vary depending on the waist measurement, but all skirts will follow the standard guideline of 1 1/2 to 2 times of fabric for fullness.

Step 1: Measure:

You need two measurements

1. The waist at where the waistband of the skirt will sit.
2. The desired finished length of the skirt.

Step 2: Calculate yardage and buy fabric.

I usually use 2 different fabrics, but you could combine yardage to make a skirt all one fabric. Be sure to use standard 44-45” wide fabric. Woven cottons are easiest to work with.

If waist size is less than 22”

Skirt body: length of skirt – 2” = length of fabric needed

Waist and hem sections: ¼ yard

If waist size is greater than 22”

Skirt body: 2 x (length of skirt – 2”) = length of fabric needed

Waist and hem sections: 1/3 yd

You will also need a piece of ¾” non-roll elastic as long as the waist measurement and matching sewing thread.

Step 4: Prewash and Iron

Prewash and dry fabric at the temperature at which you intend to wash the finished skirt. Then fold fabric lengthwise, selvage to selvage and press. The pressed fold will help guide your sewing later.

Step 5: Cut Pieces

You will need 3 rectangular pieces if the waist is less than 22”, 5 rectangular pieces if it is greater than 22”. Keep the fabric folded lengthwise, selvage to selvage while you make your cuts.

Skirt Body: (desired skirt length – 3”) x fabric width

Hem section: 3.5” x fabric width

Waist section: (waist + 4”) x 4” To cut this, cut a 4" wide strip of fabric the width of the fabric. Then divide the length in half and cut it on the fold.

If the waist size is greater than 22”, cut out two of the skirt body and hem sections. A rotary cutter, grid ruler and mat make quick work of cutting the pieces and making sure they are square. Unless the selvage will show through the finished skirt, leave it on. It will save you time finishing seams later. Not the "proper" way of doing things, but, hey, it works!

Because fabric widths can vary slightly, and especially if you do trim off any selvage, you need to make sure that the skirt body and hem pieces are the same length (length of the rectangle shape, not length of the skirt) Stack them on top of each other, folded edges together, and trim the longer of the two, if necessary.

These are your three pieces. Note that the top piece is the waist piece, unfolded. The other two pieces are shown still folded. This was a smaller skirt, so I didn't need two hem and body pieces. The selvages didn't show with these fabrics and didn't need to be trimmed off, so the entire skirt was cut out with just 4 straight cuts!




Another Option: Feeling creative? The dimensions above create a finished 1” wide hem edge. If you want to change that, follow this formula: For every inch of width you want to increase of the finished hem edge, subtract one inch from the skirt body length and add two inches to the hem piece.

Here's an example:



Step 6: Sew Skirt Hem Piece to Skirt.

Use a ½” seam allowance for all seams. With right sides together, sew hem piece(s) to skirt piece(s).


Press seam allowance towards hem piece.



Step 7: Sew skirt’s side seam(s).

A smaller skirt will only have one seam to sew. Press seam open. If you did not cut the selvage edges, the seam(s) will not need anything more done. If you have cut edges, you will want to finish them to prevent raveling. Do this by sewing a zig zag stitch along the raw edges, or, and this is my favorite way, by cutting them with pinking shears.



Step 8: Finish bottom skirt edge.

Bend over and press edge of hem piece ¼”.



Fold pressed edge over to meet stitched line and press.


Pin folded edge in place. (The more you pin it the easier it will be to stitch this one.) Stitch along fold, about 1/8” of an inch from pressed edge. Viola, your skirt is hemmed and the hem piece is top stitched!



Step 9: Gather skirt and attach waist piece.

Increase the length of your stitch and sew a gathering thread 1/4” from skirt top, starting and stopping thread at each side of side seam. (If you are doing a bigger skirt with two side seams, you will sew two gathering threads. One from one seam to the next on the front of the skirt and another one on the back.)



Shorten your stitch length again. (I always forget to do this!) Then, with right sides together, sew short edges of waist piece together. Finish raw edges. (Don’t the pinked edges look cute?)



Turn waist piece right side out, slip it into the top of the skirt piece. Pull gathering threads and gather skirt to fit waist piece, lining up seam(s) and pressed folds. Pin in place.



Stitch ½” from edge.



Finish raw edges. Using pinking shears doesn’t work well on a gathered edge like this, so I zig zag all the edges together. It isn’t a pretty edge when you’re done, but if the wind ever flips your skirt high enough that it shows, you didn’t make your skirt long enough!



Step 10: Sew elastic waistband.

Press over ¼” of waist edge and press.


Fold over 1” and press again.


Stitch along edge of fold, leaving an opening at one seam for the insertion of elastic.



Cut elastic to waist measurement in length. Pin safety pin to one end and use to thread through elastic casing, making sure other end of elastic doesn’t go all the way into the skirt casing after it.



Overlap ends of elastic about an inch and sew across.



Slip elastic all the way into casing, then stitch casing opening closed.


Clip loose threads, if you didn’t do it as you went along. (I always seem to miss some!)

And you are done!





To see more skirts I made this way, look here.

If, after using this tutorial, you find any parts that are not clear, please let me know so I can try to improve it!

Easy Peasy Skirts

I've done more sewing this spring than I have, I think, in the last two years. I gave up on trying to find the girl's new Easter dresses. I'm not the best shopper. I rarely find great deals on awesome things. And I probably waited too long to find Easter dresses. But everything I found was either immodest, not my taste, and/or more money than I wanted to spend. So, I gave up and decided to make matching skirts for all of us.

In my usual lazy fashion, I wanted to make something quick, cute and cheap. I don't ask much do I? So, after browsing skirt instructions online, I figured out a sewing pattern that didn't need me to buy one, and in less than 24 hours I had my first set of four skirts done! Since then I've made 7 more. Here's a sampling: