Repurposed T-shirt

Thanks to Pinterest I now have a way to actually wear all of those mission trip and retreat t-shirts I have accumulated over the past 7 years in youth ministry. Here is the blog link with the tutorial.

It took me 15 minutes start to finish, I have a stack of shirts that I am gonna do this to- I am not a boxy t-shirt wearer.

Sewing Group

Yesterday 2 of my girlfriends came over to sew.

It was Elizabeth's second visit and Amanda's first.
They each brought their machine, Elizabeth a veteran sewer, Amanda made her first project ever and I somewhere in between.

Oh how glorious it was.
Girls, coffee, homemade pumpkin muffins, thanks Elizabeth, sewing and girlfriends!

Back to the Basics

Welcome to Vintage Sheet.

This blog has kind of become a dumping ground for all the things I want to reference on the web pertaining to turning my small lot in the fringe of the burbs into a small self-sustaining farm.

A friend of mine recently started a new blog focused on her love of sewing.
She inspired me,
to do the same.

I started my family blog to keep a record of our lives.
I started this blog to keep track of my sewing projects. In my oh so great ADHD state of life, I chased a squirrel around at Vintage Sheet, but now I am going back to posting all things sewing here.

I hope that you would be inspired to sew something.
To connect with a part of our American heritage that will be lost if we don't practice and teach it.

Welcome and please join me in my journey through sewing.

Garden Update

These are the first batch of tomatoes from my plants. I have eaten several single ones as I've run off to work or on my way in the door. My plants are in pots lining the front door walkway! I just love having my garden in an area where I can enjoy it during my "normal" day.

Speaking of normal I really miss doing the home thing. The tending the house and yard, as well as sewing, baking and spending days cleaning and arranging. That is what I'd like my normal to be again.
-deep breath-
Today I am not in that position.

My cucumbers are growing up a small incline made from a piece of vinyl lattice. Well,... sometime yesterday the lattice flipped over on top of my plants!!! Yikes! They still look healthy and I put everything back as it should be, now it's the wait.

Realizing how I had forgotten how much I love being outside in my garden, dirt under my nails, sweat running down my back.
Realizing how I miss handstiching curtains and how cleaning out my entryway is theraputic.

Settling in on James chapter 1 right now.
Also listening to a great new band: mewithoutYou.
-Michelle

4 Generations of Embroidery

I realized, I know I'm a bit slow, that hand stiching and embroidery are not only in my blood, but I've always done some sort of it.

On Christmas day my gradmother, my mother and I all sat down for some stitching in my sewing room and we shared and talked baout our stiching/sewing past. Mainly I was interested in hearin gmy grandmother talk about her mother. My great grandmother was an incredible women; besides being a single mom of 9 kids 100 years ago, she was a prayer warior, a servant to anyone who came into her home and a sewer, and embroiderer to be exact. I was given an apron that she had made when she was in her 80's. She didn't have a sewing machine, so it was all hand stitched and the work was excellent. Flawless. She not only folded her corners and seams with perfection, she also added evenly spaced decor. We found humor when I tied the apron around my "waist" and asked, "What good did only a 1/2 apron do?"
My grandmother, who is 84, looked at me, smiled and said, "Well they wore them around their actual waist first of all, and if my mother could see you she would be speechless." (speechless is something not common amoung the women in my family) The I tied the apron around my actaul waist and I got it! It protects my cloths from all the places they get messy while tending my home, of course it also ages me by about 30 years!
What a cool day we had, sharing, talking, bonding.
The joy of sewing.