How to hem those jeans that are too long!

Hi all,

A few months ago while searching around on Pinterest, I came across a pin on how to hem jeans. I have hemmed jeans for a while but never, ever, thought about doing it this way! I LOVE the fact that you can keep the original hem. Not long after I came across that pin, I was given a pair of jeans. They fit perfect, everywhere except... you guessed it... the length!

I've been having these jeans on my sewing table for quite a while, I have to admit! I went in once to sew them as the directions stated... but in my hurry (I was trying to get them done in the 15 minutes before I had to walk out the door and head to work) I broke the sewing machine needle in them.  Which reminds me... BE CAREFUL AND GO SLOWLY... or you might break the sewing machine needle!

Last night, I finally got around to finishing them.  They came out PERFECT! I wanted to share the instructions with you...

I did add one final step that I will tell you about in a minute, otherwise, this is exactly how I fixed them.

1. Try on your jeans and fold the hem up to the length you would like them to be when finished. Remember to wear shoes while you do this, as it usually adds height.

2. Carefully take the pants off, being careful to keep the hem folded to your desired length. Measure the hem... like so: Measure UP TO the original hem, to not include the hem in your measurement!

These pictures are not my own, I borrowed them from Sew Much Ado... 

3. Divide this measurement in half. Example, in the picture the hem measurement is 2 inches... 2 divided in half equals 1... so your new measurement is 1 inch. Now you will need to re-measure the hem using your new hem measurement and pin into place.

4. Do this for both legs all the way around... remember to check the measurement often.

5. Using the foot of your choice, stitch around each jean leg, through both layers as close to the original hem as possible, but do not sew ON the original hem.

6. Fold the edges to the inside of the jean legs and try on your pants to make sure your happy with the new length!

If you are happy Press the folded edges upward towards the inside of each jean leg. If you had to hem a LOT of your jean, you may want to cut the excess fabric like so.

All I did extra was top stitch close to the new hem line to keep the fabric held upwards. 

That's it! Enjoy your new hemmed pants without the hemmed look!

Tips and Tricks I LOVE!

All of these tips and pictures were taken from Pinterest! I love them all. More to come at a later date!

DUST - A dryer sheet can be used to dust, not only does it get the job done, but it coats the surface area repelling dust from sticking there in the first place. Use it on your baseboards to repel pet hair, and keep things from sticking to the baseboards, they just roll to the floor where you can sweep them away! 

(Picture credit to Chaotically Creative.com via pinterest!)

WINDOWS - Clean your windows like a pro! Using Dawn Dishwashing liquid, a dish scrubbie, and a window squeegie. Simply use water, soapy from the dishwashing liquid. Dip the scrubbie into the solution and scrub your windows with it. Afterwards, you squeegie the water off the windows and see them sparkle!

STOVE BURNERS - Get the gunk off your burners with out scrubbing! Caked on mess can be dissolved right off by simply letting them soak in a plastic bag over night with ammonia (soak them OUTSIDE as the fumes are strong) when you wake in the morning, rinse them off and watch the mess wash off with ease. My grandmother does this once a month, and swears by it!

CLOSETS - Clothes keep slipping off those hangers? Use a hot glue gun to apply a zig zag pattern on the arms of your hangers to prevent all your shirts and dresses from falling off!

 FRIDGE - Hate cleaning up spills in the fridge, use press'n seal to line your shelves, when spills or grime start to appear, simply remove and re-line... no more soaking and scrubbing!

STOVE - Help your stove repel spills, splatters and grime by coating it with a slight layer of car wax, watch those spill wipe right up after using this trick, it also works on the tub and sinks to prevent water stains and help to block soap scum from forming. 

BEACH SAND - Next time you head to the beach, don't forget the baby powder. It helps remove sand from your skin!

FREEZER - Cool way to freeze your meat... try this and you'll be able to "snap off" as much as you need at a time!

SNACKS - Go ahead and cut those apples ahead of time for your little ones, simply keep the apple held together with a rubber band to prevent it from turning brown.

STRAWBERRIES - Hull your strawberries with a straw!

Christmas Traditions and Salt Dough Ornaments!

Hi Friends,

Now that we are beginning to put up our Christmas decorations... it's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!! :)

When I was pregnant with our son (Who is turned 10 on the 16th!)  I was huge and miserable! It was Halloween night and I was trying to find projects to keep me busy or throw me into labor.  We never celebrated Halloween and no one really tricks or treats around our neighborhood... so that was pretty much out.

I decided, that even though it was early... I would take down the Christmas tree and start decorating it. This sort of became a family tradition for us. Each year on Halloween night, we would take down the Christmas Decorations and begin to decorate our living room.  I said to myself (why take all of those decorations down, and put them up only to last a few weeks and have to take them down again? Why not let them stay up there for a couple of months?)

We have done this every year for the last 10 years now... except for this year : (  we have had so many things going on, that we just didn't have the time to take the stuff out of the attic for Halloween. 

So, we are late getting things going... but we are getting there :). 

I also try to get all of my children, and god children, nieces and nephews together every year and make salt dough ornaments for them to hang on their trees at home.  They have loved this!  I am going to try my best to do this again this year for them since they enjoy it so much. You simply mix the salt dough ingredients together, bake to set and harden it... then decorate with paint, glitter, glue, markers, etc. 

Here is the ingredients you can try with your own kids! 

• one part salt
• one part water
• two parts flour
• Blend together until a sticky dough forms
• Kneed together for 7 - 10 minutes on a well floured surface
• Once it feels smooth and elastic, you are ready to start making the ornaments.
• Keep any dough you are not using at the moment wrapped in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out before you get to it. 
• You can roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to design ornament shapes, or you can give the kids each a handfull of dough to make their own designs. REMEMBER to place a little hole with a toothpick so they can be hung after they have hardened. 
• To rid them of any moisture, bake them in an oven at 200 degrees for 4-6 hours. 
• Once they are hardened, you can decorate them with glitter, markers, paint, etc.

You can seal them with with 3-4 very thin coats of polyurethane gloss varnish to last forever!

Here are some photos of Salt Dough Ornaments I have found online!

There are so many different ways to dress up these ornaments... the last pictures shows salt dough ornaments stamped with actual ink stamps, then dried out afterwards, very cute and the possibilities are endless!

Another tradition we have always had, was we allow the kids to open one gift the night of Christmas Eve... they are allowed to open the rest of their gifts on Christmas morning. 

This will have to change this year though... last year I spoke with the kids about an idea I had regarding the amount of gifts they receive from us.  They all loved the idea and we will be implementing it starting this year. 

They know that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. 

I asked the children how many gifts Jesus received on his birthday... we read from the bible and they discovered that Jesus received 3 gifts on his birthday.

I asked them how they felt about receiving only 3 gifts each, every year for Christmas.  They would receive a small gift in the price range of 5-10 dollars... a medium gift in the price range of 25-50 dollars... and a large gift in the price range of 60-100.  

They could each write a list of the gifts they would love to receive from each price range, and me and their dad would get together and pick one item from each price range to purchase for them for Christmas.

I was really surprised that they loved this idea. I thought it would eliminate the greediness of Christmas... I really disliked when they would open a gift, toss it aside and ask if there was another one for them to open. It really took away from the actual meaning of Christmas.

Because we are going to start this NEW tradition this year, of only 3 gifts each... I think it would be a good idea to start getting some small stocking stuffers to fill their stockings also (something I never really did before, I usually just hang them for decorations) and we will allow them to have their stockings on Christmas Eve night instead of opening a gift.

We sometimes stay up and bake cookies, no... not for Santa. I was never told that there was a Santa growing up, and I never told my kids that there was one.  I do have a 7 year old who asked me if it was ok if she believed in Santa... and I told her if she wanted to, that it was fine with me :) But the cookies we bake are for us to enjoy, snuggled together as a family, watching a Christmas movie on Christmas Eve... just me, my hubby, my handsome son and my three beautiful daughters. 

So... in keeping with the Rambling giveaway theme... I will be choosing a lucky winner who comments on one of my Ramblings to win a beautiful Christmas ornament!

The question for today is... What are some of the Holiday Traditions you share with your family? Or your favorite memories of Traditions your parents or grandparents once shared with you?

Thanksgiving & Christmas Table Runner!

Hi friends,

I was so excited to share this with you all...

Staying with the Thanksgiving/Christmas theme…. After viewing a lovely post on another blog I love to visit ~ SEE POST HERE ~ I decided to try my hand at creating this beautiful table top quilt! She did make it look so easy!  I had the idea of creating mine with fall-ish colors to be set out from October – the end of November…

This is how it turned out… unfinished as of yet because I had ANOTHER idea while creating the top for this piece. (Please excuse the community coffee on the right side of the table... oops)

 My OTHER idea was to make this table top quilt REVERSABLE!  I thought it would be neat to make the other side of it Christmas-y so that when it’s time to change the décor… all I have to do is flip the quilt to reveal the other side and I am finished!

I was playing with all sorts of ideas, not fully settled on any one, when my supervisor came into work one day and gave me a box full of scrap pieces of bridesmaids dress fabric… some were a deep red, and others were a silver… I knew exactly what I was going to use some of them for!

This is what I came up with for the other side…

Still, unfinished because I have yet to put the binding on it... and please forgive the low quality of these pictures, as I'm still having camera issues and these were taken with my phone : /  also, the chips and scores on this counter top.. it is very, very old indeed. 

I hand drew a shape that I thought looked close to a Christmas light... after creating 15 of each shiny fabric color (30 in total) I did a zig zag on the top of each one in the alternate color.  I then hand drew the "wire" with pencil to decide how I would like it, and then top stitched with a thick black thread. 

So I did a simple square quilting on it, and now all I have to do is place the binding.. I was thinking of something neutral... like a light tan, or off white.. and I will be finished.

  

I promised to choose someone from these ramblings to receive a beautiful Christmas ornament... so here is the question for this post...

Tell me what was your favorite hand made Holiday craft  ever... either made by you, or received as a gift.

Spray Paint Throw Pillows?!

As you all know.. I love to find free tutorials online... I happened across a tutorial for spray painted throw pillows using wax paper and it caught my attention... so I read on about the steps, etc.

On my way home that very day I stopped at the store and picked up wax paper and spray paint :)  I thought it would be a very neat project for the kids to do... they could all do anything they wanted, and have a pillow for their room that was completely customized by them, for them... PRETTY COOL!...

I just wasn't too sure how it would all turn out.

Here are the finished projects...

My son, is all boy!  Knuckle Heads room is done in a dark blue, and he is always catching some sort of critter... so for his pillow, we did a Gecko... I really like the way this one turned out.

My daughter had a friend sleeping over, so she made a pillow as well.  She wanted a "Cute Smiley Face" I can draw pretty well, but a "Cute Smiley Face"?!  So I said, well, how about we do the word Smile, with :) behind it.  She replied.. how about Capital X and Capital D... so that's what we did .... Smile XD in a cute font.

My oldest loves the cute skull and cross bones... as well as peace signs and hearts. She actually wanted a heart on both sides of her name, but when she began to spray the paint (a little too zealously) one of them flew away... so she was left with the one. I still think it came out pretty well.

Tinker Bell wanted the word LOVE... but she wanted a cute font.  I'm telling you, I must have gone through about 30 different fonts with her before she fell in love with this one.  Instead of choosing one paint color, she wanted to do both pink and purple. So we layered a pink stripe, then a purple, then a pink, then a purple.  It has an almost tie dye look to it.

You can see the tutorial yourself at V and Co. by clicking the button bellow.

Here are some other orders / projects I have been working on lately :)

Reversible Shoes!

Cutie Pie, Honey Bunch!

A happy Customer!

Thank you all... and happy creating!

~Angel~