The Imaginative Seamstress

Yes, this fall I really got into trying my hand at canning different things. It started with the peaches; I'd been at a friend's house while she was canning peaches and it looked simple enough that I decided to try it. After that I did 4 different kinds of jellies, some apples, and most recently pineapple! :-) I was shopping in Aldi, and found a good deal on pineapple. (99cents each) I bought a bunch! I mean like over 30 of them! Somewhere between 30 and 40 pineapple. Several were eaten fresh...there are still a few to be eaten fresh. Yum! A few were chunked up and put in the freezer. About 19 of them went into quart jars, and they were sooo pretty!!! See pictures below v   Canned in a light syrup and water bathed for 20-25 minutes like the ball book says. I wanted to share this blog post mostly to show what I did with the scraps and cores of the pineapple. I wanted to see if I could make pineapple juice from the scraps. So just like I would cook down apples, m

Here and now...and some past **A few thoughts I had started to share in a group on Facebook turned into a news update lol! I actually moved the *now* thoughts near the bottom, after the last picture, because it didn't make much sense to have them at the top. I'm posting this in the sewing blog as well as my personal...just so everyone knows where I went! Its been a while since I've written anything!** Between January and July I had more sewing orders than I needed/wanted. It was a good time of being really busy, but by the time June got here I was in over my head with more work than I could do sewing wise. My mom and sister, Isabel, took on some work too. When I got so many...I guess I could have kept them going but I just felt swamped and needed to slow things down. Orders have been closed since the end of June, but I didn't get them all out until the end of July. I became busy learning about canning different things (other than salsa which I'd al

I'm going to take a minute to bragg on my Mother-in-Love, Jackie, and share some pictures of a swimsuit she made for her Daughter, Amy. Last Spring my Mom and I hosted 2 sewing classes for several friends and family members. I demonstrated one style and my Mom did another. This spring Amy was in need of a suit for camp. With only a few days to spare, Jackie whipped one together. She sent me pictures of the finished work. I didn't take the time until I was about to write this to ask Jackie how she'd gone about this, since I knew she didn't have a pattern. So I've just gotten off the phone with her. I didn't know if she'd taken the suit Amy had used in the past couple years or if she'd just taken a tank and pair of shorts that fit Amy, and gone by those. She said she had the suit out to look at, but mostly went by a tank and shorts that fit Amy snugly, just as my mom had taught the ladies to do in the sewing class last Spring. This is also how I was

I'd had this suit in a bag, unfinished, for a while now... too long really. Yesterday my sister Isabel helped me finish it, and then modeled it for me. Sisters are great aren't they? :-)  I wanted to share the pictures to show how the print is used for the top and pants, but the skirt is solid. Its just a bit different. Sometimes you can't imagine how something will look until you see it. Just another cute version of modest swimwear :-)

I've posted about this Foldover Band before, but the pictures I had were not very good at all! This is another option for a waist band which doesn't use elastic, just the stretchy swimwear fabric doubled over into a 3" waist band. This option is very comfortable, and its really great if you've just had a baby, or if you have a bit of a 'fluffy' middle. This won't cut into the waistline like an elastic band would. Even though I use 3/4" elastic which is a nice thickness, this is even more gentle with the waistline. Shown here with the nursing top the bottoms were ordered with.

This is something new I decided to try this year. I wanted to try something a little different for my little toddler. Something other than the regular modest swimwear tank and skirt top with shorts under it. I've done the women's scrunch top with bottoms and loved the way it looked. I wanted to try the same thing for girls, only slightly less complicated. This one does not have adjustable ties. Not that it couldn't, I just figured it didn't need them. I mean, think about bow ties that other children might pull on, that might get caught somewhere, and they'd never stay tied nicely I'm sure. I eliminated all those probable issues by substituting with elastic added to the inside seam. Here are the pictures in the order I made them. At the lake At the beach! I was about 5 months along, expecting baby #2 I was lounging in a chair, taking a mini nap, when I looked over to see my girl mimicking me

My mother-in-love sent me this video and I would like to share it with everyone. Its a little long, but very worth watching. Here is another woman, perhaps more accomplished than I, who has a swimwear making company. I have seen her suits o nline, and though I would not be comfortable in them (just because I've been so well covered my whole life, I can't seem to do less :-) And my husband wouldn't want me to), they do cover more than many modern swimsuits. Her message is great! It comes with some research about how men view a woman in a bikini, pretty interesting stuff. I think my favorite suit she has is the Holly: http://www.reyswimwear.com/collections/holly  Unfortunately I couldn't get the video to embed here so here's the link from youtube: Evolution of the Swimsuit

Wow! That's about all I can say about the volume of emails and orders I've received this year. I guess I should say "Praise the Lord!" My dream of selling modest swimwear online definitely came true. I'm hoping my next dream comes true in the beginning of next year...stay tuned :-) In May of this year I had more orders than I had the entire previous year. Recently, as in 2 weeks ago, I had orders coming in every day, 1 or 2 each day for more than a week. Now, really, I'm not used to having so many so close together. Maybe 4 most in a week. Not 10 orders with over 15 suits..in one week! My turn around time has gotten pushed back a bit and at the moment I've put a hold on orders until I get these cleared out. Its been really crazy. Some very late nights and no time to do a few things I really want/need to. Like tend my garden, (its over run with weeds, and if I get it back..it will take a lot of work) and teach my daughter (20 months) to swim. We did get in