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I will be adding to this list frequently…..

John Owen, Sin and Temptation, edited by James Houston (Minneapolis, Minn: Bethany House Publications, 1996), 18

enjoy your summer  )

I thought the information about cutting and hemming a formal gown might be helpful to someone so here it is.

This particular gown has three layers and all three have to be either hemmed or modified in some way.  There is the gown proper or fashion fabric layer, the under skirt or lining and a crinoline.

This is the gown with the fashion fabric pushed up and the crinoline and underskirt showing.

The crinoline can simply be cut; no hemming required.  The lining is made of polyester and is very thin and slick. It will have to be serged or zigzagged and then hemmed.

The gown itself is made of bridal satin. It already has a tiny rolled hemline.  After Marie put the gown on and put on the shoes she will be wearing with the dress, I marked how much it needed to be hemmed.  3 inches!  So, at that point I knew I would need to cut the dress.

The dress is also longer in the back than in the front. So I can’t just lay it down and cut all the layers at once to maintain the train or longer part in the back.

I started by doing my deep breathing exercises and having a cup of coffee.

Next, having decided that I needed a 1/2 inch hem all around, I measured up from the original hem 2 1/2 inches all around the fashion fabric.  I marked 2 1/2 inches all around the bottom of the dress with a pencil.  Cutting at 2 1/2 inches would leave me a 1/2 inch piece of fabric to use for the hem itself.

Measuring up 2 1/2 inches from the original hem.

The underskirt with the fashion fabric and crinoline pushed up

I did the same thing with the underskirt. I measured up 2 1/2 inches and marked it all around.

Next, I used a pencil and connected the  marks I made that were 2 1/2 inches up from the original hem. This created a cutting line.  I cut the dress on my penciled line.  I did the same for the underskirt.  For the crinoline, you could use a magic marker or other wet marker to draw your cutting line.  I just eye balled it and cut it 3 inches up because I will not be hemming the crinoline.

Connecting the dots….

This morning I zigzagged the bottom of the fashion fabric, then turned it under and sewed it on the machine. The hem looks just like the original one.
The thing to watch out for with bridal satin is ruffling of the hem because you stretch it while hemming. So be very careful not to stretch while hemming. If you find you have some ruffling, you can usually steam press it out.

Ruffling…

After steam pressing…

Tomorrow I will zigzag and hem the underskirt and show you the finished product.

If you have ever doubted your place in the world as a homekeeper and stay at home mom…
If you have ever wondered if you are doing it “right”……
If you have felt guilt guilty or confused over what you wear or where you go to church…… If you have worried that you aren’t getting enough done in a day……..
This blog and the associated web site can help you.

I’m just a mom and wife much like you. God has given me a burden for other women in the area of homemaking and godly submission to our on husbands. The way I do that is to offer articles for you to read and help for doing all the practical things a wife and mother does in a day’s time. I pray for the people who visit this site and ask God to guide them and speak to them in whatever way He will.

I won’t try to make you feel guilty about where you are in your walk with the Lord or in your homemaking skills. I haven’t arrived at any goal or place in life where I feel like I am better at homemaking or the Christian Life than you are.

I won’t tell you that this system or that scheme when properly applied to your life will make you the perfect homekeeper. But I do care about you and I will do my best to give you what I believe is scripturally based information to help you along the way.

You will find a lot of interesting information here about making foods from scratch and doing household chores the old fashioned way. But doing things the old-fashioned way won’t necessarily make you a good homekeeper or an obedient child of God.  I hope you enjoy all the information here on the Old Days.  But doing things the old fashioned way won’t make you a better Christian. I hope you enjoy and are able to use all the recipes and kitchen helps on these pages, but being a great cook and organizer won’t make you a better person or a better Christian.

My hope for you Dear Reader, is that you will find God speaking to you here. I pray for you that you will be able to hear God speak in that still small voice about the kind of woman you are….the things that make you happy…. what your goals are……… Who you are serving………Who is first in your life……. and that you will listen to Him and obey Him in whatever He says to you.

I earnestly hope that you will see that God does speak to women in His Word and He gives us instructions to follow for our lives as women. I hope you will take away from here some practical information and lessons for keeping your home and some spiritual insights for living a life pleasing to God.

We’re all the same really in that we want to please God and serve our families. None of us has “arrived” at the goal of being that perfect Christian or wife and mother. I pray daily that this site will help you in that journey.

Home now having eggs and toast. After that, I will start working on hemming a formal dress for a friend. Lydia wants some nightgowns, so will probably toss one together when I take a break from sewing later.

Its time to get those menu plans down and make a grocery list!  My grocery day is usually Thursday or Friday, so I like to get my menus done at least one day before the shopping trip.

This week I will be trying out some recipes from Vickilynn Haycraft’s newest book,  Naturally Healthy Cuisine.

I will be trying these recipes from her book:

Creamy Chicken Broccoli Calzones/Hot Pockets

Turkey Breast With Mushroom Sauce

Summer Time Pasta Pestso

Other recipes on my menu this week:

Breakfasts
whole wheat bagles and cream cheese
eggs and toast
yogurt and fruit/granola
cereal

Lunches
peanut butter and apples
fresh veggies and dips
whole wheat bread sandwiches using sliced meats that I have cooked early in the week, including: turkey, ham or chicken
leftovers
squash from the garden

Suppers
Turkey Breast with Mushroom Sauce for Sunday. This recipe is close enough to one of my own that I don’t mind preparing it for the first time for a Sunday dinner.
Chicken broccoli calzones…. just don’t tell some of my kids there’s broccoli in it.
Pasta Pesto and grilled marinated summer squash.
Split pea soup with ham, cornbread
Baked salmon, oven baked potatoes, green salad from the garden.
Spaghetti and meat sauce.
Leftovers

Desserts and Snacks
Raspberry layer cake . A simple recipe you can make with a yellow cake mix, raspberry jam and a powdered sugar sprinkle over it all when its done.
Chocolate oatmeal cookies.
Homemade granola.

I will have my menu plans out sometime today for those of you who follow that.  And I will see if I can’t find a few recipes to share.

Its just me and the little girl home today.  Everyone else is out and about.  And SHE is still asleep   So I am headed to the deck to have coffee and listen to the birds.