The Domestic Wildflower

Handmade Food & Craft Tutorials for Beginners

Jenny Gomes

Hands Down Card: An Easy Activity to do with Kids

by Leave a Comment

I am a wholehearted lover of snail mail and handmade cards. I am actually pretty terrible at the paper arts but I thoroughly appreciate the intricate and beautiful things folks who love scrapbooking and zigzag scissors can do in the way of creating cards. My comfort level is in the textile arts, and in a flaw of character, I generally stick to my strongest suit.

I usually keep my card creation simple and glue-free but since I have had children I have dabbled more into the mysterious realm of paint. My current and ultra creative babysitter (I’ve been blessed with several awesome sitters, hallelujah!) showed my daughter how to make this card and we have been making Hands Down cards for every occasion since. I think it is a good starter card for the art-phobic and I love how it customizable for any event. For example, you could change up the tagline and say, “Let’s Give You a Hand” or paint a little foot and do a footprint; there are lots of options. It is satisfyingly messy without consuming an afternoon with clean up and captures tiny hands (that grow so fast!) on paper. Sigh. Read on for the easy how-to!

Paper: I have used construction paper and fancy-ish watercolor paper and the white paper pilfered from the printer. Skip the printer paper and use anything a bit sturdier if it is around.

Paint/Ink: I have used watercolor paints with the best success because it is easiest to get on a wiggly hand quickly and while it might be drippy, I think it’s my favorite so far. I have used a washable marker which is not as washable as you might hope nor does it stay wet enough for long enough to make an amazing print. I haven’t tried acrylic or the thicker poster-type paint because I don’t have any on hand (I admit, I’m somewhat art project phobic) and it seems really messy. I think it would make the shape of the hand nicely, but not the actual finger print that the watercolor does so well. You choose.

Process: Get paper and materials ready. With particularly young or wiggly children, I’d do a dry run where they practice placing their hands on the paper and letting you lift their hand off. My daughter is 3 ½ and we haven’t had an age-related mess yet. Paint the hand quickly, and don’t worry about getting in the chubby creases of the fingers or palms- that’s part of the cuteness. Place hand palm down and you might press the back of the hand a bit to get the palm printed firmly and help the painted child pull their hand off the paper. Either live life dangerously and paint the second hand and hope they can keep the still paint-y hand off you, your hair, etc. or wash hands and repeat for the other side.

Print: Depending on the age of the child, you or they can write the salutation. I love my multi-color Sharpies but they are definitely off limits for my daughter and she was ok with that. Soon, she will want to do her own writing and we will use the washable markers for that.

Now it is signed, sealed and ready to be delivered! Easy and fast, this craft is a hit with relatives who want to admire a child’s handiwork. It also exudes a homemade air that may or may not be present in other areas of your life so I’d embrace this one and go with it!

Share in the comment section below any other easy art projects you have done with kids! Happy crafting!

Very Inspiring Blog Award

by Leave a Comment

Very Inspiring Blogger Award| A Domestic Wildflower click to read what inspires this crafting, sewing, DIY, canning blogger and see why she's so inspiring!

 

I have been honored with the Very Inspiring Blogger award by Hannah of Palindrome Dry Goods. Her blog is spot on and her taste in fabrics is delicious. Check her blog out here and Etsy shop here.

Here’s how the award works!

Award Guidelines:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and add a link to their blog.

2. Display the award logo in a blog entry

3. List the award guidelines so your nominees will know what to do

4. State 7 hidden facts about yourself OR 3 things that inspire you.

5. Nominate other blogger friends for the award.

I will choose to share three things that inspires me with you all.

  1. Fabric

Fabric is as much a part of my memory as smell or music is the rest of us. When I see fabric from my past- the heart print sheet set from when I was a little girl, the jewel tone floral from the couch cushions my mom made, the mod polka dot print of my first day of teaching school skirt- I can recall instantly, effortlessly, the feeling of the time when I wore or felt or enjoyed the fabric (or didn’t enjoy, like the scratchy green lame’ sleeves from when I was a wintertime flower girl). I remember what each interviewer wore when I was interviewed for the Ford Family Scholarship when I was a senior in high school and when I applied for my first and only teaching job. I remember what many of my students wore on their first days of school, all eight first days that I have taught.

For me, fabric choice is such a deliberate and personal thing, and though often free and easy when I’m standing in my closet or in the fabric store, I read into it a great deal. So when I’m checking out what someone wore to an important event, it isn’t with a negative eye. It is me making a memory and trying to discern what consciously or subconsciously the wearer was trying to feel by choosing it. When I open dusty boxes of old fabric belonging to my Gram or other relatives I feel a great excitement and privilege, like I am seeing paints belonging to Botticelli or Michelangelo. This is all so, so “fabric nerd” of me but I will wear that label with pride. Fabric inspires me big time.

2. My Gram

My grandma Glory Ann inspires my creative process in many ways. She’s a realistic and practical sewist. I often think, “What would Gram do?” when faced with domestic dilemmas. She is 83 years young and has lived through some very tough and some very wonderful things. Because of her unfailingly kind and sensible influence, I am a better, more practical, reflective, and more realistic sewist and person.

She would never splurge on yards of fabric without having a plan in mind for their use, for example. She and I might come up with a realistic plan on the spot in the fabric store, but we aren’t gals without a plan. When I make a mistake cutting, I admonish myself to be more like her, to read the directions more carefully before taking out the scissors. When I need to rip out a seam, I try to recall her saying, “Oh, it will be all right!” and laughing about a sewing misstep. When I suggested trying out an old, found pressure cooker without getting the gauge checked and without the instruction book, she wisely recalled a kitchen explosion of her own where berries and glass ended up in her ceiling. I thus got the pressure cooker checked.

Frugality and thrift are popular buzzwords now but until you see the large sack of zippers my Gram ripped out of worn-out garments and saved her whole dang life for future use, I’m afraid you aren’t understanding the real philosophy of “make do and mend” the way she (and other awesome ladies of a certain age, time and place) does. I’m working my way through her sack of zippers, one project at a time, and I’ll never forget to ask myself, “What would Gram do?”.

5754848_orig

3. Saving Money

It is all well and good to say that money doesn’t matter but it does. It matters a lot. It matters a lot to me because I see money as time. The more money I make plus the less money I spend equals more time. I want all the time I can at home with my kids, spending time doing things I want to do. I love my job and am lucky to have a well-paying job that is so enjoyable and I wish the same for all of my students. But, I am inspired by those who figure out a way to make something last, make it for less, and make something better. If money-saving steps like hanging laundry out to dry (in my post here) and saving some strawberries from the compost pile (here and here) can become automatic, our lives improve in ways we can’t measure in dollars and cents. I was lucky enough to have some very frugal women in my family (my mom and Gram above, specifically) teach me how to do things the smart way, as opposed to the easier, and often more expensive way, and thus I spend very little time thinking about money now. I want to work smarter, not harder, and I’m inspired by anyone who does just that.

I’d like to nominate Elena of Randomly Happy. Her sewing technique is top notch and I love her choice in fabrics. Her writing style is smooth as silk as well. Be sure to check out her very inspiring sewing blog!

What inspires you, Wildflowers? Share in the comment section below!

3071219

How to Hang Laundry On the Line the RIGHT Way + the BEST Detergent!

by Leave a Comment

How to Hang Laundry On the Line the RIGHT Way + the BEST Detergent!!  Read on for tips for drying your clothes on a clothesline plus read about my favorite laundry detergent!
How to Hang Laundry On the Line the RIGHT Way + the BEST Detergent!
This post contains affiliate links.
Not only is a clothesline full of wet laundry idyllic and romantic, it is frugal, sensible, and not much work at all. Hanging your clothes out to dry imparts them with a delicious fragrance that cannot be replicated nor poured from a bottle and it saves on the damage the high heat of a dryer causes (goodbye fried underwear elastic). Whether a washline conjures for you images of the country or of Mediterranean apartments high above the stone streets below, you can employ a few of these techniques to dry your clothes the old fashioned way.

When you pull a load of clothes out of the dryer, it is a jumbled mess. When you pull clothes from the clothesline, they can be pulled in an orderly fashion which saves the time of sorting tiny baby socks stuck to the inside of grownup pant legs and the like. You can do a lot of the sorting and folding work while putting the clothes out to dry rather than fighting a static-y mess from the dryer later. *Genius.*

Clothesline 101

Before you decide you can’t use a washline because you haven’t the space, let me share the virtues of the clothes rack. The ones I have used and loved have all been wood but I know some are made of metal also. I have one made by Robbins Home Goods out of Maine and it has served me well for over 8 years. Yeah, it is kind of a big awkward thing but it folds flat and can be stored behind a door or under a bed when I’m not using it, which is almost never. This is the one I have and love.

My sister uses the wooden rack that my Great Grandmother used and it is still as sturdy as can be. You can buy a really simple and surely flimsy one at a big box store for about ten bucks but I’d recommend making an investment in a sturdy one that you can hang more than one load of laundry on at a time. They are advertized based on the number of drying feet they feature. Mine has about 50 feet of drying space, for example, and I fit about a load and a half on it. I use it by the wood stove in the winter and on the deck in the summer. A rack also cannot be beat for drying sweaters and delicates.

If you do have the space, a clothesline can be terrific. My clothesline is cotton twine tied with a Munter hitch (a knot that isn’t as fancy as it sounds) between the beams on my deck and it works perfectly. When choosing the site for a clothesline consider that while you don’t need direct sun, it is best if air can move around. Remember also that tree pitch and other organic matter can fall from above onto your clean laundry so plan accordingly.

When choosing clothespins, I’d look for a strong spring over anything else. I prefer wood because plastic ends up breaking eventually but if you see some of any variety at a second hand store or in someone’s attic, use them. You can keep your clothespins on the line or you might find it useful to make a bag for them that hangs on the line and is never far away.

How to Hang Laundry On the Line the RIGHT Way

There’s a knack to pinning clothes on a line to limit the tell-tale dried-in pinch marks and I hope my photos demonstrate how to prevent that. The way you lay clothes on the rack or line is how they will dry. If the pant legs are wadded up, they will dry that way, and slowly too because wrinkles dry more slowly that smooth fabric.

When I look at my basket of wet laundry ready to be hung, I pick a category of clothes or a person they belong to and hang those up together so when they are dry, I can fold them on the spot and then put them directly into the correct drawer.

This means that I hang all my son’s tee shirts together, in a row, then my daughter’s shirts, then their pants respectively.

Yeah, sometimes I don’t see a little boy shirt till the end and it ends up next to my underwear but for the most part it works. All of my husband’s work tee shirts get hung together, upside down, in a row, for example. By doing a good job of smoothing the fabric as you hang it and by sorting as you go, you save a lot of time. If you have a warm day and the air is moving, you can bet the dry time can be much faster than in the dryer and the process is completely free.


How to Hang Laundry On the Line the RIGHT Way + the BEST Detergent!
Notice how the tee shirt isn’t folded over the line? I like to pin them so they aren’t folded over so they are completely flat like this so they don’t look “hung up”

Jeans and towels are the items that most people seem to insist upon drying in the dryer. Some jeans need to be shrunk up to maximize their fit and God knows I wouldn’t want anyone in saggy-bottom jeans. I grew up with super scratchy line dried towels and I like the feel of them but I get it; some of you want super soft towels. In these scenarios I’d suggest line drying till they are halfway dry and then tossing in the dryer. You’d probably be pleased.

How much money does using a clothes line save? There’s a lot of things to factor in, and math is not my strongest suit but I can say that in my family of 4, in the dead of winter, our electric bill is over $250 and in the summer it is often under $90. We have an electric water heater and wood heat. Also consider that in the summer I probably do fewer loads all together because shorts and tees take up less room in the laundry basket than do pants and sweatshirts, but overall, I know that it indeed saves money.

The Best Laundry Detergent

As for the laundry detergent I’ve been happiest with, I can’t say enough good things about Norwex. Their laundry detergent UPP is  free of fillers which can be anything from chalk, sheet rock ground peanut, whale bones, and other nonsense that doesn’t belong in your laundry. I learned about fillers at the end of my cloth diapering journey when I got my new, high efficiency washing machine. As nice as it is in some ways, it uses less water which means it simply doesn’t wash out those fillers as easily. Couple that with the hard water in my area and my cloth diapers weren’t absorbent, my whites weren’t bright white anymore, and my clothes felt…you know that feeling when you don’t wash the conditioner in your hair out all the way? My clothes felt like that. The Norwex Ultra Power Plus laundry detergent is free of fillers so my clothes are clean AND I appreciate that every dollar I spend on detergent is actually purchasing soap…not chalk that I have to fight to remove from my clothes on the next load. If you want to check out this wonderful detergent, talk to my friend Cassie. She’s a mom who sells this really high quality laundry soap, along with other family friendly cleaning products. I’m also in love with their mop… but that’s a topic for another blog post 🙂

If I haven’t convinced you to hang your clothes on the line and get vastly better laundry detergent yet, check out this lovely infographic. It outlines all the ways you can save money during the laundry process.


How to Hang Laundry On the Line the RIGHT Way + the BEST Detergent!

Source: Fix.com

You might love to read my post about how to make your own dryer balls right here next!
What do you think, Wildflowers? Share your washline tips in the comment section below! Happy washing!
How to Hang Laundry On the Line the RIGHT Way + the BEST Detergent!

SaveSave

SaveSave

How To Dye Fabric

by Leave a Comment

How To Dye Fabric

Dying fabric takes a certain level of comfort with commitment. There are products sold to remove dye but I have never used them and it sounds like more work and less fun than I’m looking for in my naptime sewing pursuits. I chose to dye several of my husband’s worn out, plain white work tee shirts with the intention of sewing them into baby leggings (excellent use of any knit), little girl skirts, and my flyaway back tank that I posted about here. This was a great way to use up the parts of the shirts that aren’t worn out, though was a little tedious cutting around the holes.

You can buy a fairly inexpensive bottle of liquid dye or even less expensive powdered dye and new life to old or faded fabrics pretty easily. Rit is a popular brand that I have had great success with but there are many other brands out there that are awesome also. Rit is appropriate for cotton, cotton blends, linen, other natural fibers, and some polyester blends. Generally, the more man-made fiber content, the more it would behoove you to seek out a brand of dye specifically for that fabric type.

I was inspired by the beautiful shibori dying technique (examples here and here) but chose teal dye instead of navy. I used rubber bands to bunch up tie-dye-style the old tee shirts and placed them in a clean 5-gallon bucket, and put the bucket in our wash basin. Someday I may write an ode to the ever-useful wash basin that seems less and less popular in newer homes but I will be brief and just say I love mine for projects just like this one. In addition to needing a clean, non-porous bucket or receptacle you need a stirring stick. I grabbed a stick from the yard and was very glad to not have to worry about cleaning it. For past projects, I used a yardstick. If you have no stick handy, choose a non-porous (hard plastic) stick and avoid metal as it can react with the dye and probably change the dye a bit and perhaps pit the metal.

Picture

The directions will likely direct you to stir, stir, stir, and I wouldn’t skimp on this even if you are dying old tee shirts. The agitation is pretty important. The next step will be to rinse by hand and wash in a washing machine. Surely, you should use gloves to rinse but I’d be lying if I said I did. And my cuticles were green as a result.

I like to have a plan of what I will wash in the washing machine after I dye fabric. Rags or the plastic shower curtain are good choices to be sure your washing machine is free of excess dye. Run a large, empty load or a tub wash cycle, then wash something like rags directly afterward to be on the safe side.

The dying is actually very simple. Follow the directions on the bottle or box which are all basically going to tell you to add water, the dye, maybe white vinegar and/or salt (as a fixative which will help the dye “stick” to the fabric) and stir. The amount of fabric you can dye is based on weight- usually a pound or two of fabric per container of dye.

The advantage of liquid dye is minimal but clear: you don’t have to wonder if you have stirred vigorously enough for long enough the cauldron of teal blue water to dissolve the powder entirely. I have never had trouble with the Rit powdered kind and because it comes in a cardboard box, rather than a plastic bottle, and is less expensive by about $2, I’d say it is preferable for casual dying projects.

As for washing the hand-dyed garments later, I try my best to wash in cold water and with vinegar in the additive dispenser.

Easy, right? Tell me in the comment section below, Wildflowers, what have you dyed with success? Share your tips below!

How to Dye Fabric | A Domestic Wildflower

One Sewing Pattern Three Ways: Simplicity 1589

by Leave a Comment

One lesson that this post address is how to make sewing cost effective. If you purchase a full price pattern, brand new fabric at full price, and all the matching thread and notions, it is likely you won’t be making a garment that costs you less than buying one of far inferior quality but is inarguably similar. In fact, sewing can be a really expensive hobby. However, as I learned to work at a fabric store, the way to make it pay is by choosing patterns that have many options that you will truly use. I purchased Simplicity pattern 1589 and made three tops so far- I’m not done yet! The subsequent times you use a pattern you are much faster and the process can be much more enjoyable.
1 Sewing Pattern, 3 Variations: Simplicity 1589 | A Domestic Wildflower click through to read this helpful beginner sewing post that demonstrates how easy it is to make very different garments from one pattern.

I worked at JoAnn’s Fabrics the whole time I was in college and let me tell you; I LOVED it. If you have to be at work early in the morning on the weekend while attending college in a super fun town like I had to, JoAnn’s is the place to be. Customers choose to shop there because they are making something awesome. That’s a great vibe to be around and I learned a lot about sewing by working there.

I’d recommend this pattern to a beginner as it is from their “Learn to Sew” line which means the instructions are very clear, the techniques needed are fairly basic, and it was simple to sew. I chose it specifically because I love back interest in garments and this pattern is a loose tank that pulls over the head and has either a cut out or a flyaway back interest. Both styles allow for a standard brassiere and are easy to take in.

On all three tanks I took the sides in significantly; about three inches on each side. I’m slender and while I like the flowy look it was a bit too billowy and hid my shape rather than flattered it.

The grey and orange one shows off the cut out back and while you wouldn’t have to do the color blocking, I love how it turned out. I can’t take credit for pairing those fabrics; They were rubber-banded together in a box of fabric belonging to our Great Aunt Betty, bless her stylish heart.
The floral top is made from a rayon blend which is has a nice drape and I love the flyaway back. This was the first top from the pattern I made and I made it in an afternoon (with a small baby around, no less) the day before I planned to wear it. Success!
The aqua knit number was an experiment in lots of ways. I will write a full post on how I did it soon, but the short story is that I dyed several of my husband’s worn out white work tee shirts with Rit dye and used them for one of these tops. It was totally breaking the rules because the pattern calls for woven fabrics and this is obviously knit. I have found that it sometimes works out okay when you use a knit when it calls for a woven but if you go the other way around and use a woven when it calls for knitting you are asking for trouble. In this top, I’d say it was a success on all counts.

The pattern suggests lots of types of wovens that are making me eager to rustle up a yard and a half of eyelet, voile, or linen.

I know there is a lot to consider when choosing a sewing pattern but I have found that the most important thing when investing in a pattern is the different options it has and the likelihood that you will sew the pattern multiple times. Bear that in mind and you will get a greater return on your sewing investment.

The photographs for this post were taken by the lovely and talented Della Hayden of Circle Bar Photography. If only she lived closer, she’d be taking all my photos!

Sew on, Wildflowers! What pattern have you used and loved for its versatility? Share in the comment section below!

If you love beginner friendly inspirations like these, subscribe and never miss a post!

Yes, PLEASE!

If you want to learn how to sew, check out the courses HERE!

One Sewing Pattern Three Ways: Simplicity 1589