Works For Me Wednesday: Homemade table napkins

While I still had the sewing bug from making those cute curtains for my laundry room, I also tackled a project I had been longing to do for a really long time--

Making table napkins!

And, yes, from a bed sheet, of course. ;) That seems to be a good way to get material, as evidenced by my kitchen curtains and my laundry room curtains. (Click on those links to see what I did.)

My aunt graciously allowed me to cut to pieces use one set of queen-sized bed sheets she had recently given us. They were a kind of burnished orange color, which I figured would be perfect to camouflage the inevitable tomato sauce stains. I measured the flat sheet and found that I could get the best results with cutting the pre-sewn napkins to 19.5 inches square, and made 25 napkins with just the flat sheet (finished size: 17 inches square). This left a narrower strip of cloth along one side, which I cut into 19.5 inch lengths to make "snack-sized" napkins (finished size: 17 inches by 9.5 inches). I also made some even smaller "snack-sized" napkins from leftover material from one of the white bed sheets I used to make my kitchen curtains (finished size: 10.5 inches square).


Since I already had in mind that I wanted to make my own table napkins, I had previously searched online for directions on the best way to make them and found tutorials on how to sew mitered corners. (Click here to see one way to sew mitered corners on napkins.) However, I consider myself fairly new to sewing on a machine and prefer to keep my sanity, so I kept it simple. This is what my simple corners look like:


I highly recommend ironing the seams before pinning them--this simple act made pinning and sewing the napkins a breeze! Also, if you are using a bed sheet, determine whether or not it is worth your effort to rip out existing seams. I used the side and bottom seams, but if I had this to do over again, I would not have ripped out the seam at the top of the sheet. This project took about one day to complete. I now have a good supply of table napkins to replace the...well...t-shirt scraps we had been using for napkins. I still have the fitted sheet and/or the pillow cases if I want to make more, but 25 table napkins (plus the few snack-sized ones) seem to be a good amount for us.

Total cost: Virtually free, since I had matching (albeit really old) thread on-hand that was from my mom's thread collection...and that works for me!


By the way, as an update to my previous Works for Me Wednesday post, Saving Money on Your Electric Bill, my most recent electric bill was $15 less than the previous month! YAY!!! :)

Overheard: Just an Ordinary Child

Grace (age 5) was delighted to see Jason's truck in the parking lot of Staples as we walked to the entrance of the store. She pulled at my hand and told me, "Daddy's here! Daddy's here! I'm gonna surprise him! I'm gonna walk up behind him and smack him on the bum!" She giggled and giggled over this scandalous thought, and practically pulled me into the store so she could find him and sneak up on him. When we found him, she gasped and ran off down another aisle, trying to keep me in sight and trying not to let Jason see her. We had arranged to meet at Staples, so it was no surprise to anyone except Grace. The boys and I stood talking to Jason while Grace planned her strategy. She finally went two aisles over, came up behind Jason, and smacked him on the bum. He pretended to be surprised, and then we all nearly doubled over laughing as Grace did a little victory dance, struck a pose and said, in a sing-song voice,

"Just an ordinary child!"

...As though it were just an ordinary child who had come up behind Jason to smack him on the bum, because that's what ordinary children do in stores. ??? Naturally, that's become our newest random phrase.

~~~~~

Grace walked into the bathroom just after Jason had taken his shirt off to examine his range of motion after a recent shoulder injury. Her immediate reaction?

Grace [in a taunting voice, looking up at him as he looks in the mirror]: You're not strong.

I suppose she thought he was "making a muscle." Of all the people to say this to!! (Jason is a weightlifter and without a doubt the strongest person I know.)

~~~~~

Grace decided to make her own money this week. Jason asked her what she would use the money to buy.

Grace: I'm gonna buy a bulldog!

Josiah (age 9): An English bulldog costs about $1000. Do you have that much?

Grace: [pauses as she considers this crucial piece of information] Then I'll buy a Spanish bulldog!

I've checked--There really is a breed referred to as the Spanish bulldog. No, we're not getting one, and no, Grace didn't know about this breed.

~~~~~

While Grace and Josiah were playing together today, I heard Grace refer to herself again as being "just an ordinary child." Josiah's reaction?

Josiah: An ordinary child? Not hardly!

I agree! Would "just an ordinary child" teach her baby doll Emily to read and help her sound out the words?


Well...perhaps. But how many five year olds do you know who have a job as a Mail Girl...

and take that job very seriously?

I only know one, and trust me...she is no ordinary child.

Saving Money on Your Electric Bill

I've been implementing some money-saving ideas this summer since the summer (actually, it was still spring) kicked off with some horrendous heat. Since it's going to be hot for a while and I'd like to be able to keep the house reasonably cool without running up the electric bill, I've gotten a little more serious with the penny-pinching ideas.

One thing I've done for over a month now is to use a clothesline. During that time, I've avoided using the dryer with two exceptions. (Oh, and I've unplugged the dryer since I'm rarely using it.) Even though it's a really short line (I think it's 17 feet long, and the space in between the two lines is really small), I can hang an entire load of laundry on it, with the exception of a load of whites since there are so many small items.

I've already mentioned here on my blog that I covered cardboard and posterboard with aluminum foil to reflect the sun and heat. Now you get to see a picture of it:


Very classy, I know. But, seriously, it works, and works very well! All summer long (and well into October), our bedroom tends to be stifling hot--but not after I put the aluminum foil up in the window. Even with only about half of the window covered, we have enjoyed noticeably cooler temperatures inside. This window faces our backyard so really y'all are the only ones to see it. Since it's on the other side of our blinds and hidden behind our room-darkening drapes, we don't see it unless we're in the backyard.

When I told my father about this idea, he said that if you use cardboard to make sure the pleats run horizontally so they don't trap any heat.

Something I've been doing for a few years now is to put a piece of tape along the side of the thermostat to prevent little fingers from setting the temperature lower than what Jason and I have set. This year, I also put a piece of tape above the "upper limit" of what is tolerable in the house. This makes it easier to raise the temperature on the thermostat without, shall we say, going too far. I like to prevent mutiny when possible.


I move the tape when we are going to be out of town for several days or when the seasons change--adjusting the temperature boundaries is very easy.

Have these changes saved us money? This is a highly mathematical analysis, but going from one month with slightly-above average temperatures to the next month with horrible, way above average temperatures, our electric bill increased by only $25. Everyone I've talked to about electric bills reported a significantly higher increase in their bill.

See? Highly mathematical.

Ahem.




What tips can you share about how to save money?

You Get What You Pay For

Or, rather, "You gripe about what you don't even have to spend money on because you are 14."

This is what I found one morning when I opened our pantry. Robert (14) had critiqued our bread...The label now reads "'Healthy' White Blandwich Bread."


Yes, "Healthy" is in quotes. I guess Robert already doesn't trust food labels, and yet he shamelessly copies a mayonnaise commercial's use of the made-up word "blandwich."

My 14 year old also criticizes our cereal purchases:



Note: I don't buy "good" cereal (by his standards) because it lasts somewhere between 2 and 3 mornings around here.

This next shopping list, though, is by far my favorite one. Robert (whose real name starts with an "N") had made a list of things he needed/wanted. I added "N's this, N's that" to the list--you know, before he could think of any other "needs." He wrote his response to my addition, and I added my response, too, trying to mimic his handwriting.


Hmmmm...wonder why he scratched out that part? ;)

WFMW: Sew much fun!

Since I obviously haven't been blogging lately, what have I been doing?

You mean besides searching eBay, Amazon.com, and HomeschoolClassifieds.com (and a few other sites) for the last remaining school books we needed for the rapidly-approaching 2011-2012 school year?

I've been sewing.

Years ago, I ran across an old bed sheet (the tag says 1978) that was in perfect condition. I kept it because, even back then, I imagined using the sheet to make some cheerful-looking curtains. Well, I finally did it! Presenting...

My new laundry room curtains!


Jason's first words? "Woah! Those are...some curtains!" Hey, they're behind the door in my laundry room and I'm likely to be the only person in this house who sees them for more than five seconds. Nobody else has to like them. :)

The sheet was in great condition and the gingham print made it very easy to make precise, straight lines. Oh, and I left the "1978" tag on my new curtains...well, just because.


There is more than enough of the bed sheet left over to make Grace a dress from it. (She asked.) Hopefully that won't take as long to get around to doing. ;)

For more details on sewing curtains using bed sheets, check out this post where I made curtains for our French doors.

~~~

What else have I been sewing? "Bean bags" for a bean bag toss game! Inspiration for this idea struck after going to my sister- and brother-in-law's home and they had a new bean bag toss game in the back yard. I (eventually) thought of this structure

February 2009
Left to right: Robert (11), Grace (2), and Josiah (6)

which no longer looks anything like that because two sides were damaged with holes. Still, there are two sides of the playset that are in great condition, and these are the sides with the round holes which would be great for a bean bag toss game, right?

Of course they would! This is what Josiah (a.k.a. Josiah the Builder) came up with to secure the two functional pieces together:


I was thinking of looping rope through those holes at the top, but I guess metal stakes would work just as well.

Ahem.

I looked through my little box of fabric and found some pieces of Jason's old work pants in two different colors for two "teams." I sewed to make three closed sides



and turned it right side out.


Instead of the more expensive plastic "beans" you can find at Michaels, I put about 2/3 cup of uncooked rice in a ziploc bag



and folded the bag to fit inside the cloth so that the rice would be protected from moisture, dirt, mud, bugs, etc.


I pinned the remaining side


and carefully sewed the last side shut, taking care to avoid sewing the plastic bag.



I could have sewn the bags closed with matching thread but these will be sitting in the dirt. I'm not as picky about things that will be sitting in the dirt.

I made sets of bean bags for Josiah (9) and Grace (5) to play with inside, too. Josiah practiced his running stitch with some of these.

Grace wanted to learn to sew, too, so at first I was letting her practice handling pins at the table while I was there sewing with the sewing machine--she practiced running pins in and out of a scrap piece of cloth. Next, I let her loose with a threaded needle and a scrap piece of cloth, and she stuck herself with the needle less often than Josiah did. When she was done, Josiah saw her work and commented, "Wow! She's really good at making BIG stitches!" :) He's such a good brother--there truly wasn't even a hint of sarcasm in that. But there were some really BIG stitches.

Grace persisted with wanting to sew, so I drew some small dashes on another scrap piece of cloth and showed her how to cover up the dashes with her stitches. She did a great job! She can be pretty precise when she wants to be. Future seamstress in the making? Hmmm...

"I just don't remember it being this orange."

My blog post title, which came from a line in my favorite movie*, is what came to mind as I uploaded some recent sunset photos from my camera.



I want to say a special "thank you" to my husband Jason, who frequently tells me when there are pretty sunsets and wanted to be recognized for that. ;)


*Do you know the name of the movie that line came from, and/or who said it?

UPDATED to add:
My friend Nancy posted the correct answer on Facebook...It was from the movie While You Were Sleeping. Sandra Bullock's character said it as she was recounting childhood memories of her father. Yay, Nancy!

Wordless Wednesday

I couldn't decide on one photo of the sun setting behind our church, so I'm including two photos this time. :)

I love the brilliance of the sunlight in this shot

and the greater contrast in this shot.



Photos are SOOC.

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Shibley Smiles, and Baba's Farm Life for more Wordless Wednesday photos.