Simplicity 9958

Argyle undies anyone?

Yes, I do in fact make my husbands boxer shorts.  If I can find discounted cotton fabric it usually ends up being cheaper then the store bought, but with some of the nicer fabrics it's about the same or over what you'd pay for boxers at a big box store.  However, you don't get the quality of a homemade sewn item with shorts from store.

My favorite pattern for boxer shorts so far has been Simplicity 9958.  It's a pattern of only boxer shorts not a pattern of a robe plus shorts plus whatever so it's all about the pants which I like.  It's also the easiest and most practical pattern I've found.  Unlike some other patterns I have for boxer shorts (I have a boxer shorts pattern with no pee hole!) this is the most wearable pattern I have.  I can usually get about one short per yard so last week I whipped out four shorts from some great fabric I got from Hobby Lobby by Brother Sister Designs.  Once you've made a few it's easy to customize the pattern to what you need, make it longer, wider, smaller etc.

A pile of homemade boxer shorts make a great present for birthday's or Christmas too.  It is a challenge though to find fabric that is suitable for men (usually I can only find girlish fabrics or little boys fabric) Does anyone else have a good pattern they use for guys clothing or know of a good place to find men's fabric?  It's certainly nice to be back to sewing a few things besides Ash Tree Organics items.  I forget how much I enjoy seeing a finished sewn item!

Make It Yourself: Wrapping up...

March is over and so it Make It Yourself.  I had a lot of fun coming up with things that I use a lot or needed that instead of buying I could make myself.  I believe it's so important to invest your time in things like this to save money, the planet and better your health.  Thanks to my guest bloggers:

Susy from Chiot's Run

Robin from Our Semi Organic Life

Emma from City Roots, County Life

Here are some more homemade and handmade guides if you are interested in more things to make:

I own the book Homemade by the Editors of the Reader's Digest.  It does have some strange things in it (like beer shampoo) but it also as a few things that work and a lot of diy food recipes.

This is one of my favorite books:  County Wisdom & Know-How by the Editors of Storey Publishing's Country Wisdom Boards.  It's a huge book, could be a coffee table add, but it has tons of useful information in it and a lot of diy tips and recipes from everything to soap to birdhouses. 

Of course, every diy home needs a copy of this book:  Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  Want to make your own ketchup?  Mustard?  Relish?  This book has everything.  The recipes are for canning but you can also make small batches with it.  It is really like a bible in our house.  Every page is marked or written on.  A must. 

Martha books are always close by to inspire me to create homemade presents.  That's something we really try to do in our house. A homemade gift really means something special.  There are some great ideas in her Encyclopedia of Crafts book as well as her newest one, Encyclopedia of Fabric Crafts.  

 

Those are just a few of the books that I turn to when I need to buy something and see if I can make it instead.  Do you have any that I should add to the collection? 

Now it's April and I'm looking forward to getting back into the blog swing of things.  I have several exciting announcements to share this month, garden updates, bees updates, and new products to share from Ash Tree Organics.  Stay tuned! 

Making a family tree

This year for Christmas I made my husband a family tree.  It combines both our families into one tree; mine branching out to the right and his to the left.  It took a month of research, calling people, internet searches and then printing, organizing and taping but I finally completed it.  I got the idea from Martha Stewart's Living magazine.  The November issue had a whole section on family trees and I thought it would be neat.  I used the template on the Martha Stewart website which you can get here, had the template blown up and printed at Kinko's and then started my research.  I decided to put us in the middle of the tree, which you can see near the bottom.  Then I went up to the right are my parents, to the left are his.  From there I went straight up with each of their parents, then their parents and so on.  I was able to fit five generations.   Although the template also came with a name place template for each person I made my own in Word so I could print the name instead of hand write them.  I had the tree printed on watercolor paper so I used desktop printer watercolor paper by Burlington to print my names on.  Under each name I included date of birth and date of death.  I was able to find some of these dates with a neat website, Find A Grave, which is free.  This is a great project if you ever get the chance to make one I highly recommend it.  I learned a lot about my husbands family as well as my own and I have something that I can refer to now.  Of course, it can get very complicated but I tried to make it simple with only parents of parents listed (no brothers, sisters, cousins and so forth), but it has made me want to make a gigantic one that has everyone on it.  I'm pretty sure that would take up a whole wall through- my husband has a great uncle that has nine kids! 

Handmade present: Potato Chip Scarf

What a fun handmade gift:  a potato chip scarf.  I made a few of these for Christmas presents this year and I love them!  They are easy to make, relatively inexpensive and perfect for the season.  I got the pattern from Knit Picks.

Needle: Size 8, circular, 32"
Yarn:  I use whatever I have around - I have made them chunky with larger yarn and smaller with DK weight yarn

Directions:

Cast on 90 sts.

Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Knit into front and back of every stitch
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: Knit front and back
Row 5: Knit
Row 6: Knit front and back
Row 7: Knit
Row 8: Bind off

Weave in your ends.