SewMona – Page 20 – A slice of my Florida life

Five Tips for Using Your Serger

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I bought my serger a couple years ago on Black Friday at JoAnn’s. I wasn’t sure about it at the time – I’d never used one before and I had no way of trying one out. There was a definite learning curve, but I’m very happy with it and I’ve a learned a couple things along the way. I will say that I probably don’t use my serger the way most people do. I sew all of my seams with my regular machine and then serge them. In my mind, this makes the seams more secure. I also usually only use three threads. If I used four, knit seams might be secure with just a serged seam.

1. Learn to thread it, but don’t make it harder than it is. The first time I threaded my serger, I had to have the book open to the directions and it took me forever to get it right! My serger seems to be very particular about how the threads are lined up initially and so there’s an order to threading. Take you time, do it in order and you should be fine.

Please ignore the fuzzy mess…I probably should’ve cleaned it before I took the picture!

2. When you stop in the middle of a seam, keep your needle down. Just like when you’re sewing with a regular machine, you always need to put your needle down so your material doesn’t wander.

3. Hold the thread when you start. Again, when you start sewing with your regular machine, you usually hold the threads back out of the way. When you start serging, hold the threads back and even pull them gently as you start. That way the threads don’t bunch up at the beginning of your seam.

4. Corners aren’t as hard as you think. Take a few minutes to practice on a scrap. I found that outside corners are much easier than inside corners. This is where #2 comes in – if you have to stop mid-corner and adjust your material, make sure your needle is down. Just like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it gets.

5. Maintain it – learn how to oil it! Clean it – regularly.

What tip would you add?

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Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park

We spent Labor Day weekend camping not too far from home at Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park. We left Friday evening after work and although it’s just under three hours away, the drive took a lot longer due to accidents and traffic jams on the highway. We didn’t arrive until about 9:20 (late check-in ends at 10!). Backing in during the day is a process (we just don’t do it often enough). Backing in, in the dark is worse! The poor escort was so patient with me as I tried to get the camper going in the right direction. I know the logic behind how to back up, but it just takes me time! I just need more practice. We’ve got setting up pretty much down to a science. Good thing since we had to set up in the dark!

This is my happy view. I love looking in the side view mirror and seeing our popup following us.

The campsites were very long and wide enough that you don’t feel like you’re on top of the other campers. There are trees between the sites to give you some added privacy. They also had a pool and playground. It was pretty damp while we were there and since the playground is in the shade, it didn’t dry out very much. The pool was big though andÂ my kids loved it…me not so much – there were too many people in it so I couldn’t swim laps.

The one thing I did not like was the abundance of these spiders! I believe they’re a golden silk spider. The big one is the female and the smaller ones are males. I’m not fond of spiders and seeing them around just gave me the creeps! There was one that built her web on the swings at the playground…too high for us to reach and there was no way I was sharing a swing with a spider! I don’t hold that against the campground though. I guess it’s the season for them.

The one weird thing was that they don’t provide fire rings, but if you want a fire you need one. How can you camp and not have a fire? I found this cheapie one at WalMart. My kids have been wanting a fire pit for the house, so it’s not like we’ll never use it again, but I’ve never camped somewhere that doesn’t provide fire rings.

Despite the rain, we had a camp fire two nights. What’s camping without roasting hot dogs and making s’mores?!

We also did some geocaching (and my one son discovered some wasps and got stung). There’s Homosassa springs which does have an entrance fee, but it looks like a lot of fun. We didn’t go this time…maybe next time.

We enjoyed our stay here. The bathrooms were fairly clean – the building we were near had eight rooms – each with it’s own entrance. I’ve found that campgrounds that are part of a group (ie KOA, Good Sam Club, etc) are more likely to have decent facilities. If you’re self-contained, it’s not important, but with a pop-up, we need facilities. The closer the better with young children! Another plus was that all the sites are full hook-up. That means I didn’t have to worry about how much water I was using and how quickly our gray water tank was filling up. Also, all the sites are 50 amps, so we had to bring a converter so we could hook up (pop-ups are 30 amp). All in all, it was a good trip!

Have you been camping recently?

Making A T-Shirt Into A Better Fitting T Shirt

I have a lot of t-shirts that I love, but here in Florida it tends to be too hot for loose, baggy t-shirts. They’re just too long – too much extra material that makes them too warm. One of my favorites is my kitty shirt. I’ve had it for years (maybe 8 yrs!) and the kitten on it reminds me of one of our cats when she was little. So, I want to wear it, but I don’t love the fit anymore. I decided it would be very easy to make it more Florida summer friendly. I’ll resize it a bit and then remake the sleeves.

I know it doesn’t look that big, but the shoulders hang off as t-shirts frequently do and it just felt too big.

See all the extra material on the shoulder?

I want to get rid of that so it’s more like a fitted t-shirt…but not too fitted.

I’m following pretty much the same steps as I did here. First up is cutting off the sleeves. Cut close to the seam and don’t cut into the sleeve because I’m going to reuse it.

This t-shirt didn’t have side seams so I had to create them. I marked how far up I wanted the side seam to come and then I sewed down the sides tapering out towards the bottom since I didn’t want to take in the width to much. After trying it on (several times) and resewing a bit, I was happy with the fit.

Next I marked how I wanted to the new armhole shape (armscye) to look. Remember some of it was sewn as part of the new side seams so I had to make it a little bit bigger and take off some of the shoulder so the seam would sit properly. I tried the shirt on, drew a line, cut it, cut the other side to match, tried it, trimmed a bit, tried it on…you get the idea. Eventually I was happy with where the it sat. Just remember that a little bit will be taken up by the seam allowance.

Then, the sleeves need to be adjust so they fit the new armhole. Line the sleeve up and mark where the new underarm seam needs to be. In my picture it’s the red line. The black line is where the armhole seam will be. I sewed the underarm seam at an angle because I didn’t want it to be too tight.

Pin the sleeve seam making sure to line up the underarm seam with the side seam. Sew the sleeve back in.

I wanted to shorten the sleeves a bit so I tried the shirt on (again!) and marked where I wanted the hem. I used the rolled hem feature on my serger. Then, to make it look more like it came that way I also did a rolled hem on the bottom too. I serged just above the existing hem.

Rolled hem – I think it’s perfect for a casual shirt like a t-shirt.

Rolled hem on the sleeve – a little less bulky – perfect for the summer.

Now try it on one last time!

Interesting Rest Stop

We like to travel. We don’t do it as much as we have in the past, but we try to make time to visit new places. Recently we went to visit friends in Georgia. On the way back we stopped at a rest area we discovered a couple years ago when we were in the process of moving.

This sign greeted us…how nice.

The have a snake walkway that is modeled after a Florida queen snake.

The walkway starts out as a narrow tail…

…and winds up to the head complete with a forked tongue.

If you’re ever traveling on I75S in Florida, this rest stop is just south of Gainesville. Have you discovered any interesting, unique, or unusual rest stops?

Selling Your Home

So, even though we’d only been in our house for a little over a year, we had decided it was time to move. When we moved to this house, we knew it was temporary. The house was small and lacking a few things. That’s not to say we didn’t like it – there was a community pool that we loved and as a bonus, it was only a block away. However, we didn’t have a garage (aka workshop for hubby). The backyard was small because the houses were set so far back from the road (although our neighbors told us it’s OK if the kids run through their yard as well). It was in a deed restricted community (which is someplace we never wanted to be). We invited our real estate agent to our house and she gave us some ideas for staging – mostly pack up everything you won’t need in the next few months.

We tried – we really did. But honestly, we had purged so much when we packed to move and then again when we unpacked. Some things had never been unpacked – almost all of our books were still in boxes. Our winter clothing was in suitcases – not that we need it very often. We went through the kids toys again. We packed up a lot of knick knacks and stored them at my parent’s house. We packed up all our pictures. We kept it as clean as possible. However, in the end, we still had to live there – with three kids and four (and then three) cats life can be messy.

Moving whether just around the corner or across the country is an adventure! So, if you’re trying to sell your house, here are three tips to make it easier.

First, forget about those people you see looking at home on TV shows. I’m sure that “real” people don’t say half of the things they say (I certainly don’t)! When we look at houses, we want to know if the A/C works (this is FL after all!)? Is it in a flood zone (major insurance increase!)? Is the roof insurable? Is it stick built or block? These are questions that are important to where we live. What questions would buyers want to know where you live?

Second, do pack up what you can. But don’t make yourself crazy! If you pack up too much you’re going to be digging through boxes to find stuff you need. When we first started packing to move from PA to FL, we thought our house would sell quickly so we packed up all our winter stuff (it was April). By the time winter came around, I couldn’t remember what I had done with our winter coats. Since I was too cheap to buy new (or even used ones), we just wore extra layers. Then, when we were pulling out all the packed boxes, guess what I found in a big box at the bottom of the pile? Yep, all our winter coats…which at that point went in the donate pile.

Third, remember that unless you’re very lucky, it’s going to take some time to sell. When we sold our house in PA, it took over a year (not to be depressing, just keeping it real). When we sold our house in Florida, it took about five months. Continue to live your life – don’t put everything on hold! When we were selling our house in PA, I thought it would sell quickly and so I told our homeschool group that we were moving and basically said our good-byes. When the summer was coming to an end and I realized that we were going to be at least starting school in PA, I felt a little silly telling them we were still here. The lady who ran the group (who was also had her house on the market) told me that I needed to continue with life until the house sells (or is at least under contract), then I can switch to moving mode. We ended up being there for the whole school year! So, when we put our house in FL on the market, we put up our Halloween decorations, and then our Thanksgiving stuff, and then (even though we had a serious buyer), we decorated for Christmas too. We didn’t start seriously packing until after the New Year (closing was on Jan 15). Two weeks of being totally focused on packing was a lot better than randomly packing with no real deadline!

What would you add to the list?