mjkisner – Page 34 – Mary's Musings

Recycling a Wedding Dress Part 1

Sometimes potential projects fall into my lap and I can’t resist! A friend asked if I could do something with her daughter’s old wedding dress (thanks Peggy!). She had stored it for 15 years and the dress did not hold any positive memories for anyone. However, it did represent an investment in money, time and storage space. Of course, I agreed to see what I could do with the dress.

It arrived in its archival storage box, straight from her attic.

Before I opened the box, I spent several days researching my options. I found many possible projects on Pinterest using a wedding dress. However, most were special items to preserve the memories of the owner. For example, I found Christening dresses for the first baby, Christmas ornaments and even a lovely memory bear!

Those ideas were great if the dress was a special heirloom to the family. However, this particular dress did not hold any special memories for me or the family…it was basically a beautiful dress with lots of material that could be recycled into something else. I remembered hearing about recycling wedding dresses into tiny dresses for NICU babies that had not survived.

Recycling a Wedding Dress for NICU Babies

I started with the various charities who accept wedding dresses that are recycled into tiny dresses for NICU babies. Such a sad thought, but what a wonderful service! I was unable to talk with a real person, but the website, https://www.theangelgownproject.com had a complicated application process to submit a dress (a filled out application, all bows and ribbons removed, dress packed in the tiniest box possible and mailed someplace in the U.S.). They would not be able to acknowledge receipt of the dress or tell me what happened to it. It felt like I would be just shipping it to a landfill!

Then I discovered a number of organizations across the country that provide this service and encouraged local groups of seamstresses to get together and make them for their local communities. To help with this effort, I found many patterns available to freely download. I decided to make the tiny dresses myself. Once they are made, I’ll find a way to donate them to a hospital nearby.

Tiny dresses for NICU babies (from Pinterest).

Deconstructing the Dress

My first step was to get the dress out of the box…no small task! I thought children’s Christmas toys were wrapped up tight! The dress was clean but very wrinkled…except for the very front that showed through the plastic. I laid it out on the floor to get a feel for its design and decoration.

I unstitched the zipper carefully and removed it.

A total of 23 tiny buttons were sewn on top of the zipper, so I removed them. They could be used to decorate the tiny dresses.

I removed the lining in one large piece. Then I made two cuts down the sides of the dress to remove the train section of the dress. I wanted to leave it in one solid piece to preserve as much of the fabric as possible until I was sure what I was going to make.

Lots of edging lace and plain fabric in this section.

Now I have a huge pile of satin fabric with sections of lace, a huge pile of lining fabric, 23 lovely fancy buttons and a long white zipper! The fabric will need to be ironed and my pattern figured out. Look for that in Part 2, coming soon!

Let me know if you did something special with your family wedding dress…who knows, I may want to try some other things. Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Quinoa Pasta Salad

After exploring my book on grains last week (see https://marykisner.com/from-the-bookshelf-the-splendid-grain/) I was motivated to give one of the recipes a try. Quinoa Potato Salad looked interesting but I wanted to try to make it gluten-free with pasta.

Here is the original recipe:

At the bottom of the recipe, it mentions a variation to use pasta shells instead of potatoes. I went to the grocery store to see if I could find some gluten-free pasta and of course, some Quinoa. I was able to find this interesting pasta made with chickpeas! Who knew there was such a thing!

The above list of ingredients show the amount of protein, fiber and net carbs in the whole box. Below is the list for an individual serving.

I was also able to pick up some Quinoa, but then I found this package on my shelf and thought I’d better use it first.

This was a good choice to save time…and dishes. All I had to do was open the two tubs of Quinoa and dump them into the bowl. I also needed celery, pickle relish and my vegan mayo.

First, I boiled the pasta. It cooked in only 8 minutes but certainly made a lot of foam!

The pasta kept it shape well…sometimes gluten-free pasta turns mushy.

I added the pasta to the bowl of quinoa and added the celery and a tablespoon of pickle relish.

Then I added my mayo and a little mustard, salt and pepper (I forgot to mention those items!)

Actually, warm the salad tasted OK…chilled will be better. I think it will be a new way to make a nutritious pasta dish. Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

From the Bookshelf: The Splendid Grain

Inspiration to expand food choices can come from many places. In my case, my nutritionist suggested I eat more whole grains…but less wheat! In my small world that means rice and maybe oatmeal. No problem. However, today I was in the mood for a broader definition of “grains.”

I’d like to share a well-loved book that I’ve had on my shelf for almost 20 years. It has been helpful in reminding me about the other grain choices I have to choose from. This book, The Splendid Grain, by Rebecca Wood (1997), has been inspiring me to explore other grains for years. There does not seem to be a more up-to-date edition but it is still available on Amazon.

The book is not full of beautiful color pictures (although there are a few of various recipes). Most of the pictures of the grains are black and white. Most of the grains are familiar to me by name, but I wouldn’t know what to do with them. This book gives a great overview of each grain, where it is grown and a few recipes using it. The Table of Contents shows how the grains have been arranged by showing where they came from:

Here are just a few of the grains that I found interesting and will work on incorporating into my menus.

Wild Rice

The author has arranged the grains as shown above, beginning here in the Western Hemisphere and following the sun around the globe. Wild rice is the only truly North American wild grain that’s commercially available. More that 80% of the available wild rice is commercially grown, mostly in California. This hybrid variety is selected for responsiveness to fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides as well as for ease of mechanical harvesting. The wild rice grown in the Great Lakes region, on the other hand, has adapted over thousands of years to the specific lake or river and is often hand harvested from small boats. Each variety has its own unique flavor. I think the story of where it comes from encourages me to use it more often.

Quinoa

Quinoa has the highest nutrition profile of all grains and is the quickest to cook. According to the United Nations World Health Organization, Quinoa is closer to the ideal protein balance than any other grain. This alone makes it worth figuring out how to cook it. Steamed like rice it’s a quick addition to any meal. Ground into flour, it can enhance the protein content of your baked goods.

This book also provides an assortment of recipes using each grain. I found this one that looked interesting…Quinoa Potato Salad. I’ll have to give it a try.

Oats

Oats thrive best in a cold climate. They were probably first established in Central Asia and made their way to Europe. They have always been used primarily as livestock food, and in fact about 90% of all oats grown in the U.S. is used for animal feed. Over the years the popularity of oats in breakfast foods has grown. I often add rolled oats to my favorite bread recipe because it gives a nice flavor and reduces the amount of wheat flour in the bread. I found the recipe below using oats that I think I’ll try:

Tef

Another grain that I find interesting is Tef. This tiny cereal grain is grown in the mountains at the source of the Blue Nile. Tef is integral to Ethiopian culture. This tiny grain was almost unknown outside Ethiopia until the 20th century. It is nutritionally superior but is a labor-intensive crop. I have found a source of Tef at https://www.bobsredmill.com/ but I am unfamiliar with the foods and recipes from Ethiopia. I’d like to try it if someone else would cook it properly.

Sources of grains

Many of these grains like wild rice and quinoa are available at our local health food store. With grains like Tef or amaranth I think your best bet is to go online a find a good organic source to experiment with. There is a list of Mail Order Sources at the end of this book, but considering it was published 20 years ago, I suspect they may have changed and there may be others. Try searching again to find new sources.

I found this book to be a good reminder that I can cut back on wheat and still have whole grains in my life. This is a good resource to have on the shelf. Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Ongoing Work with Greyhound Coats

With the temperatures hovering near zero degrees at night around here, I’m motivated to keep working with greyhound coats. I thought I’d let you know some of my thinking about why the coats are made the way they are and where I get my supplies. When making one of something, it’s easy to source materials from the local fabric store. When making four of something a week, every week, it’s annoying to pay retail prices.

The Design of the Pattern

The coat is designed to use as little Velcro as possible, especially at the neck area. I don’t want the Velcro to touch their skin and cause irritation. The dogs have long necks and need the benefit of a “snood” or turtle-neck shape that could even cover their ears if necessary. The coat also needs to cover their rear end. This helps keep the coat positioned on their bodies and helps to keep them warm.

This dog is ready for a Pennsylvania winter!

When you look at the coat flat, you can see the basic shape, including the long neck and the darts at the back end to give it shape. Finally, the strap needs to be adjustable, because these coats are made for an unknown dog, not a specific dog. If it were my dog, I could make the strap and Velcro the right length.

The darts at the back give the coat some shape.

The length of the strap and the Velcro on the coat are more than enough to accommodate most dogs.

The Fabric

Each pair of greyhound coats (1 large and 1 small) takes 1 1/2 yards of fleece for the outside; another 1 1/2 yards for the lining. Most of the time, fleece is on sale at Joann Fabrics. If I pay attention, I can use a coupon that gives me an additional 20% off so I don’t feel so bad shopping there. I try to coordinate colors for the outside and lining. With three yards of each, I can make 4 coats (2 large and 2 small). I bring it all home and begin!

I think the tie-dye fabric should be striking against the snow!

The Velcro

The Velcro is the weak link in supplies. It is hard to find 2″ Velcro, and I need twice as much loop version as hook version. Years ago, I found a wholesale company where I could buy it online from California. I believe their materials are all made in the USA. You can buy Velcro (1/2″ to 6″ wide), elastic, thread and more at their site. It’s a great resource if you are involved in any kind of bulk sewing, like for a scout troop or a church group. Their website is: https://www.calthread.com.

The Labels

I also want to identify that I made the coat and how to contact me in case it needs a repair. To do this, I’ve begun using cloth labels from a site in New Jersey (https://heirloomlabels.com). It’s easy to order, affordable and doesn’t take long to receive. This last time, I didn’t get my order quite right…but I think it’s OK. People should still be able to find me. When I got my new order, I realized I had forgotten to make the text all lower case! So, of course, they did exactly what I asked for! Proofread carefully!

I attach the label to the base of the strap.

It wasn’t until I took this picture, that I realized I had forgotten to sew the labels to the strap on the coat I just finished! (Look at the pictures on the navy coat above!) Grrr!

In case you were wondering what I was doing between making stuff with essential oils and beeswax, this is it! Got to keep those dogs warm this winter! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.

Brainstorming Ideas: What to do with Empty Tins

I’ve been staring at two boxes of metal tins that have been on my shelf for over a year. I thought I was going to make tiny travel sewing kits, but never quite got around to make them. Was I really going to buy a bunch of tiny scissors? Would anybody need such a thing? Since I couldn’t decide, nothing happened and I put them on a shelf.

I finally took them down off the shelf today to see if I was any more insightful about what to do with them. I have two sizes of tins.

Box #1

One box contains 4 sets of heart-shaped tins with lids. The largest is about 4″ across and 1 1/2″ deep. The lid is not attached. Two smaller hearts are stacked inside.

I thought I could use my covered button magnet for decoration on the top of the largest heart, and with additional magnets inside things like a needle and pins could be secured…but that’s as far as I got.

I ended up putting the heart-shaped tins aside for now.

Box #2

The second box has 28 rectangular tins, 3 1/2″ by 2 1/4″ and 3/4″ deep. The lids are attached. (Originally it was a box of 30…I must have used two for something!)

I still couldn’t decide what to do with them, so I took myself out to dinner at Cracker Barrel to think about it! While I was eating, I pulled up Pinterest on my phone and searched DIY Projects with Tins. Wow! What a treasure trove of ideas! Here are few ways folks have used the tins:

Decorated lids of gift boxes (from Pinterest)

An Advent Calendar. Each tin could hold a surprise! (from Pinterest)

After dinner, I wandered around Cracker Barrel to see all the cool stuff for sale. Guess what I found!

A travel trivia game (from Cracker Barrel)

O My Goodness!! Now I have so many ideas swirling around in my head I’m going to just have to let them simmer for a day or two. Be careful with brainstorming…you may be sorry you asked for ideas! If you have any ideas that I should try let me know! Or try them yourself!! Enjoy!

Please share your ideas here or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Garden Dreams 2022

Right after Christmas the garden catalogs started to arrive. With the snow on the ground, it was easy to start dreaming of the garden of 2022.

This is the time to reassess what worked and what didn’t last yer. The plants in one of our garden beds closer to the house seemed to have trouble all summer…no matter what we planted. Years ago, that bed held strawberries. The first and second year they were terrific. After that, the soil did not cooperate. We had a year or two of great cucumbers, and then we couldn’t get anything to thrive in that bed. We might have to stick with flowers there.

We’ve decided to stay with the Burpee Company for seeds. It is a Pennsylvania company and hopefully, seeds will be appropriate for our area. Their catalog featured the SuperSauce tomato that we grow each year. It has been great for slicing and cooking.

So many beautiful pictures of vegetables!

Then we focused on the seeds we had decided did well in the past for us. The beans were prolific, the lettuce was yummy and the last of the carrots stayed in the ground until Christmas. We still have some in the refrigerator! We’ll try cucumbers someplace else in the garden and hope they do well.

Yesterday I had a chat with our son-in-law Steve, to see if he could make us another raised planter. It worked so well for the lettuce and radishes. I’d like to add a few other greens, like Swiss Chard, Spinach and Radicchio for salads.

And then he mentioned he was going to try to make a strawberry planter…and I love strawberries…so I ordered some plants too. Hopefully, I can figure out a place to plant them if his planter doesn’t work out!

Dreaming of the future garden is a great way to spend a cold January day! Enjoy!

As always, please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

The Travels of the Lowry Baptism Dress

An heirloom baptism dress has been in our family for over 100 years. It was worn by my mother, who was born in 1912, and most recently by my niece’s daughter, born in 2016. It is made of very delicate fabric and has a matching slip.

I do not know where the dress was stored or who used it before 1977, when my mother offered it to my daughter to wear. After that, the dress stayed in my collection.

Before passing the dress on to others in the family, it needed to be cleaned. I did some research on washing vintage fabric and found this washing powder that said it would lift stains and not harm the fabric. It has been useful on all sorts of vintage fabric, from delicate handkerchiefs and linen table cloths. It worked fine for the baptism dress

Once the dress was cleaned up, I offered the dress to any of the girls being born in the family. I guess the boys could have worn it too, but no one showed an interest.

Here are the pictures of the babies born in our family over the years that wore the dress. (Family…if I have missed any, and you have photos to add to my documentation, please let me know.)

You can see the dress has been shipped back and forth across the country for over 30 years! One of the challenges has been to get it shipped in time to be worn when the child is about 3-6 months old. All I asked was for a photo to be taken. The dress did not need to be worn for an actual Baptism ceremony. I wasn’t sure the fabric could handle the motions of a small child.

Now the dress is wrapped in a pillow case and filed away until the next generation needs it. I’ll pass it on…probably to my daughter…to share with her cousins as their children reach the right age. For now, it is safe and documented so far. Like all heirlooms, who knows what adventures it will have!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Preserving Old Photos and Slides

I have been fortunate to have inherited my grandfather’s collection of photographs and various stories about the Bixby side of the family. He wrote many stories about his experiences growing up on a farm in Minnesota in the early 1900’s for the local historical society in his town. These stories have been edited and typed up by my cousin so they can be distributed around the family. Many of the old photographs, often glued or printed on heavy cardboard or card stock have been laid flat on a scanner to be preserved as a digital file. Yet, the old photographs continue to survive tucked into filing cabinets ready to be scanned again. There are not as many photos as today and most are formally posed instead of informal shots.

The Jacob Bixby family. My grandfather, John, is the tall boy in the back row.

Photos taken in the last 15 years or so have been taken with digital cameras and more recently iPhone cameras. They have been shared around the family, printed and framed and even printed on the side of mugs and coffee cups! They are less often formally posed to commemorate a wedding or a birthday. We have collected huge piles of photos and only a select few get preserved.

My daughter and family…Steve, Ben, Anna and Daisy

In between the photographs from my grandfather’s generation and my children’s the most common way to document with photographs was with slide film. We have thousands of slides from family vacations, our first apartment, our first dog, etc. My Dad used slide film to document our travels to the Philippines in 1955-56. I have boxes of his slides that I would love to view and share…if I could just get them digitized (we don’t even have a slide projector any more). Another issue, he used a mix of Ektachrome and Kodachrome film and the former did not hold true colors over time. Those slides are not worth trying to save.

To the rescue…an app for my iPhone! I found an ad for the SlideScan app ($29/year). If you look it up at the App Store there is a nice video about how it works. It looked pretty simple…hold a slide in front of a white screen and using the app, press a button on my phone and it will scan the slide and save it digitally.

I found a few challenges in using the app. One, I couldn’t figure out how to get a white screen on my computer; two, I couldn’t hold the slide still enough; three, I couldn’t hold my phone still enough while pressing and holding the button for three seconds with one hand!

With Bert’s help, we found a very affordable light board. It plugs right in with a USB to a regular plug or to the computer. Here’s the box it came in (from Amazon, of course!):

That took care of the light. Then, I needed a way to hold my camera steady while I held the button for three seconds. Bert found this CamStand that looked sturdy and adjustable:

Here’s the assembly sheet, because of course it came as a pile of screws and rods:

So, once everything arrived and was set up, I could put the light board on the stand, put my phone in the holder, put a slide on the light board and press the button for 3 seconds to scan a slide.

Now, I could work with the digital picture! I can hardly wait to capture more photos!

Here’s our family sitting on a rocky hill (called Mars Hill) at the base of the Acropolis in Athens (1956).

Mary by the columns of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece (1956).

The digital photos are stored in the app on my phone. I can email them to myself, name them and organize them. Yea!! A solution to a problem that’s been bothering me a long time. Stay tuned for more stories about our travels way back then! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Time to Make Pizza

Many of you know that I can’t eat eggs or dairy products. However, I can still eat meat…so I’m a vegan that can eat meat! Go figure! Commercial pizza is out of the question because of the cheese restriction. I’ve tried pizza without cheese and it just doesn’t taste right. So, we basically avoid buying it. I’ve tried making my own pizza, but still…no cheese makes it a boring meal.

If you recall, back in August when we were blessed with an overabundance of lovely tomatoes (see https://marykisner.com/time-to-make-pizza-sauce/), we made a big batch of sauce and labeled it pizza sauce knowing it could be used with many other recipes. I was always hoping I would find a good substitute for the cheese.

We were cruising Trader Joe’s last week and found a bag of vegan shredded mozzarella style cheese…a “cashew cheese alternative.” The description on the back of the bag sounded interesting. Time to give pizza another try!

I really do hate to waste my time making pizza crust from scratch if I won’t be able to eat it. Unfortunately, the prepared pizza crusts found at the grocery store (the brand is Boli…or something like that) say they have “milk” in them…which usually means they’ve seasoned it with Parmesan cheese and Italian seasonings. However, we found these Mediterranean Flat Breads that baked like a thin crust pizza shell! They worked great!

Bert likes cooked meat on his pizza so he cooked hamburger with onions. We opened a can of sliced black olives and a can of sliced mushrooms. Bert used regular cheese and I tried the new stuff. One half-pint jar of our pizza sauce was just enough for both pizzas.

Here’s my pizza ready to go in the oven.

After 15 minutes at 365 degrees, my fake cheese looked sort of melted. However, it tasted GREAT!! I consider this a win! Boy am I glad we made all that sauce. Now it would be worth it to make my own crust…or not! The flat bread came out crunchy and was delicious.

Almost forgot to take a picture before I polished it off!

Now I’ll be excited to take good care of next year’s tomatoes, knowing we’ll put the sauce to good use! I can see t his fake cheese being useful in many dishes where cheese is used as a topping or minor ingredient. I’m not sure I’d like a whole dish of macaroni and this cheese. It tasted good but the mouth-feel was a little different. However, this pizza was a great success. Give it a try! Enjoy!

Please comment or send me an email directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

More Creative Mending

My dear son-in-law gave me a new challenge at Christmas time. He is in construction and landscaping and his hard work is reflected in these sweatshirts! (I do suspect he asks me to try to mend things just for fun.)

This particular challenge involved two hooded sweatshirts that probably should be thrown out, but the main issue was the pocket pouch on the front of each. They were ripped and shredded because he shoves his keys and tools, etc. into them. He also gave me a third sweatshirt that I could use as replacement fabric. Apparently, he wants to have his company logo visible, not a football team. I offered to buy him a new sweatshirt, but noooo, he thought I should try to fix these! See what I mean…he’s teasing me!

Here are the steps I followed to mend them:

First, I cut the damaged pocket pouches off the shirts.

Note the stress holes where the old pocket was attached.

Next, I prepped the inside front of the shirt with a large piece of sturdy cotton so the pocket would have a stable base to be sewn to.

Then I used the old pocket as a pattern on the extra sweatshirt to cut two new pockets. I used the fabric under the arm because it didn’t have much wear and tear.

I sewed a hem on the curved sides of each pocket and placed them on the front of the shirt. I was not about to try to unstitch the leftover pieces of the old pocket. They aren’t pretty, but don’t affect the new pocket’s use.

I pinned and sewed the new pocket down.

I also took the ribbing off the bottom edge of one of the old shirts because it was shredded. I used the ribbing off the replacement shirt and fixed that too.

If either of these sweatshirts end up back in my mending basket, I guarantee they will be disposed of! However, each time I take on a job like this, I learn something new! Enjoy!

Please comment or send me an email directly at marykisner@comcast.net.