SEWING AND WHAT NOT

I have been getting a lot of business mending and sewing clothes from fabric that people have and want something made from it.

We finally finished this hard puzzle.

Apron for customer from her fabric.

Customer's blouse she liked.  Used it to make a pattern and a prototype out of some fabric a friend gave me.

The prototype.

The blouse made from the fabric the customer had and wanted her new blouse to made from.

 German Burda patterns come in a magazine. You find the picture you like, then look in another pamphlet for it and what pattern pieces you need.  Burda does NOT include seam allowances.  I am so glad I talked to a seamstress friend about these patterns before I made this dress for my customer.

I am now making a dress from this Burda pattern for a customer.

The german directions are only text, no pictures like I'm used to with Simplicity, McCalls etc.

You have to trace the pieces you want and add your own seam allowances.  It is a little overwhelming to see all the pieces overlapping and trying to find all the parts you need.

Close up of the many lines. 

I used cans of condensed milk as weights on the tracing paper.  Reminded me of the days I drew loft lines on mylar for the MD11 aircraft back in the 1980's for Convair.

Curtains for customer

3 pair of new slacks shortened and hemmed for customer

table cloth for customer.

CHURCH BREAKFAST
On Saturday Jan 18th we had an all church breakfast to socialize and have food and fun.  I made a strata dish.  I thought it was German but no one had ever heard of it and I guess it looked strange to them so not many tasted it.  Plus by the time we rode on our bikes with the hot dish to the church, the dish wasn't very warm.  It would have been better HOT.  They are used to eating cold breads pastries, meats, eggs, fruit, cereals, etc.   It was all good.

We started with a nice sunrise.

Sunrise from our balcony.

Elder Craft & Elder Nelsen

FREE TABLE & CHAIR
In Germany there are very few 2nd hand stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army.  I suppose there are donation places, but I haven't seen them.  The only second hand store I've been to only has clothes and small items.  Most people just put anything that they don't want out on the sidewalks on scheduled days for the big trash pickups.  The trucks come with a squasher truck and one truck to keep good stuff.  I haven't seen them ever actually put anything in the truck to keep.  They squash everything.  One day I ran out and rescued a small table and a chair.  There were a lot of chairs but I only kept one.  My idea was that this could be our hobby table to use to do some puzzles or to build models and such.  But it was a little too short, we couldn't fit our chair under it.  So I have a friend that is very capable with building things and asked him to make me some table leg extensions.  I love that they came out so perfect.  When we move back to the U.S. these will most likely be squashed.

before

before

after

The table legs go into the holes in the extension about 4 inches.
PERFECT!

LUNCH IN TOWN WITH MISSIONARIES
Jennifer and I met with the missionaries at the farmers market for a visit and a lunch at the Mexican restaurant below the library downtown.  This was the missionaries P day.  This was the week that Sister Holly Nufer was transferred.

Sister Holly Nufer, me, Sister Chloe Lehman, Jennifer

BIKE RIDE to Käfertal Wald
It is hard to believe how warm our area of Germany has been so far this winter.  We rode our bike over to Käfertal forrest for some fresh air and I got some photos of the big sheep.  No snow, cool and cloudy but we dressed warm.  This forrest has miles and miles of trails.  It was a little muddy so our bikes are pretty dirty but it was nice to get out.  We can get to this forrest from our apartment without even going through any traffic lights and only one short street, we have bike paths all the way.

NEW YEARS
New Years Eve day, evening and News Years Day where just WONDERFUL and AMAZING here in Germany.  We had one of those beautiful sunrises to start with that only lasted a few minutes but it was really breathtaking gorgeous.  We celebrated New Years Eve with the Schrade's and the Broo's and Brother Karl-Heinz Lemke.  We walked to the church to meet the Broo's where the young adults where having their New Years Eve party.  Carolin Broo was in charge of organizing it and it all looked really well done.  We got to see the wonderful decorations that Carolin Broo with the help of others, mainly Thor Zimmernink had for the party.   The Broo's drove us over to the Schrade's.  We had a wonderful dinner at the Schrade's home.  I took pumpkin pie because I thought that would be different for the others.  Oh my we ate SOO much!  It was so good.  Then we went to the Broo's in Ludwigshafen.  From there we walked to a bridge over the Rhine River to watch the fireworks.  Oh my, Oh my, the Germans LOVE their fireworks.  I could not capture all the sounds, smells, and sights of that night for this blog.  The whole city was a fireworks extravaganza.  Everywhere you looked, 360 degrees, there was fireworks and it sounded like a war with all the booms, sizzles and pops with smoke and ash filling the air.  The next day we took a bike ride and could see evidence of fireworks party's everywhere on every street.  We had great weather on New Years Eve and on the 1st but Jan. 2nd the rain and clouds returned.  After the fireworks died down we returned to the Broo's home for hot chocolate, snacks, and Jurgen's wonderful homemade ice cream.  Wow! we ate SOO much AGAIN!  It was all so good.  We didn't get home until around 3:30am.

Dec 31, 2013 - New Years Eve morning sunrise from our balcony.
The photo couldn't capture it as beautiful as it was in real life.

The red carpet entrance to the dance for the young adults at the church.

The cultural hall all decorated for the dinner and dance afterwards.

Carolin Broo who did such a wonderful planning and organizing for the New Years Party.

There is no way I could capture the fireworks with my little camera and no tripod but I'll put in some here and with imagination, you might get the picture.

short video - turn up the sound to here the noise.  video isn't very good quality tho

Jurgen Broo, Selina Broo Hales

Wilfried Schrade, Jurgen Broo, Selina Broo-Hales and husband Matt?

Marianne & Wilfried Schrade, Jurgen & Day-Ji Broo, Selina & husband Matt Broo-Hales

Jan 1st, 2014 - We took advantage of the great sunny day and rode out to Ladenburg.  It was pretty warm, maybe high 40's and sunny.  We only went about 14.5 miles but a lot of it was along the Neckar River on dirt/muddy trail.  Nice and quiet, didn't see many people until we got to Ladenburg where there where a lot of people in the parks.

In the Ladenburg river park with the water tower in the background.