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Saint Joseph, Pillar of Families

I didn't use to pray novenas.  I always thought that praying directly to God was better.  But I read this passage from the Bible: "The continual prayer of a just man availeth much." - James 5:16 I thought of the matter more and now I see that novenas are a humble way of praying.  It is asking those closest to Jesus (and holiest) people who walked the earth, to pray for me. This is not a new way of doing things as Moses intervened for the Jews when God wanted to punish them for making a bull with their own hands and started worshipping them. I now think God is pleased whenever I pray a novena.    Since then, I have seen so many SIGNS AND WONDERS in myself and in my circumstances because I prayed a novena.   I credit Saint Joseph for my happy home life and also for helping us with our finances though the best thing for me is the way novenas help us to lead holy lives.  The saints want no applause but rather, they will always draw us closer to God.   Instead of idolizing cel

Recycle an Old Bedsheet into a Skirt!



My husband knows me so well! His bed sheet zipper broke so, instead of throwing it away, he asked if I wanted it.


Of course I did!


My mind raced to think of what I could make with it. Since it's hefty amount of fabric, I didn't have to settle with just one project!


Since our space is quite limited, I couldn't keep a piece of cloth unattended for long.


I thought, with  the summer season being so hot, to make a wrap around skirt.  It took me half a day because I didn't have my sewing machine at the time.  So everything here is hand-sewn.


Sharing with you my half day project!   Enjoy!



WHAT YOU NEED:

Old bed sheet
Scissors
Ruler
Dressmaker's Chalk / Pencil
Needle and Thread
Buttons or Velcro



HOW TO MAKE THE SKIRT:





Make sure your fabric is not crumpled so you won't have a hard time cutting it.  Try to wrap it around yourself (or whoever is going to wear the skirt later) and see what length you want it to be.  Allow about 1/2 more than the desired width because the skirt will shrink once we put darts on it.




If you want to do it the easy way, do it like I did ...  Since the bed sheet I had was actually a futon cover, which had quite thin sheets, I didn't even separate the fabric sheets. I just cut across it (3/4 of the way) and then used the hemmed side as the skirt length.

If you don't see any way to use the hemmed sides, then just measure the length of the skirt according to your desired height and width and allow for a margin of 1 inch at the sides where it needs hemming.




You're actually cutting a giant rectangle.  Sample size would be 5 ft x 3.5 ft for a small sized lady.  You can also make it 7 ft if you want to have the skirt wrap generously around you.








I did this on the floor.  It really helps to cut on a large, flat surface... the floor is perfect!  Just clean it :)







The fabric should perfectly align.





Yay sewing time!




So now you have a huge rectangle with only the top part (for the waist area) without any hemming.  (No need since we will be covering that part with the wrap tie.)





And now for the darts!





I made my dart triangles 1 inch at the top and then dipping 2 inches down.  For the darts on the sides of your hips, make the darts 2 inches at the top and dipping down maybe 4 inches for a more shapely skirt.





Once it looks like this, you know you're on the right track.






(1/2 inch from the edge of the darts, I mean.)





So the next thing to do is make the band for the waist part of the skirt.

To do that, cut a band of fabric from the unused cloth cuttings.  Maybe 8 ft (to be sure) in length and around 5 inches in width.





Once the waistband is finished, turn it inside out and use a blind stitch to hem the edges.





Attach to the unhemmed portion of the skirt!  I just used a double stitch on the edge (shown above).





Optional:  If you did what I did and cut the length of the fabric too short, you'll need a few buttons to secure the skirt.  If you used my instructions here on the size of the large rectangle fabric, you won't need buttons - it will be long enough to wrap around to keep you modest.

You can also use velcro instead of buttons!  If by now you're pretty tired, you can just look for iron on velcro.















I hope you liked this project!  We have more DIY's at the shop site here!



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