Today we are contributing over at A Jennuine Life for their Lost Art of Sewing Series, head over there for all the technical stuff behind this project.

Today I am just going to tell you about the woman who inspired the "Wanda Gown".

I really wanted to make Boston and Easter dress since I have not made a formal dress in almost a year,  I felt up to the challenge but all my patterns were 3 hours away in our storage unit. I asked my mom if she could send me some of hers. A few days later I received by media mail, 3 vintage patterns that she had borrowed from our home town neighbor, Wanda.

Wanda is a sweet lady that lives a couple miles down the dirt road from my parents. She is one of the warmest, most talented women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Her handwriting is like beautiful calligraphy, her food is awesome and her sewing is legendary. Her warmness penetrates the room and instantly makes the room comfortable.

She is in the same quilting group (a group of women who get together and tie quilts for newly married couples) as my Grandma Twila was. As a kid when we would go trick or treating she'd always have a grocery bag prepped for my family, filled with her delicious homemade popcorn balls (My Mom says she still sets some out for my parents, even though we are way beyond that stage).

Knowing and learning from women like her is one of the greatest rewards of growing up in a small town. When my grandfather passed away she and another golden woman brought us cinnamon rolls and a casserole, both were so appreciated and the tastes were certainly welcome.

Wanda and I share the love for fabrication, and she taught me my first invisible zipper.
Momma Shaffer is talented at sewing but is scared stiff by zippers, so often times when she was putting in a zipper for a special occasion and didn't have the time and/or patience it would go to Wanda. She would always return it with machine-like precision. For many of my 4-H projects, I went down to her house to get help with the zippers.  She was always so kind, patient, and comforting as I stressed about messing them up.  As I was stressing about the zipper for this project I remember sitting in her dining room and how her reassurance gave me calm.

Knowing that Wanda went through these three patterns having full faith that I could sew them gave me a real vote of confidence. I carefully looked them over and I decided on McCall 927, a dress pattern from the 1940's. There were times where I felt like I wanted to call this dress quits then I would remember that she told my mom that she knew I could handle the dress pattern.

The most amazing thing about one of my sewing foremothers is her talent is uplifting and encouraging. Is there some out there that you feel is a sewing foremother? If so tell me about her in the comments.

We are kicking off to an insane week for the Shaffer Sisters.

Last night our dear sweet Grandpa John passed away. It was bittersweet. He was definitely suffering and it was good for him to go. Not only that but with every Christmas season that comes, he is left longing to be with Grandma Twila even more. This last weekend we all spent time with Grandpa John. It was good to be with family, share stories, and eat homemade rolls. I’m glad that we went to see him, but it puts us days behind since Momma Shaffer was going to watch the toddlers over the weekend so we could finish Christmas presents.
We are days behind, but trying to work as fast as Christmas elves can. We are trying to have a $0-2 budget per person.

As you can see the kids are getting along swimmingly. So maybe it will be a NFC for them, if they don’t start behaving.
We can’t promise that there will be a lot of posts this week. But we will try our best to keep the posts coming, even if they are in their most simple form. (We do know that these might not be helpful this year but maybe you can pin them and save the ideas for next year). If you have any questions about the how, comment or email us and we will let you know more.
Excuse our punny pictures, we are just in that kind of mood.

Summer 2003. With our Grandma Twila who passed away a few months later.

Christmas 2005

Grandsons (that is all there was, now at least we have 3 girls) Easter 2007

Just the kids. Thanksgiving 2007

Summer 2008. Jo was pregnant with number 4.

Summer 2009: I was pregnant with Ryder in this picture. Mom made her dress, my dress and the boys ties and vests.

Summer 2010: Ty was a month old  in this picture.  Each family was supposed to be a different color of blue but when the picture got taken it ended up being nearly the same shade.

Summer 2011: Jo's #5 was 2 weeks old and I was pregnant with Boston. Nae and Bubba just started dating at this point so Nae took this picture for us. Mom bought matching polos for each of the boys and we all went with blue/gray/white color scheme.

Summer 2012: A family picture where no one is pregnant...One for the record books.

I think this year was my favorite. All the adult women chose their outfits along with the little girl outfits. The men wore matching ties and the little boys wore tie shirts. I love how we look coordinating without being over the top matchy matchy.
The success of this year has got me really excited for next year. I even made a pinterest board with some potential color schemes, and the adults are voting for their favorites...so far these 4 top the charts. I was hoping that if we got our colors figured out we could take advantage of summer clearance.

Autumn color	Color Locked
Feathered Hues	Flora Color

Which color scheme is your favorite? How do you decide on a color scheme? What time of year do you usually take your family's pictures?

Last year my nuclear family's pictures color scheme were determined by what shirt was least noticeable with my pregnant belly. And when I knew I could take pictures without throwing up but before I looked too big. This year (for my nuclear family) I think I will try to incorporate a subtle color scheme that coordinates without over matching.

Last fall I took the opportunity to sew every week in Project Run and Play's sew along challenge. It was the first time I had done something so creatively demanding and emotionally rewarding. (I know you have heard it all before, stay with me)
One of the seamstress that I had the pleasure of meeting in that community is sallyavena from Daisy Chain Creations. Last week I received an e-mail telling me that I had been nominated for the Liebster Award. I was so tickled, and excited to participate.

The Liebster Blog Award is an award given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers, most of whom have less than 200 followers (or have been blogging for less than 6 months). It is to show newer bloggers that they are appreciated, and to help spread the word about new blogs. It was created to promote appreciation and recognition among the blog world. Liebster translates to “dearest” (or favorite/best) in German. It is also known as the Love Blog Award." It's been fun to get to know some bloggers better and a great way to pass on the love.
Here are the rules:
1. You must post 11 random things about yourself
2. Answer the 11 questions given by the nominator.
3. Create 11 new questions for those you nominate.
4. Choose 11 new blogs and link to them in your post.

11 Random Things about Myself (Scary)
1-6.My nickname Scary comes from: My legs are scary long and always have been (now they are 35" long, which is as long as my 6'5" husband's) so it started out as Scary Legs. My name is SarahLynn and my mom would never let my sisters call me by Sarah (or anyone else for that matter. Remember, Kiri that time that Mom hung up on you in elementary when you asked, "Is Sarah there?"). Scary Legs was too long it got shortened to Scary without any protest from Mom. Since, I have such long legs you might have guessed that I am pretty tall (roughly 5'11 1/2") and yes I did play basketball and volleyball. I played basketball under the nickname of Scary (which people assumed the nickname was because I was really aggressive on rebounds) until I blew my ACL. When I had surgery on my knee they told me that my three ligaments for my hamstring were fused together (apparently uncommon) so they had to fix it differently than they had planned by taking a piece of my patellar. Instead of a 1/2" scar I ended up with a nasty 3 1/2" scar that serves as a conversation piece for observers of my knee cap. Since that point, for the most part I wear tea length or longer skirts/pants to avoid the conversation. So now I guess you would say Scary Leg as opposed to Scary Legs might be the more fitting nickname.
7. My first kiss was with my sweet/hot/tender/kind husband when I was 20. It was on my couch of my college apartment, romantic light provided by a Christmas tree. It was approaching curfew and he leaned over and whispered his request to kiss me. His move might not make it into a chick flick anytime soon, but it was exactly what I wanted (He did his intelligence with mutual friends that were sure to know what would be the right approach). To me this approach is the mark of a modern gentleman not to just assume a girl wanted to kiss because you wanted to. PS. It was his first kiss too!

Picture from our First Date we doubled with our really good friends even to this day. Oh and our friends are really tall too, just so you know why I don't look very tall in the picture apparently if you take a picture with every one being over 5'11" no one looks extremely tall.  Don't worry we love the vertically challenged as well.

8. I love Non-Fiction books and always have. I love that non-fiction books can make you something better than what you were before. That continuous process of self improvement has always been important to me. I remember when I was growing up I asked my mom for 10 habits of Highly Effective Teens (when I was 12) and Life Strategies for Teens (when I was 14). My favorite book in high school was Talking Peace by Jimmy Carter. Now, it would probably be tied between a number of my cookbooks, political science books (example: Justice as Fairness, thanks to Professor Chris Henrichsen to introducing and helping me love political theory or First Family: Abigail and John Adams), How to Win Friends and Influence People, and my sewing books.
 9. I have two kids, been pregnant twice but never actively labored. Both Ryder and Boston were born C-section on 39 weeks and 2 days, and both times I was dilated to nothing. Ryder was 9 lbs. 12 oz. and Boston 8 lbs. 5 oz.

Ryder meeting Boston for the first time.

My two babies are my morning wake up calls, my exercise, my daily humor, my greatest worries and my biggest blessings. And because of them I remembered why I loved to sew, because creating for them is just one way that I can show them how much I care. Though I love the blogging community and being able to share my experiences at the end of the day, seeing my little ones cuddle up to their favorite blanket that I made or seeing how sweet they look in the newest clothing creation is the best reward this momma could have. I often tell Ryder when he wants me to hold him as he falls to sleep that I am with all of the love that I put in each handmade blanket that sits on his bed.
10. I love sewing but I actually feel most comfortable in the kitchen. I love how recipes can be a vessel of love and culture. I have never left the United States but I love traveling the world through food. Feel free to share your favorites recipes in the comment section, I can never have too many recipes. I hope in the future to be able to share more recipes with you.
11. 90% of my home decor is brown, light turquoise or beige, so a piece of furniture could easily be moved from room to room without any change. I do realize this is super boring, but it makes color blind Slim Jim happy to have brown and beige. The turquoise is my addition to the party. I love dramatic damasks and elegant prints so it isn't entirely boring.

11 questions from Daisy Chain Creations:
1. What's your go to place when you are stumped and need a solution when it comes to sewing/crafting?
If I need to know how to put something together when I am sewing I ask Mom and if she doesn't answer her phone then I turn to my favorite sewing blogs for the answer or leave a gazillion voice mails until she calls me back. If I need advice what would look best together usually I go to Al, because our tastes are the most similar. Though hers are usually a brighter variation of the same idea. Crafting....so I don't really craft besides refinishing/building furniture for this my Dad, Slim Jim (husband), Power Shoes (Al's husband) and Bubba (Nae's husband, my big brother). The sweet thing about all my male family resources is they have the power tools and the desire to play with them, which usually gets me free labor.
2. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Wow, this one is hard. Africa, has always had a special place in my heart, I would love to go there for humanitarian service and that only deepen by in my study in college of international politics. Argentina, for Slim Jim since that is where he served a two year mission for our church, he says the food (pasta and beef, how could you beat that), culture and land is amazing. Canada, first off because of Prince Edward Island (Anne of Green Gables, anyone?) and a lot of my friends from there are pretty awesome. Austria, because my uncle and his wife live there so we would have more money for sight seeing. Because we would have a free place to stay (Right, Uncle Scott?). Australia, because when I was little I was convinced that I would marry an Aussie and live in an Australian paradise for the rest of my life. The list would go on and on if I kept writing. But I guess I will stop and instead tell you a few places I don't want to go. North and South Pole because I can't handle the below zero temperatures we have had in South East Idaho (currently -17F). And add Greenland to that list. Maybe I could convince Kelly with Sewing in No Man's Land to just pack me along on her world travels.
3. Who taught you how to sew and what do you wish you could ask them now?
My Mom, my Grandmas, aunts/great aunts and tidbits from a bunch of the sweet ladies in my town. Most of them are still alive so any question I have, I could still ask them. The experience from being around them and basking in all of their knowledge has made me a better seamstress. From my Mom, I learned that if you don't have the answer to how to do something, don't let it stop you just find someone THAT KNOWS. When I told my mom that I wanted to make a civil war inspired gown she didn't tell me no, we couldn't do it, just because she didn't have a lot of experience in boning or applying eyelets for laces, or working with an insane amount of fabric. We just went around my small town of 500 and we talked to every person that could be resource that she could think of.
The one person that I don't have around anymore that taught me a bunch is my Grandma Twila. I was looking at a dress she made for me one Christmas. I loved the piping detail that she put on it and the lace on the skirt. I remember going into her sewing room and her fitting it to me, it is still a tender and cherished memory.
4. If you were able to pass on your love of sewing to someone, what is the first thing you would tell them/teach them?
I think I would want to teach them about my favorite projects, and I think I would have a hard time deciding between those. I would probably tell them that the best way to learn to sew is to challenge yourself by making something that you really want. NO MATTER HOW HARD IT IS! But when you do that make sure and use all of the resources you have.
5. What is the must have by your sewing machine/craft table when it comes to snacks?
Dove Dark Chocolate, though I can't keep it at my table because I would have a tummy ache and no chocolate. Instead it is in an undisclosed location in my house where, when I just screwed something up and need the drive to keep working through it I can easily grab one and keep going.
6. What is one time period you wished you lived in, if only for the clothes they wore?
Before I begin, this is only for the clothes and not for the political or economic conditions.  I am torn between Regency period in England and the civil war time period. I love the ball gowns of both eras, which is interesting because they are very different but my two favorite dresses (other than my wedding dress) that I have ever worn have been modeled these eras.

This is the dress that my mom made me to wear  to the luncheon of my  wedding so that I wouldn't get  my wedding dress dirty. Great job mom and great idea!  Because I could have seen myself spilling fruit punch down the front of my wedding dress. And I wore it a ton afterward just by switching  out the ribbon color at the empire waist.

Sorry, I don't have any great pictures of the whole dress  that doesn't involve x-boyfriends.  But this is from back in the day with my roommate Laura doing my nails.

7. Favorite thing to do/favorite hobby, non sewing related?
Cooking or Photography. Cooking is a pleasant chore and I love photography because it is just capturing what is already there and preserving it in a beautiful way forever. I hope in the upcoming year that I can share more from these two hobbies.
8. If you could indulge yourself in something sewing related, what would it be and why?
I am trying to figure out my next big sewing purchase right now so this question is especially timely. Silhouette would be neat to be able to do T-shirt vinyl but I am also considering buying Pattern Making Software. But 10 years down the road it will probably be a cover stitch serger, because I have loved my rolled hem serger but I can see wanting to go one step up.
9. Milk or Dark Chocolate? Why?
Dark. Most of my political science mentors have loved dark chocolate and cashews. The duo is dynamite, I guess especially if you like political science too!
10. What is the funniest thing you have seen or heard lately?
Slim Jim showed me something a few weeks ago that had me cracking up and I still don't think I could read it out loud without laugh/crying. You might feel the same if you dragged your husband to Les Miserables after he has dragged you to all the superhero movies for years.

11. Sunrise or sunset?  What is your favorite time of day?
I am always up for the sunrise and I love that feeling of new beginnings. And there is something magical about the rays of sunlight as they being to rise from the horizon. I often feel like the sunrise is a great way to start the day and is a little bit of a secret because it seems like so many people miss it. But I love sharing warm (not hot) sunsets with my whole family, while sitting on the cool grass. I like every part of the day, I used to be opposed to the afternoon but that is when my kids nap=make dinner/take shower/sew/veg out, so now I like it all.

So what I have learned about myself while filling out these questions is that I am not satisfied with one answer  for one answer questions. Guess I am a little bit of a rule breaker.

Now to the blogs I am nominating:
Foster Ramblings
precious and few
My Naptime Journal
Call Ajaire
Pennies and Pancakes
The Life of Compulsive Life of a Crafter
Lovely Things
Mommys Apron Strings
D & G Stories
P Goodys
Be It Ever So Humble

The 11 questions/requests for you:
1. What is your favorite part about blogging?
2. What made you decided to start a blog?
3. If you could live in any house where would it be located and what would it look like?
4. Give yourself job descriptions to describe your day to day tasks.
5. What is your favorite thing that you have ever blogged about?
6. Second Honeymoon, where would you go (first if you haven't gone on one yet)?
7. Greatest Blogging Strength.
8. Greatest Blogging Weakness.
9. First 5 minutes of your day.
10. If you could meet one blogger who would it be?
11. One word to describe what you aspire to become?