Home-Ec Guest 
Heather says: see the end for a note Michele says: Now that September is nigh, relief from the insanity of summer is in sight. Kids go back to school, vacations cease, and life gets back to normal until the seemingly just around the corner winter holiday season. Assuming you’re not Jewish, that is. And if …
I’m not a fan of summer; it’s hot, sticky, and—for someone as pale as I—sunburny. I spend most of the summer indoors, hoping for a cloudy day. For reasons probably related to my aversion to summer, I long ago decided that August is, in fact, autumn. And what does autumn mean? Soup, of course! Every year, I spend my …
Michele says: Now that you have your shiny new sewing machine all picked out and ordered, it’s time to learn how to use that crazy looking thing. Unfortunately, learning is the least fun part of using a sewing machine. I’ll do my best to make it painless, but we need to take a second before …
Michele says: If you’ve ever made your own creamy salad dressings from scratch, you may have been shocked by the inclusion of up to a cup of store-bought, chemical-filled mayonnaise. Since when does a “from scratch” recipe call for “sauce from a jar”? Moreover, can a salad dressing, potato salad, or tuna sandwich qualify as …
Michele says: Have you ever tried to Google something, only to quickly realize that you don’t know which words to enter in the search box? Now, how many of you have taken it a step further and went ahead and searched for, say, “strawberry thing attached to a pincushion”? No judgment. I and many others, …
Michele says: Now that our hand sewing skills are more or less on the same page, it’s time for you to make a very important choice. You can be content with hand sewing and call it a day, or you can take the plunge into the world of sewing machines. For the many who have …
Michele says: Now that we’ve completed our first sewing project, it’s almost time to move on to the next big step in sewing: the sewing machine. Before we do, though, we’re going to get back to the most basic of basics and learn how to reattach a button in under five minutes. But what do …
Michele says: If you had to summarize summer in three words, which words would you choose? Swimming, picnics, and ice cream? Vacations, thunderstorms, and fireflies? Bikinis, bonfires, and s’mores? How about red, white, and blue? To me, summer never fails to feel like one big patriotic party, and the colors of the season seem to …
Michele says: I’m sure most of you would agree with me if I said that nothing is tastier than an ice cream sandwich on a hot summer’s day. It’s cold, it’s creamy, and it conjures up memories of childhood summers spent chasing down the ice cream man. Despite its deliciousness, however, I’m often wishing for …
Michele says: Over the past few months here at Home Ec 101, we’ve learned an awful lot about the basics of sewing. We know the straight stitch and the Frankenseam, we know how to hem trousers two different ways, how to repair holey jeans, and we even learned how to darn socks, but for those …