Thanks!

Wow! Thank y'all so much for the advice on frugal foods. Once I come up with my menu, I might post it on here to see if y'all think I've done your ideas justice. :)

Today is really hot, here in southwestern Virginia. At least I feel hot. And guess what chore I really need to do - the one I've been putting off for two days?

Ironing.

Yup. I've got a big stack of line-dried (errr, rod-dried, that is) clothes that I really need to iron, or I will wake up tomorrow morning with absolutely nothing to wear. (Not a good prospect!) Come to think of it, if I don't get busy this afternoon, I won't even have something to wear to our mid-week prayer service at church tonight. (That's not a good prospect, either!)

Nothing like motivation to get a person going!

It's not that I have anything against ironing, you understand...but there are so many other things I would rather be doing. ...Like reading some library books. Don't you just love library books?

Oh, speaking of clothing made me remember something I've been wanting to post about on here.

Since y'all have so many good ideas concerning food, I'd like to ask for some input in another area.

Clothing.

Proverbs 31 mentions clothing, fabric, and appearance more times than any other chapter in the Bible that I can think of.

"She girdeth her loins with strength..."

"...for all her household are clothed with scarlet."

"She maketh herself coverings of tapestry, her clothing is silk and purple."

"She maketh fine linen and selleth it; and delivereth girdles..."

"Strength and honor are her clothing..."

"Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but the woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands..."

Undoubtedly, that last verse is the most important. As Peter wrote, our adorning should not come from that outward adorning of plaiting our hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel, but it should come from the hidden man of the heart, with that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

Of great price! Just think about that for a moment. If mankind values something, such as gold or diamonds, that's one thing. But when GOD values something......Whew! That thought nearly blows my brain.

Anyway, about clothing.

Even though they are secondary in importance, I know we can't just ignore clothes. We do need them, after all! And a Christian woman, more than others, needs to be concerned that she is giving a good testimony by what she puts on her body.

There are so many different standards, even among Christians, concerning clothing. I don't purpose to go into all of that. I believe in soul liberty - the freedom for each child of God to follow their conscience. Each Christian woman should look at what is clearly stated in scripture - such as the principle of modesty, or being feminine versus manly - and prayerfully decide from there what her wardrobe should look like.

But the advice I'd like to ask from y'all is this;

I am in the process of designing a new summer wardrobe. I think the basement eats my out-of-season clothes every time I store them away, because when I got my summer stuff out this year, the store was sadly depleted. Anyone else have this trouble?

What I need most at the moment are some more shirts. I'd like to sew a few, and find a few at good prices in the stores. As far as the sewing goes, I'm having trouble finding patterns that I like.

For those of you who are seamstresses, and have made shirts before, where did you find your patterns? Could you recommend websites with pictures, where I could go to get ideas? I sew a lot of my stuff just from looking at pictures.

Hope y'all can get my "creative juices flowing," as my mother says. Thanks in advance for anything you might have to offer!