Yearly Archive: 2008

June 17, 2008

adventures in baking!

crêpe in the pan! With summer in full swing, I love the luxury of taking as long as I like to eat breakfast. Breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day. It’s important, good for you, and a special breakfast can make the whole day better. So I consider it completely worthwhile to spend an extra 20 minutes or so making something that I will thoroughly enjoy. This week, it’s been crêpes.

It all started when I found this remarkable crêpe recipe. It looked like it had all the right ingredients (but i didn’t add brandy.. i’m pretty sure we don’t even have it in the house; i also only used half as much sugar as was recommended) so I decided to give it a shot. It was nice and easy since you just throw everything into the blender, and once everything was stirred up it was all ready to go!

finished crêpes waiting in the oven The hardest part about making crêpes is mastering the cooking process. The batter is thin, and once the pan is hot (medium-high heat) one hand needs to hold the pan while the other pours in about a half cup of batter. Then you quickly swirl the batter around in the pan until you have a nice, round, flat crêpe. After some bubbles have formed on the surface, flip it over! The back side is harder to judge, since you can’t judge its cooking time by looking at the top. But after a few, I got the timing down, and it was so worth it.

I tried a bunch of different things with my crêpes… the first few I just ate plain, which was still completely delicious. I experimented later, though, with the leftovers the next few days, and had a few with strawberry preserves and whipped cream, one with melted chocolate chips and peanut butter, and I even turned one into a dessert crêpe and put a scoop of ice cream on top with a sliced banana. They were some pretty awesome crêpes.

is that a whale? ha, not really.. Of course, being the goober that I am, I got bored with simply swirling the batter into a circle after the first few. So I decided to try something a bit more creative and daring and came up with what you see on the right. If you guessed “whale”, you were right; it was an attempt. If you had no idea what it was or what it was supposed to be, that is entirely acceptable because it didn’t turn out like it was supposed to. And that was even my second try! But it still tasted great, and provided me with a bit of bonus amusement.

This week I’ve also mastered banana pancakes (i added a bit of oats to the batter and it was great!) and paninis. I should have my mom teach me how to cook some “real” food before I head off to Real Life, but so far, when I’m just teaching myself, I think I’m doing a fine job. And it’s all so delicious!

I’ve also made two new totes, so once I photograph them, they will be added to the shop. Hopefully there will be adequate sun tomorrow, but who knows… I also love thunderstorms. But I’m planning on having those in the shop on Friday. And expect lots of new whale-themed goodies; new pouches are in the works, and I have also been doing some fun experiments with screenprinting! Oh, how I love summer!

June 12, 2008

sewing in my sleep

fuchsia shirt idea The past few nights, as I lie on my back thinking before I fall asleep, all I can think of is sewing. Jo-Ann’s is having a 60% off sale on all of their spring fabrics, so that killed my “no buying fabric” rule for the summer. But one of the fabrics had whales on it! So, of course, that was necessary. I also got some lovely fuchsia knit; I hate purple, it’s my least favorite color, but this sort of purple-y pink has been catching my eye lately. But I haven’t worked with knits much, so this is what I’ve been dreaming about. I want to make some sort of sleeveless top, but one that could be worn on top of a short-sleeve or even a long-sleeve shirt once it gets cold again. I love sewing summer clothes, because anything without sleeves is much easier than anything with sleeves… but my mother keeps reminding me to prepare my wardrobe for the cooler climate of Cleveland, Ohio.

So that’s my basic idea, on the left. I don’t like the tunic style that’s popular right now; I prefer to avoid looking pregnant. So rather than a flowy knit top, I’m going to use princess seams to keep it fitted, and in the princess seams i want to put little patch pockets. Hopefully these will be some fun print; I’m sure I have a scrap of cute knit somewhere that I can use. The straps would have big fun buttons to attach them to the top strip, thus making it a top that could be sleeveless or could go on top of a long-sleeve shirt without looking weird. I’m excited!

I’ve also been coming up with lots of new product ideas that I’m hoping to get finished this summer before I go off to college. The shop is really important to me, though, so I’m almost positive I’m going to keep everything going next year. But my favorite big idea (literally big!) so far has been these totes. They’re big and floppy, and comfy seems like a strange word for a tote, but they’re so nice for carrying things! Every time I finish one I want to keep it, but nope, they’ve made their way into the shop. They’re also a great stash buster, so hopefully I’ll make room for all my new fabric.

Speaking of the shop, the shopping cart script has been edited and upgraded. I don’t know if any of you have tried to order things lately, but for some reason the “add to cart” function stopped working. Obviously, this makes it pretty difficult to order things. But I’ve fixed it up, and not only is it repaired, but the entire shop is running more smoothly than ever!

Summer vacation is beautiful; I’ve been doing lots of biking, working at random little jobs, and sewing away. I’m hoping this summer lasts as long as I need it to… I’m not quite ready to head off for college. I’m excited, sure, and it’s not like I want another year of high school, but it’s just strange to think about. But I’ll be taking my sewing machine with me, so I’ll be prepared!

May 15, 2008

sparkling with joy & relief: my handmade glittery turquoise prom dress

Last summer, during my trip to NYC’s garment district, I found some gorgeous turquoise lace. Sheer, with embroidered swirly-leaf sort of designs plus some sparkle. I knew it would be perfect for my prom dress!

Of course, when I bought it, I was very proud of myself. I was buying my fabric almost a year in advance! Traditionally, if I have to sew a specific outfit for an event, I end up procrastinating to the point that I’m finishing stitches on my way out the door. But I had half of my fabric way early, so I figured I was set. But I got overloaded with responsibilites as costumer for Beauty & the Beast, and during tech week I began to worry. Every night I was at school past ten sewing my fingers off in preparation for the weekend’s shows, and suddenly someone decided to ask me whether or not I was making my prom dress.

“Yep,” I replied, “I already have half of my fabric.”

That had been my excuse for ten months; the thought of my preparedness kept me believing I that was even more than adequately prepared, that I was ahead of the game. But then I went over the dates in my head. Opening night: April 12. Strike: April 14. Prom: May 9.

We had less than a month until prom, and I hadn’t even started my dress. All I had was a pile of sheer fabric sitting in the corner of my craft room… the fabric wasn’t even opaque! The worries began to flood into the space they had tried to claim for months, the space that I had blocked out with my feelings of over-preparation.

The show was beautiful. It was very stressful, and although I am capable, I would not put myself through that again. I’ll put up all of my B & B photos in the next post. We did strike, we cleaned up, and I went home and expected some nice time to work on my dress, since rehearsals were over. But next came the Pope’s Mass, which I was fortunate enough to get to participate in when he came to DC. That evening, all of the music and band groups from school were packed into buses, and we sang in a competition in New York. We won first place in our category, and saw two Broadway shows: Spamalot and A Chorus Line. It was fun and exciting, but when we got home it was April 21st. And my prom dress was still translucent, shapeless, and sitting in a corner. Finally, on April 24, I got some real fabric, some real lining, and an invisible zipper. No more excuses; it was work time!

To make a long story slightly less ramble-y, I finished the dress. I used a princess-seam pattern that I love, Simplicity 6379, for the basics, but I edited it quite a bit as usual. I decided to use my pretty sparkle stuff on the center front and center back panels: just enough sparkle and pizazz. I couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out. I love the color, it fit me perfectly, and it was completely unique. It all paid off in the end.

Plus, my mom jumped in to help me out. I had planned on making Adam (the adorable boyfriend) a matching bow tie, but as the days started slipping away I realized that the chances of that happening weren’t likely. My amazing mother made him a matching bow tie and vest out of the exact same fabric, so we were perfect. And cute, of course. Could you possibly disagree?

While we finalized plans on the phone two days before the big dance, I managed to make myself a little wristlet to match as well. Multitasking! yeah!

And of course my mom and I realized we didn’t own hooks and eyes on the day before the dance. You’d think, in this room filled to the brim with sewing craziness, we’d have a hook and eye somewhere. Nope. We hemmed my dress on the morning of the dance, and the hook and eye was sewn on about an hour before Adam came to the door.

The dance was ridiculously fun. It was on the Odyssey dinner cruise on the Potomac River. Dancing, eating, and looking cute: I’m good at two of the three, and even as a horrible dancer I have fun. I was fully rewarded for my sewing hours when countless people were simply awed at my dress. It was great.

Next up: Baccalaureate Mass dress! It’s about halfway done.. the Mass is on Sunday. Plenty of time!