August 9, 2011 by ginghamgirl
Sometimes I can’t help but admit that I’m a girl. A Girly Girl. One who likes lovehearts. A lot. One might even say I ‘love’ them 
. So when I saw Chie of the blog Vivat Veritas’s tutorial on adding a heart cut out to a dress I couldn’t wait to try it.
To really embrace the theme I also drafted a sweetheart neckline bodice with thick straps. It gapes a teensy bit at the armhole BUT JUST DON”T LOOK AND THEN IT DOESN’T EXIST. No really, that’s my logic when it comes to little mistakes (or to playing Hide and Seek). I pleated the centre front and the back two sides with an interesting technique I’d like to call ‘punching my fabric in folds till I think it looks nice’. V couture.
I unearthed this fabric, which I think is Thai silk, when I was sorting through a box of fabric, and I literally have no idea when I bought this or where from. That is both awesome (yay nice fabric) and frightening (just how much fabric do I actually own?!). I lined the bodice and skirt because the silk was quite light and used a black zipper for the closure. Both were from my stash, so I didn’t have to buy anything for this project. Hoorah for hoarding.
Thanks for reading Bry xo
Category Dresses, Sewing | Tags: dress,Sewing,stash busting,vivat veritas | No Comments
August 7, 2011 by ginghamgirl
Every winter I face the same conundrum. Why don’t I own a gingham cropped shirt? And every winter I have to settle for cardigans and long sleeve shirts. This winter I say NO MORE. No more being warm, no more being sheltered from the rain. I say bring on the goosebumps.
And so, when I saw that this week’s theme for the Sew Weekly was ‘Go West’ I knew what I was going to make. I used a Vogue Basic Design’s Pattern as a starting point, but altered the bottom of the shirt to make ties instead. I also changed the sleeve a little as my shoulders need no shoulder pads. I pleated the excess material and bound it with bias tape, then added some little bows. I tossed up using red buttons but they looked a little dress-up-ey (for once not in a good way) so I stuck with white ones instead.
The instructions with this pattern were not the best, so I winged it (wung?) most of the time. There was no facing for the neck collar piece so there is a raw edge under the collar which is irking me, so I might have to bind it with some of the leftover bias tape. However this may have been because I gave up reading the instructions and went with *instinct* (ahem blindly sewed) but I will choose to blame Vogue anyway.
The fabric, buttons, pattern and interfacing were all from my stash so this shirt was like a gift from the obsessively shopping and fabric hoarding gods. I do thank them and promise to do my very best and buying every piece of decent fabric I come across in my weekly op shop pilgrimages.
I’m hoping I’ve managed to channel a vintage ‘glamour’ Western look instead of, as my boyfriend kindly put it “You look like a farmer checking on her chickens”. I distinctly remember chickens in The Wizard of Oz and that’s kind of Western……right?
It is 15°C today (or 59 in Farenheit for those of you playing along in America) and I am just a wee bit cold. Sadly I think my boot scootin’ days may be limited to the latter parts of the year.
Thanks for reading. Bry xo
Category Crafts, Sewing | Tags: gingham,sew weekly,shirt,stash busting | No Comments
August 3, 2011 by ginghamgirl
I’m going to be honest. I still use kid’s cookbooks. Not because I can’t cook (hey just call me Gordon Ramsey), or need to be reminded to have adult supervision when using the oven, but because kid’s get all the cool recipes. There’s no need to be fancy, there’s no Masterchef façade its just sweet, easy food. Did I mention they’re tasty?
Cow Coat Cupcakes
From Kitchen for Kids by Jennifer Low
1 cup Plain Flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
¾ cup white sugar (I used a little under this)
1/3 cup (75ml) unsalted butter (I was too lazy to get out the measuring scales so I just guestimated with a couple of teaspoons)
1 large egg
¾ cup (175ml) milk
½ tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbp unsweetened cocoa powder (I may have used er significantly more than this)
½ tsp white vinegar
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C)
2. Line 9 muffin tins with paper liners.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into bowl and mix.
4. In another bowl, use a baking spatula or wooden spoon to cream the sugar and butter. (If and ONLY if you have adult supervision it MIGHT be safe to use electric beaters here). Whisk (or beat in if you’re over 18) the egg, milk and vanilla. Add spoonfuls of the flour mixture and gently stir until it has all been added and the batter is smooth.
5. Pour about a cupful of the batter into another bowl (the bowl the flour was mixed in should be handy) and stir in the *two teaspoons* of cocoa powder, then stir in the vinegar.
6. Spoon overlapping blobs of the two batters into the patty cases until they are ¾ full. Do not mix.
7. Bake for 27-28mins. (mine only took like 15mins but my oven is scitzo). They should gently spring back when pressed. Cool completely if going to ice or eat the second they stop being so hot that they’ll burn your mouth.
Yields 9 cupcakes (mine however made 10 large ones, probably because of my enthusiastic use of cocoa powder)
Mmm Delicious! Bry xo
Category Cooking, Sweet Treats | Tags: cupcakes,sweet treats | 1 Comment
