Sewing a Shirt

You know how aggrevating it is to have an idea of something you want to buy, but can't find it? I have this problem frequently, usually in the clothing department. I'll have this very specific idea of what I want a top to look like, what fabric I want it made out of, and how it should look on me. I spend time looking online or even going shopping for something that usually doesn't exist. I had a top that I got from Old Navy a few years ago and liked the look, so I spent last night trying to make a copy of it out of material that I chose.

Here's the top that I tried to copy. I like it, but the only thing that was annoying was the big keyhole in front...I was constantly trying to fix it so as not to flash anyone. I went to JoAnnes and picked out some really pretty eggplant-colored fabric. I was a little shocked at the price ($9.99/yard), especially since I didn't know if it was going to work or not, or all end up in the trash. I went ahead and did it anyways (now that I look back, it's a little sad that a splurge for me is less than $10). I only bought one yard, and then bought 1/4 yard of some cream satin for the tie around the neck (not pictured). When I checked out, the fabric was half off because it was at the end of the bolt, yay! I came home, used my Old Navy top, started cutting and sewing. Here is the end product:

I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out looking like a top! It even fit like a top! I made this top maybe an inch or two longer than the original, because I like my tops long. I made my satin tie, strung it through the neck and it just didn't look right. I took it out and used some thick ribbon that I had and tried it next. It still doesn't feel right either. I have toyed with the idea of taking some satin fabric, eggplant fabric, braiding it and using it as a neck tie. The braided tie idea looks really good in my head, but don't know how it would look in real-life. If you have any ideas, send them my way.

All in all, not a bad investment for $6. Happy Sewing!

Pig Crochet Pattern!

Ok, I don't have a lot of experience typing out crochet patterns, but I will be trying to give you my pig pattern! I made this pattern up as I went and really enjoyed finishing it a few days ago. I bet somewhere out in cyberland, there is a pattern just like this, but for right now it is one of my originals. Hope you enjoy it.

Picture #1: Front view of pigPicture #2: Sideview of pigPicture #3: Tail of pig :)

Round 1: 6 sc into Magic Ring (6)

Round 2: 2 sc in each st around (12)

Round 3: sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, around (18)

Round 4: sc in next 2 st, 2 sc in next st, around (24)

Round 5: sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st, around (30)

Round 6: sc in next 4 st, 2 sc in next st, around (36)

Round 7: sc in next 5 st, 2 sc in next st, around (42)

Round 8: sc in next 6 st, 2 sc in next st, around (48)

Round 9: sc in next 7 st, 2 sc in next st, around (54)

Round 10: sc in next 8 st, 2 sc in next st, around (60)

**I attached the eyes at this point**

Round 11-20: sc around (60)

Round 21: sc in next 8 st, dec over next 2 sts, around (54)

Round 22: sc in next 7 sts, dec over next 2 sts, around (48)

Round 23: sc in next 6 sts, dec over next 2 sts, around (42)

Round 24: sc in next 5 sts, dec over next 2 sts, around (36)

Round 25: sc in next 4 sts, dec over next 2 sts, around (30)

Round 26: sc in next 3 sts, dec over next 2 sts, around (24)

Round 27: sc in next 2 sts, dec over next 2 sts, around (18)

Round 28: sc in next st, dec over next 2 sts, around (12)

Round 29: dec 6 times (6)

Tie off, but do not cut.

For the tail: Still working with the yarn from the body: crochet 10 stitches, then sc 10 stitches back. You will get a spiral effect. For a longer, more spiral tail, you can just add more stitches.

F/O weave in ends.

Legs: make 4

Round 1: 6 sc in to Magic Ring (6)

Round 2: 2 sc in each st around (12)

Round 3: sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, around (18)

Round 4: In back loops only, sc around (18)

Rounds 5-9: sc around (18)

F/O leaving long tail to attach to body

Ears: make two **these were tricky, I'll try and explain as best as possible

Round 1: 6 sc in to Magic Ring (6)

Round 2: 2 sc in next 4 stitches, 2 slip stitches in next two stitches (this will give it a flat bottom)(10)

Round 3: * sc in next st, 2 sc in next st* repeat 4 times, then slip stitch in last 3 stitches (15)

Round 4: slip stitch in next 5 stitches, skip a stitch and continue to slip stitch down the other side of the ear. **The reason for skipping a stitch, it will give the ear a point at the top.

F/O leaving a long tail to attach to body

Snout:

Round 1: 6 sc in to Magic Ring (6)

Round 2: 2 sc in eac st around (12)

Round 3: sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, around (18)

Rounds 4-6: sc around (18)

F/O leaving long tail to attach to body.**Before attaching to body, I sewed to small buttons for the holes on the snout. You could glue on felt, or embroider with black yarn, whatever you prefer.

Assemble your pig as you prefer.

Happy Crocheting!

The Big Cookie Project: Week 43

I am really excited about the cookie(s) this week! I got to be a help at Carrie's reception by helping with the Cookie Bar. Since Carrie didn't want a traditional cake, she went non-traditional with the idea of a Cookie Bar. We decorated numerous tins (mostly popcorn tins or cookie tins from Christmas) and filled them up with different kinds of cookies. Carrie made White Chocolate Macadamian and Oatmeal Raisin, my mom made Peanut Butter, her friends from church made Sugar and No-Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal and I made Chocolate Chip, Snickerdoodle and Chocolate Sugar Cookies. It seemed like a lot of cookies when we were filling the table with them, but by the end of the night most of the cans were almost or completely empty. It was great seeing people get plate-fuls of the cookies and was easy for cleanup and we didn't need silverware to eat them! Here's the first picture of the whole Cookie Bar. Carrie's reception colors were teal and gray with a sort of rustic/outdoorsy feel. I sprayed most of the cans with spraypaint...there were a ton of colors to choose from at Lowe's! Then, I covered some with scrapbook paper that resembled bark from trees.

These tins were full of Sugar, Oatmeal Raisin and Surprise Cookies. The Surprise Cookies and Sugar Cookies were made by friends of Carrie. I thought it was really neat and special that they could help out with the dessert.

Funny story about the Peanut Butter tin....my mom made those and I told her it would be cute if she would glue some peanut shells around the edge. She bought a huge bag and asked my dad to be really careful and try and break them in half to make them easier to attach to the tin. She came home to find a huge bowl of shells. My dad found out that my mom only used a handful of shells for the project. He had spent all that time eating all those peanuts and breaking shells for my mom to only use about 10 peanuts. I wonder how many peanuts he actually DID eat :)

A different angle of the table.

Here's the recipe for Chocolate Cookies:

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

sugar, for rolling

DIRECTIONS:

1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl.

2. In a mixer, combine butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla until combined. Gradually add flour mixture. Form dough into a flattened disk, wrap with plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll into 1 1/4 inch balls, then roll each ball in sugar to coat.

***After placing dough balls on to cookie sheet, I lightly pressed doughballs to flatten them a little. Seems to help with the spreading process for me, but you don't have to if you don't want to.*** Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minute. Transfer to a rack and cool for 5 minutes.

These turned out really good, I was a little sad I only got to try one cookie. They were the first kind of cookie to disappear from the cookie table.

I really loved doing this with and for my sister and I would do it again in a heartbeat, happy baking guys!

The Big Cookie Project: Week 42

I didn't actually make a cookie this week, I made a bread. But since the name of the bread had a cookie in it, I decided it would count. :) It was very good, moist and addicting. From the picture you can see it made one big loaf (9"x5") and two small loaves. I was going to give away all the loaves, but we couldn't help ourselves and dug in to one of the small loaves.

SNICKERDOODLE BREAD

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cup cinnamon chips ***I left them out, bread was great without it***

2 Tablespoons flour ***To cover chips, left this out as well since I didn't use the cinnamon chips***

Topping:

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:

1. Combine 2 1/2 cups flour and baking powder in a bowl. In a mixer, cream butter nad 2 cups sugar, salt and cinnamon until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla nd sour cream and mix until combined. Coat cinnamon chips with 2 Tablespoons flour and stir in to batter.

2. Spoon batter into four to five greased mini loafs or 2 large loaf pans. Don't fill more than 2/3 full. Combine 2 Tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Sprinkle over top of batter in the pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes for small loafs and 60 to 70 minutes for the large loafs. Done when a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool.

If you've ever had Amish Friendship Bread, this is very similar. The good thing about this is that it only fixes two loaves, instead of a million plus starters like the Amish Friendship Bread.

Got this recipe from: http://barbarabakes.com

This has nothing to do with desserts, just thought I'd share...

I found a recipe for Pizza Dip, yes you read right, PIZZA DIP! I fixed it the Super Bowl and it was super tasty. This is on my list for making again.

I won't give you the long typed out recipe, so here's a link: http://www.closetcooking.com/2011/03/pizza-dip.html

Happy Baking and have fun pizza dipping!

The Big Cookie Project: Week 41

Island Cookies were very fitting this week. It has rained so much at our house that I feel as though we've been surrounded by water and our house will become an island soon. These cookies also became a little bit more expensive than I had expected. I put all of the chocolate chips, nuts and coconut in a big measuring cup to take a pretty picture and discovered (a tad too late) that some sugar ants had infiltrated the coconut. Greg would have called it "extra protein", but I would never be able to do that, so it all went in the trash and Greg had to make a quick run to the grocery store for the ingredients...a second time.
Here's Take #2, all those add-ins looking extra delicious. Here's the recipe:
ISLAND COOKIES
INGREDIENTS:
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened ****I used crisco, always makes the cookies spread better
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 3/4 Nestle Toll House Chocolate Morsels
1 cup flaked coconuts
1 cup chopped walnuts
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, sugars, and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Add in egg. Gradually stir in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips, coconut and nuts.
3. Drop by spoonful onto baking sheets.
4. Bake for 8 to 11 minutes. Cool on baking sheets and move to wire rack.
***This recipe comes from the Nestle Classic Recipes book, LOVE this book.


Sweet and very "island-y"

Loved all the chocolate chips, my favorite part.

Here's to happy baking, and hoping you don't float away in all the rain. :)

DIY Friday!

DIY#1
I don't know about you, but I hav an official "junk drawer". Anything that we don't know where we should put it, it goes in the drawer: pens, chargers, markers, candles, etc. I couldn't deal with all of it just floating around. I had gotten little organizing bins to fit in drawers for my makeup, but those suckers are expensive! I think I spent over $30 just to organize one drawer, way too much for me. Then, I found a cracker box! It was the perfect shape to organize my things and best of all, it was free! I love those cheddar cheese crackers as well as the kids, they disappeared pretty quickly.

The box filled up with pens and other things. It's not the perfect solution, but it is way better than what it was.

DIY #2

So, I have this sweater cardigan. I've had it for years. It's seen me through two pregnancies, been stretched across my huge belly, it's been my "dressy" cardigan to church and has officially been downgraded to "just around the house". Greg thinks I should get rid of it, he would prefer to never see it again, but that's where I differ. I love the thing. But the unthinkable happened...the silly puppy made a hole in the elbow. EEEKKK! It was the perfect opportunity for Greg to have it gone. Still, I've dug in my heels and decided to sew on cute felt patches on the elbows.

I decided to do hearts on the elbows, it's almost Valentine's Day.

I pinned them on the elbow. This was sort of tricky. I actually just wore my sweater and pinned them on. I stuck myself a few times, but it got done!

Done! Did a cute stitch around the border and then did a little heart in the middle. My sweater still lives on!!! I do not know how long it will last, but it is being worn at this moment, and it's holding up pretty well.

Happy Friday!

The Big Cookie Project: Week 40

I don't know how many recipes I've done so far with peanut butter and chocolate in it. I guess you could say I'm a big fan of the combination. There's something about peanut butter and chocolate, they go hand in hand, and they are oh so yummy in desserts. Betty Crocker came to the rescue this week. The name of the dessert caught my eye, and I was hooked from there.
PEANUT BUTTER SWIRL BROWNIES
INGREDIENTS:
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 tablespoons milk
2 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup peanut butter chips
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x9 pan. Mix sugars, butter, milk and eggs in medium bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Divide batter in half (about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons for each half). Stir peanut butter and peanut butter chips into 1 half. Stir cocoa and chocolate chips into remaining half.

3. Spoon chocolate batter into 8 mounds, checkerboard style (like picture above). Spoon peanut butter batter between mounds of chocolate bater.

**I used an 8x8 pan, so I have less mounds than the directions said, but it worked.

4. Gently swirl through batters with knife for marbled design (like above).

5. Bake 30 to 35 minutes (I had to do longer since my pan was smaller and brownies were thicker). Cool completely for 1 hour.

They came out really tasty, but I made a huge mistake right at the beginning. I forgot to grease the pan!! In the picture above, you can see how badly they stuck to the bottom, that is why I don't have any good photos of a removed brownie from the pan. Also, HEB didn't have peanut butter chips (shame, shame HEB) so I just used 3 peanut butter cups and chopped them up in to little pieces...mmmm.

Good recipe, great taste!

Here's the link: www.bettycrocker.com/recipes

Happy Baking!