sewing memories...

I find my (not so) obligatory bed rest and excellent time to organize and reorganize all of my laptop content. I’ve meant to brag a little about my sewing experiments ages ago, but with all that’s been going on, I simply forgot…

I was reasonably pleased with how everything turned out and I do have many more things planned (and few unfinished). For now I’m longing for a dress form, but since we decided to move, packing takes priority over everything else. From the other hand, once we move…. there will be no end to crafting! This house really needs love! Our landlord had some rather unconventional decorating ideas (not in the good sense), and I’m determined to turn it into a perfect pad until we move to our target apartment.

But returning to the topic of my sewing adventures… I raided Pinterest for some cute, easy projects and came up with few ideas that I than adjusted to my needs. I wouldn’t be me if I actually follow instructions to the letter, but here is what I ended up with so far.

 I started very simple, with knife pleated skirt with invisible zipper. It's kind of summery and playful. I especially like the hem trimmed with the same fabric as a waistband. It makes it look less simple than it actually is... this is a nice tutorial for similar skirt.

For the second project (equally simple) I used this kids skirt idea and reworked it in my size. I see it more with fall accessories, so didn't have a chance to wear it yet...

 I made this dress following this tutorial. I really liked the ModCloth version so I added few alterations to make mine look similar. I extended the waist part a bit and secured the pleats with a belt. Then I added the actual belt with belt-loops on top of that. It gives it better structure and makes the top look less sloppy. I made it with quite stiff fabric so the bottom part is really puffy. I think I will remake it with a bit more drape friendly cloth at some point...

 After skirts, I moved to shorts. I followed this tutorial pretty closely, but decided to go with the belt instead of the sash. they are very comfy and would be cute for the beach, though i mostly use them as pajama bottom.  

This shirtwaist dress is the most complicated project I've attempted so far. I copied pattern from one of my shirts till the natural waist level and added A-line skirt to it. While the pattern part was pretty straight forward, i had a bit of trouble with the sleeves. It looks good from outside and drapes well, but it could be better from the inside. I discovered mock serged seam on my machine way too late. This looks like a nice "how to" and a pattern for a similar dress.

This is my absolute favorite at the moment. I barely take it off! i made it with the bodice from the previous dress by simply extending center front at the waist towards side seam and adding some roll collar. The skirt part is just wrapped rectangle - it could be fuller, but I used virtually the whole fabric i had - till the last scrap.It is super comfy and extremely versatile. this is somewhat similar project with pattern and instructions.

Wedding in scraps

The side effect of a sudden drop of temperature is me stuck in bed with a cold. On the plus side, it gave me perfect excuse to finally organize scrapbook pictures. Ever since the wedding, I’ve been planning to venture into this world, which was quite new to me, though not completely.  After getting through more than hundred pages, I came to the conclusion that scrapbooking is nothing more than art-journaling made easy. And I made few of those back in the days…Needless to say, I fell in love with it since day one!

We decided that small wedding albums will make sweet and personal keepsakes for closest family, which meant creating at least 4 around the same subject. Anant is still trying to talk me into making more, but honestly I need some vacation from all the tutu…

I’ve made first three few months back, but waited with posting until they reach their destination, since they were meant as a surprise gifts. Only recently I completed ours – the last one so far.

It was quite interesting to go through all the pictures and see how same (or similar) photos look in different layouts. Obviously I feel I could have done better job with some pages, but all things considered I’m reasonably happy with how they turned out. After all, it can be a bit tiresome to rework the same topic over and over again…

Now my hands are itching to use all the new materials I got recently… I’m thinking – holiday & travel?

Family

 

First dance & first kiss

beach 

Men in Black 

Indian ceremony 

Wish upon a star 

...and few of my favorite pages...

Rainy comfort

After staying in India for quite few years, I have to say I’m a big fan of four season. I know, I used to complain about fall being too wet and winter being too cold, but what is so bad about it, really? Living in climate that is hot and hotter made me long for those days.

To be completely honest, Goa has really pleasant climate most of the time, but it makes me miss the variety of European weather. October till February is a beach perfect season. After that it gets hotter and hotter, until it bursts into monsoon rains and temperature drops to 15 degrees. Whole state shuts down, hotels and restaurants are boarded up and all you can see around is bushy greenery. It’s a perfect time to cozy up with a hot cuppa tea and much loved comfort food.

I’m pretty sure that the need for comfort pies and cookies is what killed my oven. Since then I had to get creative. I tried all sorts of bizarre recipes, including microwave cookies or brownies in a cup, but seriously, eating half a jar of melted Nutella every day is not exactly the best idea.

Suddenly I remembered one of my childhood’s favorite “dessert” meal. It quite popular in Poland, but you will find it under different name in every region, which makes searching for the recipe a bit confusing. I succeeded in the end and here it is:

Buchty – steamed buns with strawberries and vanilla sauce

(Adapted from this recipe)

Buns:

250 g flour

100 ml milk

1 egg

Pinch of salt

2 ½ tsp dry active yeast

1 ½ tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. melted butter

8-10 strawberries

Preparation:

Bring all the ingredients to room temperature. Warm milk slightly and whisk with yeast, sugar and 2 tbsp. flour – set aside for 10 minutes (it should double the volume).

Add flour, egg, salt, butter and kneed for few minutes – set aside for 30-45 min. to rise.

Form 8-10 small buns with strawberry in the center and set aside for 10 minutes.

Steam for 10 minutes (they will double the size).

Vanilla Sauce

2 vanilla pods (or vanilla extract)

1 ½ tbsp. sugar

100 ml milk

1 egg yolk

1/2 - 1 tsp cornstarch

1tsp butter melted

Preparation

With the tip of the knife open vanilla pods and take out the seeds. Mix all the ingredients and continue whisking on low heat until sauce thickens. It should resemble very runny custard.

Serve buns with hot sauce and strawberries.

PS.

Any kind of berry or jam would work with this recipe.

Enjoy!

There and back again – Pune

We’ve been extremely mobile this month. Luckily our latest trip wasn’t like the others; no paper work, no offices, just fun – pure and simple.

Obviously boys were all into football, wherever we went. Other than that we visited Anant’s favorite brewery – Doolally (great beer but only ok food) and did some shopping, seeing as the sales are in full swing.

Pune isn’t exactly interesting city, from the touristic point of view, but it is one of the few places in India, I can imagine myself living in. It has big city advantages without being as overwhelming as Delhi or Mumbai. Thanks to the hilly area, the climate is nice and it’s reasonably green.

With that said, I’m always happy to be back home, no matter how good time I had elsewhere. Even more so, when few nice packages are awaiting my return…

Fab Bag didn’t disappoint, as usual. I already tried the apple scrub, lip-gloss and eye shadows and love them all. 

Surprisingly I also got my long overdue free Envy Box. It was definitely better than the previous ones. Face wash is really nice – minty and refreshing, leaving silky film on the skin. I’m already obsessed with the nail polish. Color is great plus the application is really easy – and I know what I’m saying, cause painting my nails is the one thing I can never get right. Perfumes are really bad - kind of cheap candy with a hint of bathroom air freshener. I always said that Nina Ricci would be perfect for Barbie!

Apart from my beauty subscriptions, there were boxes full of crafting treasures. Itsy Bitsy is great for all the basic crafting needs. They have a bit of everything, good selections for scrap-booking, jewelry making plus art supplies and many more. As usual the delivery was quick and mistake free.

Bits and Pieces is more scrap-booking oriented. They are a little pricy comparing to Itsy Bitsy but they just started free delivery! B&P have less products and many out of stock, but the things they have make me come back for more every time! I absolutely love their Die cuts, charms and scrap-booking combos.