Pigs In Pajamas

Spent today making a dog bed for Minnie. Not going to get into the details. But essentially I covered the 5″ x 24.5″ x 39″ piece of foam with a permanent muslin covering. Then I made a cover with a zipper to go over that. The zipper cover is so that I can wash it.

Here are some more photos:

The inside cover.

The finished bed.

This is a quick tutorial post on how to do mitred corners which I use for the next project I’ll show here.

Let’s get started. Continue Reading »

I thought I would take a moment to review the Burda Anda pattern. I posted the review to Pattern Review but I have it below for my faithful readers. Continue Reading »

This weekend I finally got around to making curtains for my kitchen window. Since it looks onto the backyard I didn’t really need any that would close. Just wanted something to finish off the look and make it look homey.

Did this somewhat freestyle, figuring out how much and what to do along the way. Used some fabric I had (yay for using my stash!) and backed them with interfacing so they’d have a nice stiffness. Also used my serger to finish the edges rather than double folding. Not too hard and I like how they came out.

I’m always losing my earrings. So I wanted a way to keep them nice and neat, but where I could see them all so when I need some, I can just grab and go.

Like normal, I didn’t really want to buy anything new if possible. In this case I had to splurge on a frame. But it was only $5 at Michael’s. Otherwise, I had everything. But the only other really important material is the tulle. You only need enough to cover your frame which is probably less than $1.

Keep reading for how to make this. Continue Reading »

My goal recently has been to get through old projects. I’m really making a concerted effort at doing so as well as using existing fabric. It’s taken an extreme amount of willpower not to buy more fabric, but so far I’ve been mostly successful.

Today I picked up a project which had been sitting for a while. Back in the day, I made a gold ottoman. When I cut out the triangles for that, it left other triangles. So I have put those together into a small pillow. I also had tons of the binding leftover and this was a good way to use it. Unfortunately there’s still both fabric and binding so there will probably be more pillows eventually. Furthermore, I had a whole bag of “stuffing” (i.e., old clothes, mattress pads, fabric scraps, etc.) that I was eager to get out of my house.

So let’s get started . . . Continue Reading »

So I finished it today. In fact I ended up doing most of the work today since I spent the rest of the week fixing up the pattern.

Read on for more details of how I did it. Continue Reading »

So today I didn’t quite follow the directions since I was still working on my pattern.

I started by marking off 1.5″ from each side. Then I had to adjust the armholes. I used my French curve to draw the line from the existing shoulder to where the new armpit is. I did this because I liked the existing sleeve length. Continue Reading »

Okay. It’s day two. The only thing to do today is to cut out the pieces. I’ve finally picked out my fabric:

The white you see is a cool embroidered edge that I think will add something interesting to the bottom of this otherwise plain and simple dress. Continue Reading »

One more quick post for tonight. I made shrimp stir fry (ingredients are below although I don’t have a picture of the finished item) and shrimp dumplings, both from Cooks Illustrated recipes. The dumplings are above. I think they look great. They were a bit salty (I’d leave out the salt next time) and crunchy — I think that’s because I steamed them in the microwave. Guess I need a real steamer to make them soft. But the recipe made about 40 of them, the rest of which are in the freezer, so I can practice my steaming technique. Although I won’t be able to fix the saltiness until the next batch. :-/