Minky Blanket

This was seriously so easy to make. I followed this tutorial. I used a minky fabric and a cotton knit fabric. I was worried it would be difficult to use both minky and the cotton knit since these are both very stretchy, but if you use enough pins, it's not a problem. You could really do this with any fabrics. I think I'll try adding a silky fabric to the minky next time.

Start by cutting your fabric. The minky fabric should be slightly larger than the cotton fabric because you're going to use your cotton fabric as a guide. Pin the right sides to each other so the wrong sides are facing out. Make sure you have a pin every inch or so, so that the fabric can't slide around on you when you're sewing.

Stitch the two pieces together using the cotton fabric as a guide. Leave a 4 to 5 inch gap so you can turn the blanket right side out.

After you're done with that part, trim off the excess material on the minky fabric, turn the blanket right side out, and iron the edges to make sure everything is lying flat. Make sure to turn the edges under on that part you left open. Pin and iron this gap together. Now just sew all the way around the blanket again on the right side of the fabric. You might have to come a little closer in the gap area to make sure you catch the edges of the blanket there.


And voila, two hours later you have an adorable baby blanket.

Almond Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

Almond Cake

• 8 ounces mascarpone cheese (about 1 cup), softened
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons almond extract
• 1 box white cake mix
• 1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

In a large bowl combine the mascarpone cheese, egg whites, vegetable oil and almond extract. Using a hand mixer, beat the ingredients until combined and creamy. Add the cake mix and water and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. You can use a mascarpone cheese substitute.

Mascarpone Cheese Substitute

• 1 8oz package of cream cheese
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sour cream

You can pour batter into muffin cups-cooking time approximately 18 minutes, or a 9" x 13" cake pan-cooking time approximately 27 minutes.

Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting

• 1 tsp. unflavored gelatin
• 4 tsp. cold water
• 1 c. heavy whipping cream (at least 24 hours old and very cold)
• 1/4 c. confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 tsp. clear vanilla extract

Combine gelatin and cold water in small saucepan. Let stand until thick. Place over low heat, stirring constantly just until gelatin dissolves. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Whip cream, sugar and vanilla until slightly thickened. While beating slowly, gradually add gelatin to whipped cream mixture. Whip at high speed until stiff.

Removing Water Marks from a Fabric Lamp Shade

Recipe

¼ cup dish liquid

¼ tsp. household ammonia

½ tsp. white vinegar

2 cups warm water

Blend together until it foams (I just used my whisk).  Dab with sponge on stains and rub lightly.  Wipe with sponge until stain disappears. Lightly moisten entire area of fabric so you don't create more water stains. Dry on cool setting of hair dryer.

I had a few stubborn stains that were much lightened but still visible so I just sprayed Spray 'n Wash on them and rubbed a bit with the damp sponge.  Then there was a titch of yellow still left in some stubborn areas so I sprayed again with Simple Solution Stain and Odor Remover that I keep to clean up dog potty accidents.  As you're drying with the hair dryer, if you see any remains of a water spot, just wipe with damp sponge and dry again.  The silky type fabric was temperamental.

Voila!  A lamp shade like new.

Pomegranate Frozen Yogurt

After tasting the pomegranate frozen yogurt at Red Mango, I instantly fell in love. After going to the restaurant a few times I decided to try making my own at home. I briefly looked for a recipe on the internet but I couldn't find anything so I decided to make up my own. So here it is, a Pomegranate Frozen Yogurt recipe that tastes pretty close to the stuff you can get at Red Mango.

First you have to make sure to get 100% pomegranate juice, with no sugar added. They have pomegranate juice cocktails that have sugar and other fruit juices added, but you do not want to use those. Red Mango uses POM brand pomegranate juice, but I have actually found that Langers All Pomegranate juice has a little bit of a stronger flavor and makes tastier frozen yogurt.

Pomegranate Frozen Yogurt

• 2 Cups Plain Yogurt
• 1 Cup Pomegranate Juice
• 1/4 Cup Sugar

Pour pomegranate juice and sugar into a sauce pan and heat on stove until sugar is just dissolved. Transfer mixture to a Tupperware container and put it in the refrigerator (1-2 hours). When the juice and sugar mixture is cold, remove and add the yogurt. Mix until well blended. Pour into ice cream machine and freeze like normal ice cream.

You can eat the frozen yogurt right away or let it set up in the freezer for an hour or so before eating. Enjoy!

Tank Top to Skirt

I never wear this tank top anymore, but I've had a hard time getting rid of it, because I love the color and pattern of the stripes (I am a little bit infatuated with stripey things).

Since I'm on a repurposing-roll after the dresses yesterday, I thought I should turn the tank into something. It was too small to make a dress for either girl, but what a great skirt it would make for Ava, eh?

First I placed a skirt of Ava's over the tank, then I cut out the shape of the skirt, leaving some wiggle room on the sides for hemming, and an extra inch or two on top for the elastic casing.

Once the pieces were cut out, I pinned them together, right sides facing. Then I took a ruler and made straight lines with a fabric marker down the side hems, to ensure I stitched it into a nice and straight A-line shape.

After stitching up the sides, all that was left was to create a casing for the elastic waistband. I turned over the top raw edge about an inch, pinned it down, then sewed all the way around, leaving a 2-inch open gap where I could sew the elastic closed. I used a 3/4 inch elastic, guided it through the casing with a safety pin, then sewed the elastic ends together with nice, tight, overlapping zigzag stitches.

Then I just sewed up the gap I had left open in the casing, and it was done.

It's a perfect fit!


Ava insisted that the skirt looked best with striped pants underneath it. And who am I to deny a girl her stripes??

This was a super easy job. I really want to make one for myself now. I just need to find a big-n-tall t-shirt to cut up. Oh, what's that you say? You can BUY knit fabric at the fabric store? Oh, I suppose I could do that, too. :)

Breathing Girly Life Into a Boring Tee

I felt like sewing something today, and since PJ is refusing to wear anything but dresses, a dress seemed like the right way to go.

Frugal momma that I am, I started with a 30 cent t-shirt (Halloween clearance at JoAnn) that I had attempted at one time to make into a fitted women's tee. It was..well, ugly, so I decided to try to give it new life as a toddler dress. I've had my eye on this cute, cute tutorial for a while and used it to get me going on the project.

Using a dress of PJ's to get the approximate shape and length, I cut up the shirt into a dress-ish shape.

I sewed up the sides with a straight stitch and finished the bottom hem with a rather uneven simple hem. The sleeves are unfinished (it's a rustic look. or punk. or lazy. or how about casual?).

{Somewhere around this time, Ava waltzed in and decided SHE wanted a dress, too. Fortunately I had another bargain JoAnn tee in a lovely purpley shade. More on that below.}

Now, I already had these little slits cut into the orange shirt from its failed existence as a woman's fitted tee, so I had to use them somehow. I decided to take strips of fabric from another tee and tie little bows through the slits.

I think it turned out pretty cute (but I think Ava's turned out even cuter).

For hers, I assembled it the same way, but I went with the ruffles, following the directions on the Oh So Happy Together tutorial. The ruffles were a little tricky to sew, but it's okay if they get messy. They still look cute. I nixed the green strips below, but I may have to do a white dress with a rainbow of strips some time...

Ava's dress was nice, because the length of the t-shirt made for a perfect length of dress, so I didn't have to mess with the bottom hem. Most playdresses are around knee-length, but I'm really liking the midcalf length for her.

For the sleeves, I decided to tuck under the fabric at the top of the shoulder and make a little 1/2 inch reinforced stitch perpendicular to the collar. That brought the fabric in a little at the shoulder for a more feminine line, and it also caused the fabric around the sleeve to curl under a bit, so that you don't notice that it's unhemmed. I like the look, for a casual play dress.

Ava wanted a matching headband, like the little girl on the tutorial, so I gathered up a long strip of the t-shirt fabric with a basting stitch and sewed it to a strip of elastic. The stitch ended up pretty uneven on the elastic, but no one will see that.


The girls had fun with the photo shoot, especially the elder child.



I think I may be raiding Derek's drawer for long-forgotten tees. It's very satisfying to make a dress in under an hour.

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pancakes!

In celebration of National Pancake Day (February 23, of course!), I experimented with a new pancake recipe. Our family is really into pancakes. It's one of those meals that never fails to fill every little or big tummy at the table. And we are all perfectly happy downing pancakes any time of the day.

Being a mom, I'm always trying to pull a fast one on my children. In the kitchen, this means sneaking nutritious stuff into normal everyday foods. Fortunately I don't have to be too sneaky. For example, Ava will not touch raw or cooked spinach with a 10-foot fork, but she insists that I put it in her smoothies. Strange, huh? Same with these pancakes. It really wasn't necessary to hide what went into them, and we all agreed that the "not-so-secret ingredients" make them even yummier than the original recipe. Pancakes are such a great food for squirreling away nutritious tidbits--bananas, ground oats, flaxseed meal, applesauce, etc. Once the syrup is slathered on, most little tasters don't notice the variations.

And now for the recipe. They're moist and tender and delicious. Easy, too.

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pancakes

2 eggs
2 C buttermilk
4 T butter, melted
1 C white flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 T sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
A few dashes pumpkin pie spice (depending on your preference)
2/3 C pureed sweet potato

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add remainder of ingredients and mix. You know how to make pancakes.

Makes about 17 medium sized pancakes.

The batter.

Getting cooked up.


Note on puree:
For the sweet potato puree, I roasted a few sweet potatoes (washed but not peeled) in a baking pan in the oven at 400 degrees for about 80 minutes or so. Then I pulled off the peel and pureed the potatoes in a food processor, adding a little water to get the right consistency. Here's a lovely little dollop of sweet potato puree. That is some fine baby food, and also terrific for mixing into other things.