Let’s Address The Dress…

It is so very nearly finished…The Pink Dress for t’Baybeh.  But as I am ridiculously bad at blogging, i thought i would take the opportunity to update right now.

After the fabric cutting debacle, it took A LOT of courage to actually sew the pieces together.  I had a few hours last Wednesday at home on my own and i actually sat encased in my sewing nook swithering over whether or not i should just…you know…not sew the dress together.  i think i was there for about 15 minutes before i flicked the switch on The Machine and just let rip.  I was so, so careful about matching hems and edges bla bla bla but even still, it’s far from perfect.  the back is a little skewiff, most notably at the top where it is meant to fasten but i’ll figure out how to hide it.  plus the hem is a bit wonky, not helped by some problem with thread tension that appeared as soon as i started on the tricky bits.  no idea what’s happened there, i’ll figure it out later.  anyway, i decided to get around that problem with using navy thread and a zig zag stitch. 

anyway, here is the final product.

I took the photo on the dining table – as an aside i love our table cloth material.  i have the cushions on the chair in matching fabric.  vay cute.  how lovely.

 I did a close up of the hem in the hope that it would look a bit better in close up.

It doesn’t look too bad (my slightly squint line aside), i like the way the navy thread shows up against the pink as if it was a detail i intended.  it sort of was, only because i realised in the 15 minute swithering time that i didn’t have any pink thread so the hem stitching was going to stand out.  I found the ends of a reel of navy thread last used in 19-canteen and thought that if the hem was going to stand out, i may as well make a bit of a feature of it.  so there we go.  i think the zig zagging sort of makes it work.

 

And here is the neck with one of the buttons i’m going to add as a bit of detail.  i decided a while ago that the dress on its own may be a bit too pink, so needed something to just break it up a little.  i found the buttons in a lovely wee shop in Hebden Bridge (name sadly forgotten) and i think they match up perfectly.

i’ll use the navy thread to fasten the buttons to the shoulders, again as i may as well make a feature of the thread.

the neckline looks pretty good to me as well, i have to admit that i didn’t quite follow all of the instructions as required.  there was no pressing and folding.  i did nip the shape of the neck so that the curve of the neck actually curved, and i did trim the extra long bits.  i just couldn’t be bothered pressing and folding to be honest.

 

And here’s both of the buttons.  lovely.  if you look carefully (ahem ahem) you can see the wonky bit where the hook-and-eye fastener is going to be attached.  i’ve pinned it just now and there is a bit of excess fabric but i’m sure i can sort it out.

 

 

 

Anyway.  Done!  (apart from the fastening and buttons.  but that’s pretty close to finish i think!)

Pattern was from: Pip Lincolne http://meetmeatmikes.com/

book here:http://www.amazon.com/Sew-La-Tea-Do-Favourite/dp/174066860X

I am pretty chuffed with the way it looks – i think the neck and armholes are pretty neat and aside from the weird fastening issue at the back, it hangs quite well.  hurrah!  hoorah! huzzah!

i’m still working up to making some clothes for me.  at least with the baybeh’s clothes they are little and wonky/quirky can be…fun.

onwards and upwards!

 

 

 

Cream cheese icing for carrot cake. Sorted!

Not much in the way of knitting or sewing going on here – an enforced hiatus due to unwell chiddler – but i have been baking (with clean hands, worry not folks). 

The husband had a birthday yesterday and I asked him what he wanted for a birthday cake.

“Carrot cake muffins” he said.

“…” I said.

After a deep breath and a vow to make a better batch than the ones that I turned out for the child’s first birthday, I got to work.  The recipe I used for the muffins came from Rachel Allen’s “Bake” book – it’s meant to be used for a loaf, but I broke free from the restrictions of the recipe and used the mixture as per the recipe (minus nuts and orange juice) and it worked out as enough mixture for 12 muffins (fairy cakes) and a mini loaf.

WORD OF WARNING – it took FOREVER to bake.  seriously.  fairly simple recipe but ye gods, it took a long time to cook.  I had the muffins/fairy cakes in for 25 minutes and the loaf for a good 45 minutes. They smelt lovely though, so that was nice.

Anyway.  Cakes were cooling down on the cooling rack when my attention turned to the cream cheese icing.  The last time i made them, it was way, way too runny.  i tried to pipe the icing and the consistency meant that the icing sort of splatted rather than piped.  Bah. 

All the recipes I found recommended using doulbe quantity icing sugar to cream cheese with milk and vanilla essence.  Nope, this was NOT good.  This = runny icing.  So wrong.  So i experimented.  And had a play around and found my ideal recipe.  It is as follows:

• Take a big wodge of cream cheese icing.  Put in a big bowl and squish it down a bit with a spatula just to have a feel of the consistency.  It’s squidgy, you know it will be squidgy, but it’s good to check.
• Then add what looks to be twice the quantity of icing sugar.  mix it into the cream cheese. 
• Add a drop of vanilla essence.  squidge it in too.

Now the icing will be pretty runny still so…next step is key. Super important.  Totally essential

• Add more icing sugar.  just a spoonful at first. mix it in.
• it will still be runny.
• so keep adding icing sugar. 

That’s it.  keep adding the icing sugar slowly then taste every so often to make sure it’s not overly sweet.

I was able to get quite a firm consistency and then ladled it into a piping bag and piped it onto the fairy cakes and the remaining icing was spread over the loafs using a spatula.  YUM.

I may have eaten approximately half my body weight in cake and icing over hte last couple of days.  And enjoyed every minute.  luverly.

(apols for the lack of knitting and sewing – i’ll be getting back on track pretty soon on all things handicraft.  I need to finish off the dress for the kid and i’ve got a few plans for cushion covers that i wouldn’t mind trying out.  i just need a bit of time to crack open The Sewing Behemoth to do it.)