Zaaberry

Cheddar Sage Biscuits

2012-02-24T14:08:00.002-05:00

This week, I accidentally bought 2 containers of sage. I was making this squash soup, and somehow bought sage at 2 different stores. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I thought I'd try my hand at some biscuits.

I used a basic cheese biscuit recipe and added the chopped sage to the butter to help bring out some of the flavor.

2 cups white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter-melted

1 cup milk

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar

chopped fresh sage

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter/sage, milk and cheese and mix until just combined. Drop by spoonful onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake at 425F for 15 minutes.

Butter, cheese, fresh herbs....what could possibly be yummier.

There will be more of these in our future. Basil parmasan. Rosemary gruyere.

What will you put in yours?

Channeling Spring

2012-02-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

The other night I came across a blog I hadn't seen before and was instantly inspired. Elle Apparel has some nice tutorials for clothing and though I didn't follow any one in particular, her ideas definitely got me thinking about making more clothes for myself.
I'm not nearly as cute as Leanne and I really hate having my picture taken, so you'll have to bear with me.

First I made this cute shirt dress. The shirt was $10 at Target and the skirt is fabric I'd had in my stash for a long time. It's not perfect, but good enough for a first try. I plan on making more, once it's actually warm out. Despite it being about 34 degrees, my husband convinced me to go outside for these photos. True blog dedication.

Next, I made myself a skirt. I just bought this skirt from Old Navy. I love the fit and style, so I just traced it and made another.

Once it gets warm here, this skirt will get a lot of mileage. I made the shirt for our trip to Florida last month.

What have you added to your wardrobe lately? Any great tutorials out there I should know about? I'd love to hear from you!

2012-02-14T06:53:00.000-05:00

I don't tend to share a lot of personal stuff here. But since it is Valentine's Day and I do have "family" up there in my header, I thought I'd take a moment to mention my wonderful husband.

We've had to deal with a difficult situation recently and it has reminded me how much easier life is when you have an amazing, supportive partner at your side. I'm a lucky woman.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Simple Washcloth Tutorial

2012-01-28T17:08:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but we always seem to have a shortage of washcloths in our house. We use them for everything from wiping counters to washing faces.

This tutorial is more about inspiration and a little tip since sewing a washcloth is about as easy as it gets.

I used a 100% cotton chenille that I picked up on vacation and cotton flannel.

I made a template from my stash of file folders, 6 inches by 6 inches square.

Lay your fabric right side together and trace the pattern. Here's the trick. See those 2 blue lines perpendicular to the pattern? That's the opening and you want to actually sew on those lines. What this does is pull that seam allowance down and make it easier to sew that opening closed when turned right side out.

Sew just inside your traced lines and trim.

Turn right side out and press. See how you can't tell where the opening was?

Top-stitch around the perimeter. I also folded the washcloth in thirds and sewed 2 parallel lines to keep the layers together better.

Super easy!

How cute would these be wrapped up for a new baby?

Here's to easy projects!

Jane of All Trades Giveaway-CLOSED

2012-01-22T20:19:00.000-05:00

Have you checked out Jane of All Trades yet? Well, now is the time to do it. Not only is her super cute chalkboard mat being featured over at Sew Can She, but she's also having a giveaway.

Here's just a peek at some of her cute projects.

So head over here before Friday, 1/27 to enter to win this beautiful bag.

Then come back and let me know what you think.

A Little Fun in the Sun

2012-01-21T19:57:00.000-05:00

We are on vacation this week, and are thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

We've dipped our toes in the sand and ocean.

And seen some really cool wildlife.

And what trip would be complete without a little fabric shopping. All these fabrics are from Joanns, but ones I haven't been able to find in my local store.

The perfect souvenir for me.

Winter Vacation Shorts Mini-Tute

2012-01-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

We'll be flying south soon for our annual winter vacation. So in honor of Rae's KNITerview series, I thought I'd put together a little tute for some knit kid shorts. Now if you read my KNITerview, you'll see that in my humble opinion, the easiest way to sew knits is on a serger. But, there are tons of resources out there for sewing knits on your standard sewing machine. And most people, other than me, do this with great success. Here's a great post at Prudent Baby.

I'm calling this a mini-tute because I'm not going to show you how I made my pattern. Dana over at Made has a great tute for this.

On to the shorts. I made my pattern from shorts that fit my daughter.

Lay out your pattern and cut 2 front pieces and 2 back pieces with your fabric folded. For these shorts I used about 1/2 yard rib knit I bought at Joanns. Rib knit has a nice stretch and is a good medium weight. You could also use interlock or a thrifted tee.

Sew the back to the front (right sides together) at the crotch and on the sides for both legs.

This is what you should end up with

Turn one leg right side out and insert into the other leg, with right sides together. Sew from one arrow to the other.

Turn right side out. Super easy and almost done.

Measure all the way around the waist and subtract 1 inch. Mine were 18 inches around, so I cut a waistband that is 17" by 3 inches.

Sew the short ends together.

Fold in half with the seam on the inside and iron. Mark the center on the front and back, and side.

Match your marks with the side and center front and back seams. Your shorts will be wider than the band.

As you sew, stretch in between the marks to make the band fit.

Now you just need to hem, and you're done!

For these, I did a lettuce edge on my serger. From an Igloo has a nice tutorial showing how to do this without a serger.

Or you can just do a regular hem.

Now we're ready for our winter getaway, though it hasn't really felt like winter here.

Hope you're enjoying the winter where you are.

Laptop Sleeve

2012-01-06T20:54:00.003-05:00

We're going on vacation soon. I'm typically a light packer. But I've realized that it's not so much clothing I need space for, but my computer, camera, lenses, iphone.....

So rather than carry my laptop bag, I made my computer it's own, little pouch.

I almost can't wait to whip this out at security...I can hear the ooohs and aaahs already.

My little assistant was smitten with the colors as well. I had to remind him that this is mommy's toy.

I used this tutorial for the measurements, but ended up putting it together more like my diaper sleeve.

Stay tuned for my KNITerview at Made by Rae next week.

Happy weekend!

Have you Heard the News.....KNITerviews

2012-01-06T06:42:00.001-05:00

If you haven't been over to Made by Rae recently, you need to head over! She's featuring a series of interviews about sewing with knits.

My KNITerview will be up next week, so stay tuned. I'm hoping to put together a few tutorials to go with the series....so I better go work on that :)

Have a wonderful weekend and be sure to stop by next week.

Peppermint Marshmallows

2011-12-22T16:00:00.000-05:00

I have always wanted to try making homemade marshmallows. So this year, as a gift for all the teachers at my kids' preschool, I decided to pack up some peppermint marshmallows with cocoa.

I used this recipe.

They are very easy to make and are really yummy in a cup of cocoa.

I swirled in some red food coloring just after pouring the mix into the pan.

I may have gone a little overboard on my packaging, but it was so fun!

Fluffy, minty, yumminess. These chocolate marshmallows are next.

Nutcracker Dress

2011-12-19T21:28:00.000-05:00

Every year daughter's great aunt takes us to our local ballet company's performance of the Nutcracker. And every year, I make my daughter a dress of her choice for the show.

She's not so into dresses, so I let her pick the fabrics and the style.

Here's her dress from last year.

A year later, she looks so much older (to me at least).
She chose all the fabrics, and though I wouldn't have put these colors together, I think they look beautiful.

She looked beautiful.

A beautiful dress for a beautiful girl and a beautiful tradition.

Ruffled Trees

2011-12-09T19:43:00.005-05:00

I don't usually get too into decorating for holidays. I figure, no sooner do you put the decorations out but then it's time to put them away and get out new ones. But this year, I was feeling festive and decided we needed a few extra. I've seen a couple of variations on this cute ruffled tree here and here.

Both tutorials use a foam cone. I didn't have one and didn't feel like going to the store, so I dug into my plentiful stash of file folders. I work at a university and the ladies in the office call me whenever they have a box of file folders they're getting rid of. It's pretty amusing since I'm a research biologist to have the secretaries call me when they want to get rid of folders!

Anyway, I just rolled up a folder, ruffled my fabric and got out my glue gun. It was so easy and fun, I made 3.

A gift for a dog

2011-12-04T09:48:00.006-05:00

Yesterday we went to visit a good friend's new dog, and of course, we had to bring a gift. I found this cute tutorial over at Laura Griffin Designs showing how to make a doggie bone.

Instead of ties on the ends, I braided some clothes-line rope and added it to each side. It was really tough to sew over the braids, so I'm sure it's not the sturdiest dog toy ever made.

Paddy grabbed it right away....

And by the time we left, she'd already chewed through the rope, and made it her own. What a cutie!

Fingerless Mittens Tutorial

2011-11-09T17:00:00.000-05:00

With kids running around and always needing their noses wiped or help with toys, I find myself constantly taking my gloves on and off. So I decided to make myself some fingerless mittens and thought I'd share. They are super easy.....here we go.

I made mine with fleece and then embellished with some jersey scraps and buttons I had around.

First, I traced my hand, adding about 1/2 inch all the way around.

I outlined a pattern with marker. You want to leave extra at the top of the finger and thumb part since it's going to get folded over and sewn. I made one set just leaving the raw edges and though it looks okay, it doesn't hold up well over time.

Fleece definitely has a right and wrong side and one way stretches more. So make sure you figure out which side is the right side and how it stretches.

Fold the fleece in half and cut 2 pieces for each mitten. Sorry about the pink background, taking photos at night is tough!

Fold the top of the finger portion and thumb portion 1/4 inch to the wrong side and sew with a wide zig zag so that the seam will stretch.

If you want to embellish, do it now! Make sure you do the mirror image halves of the set.

Put the front and back together (1 embellished piece with 1 plain piece) and sew as shown. Don't sew across the top or the thumb piece for obvious reasons :)

There you have it! A cute pair of fingerless mittens!

Make a pair for yourself....

And for your favorite photographer friend. Figuring how to to trace your friends' hands without them getting suspicious is the trick.

Let me know what you come up with!

A Halloween to Remember

2011-11-05T22:03:00.005-04:00

The day before Halloween, we woke up to almost a foot of snow and no power. In 9 years in our house, we've never lost power. We knew this wasn't good. But, we had no idea just how bad it was until we tried to leave.

Snow is nothing new in Massachusetts, but the combination of wet snow and leaves on trees was disastrous.

The main road in town was barely passable with tons of trees and power lines down.

Almost 48 hours later, there were still crushed cars in the road and few people had power back.

In all the destruction and loss, there is still some beauty.

We were fortunate and our power was restored relatively quickly, but we still have family and friends patiently waiting.
It's amazing how a community can come together and how loosing power for a few days can make you really appreciate everything you have.

Jack O'Lantern Jars

2011-10-28T13:20:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine made these with her kids....so of course we had to try it. Very easy and fun. There are a lot of tutorials out there, we followed the instructions here.

So fun at night. We light ours with some battery operated candles.

The kids were so excited to wake to snow on the ground. Unusually early for Massachusetts.

They are predicting more for tomorrow night. Looks like we'll have to put on our snow boots this Halloween.

What a Hoot

2011-10-24T20:33:00.001-04:00

I made these cute owl cupcakes for an annual Halloween bash at a good friend's house. There are a lot of owl cupcake ideas out there, but these were by far the easiest. I followed these instructions.

I can't help but smile every time I look at them. Easy, cute and delicious.

Something I've Been DYEing to Try

2011-10-17T10:00:00.000-04:00

Now that the Halloween costumes are done, I've had some time to work on some more fun projects. As much as I enjoy sewing Halloween costumes, it feels like a lot of work, for one dark, cold night where (at least here in Massachusetts) chances are good you'll have to throw a coat on.

I've been hoarding onesies and fabric dye for a while now and finally got the courage to try it. I mainly followed Dana's instructions with a few modifications along the way.

I used Dylon permanent dye that I bought at Joanns. The only part of the instructions I followed was to add the salt. Here's what I did differently

They recommend 4 cups of water, I used about 8-10
I used more fabric than they recommend
I left the fabric in dye overnight instead of 45 minutes
After rinsing in cold water, I washed in the washing machine
I dried mine in the dryer. The instructions say to dry "away from heat"

I used a few different brands of onesies and definitely noticed a difference in the color absorption. I didn't pre-wash them though, which I've read can make a difference. I dyed maybe 30 onesies total and found that the Target brand worked the best (without pre-washing)

For whatever reason, I had the most trouble with the pink. By the last batch (the yellow) I felt like using enough salt and mixing a lot is key. The salt is supposed to help the fabric absorb the dye, so for the yellow I added more salt since I was using more water than recommended. I also mixed much more than I did for the previous batches and I felt like the end result was the best.

I also tried some woven fabric. I had a white fabric with white polka dots that you could hardly see. It dyed really well and I like it much better than before.

So fun, and much easier than you'd think!

More Costumes

2011-10-14T12:32:00.004-04:00

The Elephant Princess' dress is done which left me some time to help a friend make his 3 year old son a stove costume.

This was entirely my friend's design, I just executed it.

The oven opens up and you can stick different things inside.

Burners on the back. Not perfect, but fine.

It's such a relief to have all these costumes done. Now on to some more fun projects....

One Down, One to Go

2011-10-09T19:41:00.002-04:00

The boy asked to be a rocket ship and I think I pulled it off. This came out so much better than I expected. The silvery fabric was pretty tough to work with, much like oil cloth but my usual tricks didn't work. Still puckered. Oh well...

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the hat I made to go with it. I used my friend Roselee, aka Jane of All Trades' cute party hat tutorial.

Now off to work on the elephant princess costume. The girl gets points for originality.

How are your costumes coming?

Super Easy Flower Pin

2011-09-29T20:16:00.004-04:00

The little girl in my house has discovered tutus. Though I still can't get her to take a dance class (anybody else with a shy kid out there), I'm hooked on making her these tutus and pretty flower pins.

This flower pin could not possibly be easier. All you need is a fake flower, a pin, some felt scraps and a glue gun.

First, deconstruct the flower (this is easier than you might think)

Here are the parts.

When the flower is deconstructed, glue the petal layers together if they aren't already.

For this one I wanted to reuse the center, so I cut off the stem part and glued it back to the center.

I added a leaf to the back and glued on a pin.

Glue on a little felt scrap to extra secure the pin.

I'm totally addicted! It's so easy and the flowers are so pretty.

The perfect addition to a pretty tutu on a pretty girl.

Kid's Messenger Bag Tutorial

2011-09-12T14:11:00.007-04:00

We've had a lot of birthdays to celebrate this month. It's always fun to give something handmade, so I came up with this cute messenger bag that we could fill up with other fun presents. It's super easy to make and can be made for a boy or girl depending on the fabric.

Here's what you need:

2 pieces of fabric for bag outer, 12" X 9" (I used denim)
2 pieces of fabric for bag lining, 12" X 9"
2 pieces of medium weight fusible interfacing for bag bottom, 12" x 9"

2 pieces of fabric for flap, 9.5" X 8" (I used a contrasting fabric for one side and denim for the other)
1 piece of medium weight fusible interfacing for flap, 9.5" X 8"

1 piece of fabric for strap 28" x 8" (I used denim)
1 piece of batting for strap, 28" x 4" (this is optional)

Start out by fusing the interfacing to the outer bag pieces.

In the bottom corners of the 12 inch side of both outer pieces, mark a box that is 1.5 x 1.5 inches.

Then, cut those corners out. Do the same for the bag lining.

With right sides together and 1/2 inch seam allowance, sew the outer main bag panels along the sides and bottom. Do the same for the bag lining pieces. Press seams open.

Now match the side seam to the bottom seam on each corner. Trim and sew across with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Do the same for the bag lining.

When you turn the outer part of the bag right-side-out, you should have something that looks like this.

Now, let's work on the flap. Fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric that you want to the outside of the flap.

Next, we'll round the corners. Lay the 2 flap pieces out with right sides together.

Fold in half matching the shorter (8 inch) sides. Use something round like a CD or jar cover to trace a rounded corner and cut.

Here's what you'll end up with. Now along the long rounded edge, leaving the top, straight edge, open.

Clip curves, turn and top-stitch.
(ignore the fabric change....I was working on 2 bags and took a picture of the wrong bag...)

Next, we'll do the strap. Take your strap fabric and fold it in half the long way. Open it up and fold the edges in to fold line you just made, essentially folding your fabric in quarters. Place the batting inside.

Top-stitch along each long side and down the middle.

Now we just need to put it all together. Pin the strap to the right side of the bag and then baste in place.

Pin the flap to the right side of the bag and baste in place. Double check to make sure that the fabric you want to see will show when the flap is closed.

This is the hardest part of the whole project. With right sides together, pin the bag lining over the bag exterior. You'll really have to pull it up to match the raw edges since you've got the strap and bag flap in there.

One it's all nice and pinned, sew around the top, leaving an opening for turning.

Turn and top-stitch making sure to close up the opening you left for turning.

There it is! Fill it up with some fun little presents and give it to someone special.

A New Skirt For ME!

2011-09-09T13:52:00.000-04:00

Simplicity 2226. I had to make some serious alterations to this pattern. I made a muslin first which I wish I took a picture of before I put it in the trash. The basic design is cute, but the skirt was so full it was ridiculous. Not flattering on me at all.

I really like the end result and love the pockets. I used contrasting thread, but it doesn't show up too well unless you're up close.

It was a fun challenge taking pictures of myself with my tripod and remote. The kids got involved too.

Who says blogging isn't fun for the whole family :)

And, I have to give a shout out to my good friend over at Jane of all Trades. I made this skirt after seeing her in a very similar and very cute skirt. Imitation is the highest form of flattery!

Toy Bag Party Favors

2011-09-03T14:53:00.008-04:00

My kids' both have birthdays in September and possibly for the last time, we're going to have one big party for both. In typical fashion, I think, why not make some toy bags as party favors....18 of them.....

At the time, it didn't seem like a lot, and I was on a roll until about bag 9. Then, I was done, the novelty wore off. But, I powered through and finished them up with a few weeks to spare.

If you are wacky like me and think this might be a fun thing to do, here are a few tips to make it a little easier.

As nice as the mitered corners are in my original tute, rounding the corners goes much quicker.

use a zig-zag stitch to secure the bias tape. I found that often times I'd have to go back over parts where all the layers didn't get enclosed.

I made these bags bigger than the original and also used spray adhesive to hold the velcro in place before sewing.

Hope the kids enjoy them!

Check back next week for a new tutorial for a fun and relatively easy kid's birthday present. Have a great long weekend!

Sneak Peek

2011-08-24T06:40:00.003-04:00

I'm getting a head start on some projects for kids' upcoming birthdays in September. They are still young enough and have enough friends in common that we can do one bigger party for both of them.

Any guesses?

Stay tuned for more....