FO: Lady Skater Dress

Lady Skater Dress

Just the Facts:

Fabric:  purchased 2 yards of emerald/teal/blue interlock knit from JoAnn's (think I still have enough for a t-shirt!) $12.70
Notions: Thread from stash, clear elastic
Pattern:  KitschyCoo Lady Skater Dress
Year: modern ~2013
Time to Complete:  ~8 hours including assembling and cutting the pattern
First Worn: October 16, 2013
Wear Again: yup
Total Cost: $14 + $10.50 or so for the pattern

(Ugh.  Weird face.)  I cut the size 3 in the pattern because that's what matched my upper bust.  I had a really hard time with that neckband.  And then I realized I didn't transfer all the pattern markings.  D'oh.  This went together fairly quickly and easily and probably wouldn't have taken me nearly as long to make this as it did if I wasn't fiddling around with my different machine stitches and zig zag lengths and widths to get the right one.  I also tried to use my walking foot.  No joy.  The pressure was all wrong and I didn't want to mess with that any further.

 

This shirt is actually a pretty good fit.  I always have a hard time finding tops that fit right in RTW.  With knits, the shoulder seams don't hit the right place, the armpits ride up crazy bad, and there's a ton of wrinkling in the back.  With this top, it actually fits pretty good in the arms and shoulders.  I still need the swayback adjustment--not because of an actual swayback, but because my butt is dramatically larger than my back and it creates extra fabric along the small of my back.

I adjusted the back quite a bit here.  Actually, when I looked in the mirror, there weren't any wrinkles at all back there.  I guess these came about from the way I was standing.  Whatever.  I can't see them and they aren't uncomfortable.

Another reason this took me so long is because I essentially had the entire dress finished, save the hem, and I decided the waist was pulled way too low.  I knew I wouldn't wear it this way and ain't nobody got time to make something that they ain't gonna wear.  Right, Sweet Brown?  So I pulled out my super sweet new Gingher seam ripper and unpicked the serged side seams and the serged waist.  FYI:  A lot of thread ended up on my carpet.  Imagine an Alot of Thread.  There was an Alot monster on my floor.  A big blue and white thready beast.

After the unpicking debacle, I decided to chop 1.5" off the bottom of the bodice.  I resewed this baby up and now I have this basic blue dress.

It could stand to be a bit thinner in the waist.  I think at least 1" thinner.  I'll grade down to the 2 in the waist next time I make this dress.  Oh yes.  There WILL be a next time.  I have some black jersey stuff that will make an awesome half-sleeve version.  Maybe I'll even change the scoop to a V.  I has a fancee.  I feel like I'm showing an awful lot of leg in this dress.  Oops.  I guess I'm more modest than I thought!  I cut the skirt to the approx.imate finished length I wanted and then I chopped off some of the bodice.  My bad.  But look at my quads.  I mean seriously.  I'm so ripped.

This photo makes me look seriously pregnant.  Should I ever become actually pregnant, I think I will have a lady skater dress for every day of the week.  How perfect?

I went ahead and serged the raw edge of the hem before hemming it.  LIKE A BOSS.  Third serger project, what-what!  I did a twin needle hem.  This is my first actual project using the twin needle.  It took me about 45 minutes of playing around with the settings to get the underside of the stitch to be somewhat satisfactory.  I still need to play more because I got the dreaded tunnel on the right side.

Look at my sexy legs tunnel.  Vintage machines are so amazing and so finnicky.  Do any of my readers sew with a Singer 401/401A?  I could use some tips on getting the fabric to feed correctly with my walking foot.

 

Have a great week!

Recipe: Pear Pie

I grew up on a big chunk of land that happened to have something like an orchard on it.  We made so many apple pies.  My property now has several pear trees on it and I have an abundance of pears between August and October every year.  I adapted the apple pie recipe I remember as a kid into this pear pie recipe.

You start with a basic crust.  I prefer butter crusts.  You can use whatever your favorite crust is.  My recipe is 1 1/4c flour, 1 stick of butter, and 2-4 tablespoons cold water.

 

I can't be the only person with a dedicated pastry board right?  

 

Roll your crust out to slightly larger than your pie plate.

 

I cut off any excess bits and add them to the thin parts on the sides of the pie plate. I never can get it perfectly round.  

 

These photos were mostly a last minute, "Oh.  I should post this on the blog." kind of thing.  You will need ~5 pears, peeled and chunked.  Add 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon each flour and cornstarch (or 2 tablespoons of one.  My pears were extra juicy and I wanted the cornstarch to absorb that juice.), and a scant 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  I use scant 1/4 frequently.  It's not to sound like one of the cool kids.  I don't have a measuring spoon smaller than 1/4.  And I figure if you are only adding 1/8 of a teaspoon, you can afford to fudge the measurement a little.  I ain't trying to be a gourmet chef over here.

 

So mix all that stuff together and put the pears on top of your crust.  

 

Here's the best part!!  The crumb topping.  Get another stick of butter.

 

And melt it all down!  (This is totally healthy for you. . . )

 

Add 1/2 cup brown sugar.

 

And 1 cup flour.

 

Mix mix mix until it's thoroughly combined.

 

Oh.  I forgot this part.  Take another tablespoon or so of butter and chunk it up into smaller pieces.  Sprinkle those around the pears.  Squirt with some lemon juice.  You can kind of see I started here.  You will take the brown sugar crumble and sprinkle it over the top.

 

You will have enough to cover the entire top.

 

Oh yes.  It's looking good.  Toss the pie (not literally toss) into a preheated 400º oven for 10 minutes.  Then lower the temperature to 350º and allow to bake for another 30-45 minutes.  The pie is done when you stick a fork in it and it easily pierces the pears.

 

My crumble top is so dark because I forgot to lower the temperature after 10 minutes.  I got sucked into candy crush.  Five extra minutes at 400º is all it took to brown that top.  :(  You definitely need to cook the crust at the higher temperature first to keep the crust crusty.  Without the higher temp or prebaking, the crust will end up all gooey on the bottom.  I don't like that. Crusty crust is where it's at.  Here's a photo of the slice at room temp on a dirty plate.  That's what happens at BBQ/potlucks!

 

Pear Pie

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/4c all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

2-4 tablespoons cold water

Pie:

5 pears, peeled and chunked

1/2c granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

scant 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice 

2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

Crumble topping:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

1c flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400º

 

For crust:  Cut butter into flour and salt mixture until course crumbles form.  Add water a tablespoon at a time until the crust holds together.  Chill for a bit (I honestly usually skip this step, but crust fanatics will whip me with a feather if I don't tell you to chill the crust.  Whatever.  I'm lazy.)  Roll the dough until it is slightly larger than the pie plate.  Gently place the crust into the pie plate and cut off the excess from the top.  Set this aside while you get the filling together.

For pear filling:  Mix pears, sugar, cinnamon, flour, cornstarch, and salt together in a bowl until everything is thoroughly incorporated.  Dump the pears into your prepared pie plate.  Dot the pears with pieces of butter and squeeze the lemon juice over the top of the pear mixture.  

For crumble:  melt 1 stick of butter.  Mix flour and brown sugar with the butter until thoroughly combined.  Taking a handful of this mix at a time, gradually sprinkle/crumble the mix over the top of the pears until the top is covered.

Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350º and bake for another 30-40 minutes, or until a fork inserted pierces the pears with little to no resistance.

                                                                                                                  

I'll work on getting a printable version of this recipe up over the next week.  I've been fairly lazy about doing that.  The only way I know how to make a printable version is by using a google site and that's just more work.  It's not really that much extra considering I can cut/paste from one location to the other, but still. 

This recipe is just like apple pie, but with pears!  People think pear pie is weird,
but try it try it, you will see!
Pear pie is tasty.  Listen to me!

Pinteresting: With some Halloween Decorations

I'm one of those people who decorates for NO HOLIDAY EVER.  I put up a 3' Christmas tree, if I put a tree up at all.  Don't get me wrong.  I love parties and I love to host parties, just not at my house.  I'm thinking Matthew or Ryan should have a party soon, so I can get my hostess with the mostest on.  I made pumpkin cheesecake and pear pie for Matthew's football get-together Sunday.  Recipes for me to post there.  I need to make that happen.  So much to do, so little time...  Have some decorations:

I love this for the simplicity.  I love this for the nontraditional colors.  I love this.  I think it would look stunning for v-day with l-o-v-e instead of boo.

One of my friends got gel splatters and handprints to put on the door.  I think those are fun!  Here's a door runner version.

 

If you ever wanted to know how Paula Dean decorates her house for Halloween, here ya go.

Vampire Pumpkins! I would also like to see these with bubba teeth.

I'm not sure what this is made out of.  Foam board?

 

Glow-in-the-dark paint.  Not just for Halloween.  Paint your own shapes on the ceiling in the kid's room!  Who needs star stickers?  Pshhh.

 

These bats are my favorite, but this is actually a link to 40 decor ideas.

 

Do you decorate for the holidays?  Let me know how into holiday decor you are in the comments below.  I may be late with my pinteresting today, but at least I'm here!