D294: Today's sewing prowess

The green ring turned out, the blue ring and stand sewn up too, all ready for stuffing and batting. Three pin tops sewn, three more prepared (awaiting bases and stuffing) and a ball shell. 

D293: A brownie by any other name...

There must be as many brownie recipes as there are types of chocolate.  This one is quite simple and from CTAW.  I didn't have walnuts so chucked in some choc chips.

It's meant for a 18cm pan, and mine is larger, but I'm pretty sure that the shorter cake, plus 25°F less on the dial, helped this be nicely done.

Last piece... Almost missed it...

D292: Empty rings

For a toy ring stacker...

The inner and outer circles of the red right were done with a regular zigzag foot. The orange and yellow with the BSR foot.  But the green had the outer with the zigzag and the inner with the BSR as a darning foot.  I thought I might be able to use the circles to practise some freemotion sewing. However the BSR foot really needs the thickness of a quilt to work properly.  It was better as a darning foot (with the cable disconnected) because I could use the steady rhythm to map the needles around a steady curve. But even then, the thinness and  and my clumsiness wasn't satisfactory.  I didn't want to have the curve ruined by poor practise.

The other thing that made me think of the BSR foot was the joining seam, which is very tight.  See the green one partially turned out? It needs a seam 3/4 of the way around the circumference - that pinned raw edge - and it barely fits comfortably around a regular zigzag foot. It's certainly fiddly while sewing and very hard to maneuver the inner edge of it without catching the bulk.  The BSR as a darning foot has been worthwhile in that front, but...

Longer story shorter: I'm about to hand sew the green ring's joining seam :|

D268&288-91: Toddler pants completed!

Blogging is taking more and more of a backseat to making these days.  I'm not sure it's a bad thing but I will continue to at least photo-journal what I do, if only for myself.

There were a lot of days and steps for this and I kind of learned a lot doing this project.

I know I used a different fabric in the main pieces, and lining, so I think these turned out ok all things considered. I think it would fit better without the lining but I'm still learning how to work with stretch fabric on my regular machine.

I actually used the balance function on the machine!  This is the honeycomb stitch without the balance changed on the left, and then I turned it up after a few cm. 

The waist tie (above): I did not do a good job of this.  I'm not sure I would do this technique again. I just couldn't seem to get something so narrow through the feed without any stretching (which equals curling, even after pressing).  Maybe a walking foot?

The lining. I'd add a cm of length to this coz I wanted to cover the seam there with some hand sewing.  It wouldn't reach as it was.  Maybe a different kind of fabric would work better, but I'm not sure I'd be interested in substituting anything other than a flannel or stretch cotton for this cotton, which is kinds the same...

I'm still learning which stitches are best for what situation. Even though Bernina have helpfully provided a page describing all the practical stitches' uses, there seems to be so much overlap across them... I need a reference guide or something that shows the ideal situation for each stitch.

So when I say I 'kind of learned' stuff, I feel like I learned what not to do but I'm not too confident about what to really do instead. All the same, these I will be warm pants that will fit Bub, maybe in about two months (?) but certainly for a long time. :)

D287: Moussaka

We had this while visiting the in-laws' over Anzac weekend. It was so yum I stole the recipe and shall brazenly share it with you here soon.  

I haven't made moussaka before.  I would call lasagna a triple-bake - you pre-make two things before the third and final bake.  With moussaka, it's a quadruple-bake: eggplants, meat sauce and bechamel sauce are all made before layering it for the fourth bake.  We add a fifth cook to this recipe with a layer of sliced potato.  Yum!!

Seems the oven is pretty even...

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Here tis...