Friday, August 6, 2010

The day has come! Tunic--done!

Hello all--

Yes, the title of this post is correct, yesterday, I finished my schoolhouse tunic that I have been "working on" for weeks. Mostly it has just been sitting in pieces in a plastic bag on my kitchen table (much to my own chagrin). Yesterday, I dusted it off and pulled it own and decided to get down to it.

If you have ever seen this pattern at your local sewing shop, you should pick it up. Now that mine is done, I want to make 20 more. It is so cute!


I made mine shirt length instead of dress length, but the dress would be cute, too. Now, the whole process of making this shirt was not as easy as I was hoping, but it turned out pretty good. The easiest part of the tunic turned out to be my most time consuming--I sewed the two side panels together backward, then had to rip them all out! No worries, though, I just watched a few episodes of Nineteen Kids and Counting while I was working on it. I tell you what, those people have got some nice kids! Back to the tunic, though. I ended up really liking the last few steps where I put the pleats in the "skirt" of the shirt and attached it to the top. I probably liked those steps because they are definitely the easiest, but also the most satisfying. That's when you really see it all come together.

I will leave you with a few photos of the finished tunic and the sewing process. I apologize for the purple shorts--they were $3 at Wal-Mart. Sometimes you just can't pass these things up.







Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Black Bottom Tryouts.

Indeed, I finally took the time to try to make my first recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I made the black bottom cupcakes I described earlier. They were delish. Dark chocolate cake mixed with cheesecake--delectable. I'll just let you look.




The photos are in reverse order, but that's alright. The bottom picture shows the cupcakes right out of the oven. They don't look as good as the book's pictures and here's why: the directions in the book tell you to spoon the cheesecake batter over the chocolate cake batter. That makes them look like this. What you need to do is lean the cheesecake batter up against the chocolate batter, thus making it look half and half. This is merely aesthetic, though. Don't worry about the taste.

I must tell you the cream cheese frosting recipe in this book made the best frosting I have ever made. Not cream cheese frosting, just frosting in general. It was so good, with such a great texture.

The book told me to dust the tops of the cupcakes with a little cocoa powder. So I did. Pretty! I enjoyed these cupcakes. Some may think them too rich, but like I've said before, that isn't possible, so you don't have to worry!

Friday, August 6, 2010

The day has come! Tunic--done!

Hello all--

Yes, the title of this post is correct, yesterday, I finished my schoolhouse tunic that I have been "working on" for weeks. Mostly it has just been sitting in pieces in a plastic bag on my kitchen table (much to my own chagrin). Yesterday, I dusted it off and pulled it own and decided to get down to it.

If you have ever seen this pattern at your local sewing shop, you should pick it up. Now that mine is done, I want to make 20 more. It is so cute!


I made mine shirt length instead of dress length, but the dress would be cute, too. Now, the whole process of making this shirt was not as easy as I was hoping, but it turned out pretty good. The easiest part of the tunic turned out to be my most time consuming--I sewed the two side panels together backward, then had to rip them all out! No worries, though, I just watched a few episodes of Nineteen Kids and Counting while I was working on it. I tell you what, those people have got some nice kids! Back to the tunic, though. I ended up really liking the last few steps where I put the pleats in the "skirt" of the shirt and attached it to the top. I probably liked those steps because they are definitely the easiest, but also the most satisfying. That's when you really see it all come together.

I will leave you with a few photos of the finished tunic and the sewing process. I apologize for the purple shorts--they were $3 at Wal-Mart. Sometimes you just can't pass these things up.







Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Black Bottom Tryouts.

Indeed, I finally took the time to try to make my first recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I made the black bottom cupcakes I described earlier. They were delish. Dark chocolate cake mixed with cheesecake--delectable. I'll just let you look.




The photos are in reverse order, but that's alright. The bottom picture shows the cupcakes right out of the oven. They don't look as good as the book's pictures and here's why: the directions in the book tell you to spoon the cheesecake batter over the chocolate cake batter. That makes them look like this. What you need to do is lean the cheesecake batter up against the chocolate batter, thus making it look half and half. This is merely aesthetic, though. Don't worry about the taste.

I must tell you the cream cheese frosting recipe in this book made the best frosting I have ever made. Not cream cheese frosting, just frosting in general. It was so good, with such a great texture.

The book told me to dust the tops of the cupcakes with a little cocoa powder. So I did. Pretty! I enjoyed these cupcakes. Some may think them too rich, but like I've said before, that isn't possible, so you don't have to worry!