Puffy Oven Pancake

I tried a new recipe yesterday morning. It's straight out of Betty Crocker. John and I love Popovers, and this is basically a popover, just one big one in a pie plate.

heat oven to 400* and melt 2 TBSP butter in pie pan
lightly beat 2 eggs and add 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup all purpose flour, and 1/4 tsp salt.
don't over mix. Make sure the butter coats the pan and then pour the batter in.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until puffy and a deep golden brown (the less you bake, the eggier the texture is).

I added chocolate chips (go figure) and topped with strawberries and powdered sugar. It was marvelous, and requires a lot less standing around than pancakes - although it is fun to watch it puff up in the oven.

Reusable Snack Bag Thoughts

Or thought. Singular. It occurred to me today that I could just put the PUL on the outside and then it wouldn't be touching my food. Duh. Not as cute as the other way, but just as easy and effective. Still shouldn't put hot things in it though.

Tea Towel Swap: Rules and Ideas

Swap on! At the end of the post I have a list of tea towel ideas and tutorials, so check it out if you need some ideas. I also came across a similar swap hosted by the Wren's Nest sometime last year. She had some good ideas, I borrowed, and they created a flickr group you can browse.

This swap is open to anyone (that means you), but I'm going to limit it to 50 people. So here's the rules:

1. We'll swap two dish towels (old or new, and embellished by you however you like: embroidered, stamped, appliqued, crocheted edge, or whatever), and a recipe.
2. Sign up by next Thursday (March 5) by sending me your name, email, and blog if you have one to wilsonlauralynn AT gmail DOT com.
3. I will pair you up randomly and sometime the following weekend, I will send you your swap partner's email address. You and your partner will be responsible for exchanging your mailing addresses.
4. Mail your towels and recipes by March 27th. That gives you a whole month to make your towels. I'll try to send you reminders throughout, so no one forgets!
5. Send me a picture, or you can post it on your own blog and send me the link! I won't post pictures until your partner has received their swap so no surprises are spoiled.


Tea Towels
What is a Tea Towel - Wise Geek

Make
Sew Your Own Towel - from Sew Take a Hike
Buy Floursack Towels - from Amazon
Buy Linen Towels - from Target
Buy Martha's Towels - from Kmart and Macy's

Decorate
Printed Tea Towel Tutorial - from The Haystack Needle
Stamp Your Towels - from Design Sponge
Embroider Your towels - from Sublime Stitching
Embroidery Ideas - from Feeling Stitchy
Dye with Leaves - from Ehow
Appliqued Tea Towel Tutorial - from Toby Cat Creations
Crochet Your Towel's edges - from Craftblog

Be Inspired
Lots and lots of Pretty Tea Towels

Experiment: Fiber Content

I like to be thrifty, so I frequently buy scraps and yardage at rummage sales, yard sales, and goodwill. This can be a problem whenever I want to make something for L, or something to sell, and I want to know what kind of fabric I'm using.

I recently found this experiment in 101 Sewing Secrets from the Singer Sewing Reference Library, and I knew I had to give this a try. Below is my paraphrased version of their experiment.

Here are the fabrics I used:


1. Birdseye Pique 100% cotton - this was my control fabric, since I knew for sure what it was.
2. a remnant bought at local craft store labeled "assorted flannel"
3. a scrap that I have no idea where I got, that seems kind of wooly
4. a nice piece of yardage I got at a rummage sale that I'm thinking is linen or cotton (I'm wanting to make a new baby blanket from this.)
5. cute patchwork print that feels kind of scratchy, I've had it forever, but never used it because I figure it's polyester
6. some kind of satiny feeling synthetic, I bought for a project in college before I paid attention to what it was made of. I have tons of this and like to use for linings and tags.
7. a grey fabric that feels like men's dress pants, I got it at a locally owned craft store going out of business and it had no labels

To start: get a candle and matchces, tweezers or tongs, a glass bowl or other non flammable surface, your fabric scraps and pen and paper

Next: Hold a piece of each scrap (one at a time) in the fire for a moment, then drop in the glass bowl and watch.


Note how it burns. Does the fire go out as soon as you remove it from the flame or does it keep burning? Does it catch fire or just melt? Does it smell like burning leaves or paper, or chemically and plastic?

When the fire is out and it has cooled to the touch, note what's left. Is it soft and ashy, a charred ash, or a hard melted bead?

Take notes and compare to the list below:
Cotton, linen, rayon: will burn vigorously, smell like burning paper, and leave a soft gray ash

Wool and silk: will burn well, but more slowly. may go out after taking it out of the fire, smells like burning hair or feathers. will leave a crushable ash.

Polyester, nylon, and other synthetics: will burn or melt only while in the flame or shortly after being removed. has a chemical smell and will leave a hard bead.

Acetate, and acrylic: burn and melt in the flame and after being removed, have a chemical smell, and leave a hard bead.

Blends will burn like the dominant fabric, although you may see signs of both types.
Obviously this won't give you very precise information about blends, or distinguish between two types of fabric in one group. But it's very helpful if you can't tell by sight and touch what it's made of.

Here are my results:

1. I was glad I used a control fabric, because it gave me a good idea of what burning "vigorously" and "soft ash" meant. It would have been smart to do this with wool and polyester, too.
2. My flannel acted just like the birdseye, so it seems to be cotton or at least a predominantly cotton blend.
3. My "wooly" scrap seems to be wool! Or maybe a wool/cotton blend.
4. I was surprised that what I thought was linen seemed to have some wool in it. I feel pretty confident it is all/mostly natural fibers. It wasn't quite as crunchy as number 3, so I'm guessing some kind of wool/cotton/maybe linen blend.
5. This one sort of half melted, half burned, but stopped as soon as I took it out of the fire. It had a little ash. It smelled chemically, but didn't leave a hard bead. I'm guessing it's a blend of polyester and cotton.
6. This one melted in the flame, and stopped as soon as I pulled it out leaving a nice plastic-y bead. Clearly a synthetic, who knows which kind.
7. This one burned a little and melted. Also, clearly a synthetic, but I'm not sure what kind.

Tea Towel Swap!

After finding Sublime Stitching's suggestion to use my diaper flannel for tea towels, then I read this Storque article about tea towels. Now I've got the itch to make tea towels!

(this lovely towel is from flowerpress)

My mom has some that my grandma embroidered that are so lovely. How have I not gotten into tea towels, yet? All of mine are red checked from Target, which is great, but I definitely need some handmade!

I was thinking this could be a good craft swap. Anyone interested?

I've been browsing Etsy for ideas (see my favorites on the side). Make your own, buy new ones, or dress up an old one (like the ones I saw here). Then, you can embroider, stamp or block print, dye, applique, or whatever you like to do. I always think you need a pair, so perhaps we could make it two towels?

Anyone have time for this now? If I'm going to do a swap it'll have to be before J arrives. So let me know if you're interested! Leave me a note with your email in the comments, or email me at wilsonlauralynn AT gmail DOT com. If there's enough interest I'll post all the official rules, participants, and more links to ideas later.

Jade Prints from Spoonflower!

It's so exciting get that package in the mail. But I was really nervous, too. I think I was imagining launching my career as a textile designer with the contents of that little package - and that was a bit of pressure. Anyway, it turned out to be a little more of the good, the bad, and the ugly. But I think we're getting somewhere.

First, before you ask, here's some really great Spoonflower/Fabric Designing info:

Mamma Made's general spoonflower how to
Julia Rothmann's repeat pattern tutorial
Spoonflower's color charts



What I learned this time:
1. Get the spoonflower color swatch! I changed my red between the last swatch I got and this printing, but I still didn't have the color swatch and so I knew it was a gamble. It's not terrible, but it's still off - kind of like cheap lipstick. So I'll have to reorder everything with the reds in it. Which isn't really a big deal because I also saw other things I wanted to edit.

2. I changed the blue since my last color swatch, too, just because I thought I'd like something lighter. Now I think it's too light in the print with the windows, so I'm going back to my original blue.

3. I made a kind of craft panel to make a few small pillows. The biggest problem with this is that I worked with a really large image file on my computer and mostly viewed it at 30% while working on it. It looks much different at 100% - I obviously missed a lot of little areas I needed to clean up because I didn't bother to zoom in and out as I worked.

4. The pillows need a larger area to look normal.


So what do you think?

Number 4

I've been tagged by my new friend Caitlyn. Here's the deal. You have to post the 4th photo from the 4th folder on your computer.

Here's where you learn that I hyper-organize the files and photos on my computer. My pictures are saved in folders by year (only back to 2007 because I backed up and removed everything older), with subfolders for months in the year; except for my portfolio, which has it's own folder and subfolders by medium.

I wasn't sure how to deal with the subfolder issue, so I went with the fourth folder (portfolio) to the fourth subfolder (illustrations) to the fourth image. This is a watercolor I did during my Memphis days for a story Chara wrote while she was in graduate school. It's Chara, in her blue plaid dress, waiting for her wish to end so she can go back to her normal life.


I'm glad I didn't end up posting any scary birth pictures - I tag Chara!

In Memoriam

Sourdough Starter was born January 21, 2009 and died sometime last week at about 4 weeks of age. The exact cause of death is unknown; however, neglect is suspected.

Sourdough starter was born to organic honey and wild yeast, and fed on whole wheat flour. She was preceded in death by her half sister, a milk based starter. With the help of amateur baker Laura Wilson, Sourdough Starter made 4 dozen waffles, one loaf, and eight rolls. She is survived by two rolls, and one really gross jar now half full of black liquid.

Interment will be in the woods in the backyard, after John gets home.

Reusable Snack Bag Tutorial

I'm trying to clear out a cabinet to make room for the new little one's clothes - and that means finally getting rid of some excess fabric.  I decided to make these simple little snack bags, which make a nice alternative to disposable bags.  (Updated 7/24/2011:   This pattern is for a lined bag. If you want a bag with no lining, just hem the short edges, then follow the instructions from step 4 on.)

I thought it would be super easy, just like a zipper pouch or something. But it took me an afternoon of reassembling the pieces to figure out an easy way to put them together than didn't require any complicated turning or handstitching. I finally figured out what I thought must be the simplest method of putting them together, and put together a little tutorial for you. It really is easy, it's just easier when someone else maps it out for you! Instructions are below.

Materials
scrap sizes of fabric
equal size piece liner fabric
hook and loop tape
scissors, thread, pins
sewing machine


Instructions





These instructions are for a lined snack bag. If you want to make a bag without a liner, just hem the short edges, then follow the instructions from step 4 on.
Instructions
1. Cut your two different fabric scraps into two equally sized rectangles. You may use a ziplock bag as a reference, or just whatever size your scrap will allow. Make sure the rectangle is twice as long as the bag because you will be folding it in half.
2. Right sides facing, sew a short end of the rectangles together. Repeat this with the opposite end.
3. Now turn the rectangles right side out. Iron the seams flat.
4. Cut a length of hook and loop tape about 1/2” shorter than the seam. Then, position the hook tape centered just below the seam on the inside of your bag and topstitch in place around the edges of your tape. Repeat this with the loop tape on the opposite end.
5. Fold the rectangle in half, with the inside (the side with the hook and loop tape) out. Line up your top seams and pin in place.
6. Stitch down both sides of the rectangle with a 1/4” seam allowance, and neatly trim any threads or rough edges.
7. Turn the bag right side out, closing the hook and loop tape. If you don’t care about raw edges, you could stop here. Or take it one step farther and top stitch down both sides, encasing the raw edges inside this new seam.
 
Ta da! Easy peasy!
 
Feel free to sell items made from this pattern, but please share a link back to me!




Made some? I'd love to see! Add it to the wewilsons pattern pool.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day! We had a fun day at home. L and I had a tea party in the morning while John ran some errands. In the afternoon we all exchanged little valentines and ate an indulgent meal. Nothing fancy homemade or organic - just grilled brats and corn (with a little chili seasoning, mmm...), a bunch of flavored pringles, and Cherry 7 Up - like I said, indulgent. Later we had peanut butter cookies and peanut butter pie. (Leave it to me to have a peanut butter themed holiday in the middle of a peanut butter recall!)

Airplane Bag

I've been carrying that knot bag for less than a week, but I love it so much! I'm getting ready to go on a trip with my sisters and L in a few weeks, and I kept thinking this would be a great bag for the plane - but it needs a pocket, and it needs to be big enough for L books, and I wonder how it would work with a long strap...

A few bags later, I came up with this airplane bag. I probably wouldn't use it all the time because of the size, but since I've reached the waddling phase of my pregnancy, I think the long wide strap will be great for keeping my hands free when we transfer flights. It's also got three easy access pockets perfect for ID, ipods, and binkies. AND, it has a divider so I don't get my stuff all mixed up with L. Plus, I love the way the knot bag handles close securely when you're carrying it, but easily opens up wide when you put it down.

The pattern can be downloaded right here.

Giraffes and more Giraffes!

I had an idea several weeks ago to turn my giraffe pattern into one of those cheesy craft panels. I always love the look of the fabric with all the directions on them, and since I'm in love with Spoonflower I had the perfect means to do it.

They arrived this week and are in the shop now!

I haven't made one from the panel, although I'm curious to see how it would look. Probably the way it looks when they make an action figure toy based on a real person. I might make one myself, but haven't decided yet, since I'm distracted by other giraffes!

After drafting my giraffe pattern, I got the bug to make some. I finished one last night,and I have three more pinned together. In the spirit of the Orange Curtain Project they are all made from sweet vintage fabrics and other scraps. I am imagining having a whole herd of giraffes to pose and photograph - but they'll probably end up in the shop after that.

Knot Bag

I don't really make bags that much, it's just that every so often I decide I really need a different one. I saw this tutorial for a Japanese Knot Bag yesterday and thought this was just what I needed. I cheated a little, though. Since I had about 18 other things I should be doing, I just eyeballed the pattern, and then I left out the cute round bottom. Instead I just sewed the bottom shut and squashed the corners (I'm sure there's a name for that). Also, I made it a bit larger than the pattern since my purse usually doubles for a diaper bag. I think it's probably the best bag ever. I could even see it being a market bag, maybe if it was a little bigger.

Today, I got back to the stuff I was supposed to do, like cleaning out the cabinet that will hold the new baby's clothes. L helped me repurpose one of the boxes in the cabinet.

Houseplant Love Notes

I had some of my houseplant valentines printed, with postcard lines on the back, so I could get them sent out easily. I couldn't resist printing a few extra for the shop. I think they turned out lovely.

Houseplants

I've been thinking about my houseplants a lot lately - they've been the source of inspiration for most of my drawings, my spoonflower fabrics, and now my valentines. I really love my plants - I like getting new ones, watering and repotting them, propagating new ones for friends, watching them grow. I added a houseplants label to my sidebar ---> so you can see my plants over the years.

I was looking back for posts to add the label to and was reminded of some of my favorite old photos, some on the blog and some not. Here's a peek at some of my little happies.

My Punny Valentine

I loved buying those cheesy cartoon valentines as a kid and sharing them with my class. They always had those really bad puns: Bee Mine with a bee flying around. I also love Stephanie Congdon Barnes love notes for her more elegant puns (along with the beautiful objects, of course!).

Besides the awesome punning, when you're a kid, you give a valentine to everybody (or most everyone) without so much emphasis on romantic love. This year I keep thinking of people I love that I want to send a valentine. So I made up a few valentines of my own - and when I couldn't come up with any good puns, I decided to make visual puns. These are inspired by my houseplants, who inspire a little love every day.

If you waited till the last minute like me, you might enjoy this freebie! They are 3.5x5 each, so you can print them on card stock and mail them like postcards - or just slip them somewhere your loved ones will find them. Click on the image to take you to flickr where you can download the full size image.

Bear Bag Tutorial (with variations)

My Aunt Terre made me and my sisters little bags like this for Christmas one year. I use one of them for L a lot, but decided to draft the pattern with some variations. It's pretty simple, but also really versatile and could be dressed up in a million ways - it would make a sweet valentine for your little one!

The complete instructions are included in this post, or you can download the pdf with more pictures HERE. Be sure to also copy the images of the pattern at the bottom of the post.

Made some? I'd love to see! Add it to the wewilsons pattern pool.



This picture shows several sizes and all four variations. The small man is from a regular 8x10 sheet of paper and would make a nice toy bag for your little one to carry. The bear and dog are not quite double the first and will hold lots of little toys for car trips, church, or other outings. The cat is almost 300% of the original and would make a sweet pajama bag for sleepovers!

Bear Bag Tutorial (with Cat, Dog,and Person Variations)
Materials:
Pattern, Fabric to fit size of pattern (fat quarter to as big as you want), scissors, pins, sewing machine, yarn or other form of cord, buttons, felt, embroidery floss
Tips on Printing the Pattern:
This pattern will fit neatly on regular typing paper. If you print it out to this size, it will make the smallest size bag in my pictures. If you want to enlarge it, you have a few options. You could print it out on multiple sheets of paper, then trim off the margins and tape it all back together. Or you could take it to some place with a copy machine and enlarge it to whatever size you’d like. OR you could do it the old school way by printing it on one page, then using graph paper enlarge it by hand.
Instructions:
1. Print and cut pattern. Printed on an 8x10 it will make the smallest size pictured. Enlarge for a large toy bag or a pajama bag.
2. Pin pattern to your fabric and cut 2 pieces. If using Dog variation, also pin and cut ears from felt.
3. Right sides facing, sew together the body pieces leaving open on top flat edge. If using Dog variation, pin ears in place sandwiched between the two layers. Backstitch on corners and angles to reinforce. Make nice clean angles by pivoting the fabric around your needle.
4. Clip slits in seam allowance along all curved edges and corners as close to the seam as possible without cutting through seam. This is very important. Turn bag right side out to make sure it lays neatly. If not, turn back inside out and clip a little more. When it lays nicely, press the bag to help keep its shape.
5. With bag inside out, fold the opening wrong sides together about 1/4 - 1/2” (depending on size of bag you’re making) to begin the drawstring casing. Sew flat all the way around opening.
6. Fold top edge a second time, about 1/2” so that it uses all of the remaining space allowed for the opening. Sew flat almost all the way around, leaving a 1” gap to insert cord.
7. Take three lengths of yarn about 5 times lenghth of your opening. Tie the three yarns together with a knot on one end and braid the length of the yarn. Tie a knot at the end. If you are making the smallest size bag, use a finer yarn or allow extra room for your casing. If you have another material like cording, shoe laces, twine, or other small rope, that will work fine and you don’t have to make your own.
8. Attach a safety pin to the yarn (or your cord) and push through the casing around the opening of the bag. Once pulled through, with the opening fully opening, tie the two ends of the cord together, leaving long tails to pull.
9. Now you’ve completed the bag! Dress it up by adding some face details. Use buttons for eyes, scraps of felt for noses, and embroidery floss for cat whiskers. Be creative! I gave mine a tie. :)


Here are the patterns for each animal. They fit and 8x10 sheet of paper, but can be enlarged, too.

Family Time

It's lectureship week, so we've got a houseful of family. Here's mom reading to three attentive little girls. I'm a bit busy now, but mom's helping me with a little project that I'm hoping to turn into a little tutorial for this weekend.


My sister got this taffy for my parents in Gatlinburg and I thought the box was really cool looking, not to mention the motto, "Pure Wholesome Candy." Isn't it all.

Fat Quarter Purse Copyright

I've had so much fun hearing from lots of you about my purse tutorial. Rachel from Park Avenue Sweatshop already made a purse and put it on her blog. Thanks, Rachel! I'd love to see more pictures from any of you who've made the bag as well.

Some of you have asked about the pattern's copyright. I'm happy for you to sell purses made from my pattern as long as you give me credit for the design. You can link to my blog or my etsy shop. Those addresses are:

wewilsons.blogspot.com
wilsons.etsy.com

Thanks!

Bunny Revamped

I have this bunny that my grandmother made for me when I was little, and L has really taken to it lately (See her sharing her sippy). It's looking a little sad because it's elastic is all stretched out, so I decided it to give the bunny a little make over.



First, I carefully snipped out the old neck elastic and the worn lace (does anyone else have trouble keeping up with their seam ripper? I mean, where is that thing?). When I did the pattern became really obvious - it's basically just a T with a little neck. The elastic in the neck gives the dress it's shape. What a great idea for when you need a little doll dress in a jiffy (and who doesn't?).



I had this handmade bias tape on hand from that phase I went through last year when I decided I must make all my own bias tape. I whipped the bias tape on and put some fresh elastic in the neck. Then I used a little scrap of bias tape for an ear bow. Snazzy!