Pillowcases – Another Project to Check Off

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I finally finished these pillowcases, and taught myself how to do French seams from the Pretty quick pillowcase tutorial (& bonus french seam instructions) at Film in the Fridge. Think of the possibilities for the holidays?! I may be busy sewing for the next few months.

Notice anything? The design is upside down on the left hand pillow. Yes, lesson learned. Now I know what one of the tutorials meant by “good with non-directional prints”. I didn’t really stop to see how it was going to look. Abby didn’t seem to mind. She said, “That’s okay, Mom.” What a relief. Besides that, I turned the main fabric (apple print) 90 degrees contrary to what most of the tutorials showed. I don’t know if it matters. It’s just that if I didn’t, the apples would be sideways, and that’s not really what my daughter wanted.

Here’s a detail of the cuff from the inside. Nice and clean.

Basically, what you see right-side out is normal. What you see when the pillowcase is turned inside-out is this: the French seam. No raw edges.

Looking to add something to your list of projects? Here are some more sites that I scouted:

Tutorial: Newspaper Seedling Pots and Cardboard Garden Tray

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It was another awesome time at the Chicago Craft Social last Friday night! I’m writing about the event on Craft Critique, so here we’ll just focus on this cool, recycle/upcycle project.

(Update: The event review is posted on Craft Critique now.)

Leading this table was a lot of fun, and I promised some new crafty friends that I would have instructions posted on this very simple eco-friendly outdoorsy project. Though it may be a little late in the season, I might start some vegetable seedlings for late summer/early fall planting. What I love about the pots is that there’s no adhesive, and you can plant the whole thing in the ground once your seedlings are established.

The newspaper seedling pots: newspaper and scissors

I didn’t use any forms or jars to form my pots, but there are certainly products out there that are sold at your local garden shop for not a lot of money. I took full sheets of newspaper and cut them in half, then half again (quarter-pages). Using two quarter sheets, roll them up like toilet paper roll size.

Fold one end of the tub into itself (about 1/4″ to 1/2″) and press. Repeat. Folding over a few times will give the pot some structure, a little collar of sorts.

Now the tricky party: the bottom. I place the tube over my fingers like a puppet and just start folding the bottom into itself, as if I’m wrapping a cylindrical gift.

Eventually, you end up with a triangular little piece of paper, and that can get tucked in. Actually, I smash it onto the table to help get the folds to stay. No adhesives.

This isn’t going to look super neat, but I figure, after you’ve filled the pot with soil, and you’ve started watering your seedling, the paper is going to stick to itself after getting wet.

Now the tray: cardboard, cereal boxes, snack boxes, ruler, cutting mat, rotary cutter or utility knife, bone folder (optional)

The tray was just something simple for crafters to carry their pots home, but think of the possibilities with kids and a little paint or stickers! You can use any cardboard box, like cereal and snack boxes. One box will make two trays. So, cut apart your box: front, back, two sides.

Take your large rectangular piece and measure 1-1/2″ to 2″ from each side – the width is up to you. Then using a straight edge, make a line from outside corner to “inside” corner. Score (not cut) on these lines.

At this point, you should be able to fold the cardboard and start forming the tray. The diagonal lines can be “pushed” into the tray. This then gets stapled to the tray side (doesn’t matter which side).

Use a box edge to create the handle… just staple onto the tray.

The tray below has a 1-1/2″ edge. The 2″ tray looks is shown at the beginning of this post and here at my friend’s blog, “Our Tiny Oak Park Bungalow“.

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Looking for more crafting, my review on Xyron’s Creatopia machine is posted at Craft Critique (disclaimer). This machine is amazing! Check out all six articles, and there’s a great giveaway that ends on Saturday, June 26! Good luck!

Midsummer’s Night Eve and Irish Soda Bread

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I love Irish Soda Bread. Of course, it tends to get a lot of press at St. Patrick’s Day, but why not make it or eat it any time? Need an excuse? June 20 marks the eve of summer solstice, or longest day of the year for the northern hemisphere, where lots of festivals, fairs and concerts occur in Ireland (leftover from Pagan days) and Europe, for that matter. The dates change yearly, but is usually around June 20-22.

The recipe I make at home turns out all rustic looking, which is very different from a lot of Asian baked goods I’ve had. At the bakery the Chinese baked buns (bao or pao) and Filipino buns are typically these beautiful golden brown, rounded hills lined up on a tray.

from centurycafe.com

But, I love me a rustic bread anytime… the displays at Corner Bakery and Panera Bread are enough to make me want to carbo-load.

Irish Soda Bread recipe (from Bridget, friend of friend, Megan)

  • 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 c melted butter
  • 3/4 c milk with 3 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (let this mixture sit for a few minutes) OR 3/4 c buttermilk
  • 1/2 c raisins or currants

Preheat oven to 425. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the wet ingredients. Mix until ingredients are just combined; don’t overmix. It’s okay to look lumpy. Fold in the raisins or currants. Transfer dough to baking sheet. Dough should hold its shape, but you can form your bread loaf how you want. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, turn down to 375 for 20-25 minutes (or until toothpick inserted at center comes out clean). Remove and cool completely.

My daughter told me it tasted store-bought. I guess that meant she liked it! Maybe next year, I can make a corresponding craft? Anyone out there make or bake anything to celebrate summer?

Happy Father’s Day to all tomorrow! I’ll be back next week with crafty tales!

Lemon-Ricotta Cheese Cookies

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Since we don’t typically eat or cook ricotta cheese in our home, and we had some ricotta cheese left in the refrigerator after our dinner party last weekend, I looked up a friend’s recipe for ricotta cheese cookies.

I just don’t like wasting food, you know? Here’s my twist on it… taken from the lemon-ricotta cheese blinis we made for our dinner party, I added lemon to the cookie recipe. And, it was lemon-y delicious!

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 15 oz. ricotta cheese
  • zest of three lemons
  • 6 tsp. fresh lemon juice (juice taken from the lemons – save the extra juice)
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour

Glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar, extra lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter, sugar and cheese. Add zest and 6 teaspoons of lemon juice to butter and sugar mixture, blend well. In separate bowl, mix salt, baking soda and flour. Incorporate the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Dough will be very sticky. Using a small teaspoon scoop (or just two teaspoons), drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until bottoms turn golden brown. After removing from oven, cool for 1 minute, then transfer to cooling racks.

Make glaze by slowly adding juice to the powdered sugar. Thin consistency will probably only need a couple of tablespoons of juice. Spread over cooled cookies.

Yields about 84

Salt and Caramel Brownies

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Having never made brownies from scratch (unthinkable to some), I was really on the lookout for a good recipe. I think I always made “box” brownies because I thought melting chocolate was always part of the deal. I was just unsure of, you know… double boiler, making sure not to overheat the chocolate, yada, yada, yada. I never thought to look for easy recipes. So, when my husband and I saw a few recipes using cocoa powder, it was like the clouds opened up and rays of sunshine shone onto the mixing bowls. Alright, it wasn’t that dramatic, but we thought, “HEY! We can DO THIS!”

Actually, we were going to bake together since my husband is more like the “McGyver” in the kitchen and doesn’t follow recipes. He ended up doing most, if not all, of it alone because I ran out of the house at the wrong time to run an errand. What we ended up with was a nice small batch of the most fudgy brownies I’ve had in a long time. The pan was quartered into sections: plain brownie, brownie with caramel, salted brownie, brownie with salt and caramel.

He even made the caramel from scratch (took two tries)!

Not so good caramel attempt


Leftover "good" caramel

For an 8 x 8 pan, you might be surprised how long it lasted. We cut the brownies into 1-inch squares. That’s all you need for a taste – it’s so rich!

The recipe we used is from Smitten Kitchen, and can be found here. I’ll be trying this recipe out again with some Scharffen Berger cocoa…mmm.

Other cocoa brownie recipes:

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