so I'm not too sure if this is where this topic ought to go, so apologies in advance of I'm off, but- I thought it'd be fun to make scarves this Christmas for friends. unfortunately I have yet to learn how to knit, so instead of being cable....they're sewn.

1) red satin body, felt lettering, broadcloth ends (uneven, but hey, it's the thought that counts)
2) terrycloth body, felt lettering







now I've got a gucci one to do for another friend, and a few others. it's fun and not too intense, though, so I recommend it if you've gifts yet to be made!

So my friend Meredith had her 20th birthday this past week and is quite possibly Coldstone's number one customer. My friend Fi, who was organizing a surprise party for her, went to the ice cream parlour to check out the cakes, and was dismayed at their $30-$40 price tags. So I thought, okay, ice cream cake. Let's give it a try.



Turns out, it IS possible!! Here's how you do it:
the key is to keep the cake out of the freezer for a MINIMUM of time. keeping the cake constantly frozen is key.

1) go to your freezer, and make room for a rather large cakepan. if it's not on the coolest section of your temperature dial, turn it as cold as it'll go. you'll wish you had a sub-zero freezer...I know I do.

2) prepare your cake base. use a rather thick pan so that you'll be able to cut it in at least half, OR make several thin cakes. do NOT use angel food- it's too flimsy. make sure it's a relatively dense cake. browie actually works rather well, as it's got a good hold.

3) take the cake out of the oven after baking, let it cool a bit, then immediately stick in freezer.

4) in the meantime, either make or purchase ice cream. if making: be sure to add enough glue (did you know ice cream has glue?!) to have a fairly gummy consistency. the more hold, the better. think of it as hair gel.

5) after freezing the cake for at least an hour, take it out. depending on how long you plan to slave over this thing, cut it into sections through the middle (through the thickness, not the width/length!). I think two pieces more than fits the bill.

6) put the bottom half back in the cakepan, with the bottom still on bottom, so to speak. now comes the first tricky part: as quickly as you can, spread a good thick coating of ice cream on top of the cake (to where the pan is about 1/2 full). IMMEDIATELY freeze again for at least 2 hours.

7) while that's freezing, put the top half of the cake back in the freezer- if there's room- if not, leave it out under a platter/dish so it will retain mosture.

prepare a chocolate ganache: take out a small saucepan and prepare a ganache (chocolate chips/morsels, sugar, milk, butter, vanilla extract, a bit of cinnamon (or whatever you prefer doing)). make sure its quite liquid, then turn down the heat.

9) get out a non-textured placemat. spray with cooking spray, then get out strawberries. cut strawberries in half. coat these in sugar. take half and dip in the chocolate ganache, remove excess, and place on placemat (or cookie sheet, if you have it- that's really best!). place the sugar coated strawberries also on mat/sheet. place in refridgerator.

10) remove cake from freezer and add top cake portion on. pour leftover ganache evenly to make a smooth, thin chocolate coating. put back in freezer for an hour.

11) remove cake from freezer. ice top of cake with a smooth buttercream-type frosting (royal icing is waster on this type of cake, trust me). put back in freezer for at least 30 minutes.

12) put chocolate-covered strawberries on top of cake around the outer edge, with the sugar-coated ones on the inside edge. leave middle open for decorating. place sprinkles, powdered sugar,or dusted cinnamon on top of strawberries for a 'finished' look.

...and there we go! fairly simple, just a lot of freezing and waiting. at least it's simpler than a bombe!

this was a semester-long project for a creative advertising class I took two years ago... we had to make 50 entries of ideas in a journal. those were the instructions- loose and ambiguous to see what we'd do with it. here are some of the pages I liked best:





















I ended up making a 10,000/100 on the project (I think my TA's hand slipped whilst grading)... now I just wish those extra points would transfer over to my grades for accounting class!

SO a friend of mine posted a surgery note on facebook this morning, which made me long to pull out my fabrics bag and get to sewing... then I realized I had a bunch of stuff I had yet to post on here! So, below are most of my recent purse projects:

1) I was invited to a graduation party for two friends of mine and thought it'd be cute to make them matching purses! And then the weather turned and I ended up not going, so the completed one went to a friend and the second will be for mum.





Closeups of the detail work:







2) Some simple purses made for birthdays for friends... can you tell I'm a fan of ribbon and Offray's best client?? haha. (please pardon my absolutely terrible camera):















3) A less simple tote I made for my friend elise's birthday... I saw some people on here do brilliant things with felt pieces, and wanted to try it myself.





4) Lastly... one of my best friends in the world turned 20 this year, and I wanted to make her something neat for it. She's a fashion major and has the keenest fashion sense, so I was of a mind to try something a bit indie... and so came the scrap tote:


(when unfinished, shows the panels and lining)




(random ribbons on the strap, with the threads not cut off for that unfinished look)

SO there we go... thoughts?

last week was a double birthday- two of my best friends at college turned 19. Both love frilly, girly things, so I thought purses would be good. The first is raw silk and satin, with muslin cotton lining; the second is a starched rayon-cotton blend with satin and thin cotton lining.

Okay, so I've been sort of neglecting term papers in lieu of sewing, but I think it's all in a good cause. My sister's coming to visit me tomorrow and I realized she'd be understandably upset at seeing me having made myself another skirt and none for her! So, since she kind of reminds me of tinkerbell from pepter pan, I made her a tinkerbell skirt! My room-mate says it looks like a bunch of petals thrown together, but however you want to look at it. Modified circle skirt, two-tiered, and, I'm proud to say, my first zipper!! Yay!

long title, but it's a long skirt, too, so I think it's rather apt.
I was looking at http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=44553.0 and loved the pearl idea, and had this brown fabric I wanted to make a skirt out of, so... I just did the following, if someone wanted to know how:
a) make a simple circle skirt (there's a great tutorial for that here on craftster!) but INSTEAD of cutting an arc to get rid of the squared-off fabric, leave it. It'll give you the aysmmetrical hem.
b) hem the bottom so that your lem line is about a centimeter above the bottom edge of the fabric
c) pin lace ON TOP of the fabric (right-side up!) so that the extra centimeter overlaps- or, rather, bottomlaps, I guess
d) sew on lace, using same coloured thread as the lace colour
e) bunch up the top a bit at random places. this will allow the skirt to fit you better, and looks prettier
f) hem the waist-edge of the skirt
g) make an elastic band for the top. I jsut cut up an old blood donor shirt, but anything with some give to it with colours that match should work!
h) attach elastic ON TOP of waist hem so that there's a bottomlap, like on the bottom with the lace
i) BY HAND, sew on pearl strands that are of varying lengths. If you do this by machine, you might accidentally kill yourself. I know I did.

and, without further ado, the skirt itself:








hope you liked it!! I plan to wear it tomorrow with those super fun (not) heels. But hey, that's the price of fashion. Blistered feet!

hello again!!
After seeing such beautiful creations here last night, I decided to make another skirt this afternoon. It's a circle skirt, a bottom layer of off-white linen with a very thin cotton fruit fabric on top. I then just made a thick sash of yellow cotton to tie on top. Sorry for the sad pictures quality...I tried taking one of me wearing it, because it looks so much better that way, but I got a card error. Memory cards are so infurating sometimes. Eh.

Hey!!
I'm new here, so if I do something out of step, please don't kill me! I love sewing. Its so relaxing...well, except when whitey here (my machine) gets the better of me. And by me I mean my fingers. Regardless- I was only doing assorted bags and pillows and stuff when I decided "If I want to make my sister a skirt for her birthday, I better practice first!" So I got a Simplicity pattern and....got incredibly confused by the patterns...so I just did it from scratch, and it has yet to break, so I'm thinking it worked, haha. Next it's tulle skirts...then muwhaha, prom dresses, here I come! right. so. here we are:

 
 
 
 


thanks!! (btw, the pillows in the background were the result of LAST month's boredom. I now officially despise lace, hah. that stuff is so slippery!)