Sewing a dress

I've embarked upon an experiment. I've sewed dresses before, but they've been simple affairs. I've sewed fitted blouses. I've sewed simple skirts. But after too many days, months, even years of not finding a 100% cotton dress with sleeves that fit, I began to think about sewing something more adventurous. Sure, I've found plenty of sun dresses that were 100% cotton and were cut very simply so that they more or less fit, but what about the other 353 days of the year when the weather isn't sun dress weather?

But after looking at patterns I ran into the same problem: the dresses made from just wouldn't fit.

Then I found Vogue fitting : the book of fitting techniques, adjustments, and alterations at the library, and thought, "I can do this."

I think I can do this!

So I got my own copy of the book, and New Look 6587, and decided to make dress A. Then I began to take measurements. I worked through the book, taking my measurements and comparing them with the standard measurements, and after following the "contact" link on the Simplicity site and hearing back from the very helpful people there, also added the actual garment measurements to my comparison table. The results: I needed to enlarge the waist.

After a trip to the art supply store for tracing paper, I then used the instructions in the book to trace and draw new pattern pieces that enlarged the waist and lower bodice of dress A. And after pushing the table aside in our tiny living room, and using the floor to lay out and cut out the fabric, I was able to begin sewing.

The first instructions were for something I'd never done before: stay-stitching seams, clipping them, and then curving the bodice front to fit the bodice side. (Without doing this, the two pieces of fabric wouldn't fit together without gathers and/or puckers.) And I'm so happy with the results! Sure, the pattern doesn't match up at the seam, but I'm not even trying to do that with this first dress. I'm just delighted that the seam lays flat so nicely.

I'm going to keep sewing very carefully, and hopefully, at the end, I'll have a 100% cotton dress with sleeves that I can wear most (if not all) of the year, that fits, and a pattern from which I can make more.

Sierra Beauty Apple Pie

We've fallen in love with apple pie made from Sierra Beauty apples:



We get them at our local farmers' market, from Pomo Tierra Ranch, and they have so much more flavor than Granny Smiths. We've found that whether you eat them raw, or bake them into a pie, the first taste is sweet, but they have a tart finish, and are so aromatic--almost floral. We've been making pie after pie out of them, almost one a week, just like this one:



If you can, get some Sierra Beauties--enough for eating, and enough for pies!

Cedric visits the Norton Simon

We had a great time at the Norton Simon in Pasadena. A rather small museum, it has a wonderful collection, so one could spend just a few hours or even all day.

Cedric particularly enjoyed the sculpture garden, especially "Mountain" (above) and the beautiful landscaping:

Cedric at the Gate

Cedric and I were lucky enough to go sailing on Alma, and even luckier that Captain Jason and his wonderful crew took us just out the Gate! This is Cedric as we were approaching the Bridge, all of us very excited.

Knitting for Barbie

It's been a long time since I've knit anything doll sized, and it's as fun as ever!

I call this the "Starry Night Bra & Panty Set," and the pattern's no. A58 from a wonderful site, Sticka till Barbie, and it's available in Swedish, Dutch, English and French--and it's free!

The pattern is really easy to follow, and it took just a bit of leftover sock-weight yarn, and I used 2.0mm (U.S. size 0) needles.

There's over 1000 patterns at her site, and I can't wait to knit more of them!

Date custard pie

I wanted to try something completely new, and am so pleased with the results! It's not the prettiest pie, but is so delicious. The recipe is from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book, and I followed it as written. It's very simple, and I used the best ingredients I could find: free-range, organic eggs from Riverdog Farm, fresh dates that I bought at the farmers' market (I forgot to note the farm), plus milk (I used organic soy milk, since Paul can't handle cow milk), and a little salt--that's it. There's no added sweetener--all the sweetness comes from the dates.

The crust is the buckwheat crust from the same cookbook, and it's spectacular. Half wheat flour, half buckwheat flour--it's nutty and really flaky.

Whole wheat baguettes

These are the prettiest baguettes that I've made! I've really gotten the recipe down (King Arthur Flour's) so that I can whip these up even with a nasty head cold. And I still follow Julia Child's suggestion about the slashes (mentioned before), but now we have a French carbon steel knife that's incredibly sharp, which makes the slashes very easily.

I've also adapted the recipe to incorporate whole wheat flour: I grind 3/4 cup wheat berries, which gives somewhere around 1-1/4 cups of flour, and I substitute that for some of the white flour in the "dough" part of the recipe. The only challenge is the crust--they're not as crusty as the white flour version, so I'm working on that!