Baking

Yesterday I made the Chocolate Hazelnut Tart from Cook's Illustrated. The crust was good, but the chocolate filling was way too bitter, and the hazelnut whipped cream was horribly salty. If I decide to do this again, I will go with a ganache made with cream, and add no salt to the whipped cream. Came out looking nice, but what a waste of an afternoon!

Today was the Swiss Hazelnut Cake. I did not have two identical cake pans, but the cake turned out alright. Next time I use the stand mixer for whipping egg whites, I will make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl a couple of times.

For the icing, I made half a batch, and that was plenty- maybe not aesthetically,  because I didn't get a nice even finish, but a full batch would have been WAY too sickly sweet. Used a bit of almond extract, as I did not have hazelnut extract.

Grating the chocolate using the food processor was fast, but made a noise like a jackhammer, and made a horrible mess, so I grated the other half of the chocolate by hand (used less chocolate, too).

I was happy about my "hack" of putting plastic wrap under the top of the processor when grinding the nuts.

Not the prettiest pictures, oh well! Fun to watch Bake Off and An Extra Slice while baking. 

Long time no post! Updated rambling!

Well, I have not been posting for a while... I forgot that I even have this blog!

I have been sewing some striped and polka-dot garments for the Pattern Review Polka Dots and Stripes Contest.... with varying degrees of success. I have only entered one review so far, Here. I have made three pairs of shorts (one very much a muslin), four shirts, and one dress.

New acquisitions include a Coverstitch machine (which I have not used as much as I thought I would so far), and a bunch of Jalie patterns. Oh, and way more fabric, notions, elastic, and thread than I should have. The never-ending problem of falling in love with too much fabric, and too many patterns, and...

The unlimited Video thing on Craftsy has gotten me excited about so much sewing! I only wish there was a pants/ jeans fitting class that went over LOTS of signs about what alterations to make. I know how to make many alterations, just now when those alterations may be needed.

So far, my favorite classes are by Kenneth D King, Angela Wolf, Sandra Betzina, Beverly Johnson, Jenny Rushmore, Lorna Knight (I could happily listen to her talk about a phone book) and of course Janet Pray.

Speaking of Janet Pray, I have not yet mastered sewing without pins! Perhaps rayon challis is not the fabric to start practicing on. But even with pins, her technique and hand placement has helped me!

Kenneth D King has gotten me into silk organza again. Would ordering 25 yards from Dharma before the tariffs raise the price be too much? And here I was, telling myself, NO MORE FABRIC! (Except I have to get some of the luscious fabrics from Simply by Ti. Did I mention she emailed me right away with suggestions for shorts patterns when I asked her about a pattern in her picture? <3

Decisions, decisions... something my ADD brain is not so good at.

I want extension tables, an old straight stitch machine with a knee bar thingy, a machine that can sew cordura and leather, a new iron and ironing board, more fabric, undergarment supplies....

And I want to make jeans, undergarments, more rayon challis shirts and dresses (but I need more fabric), motorcycle pants for John, a coat, an inspired-by-one-of-my-favorite-designers garment (hyphenated modifier!) and more shorts... and all of my new Jalie patterns.  I think I need a couple more summers before school starts!

Embroidering the Dress

 The bottom picture of these two is a more accurate representation of the color. Also, cartridge pleats!

Pleats. Are harder than I thought they would be

I want to be able to remove the embroidery (in case I want to change it, and because from what I have read, ladies of the regency era tended to re-use lace and added bits, and alter their gowns to suit the current fashion).

An extant dress from the Met collection:

I think the embroidered parts are worked separately from the dress and then sewn on, but I could be wrong. My sleeves are a bit different, but I like the embroidered sleeves and neckline. This is worked in wool, (which is hard to find, and I am allergic to) and mine in embroidery floss and rayon thread.

I separated DMC 6 strand floss (#333) into individual strands, then threaded my needle with one strand of floss, and one strand of  Madeira rayon embroidery thread. Doubled up, I have two strands of each.

Hope I can finish my embroidery by the end of today... perhaps watching Angel while sewing is not the most time-effective thing to do, but hey, it's certainly enjoyable!