4th of July desserts

Kailtyn worked her baker's magic and made a couple of fantastic desserts for our 4th of July party with family and friends.

First a cake from Bird on a Cake

Kailtyn added some ribbon and piping on the side

Next the favorite of the day, Push-up cakes
You can check out the details at Betty Crocker and here are Kaitlyn's

Easter Egg Cake

I pinned this cake  a week or two ago and sent the link to Kaitlyn.  Yesterday she finished it up and it is so cute, plus delicious.

She's 22

Erin's birthday today and time to celebrate.

Kaitlyn and Meredith made the cake, tinted a white cake and made it marbled with Erin's favorite colors - orange and aqua


Sewing note:

Working on  a jacket for me, Simplicity 2728, only one problem, I majorly cleaned my sewing room on December 23rd.  Guess what I threw away?  Yes, the pattern envelope, instructions and collar pattern pieces.  Tomorrow heading to Joann's to buy another pattern.

Hamburger, anyone?

What do you get when you use this tutorial and combine a cupcake, icing and a brownie?

A Hamburger that's what!  Isn't it the cutest?  Meredith is using this for her demonstative speech for class.  I know her fellow students will enjoy the speech, they get to eat the cupcakes!

Without the top bun, showing the ketchup, mustard and lettuce

Yummy, hamburger

Crooked bun when Mom tries to move the creation for a better photo.

Fourth of July Cake

Kaitlyn used this cake tutorial to make this



You can see more of the flag design in this picture

Isn't that the coolest cake?  Kaitlyn had so much fun making it and everyone at our family picnic thought is was fabulous.

Our day was spent:

Swimming

hubby napping





Talking - my parents and brother.  My parents just celebrated their 50th anniversary a couple of weeks ago

fireworks, taken on itouch

A great day for celebrating!

Cake and Happy Birthday

Erin asked Kaitlyn to make her wedding cake next May, quite an honor.  So she is practicing for the big day.  My dad's birthday is today and we celebrated on Father's Day. 

Erin wants ribbon around her cake, so Kaitlyn tried this on my dad's cake

And to decorate the top for the big birthday!

Happy Birthday, Dad.

Rose Cake

Kaitlyn used this rose cake tutorial today and made this beautiful cake

Isn't it beautiful?

Now off to eat it!

Happy Halloween

Kaitlyn and Meredith are going to a friend's house for Halloween, there will be a group of friends handing out candy and watching scary movies. This will be a treat for my girls, as we live in the country and never have trick-or-treaters. I think they will have a great time seeing all the kids in their cute costumes. Now, hubby and I have to find something to do. Maybe I can get a friend to invite me to their house in town!

Kaitlyn found this Halloween cake idea and wanted to make it for the party. Very cute cake, made from two bundt cakes.

The stem is a marshmallow dyed with green cake frosting tint.




Here is the front:

The twins and I are participating in a 5K tomorrow morning, the Happy Harvest Run. My friend, who owns the quilt shop sponsors this event. This is the second year and she has doubled the number of participants. It will be very fun.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween,

BWOF Blouse 1/2009 #120

Pattern: BWOF 1/2009 #120
Description: Parallel rows of horizontal tucks decorate this batiste blouse.

Sizing: 36 to 42

Instructions: They are really pretty good for BWOF magazine. If you are unsure about blouse construction, pull out a Big 4 pattern instruction sheet for guidance. I usually use my notes from the Pattern Review shirtmaking class with Shannon Gifford.

Here are several steps I took pictures during the construction.

Clipped the seam allowance on each side for the tuck. Pressed this tuck in place matching the clips on each side. With washable marker, drew 1/2" stitching line





The tucks press down and you can see the hidden stitching line. This is the way I did my pleats, the picture looks as if you stitch a different way and/or topstitch. So pick how you want the pleats to turn out!


I would fold back the facings a check to see if my pleats were matching on each front.




I used the fusible interfacing, marvelous by the way, from Sew Exciting on the entire shirt. The facings I did like this this tutorial



Topstitched the collar:



The instructions just call for you turning under one side of the collar and stitching over the seam allowance. I didn't think this would be a good luck if the shirt was unbuttoned the top two buttons. I used a bias strip and then hand sewed it to the wrong side


I used the pin easing from Ann's blog and yes, it is lots of pins but it does work. I tried the gathering stitches and that was terrible on this blouse. I had many tucks, so I ripped out the seam and followed Ann's instructions.


Likes/Dislikes:
Likes first: I really like the look of the tucks, changes up a basic blouse. Now on the model the blouse has room for a turtleneck, well, I think this is because she is so skinny and needs a 32 or 34! Take a look at the other photo from the BWOF website, you can see a different look. The blouse has higher armscye, notice that in the picture without the model. Impossible to tell on the model, her hair is in the way on one side. The fit of the blouse is slim, so if you are wanting to layer it, go up a size. I do like the fit and look of this blouse. The tucks were easy to do.





Not really dislikes now but things I noticed. It is hard to tell about the fit of a BWOF garment on the models, they are slender, who knows if this is their size of garment and the awkward poses. The cuffs are rather tight on the blouse, so you might want to measure this against a favorite blouse. Not a measurement I normally think to do.

Changes: Added a bit of length, should have added about ½” more to the sleeves.

Fabric: A shirting blend from Gorgeous Fabrics. Gorgeous fabrics A shirting with lycra would probably be good for this pattern, too

Conclusion: A fun blouse with a decorative feature, check the sizing, it all depends on how you plan to wear your blouse.




Pictures of the tucks




Thanks all for the button opinions and votes. You picked a winner and my favorite, BTW.




Now if my blouse gets to tight, I have Kaitlyn to blame. She has been baking up a storm.



Meredith's job is to pick the colors for the icing. She was in a bright phase!





Now sometimes I think between my internet connection and bloggers unique features it takes me longer to post the review than sew the blouse!!