The latest on Freddie and Delilah...she's a GIRL!!

After months of speculating, trying desperately to analyse the head bobbing, quacks and altogether disturbing noises the ducks make in the pond, we have an answer!! Delilah is a girl!

When we got Freddie and Delilah we were told, as the names suggest, that they were one boy and one girl. BUT she's never started laying...which is pretty strange we thought, given that they are about 9 months old now. For the last month we had almost resigned to the fact that she must be male.

And THEN we found the egg. Very exciting! Dances were had, songs were sang, meal worms were handed out by the handful. Slight exaggeration?? However, it was in a very strange place and we can't find any others nearby or anywhere else... we've looked everywhere. They're such adventurous ducks that they don't stay in one place for longer than 2 minutes, so we can't even think where she might be laying.

But anyway, Delilah is a girl; what on earth will I do with my evenings now?!? My computer may have withdrawal symptoms from me Googling 'When do Call ducks start laying?', 'Do female ducks laugh?', 'Do male Call ducks have orange beaks?'...

Navy Upright Collar Dress

Before the weather turned very untypically English, I decided to try turning a summer tea dress pattern into a more sophisticated self-shaping dress, inspired a little bit by Emilia Wickstead's Coat Dress worn by Kate Middleton on St Paddy's Day.

Adapted McCall's Pattern

I already had the McCall's M6503 pattern sitting in my room (which also makes lovely summer dresses, perfect for this time of year), so instead of searching for a different pattern, I thought i'd give an adaptation a try (View D). Making things difficult for myself.... again!

                      

                              














The first thing I did was measured myself and compared my measurements to the finished garment measurements. TIP: Summer dresses often have bigger pattern pieces, because a bit of extra material looks nice and drapey in a soft floaty material. However, I wanted each piece to lie flat and didn't want too many gathers, as in a thicker material it would look too bulky. It turned out the only thing I needed to adjust slightly was the front bodice pieces. I took a little bit off the centre and side seam edges, so that there were less gathers under the bust line.

Next, the fun part, choosing the fabric: I knew I wanted a material that would keep it's shape, but it couldn't be too thick or stiff. A medium weight corduroy would have the type of thing I was looking for, but at my local market I stumbled up on a navy felt/fleece, with a polyester backing - PERFECT! I was so excited to get going. I also chose a contrast chequered material for the waist and collar.

And so I got started :) I didn't have to change anything else, but I would always suggest TIP: to tack the bodice pieces together first to make sure all the sizing is correct, especially when you are adapting a pattern.

The only thing that was a little tricky, because of the thicker material, was the collar. I found that trying to sew that many layers of fabric is best done by hand. The collar on my dress isn't perfect even now, but I don't think it's too noticeable. I'm sure you'll have more luck!

Have you made a different type of look with a different fabric? Post your pictures!

Pinny of the Month

Ok so I admit, this is a little late, but here's June's Pinny of the Month....

I spotted it a few months ago on the Jessie Steele website. It is an american website, but they do ship to the UK, and every single one of these pinnies is a winner, so you won't regret typing .com into your browser!

Apple of my Eye Black Gigi Apron

Loads of the pinnies also come with matching tea towels, gloves and heat pads etc.

Jessie Steele is a family run Mother and Daughter born company, and their love for pinnies, family and femininity really shines through. Most of them have a slightly retro look, and every one is special.

You'll probably be seeing a fair amount more pinnies on this feature that come from this website as they're all beautiful; choosing just one is so difficult! Go and check it out and I guarantee you won't come alway empty handed.

Pinny love -x-x-x-x-

Pinny of the Month

This month I thought I'd show you all some pinnies (or a whole website) with the fun factor! Wearing a pinny isn't exactly a necessary accessory, so why not lighten the mood in the kitchen with something from  Bambino Amore ?

Bambino Amore is an Etsy based shop selling retro inspired pinny's which focus on the large heart shaped stiff front panel... gorgeous.

I haven't been able to choose my favourite from this site because you could use so many of them for different occasions. I love their floral and fun patterned designs....

Secret Garden

Cupcake Delight

....but their whimsical 'party pieces' are real show stoppers, and i'm so tempted to buy one of the designs below....

Harley Quinn

Superwoman

Can you imagine hosting a themed dinner party in them? Even if you weren't going to use them in the kitchen, they'd make a really fun fancy dress outfit.

Help me decide?? Please :)

Chewy Cookies - the best kind I think!

I know some people like the crispy kind of cookies, but they're just not for me...well, i'm not going to say no to any kind of cookie actually, but the chewy kind are always far superior in my opinion.

I've searched and searched for a good recipe, but they always spread out too much, go too thin, end up being crunchy, and have a slight taste of burnt sugar. BUT recently I found it, the secret of getting beautifully puffed up chewy cookies... Cornflour!

Have a look at this recipe, try it out and let me know how you get on :)

Ingredients
170g unsalted butter at room temperature
150g brown sugar (I like to use a mixture of light brown sugar and a muscovado sugar of some kind)
50g granulated sugar
250g plain flour
25g corn flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2tsp salt
1 egg, beaten - free range please
2tsp vanilla extract, or a drop of vanilla paste
150g chocolate chips
Optional: Add two pieces of stem ginger cut finely for an extra wow factor

TIP: You can have fun with the chocolate chips - white, dark or a mix. Or try substituting the chocolate chips for caramel drops, fudge pieces, dried fruit or jelly sweets (it really works). Have fun with it - experiment.

Serving: around 20 cookies

Method
1) Cream together the butter and both sugars in a large mixing bowl until it becomes light, pale and fluffy. It may take a long time, but getting it to turn pale really is the secret to baking
2) Beat in the vanilla to the butter/sugar mixture
3) Sieve the flour, cornflour, bicarb of soda and salt together into a medium sized bowl
4) Alternate adding the egg and flour mixture gradually until a soft dough forms
5) Now add your chocolate chips, make sure they're evenly spaced in the dough
6) Preheat your oven to 175degrees (155degrees for a fan oven)
7) Take a baking sheet and cover it in greaseproof paper
8) Take a ping pong ball amount of dough, roll it roughly into a ball and place on the sheet. Repeat this until you've used up all of your dough

9) Place the baking sheet into the fridge for 20 minutes to allow the dough to cool. TIP: This step is crucial to getting thicker chewier cookies, as it stops the cookies spreading out as quickly when they cook
10) Take your cookies out of the fridge and bake in the oven for 8-10minutes
11) The cookies are done when they are JUST starting to turn golden around the edges (they shouldn't brown on the top). Don't cook them for over 10 minutes, or you'll end up with crispy cookies. The cookies continue to cook when they're out of the oven, so don't worry.
12) Allow to cool (a little... I know how tempting warm cookies are) and there you go, beautifully chewy cookies for everyone to enjoy :)

Time Saver: These cookies are pretty quick to make, but if you find yourself wanting some cookies but only have 10 minutes to spare, try freezing the cookies when they're still balls of dough. You can bake the cookies in exactly the same way from frozen (adding a minute or so to the cooking time) - have a look at this blog post to see how.

Sunday Treats - Shortbread Brownies

Last weekend I was in a quandary ... did I fancy shortbread or brownies? It was like Sophie's choice (I exaggerate....kind of)

So, after spending about 20minutes searching for pictures of each to see if my eyes and stomach could make a decision, I decided... Shortbread Brownies!

I took my favourite brownie recipe, my favourite shortbread recipe and combined the two. I definitely made the right decision - it was exactly what I fancied!!

Ingredients
Shortbread
120g butter, softened
55g golden caster sugar
130g plain flour
40g dry semolina
pinch of salt

Brownies
275g golden caster sugar
190g unsalted butter
185g good quality chocolate (I like to use 80% cocoa) but standard plain chocolate will do the job just fine
90g plain flour
3 large eggs (free range please guys - or even better...fresh!)
Optional: 70g Rice Crispies

The brownie recipe also works perfectly well without the shortbread. My favourite recipe as it's not too rich :)
Serving: 24 triangles

Method
1) Start with the shortbread. Beat the softened butter with the sugar and salt until pale and creamy. TIP: It's hard work creaming butter and sugar together until pale, but it really is the secret of successful desserts :)
2) Sift the flour over the creamy mixture and add the semolina. Beat until combined and it forms a dough - it should just about stick together
3) Line a large baking sheet with parchment or baking paper

If you haven't already, get the kids involved. And if you don't have kids, YOU get to act like one now!

4) Time to take little bits of the dough and roll them into many many little balls. The balls should be around a 1cm across

5) Once you've used up all the dough, place the tray in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to firm up again. Preheat your oven to 150degrees (130degrees fan oven)
6) Place the shortbread into the oven for 30minutes. You don't want the shortbread to brown, so if you can see signs of them turning golden, reduce the heat. Take out the oven and leave to cool

Lets start the brownies!

7) Break up the butter and chocolate into small pieces and place in a Pirex bowl. Half fill a small saucepan with water and place the bowl just inside the saucepan so that the bowl is resting on the edges of the saucepan. Make sure the water isn't touching the bottom of the bowl. This is a type of Bain Marie

8) Place the Bain Marie on a low heat and gently melt the butter and chocolate, stirring occasionally. Once melted, leave to cool

9) Take a large mixing bowl, break your eggs into it and add the sugar. Whisk them together until they form a thick, pale, creamy consistency which is about double its original volume. This may take around 5 minutes - if you want to cheat a little, use an electric whisk on a medium speed for 2-3 minutes

10) Slowly pour in the chocolate mixture into the egg and sugar mixture. Gently fold the chocolate in, until everything has combined. Fold instead of mix to keep the air in - this way your brownies will stay light and airy

11) Sieve the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture. Gently fold together until a glossy gooey mixture forms, but don't fold too much or you'll loose that lovely airy texture

Everything is about to come together... eek, can't wait!!

12) Fold in the cooled shortbread - or the shortbread you have left... I can guarantee quite a few of the little drops of heaven have already been consumed! TIP: Now is the time to add those optional Rice Crispies. The Rice Crispies go soft and make the brownie a little more chewy.Turn up the oven to 180degrees (160degrees for a fan oven) once the shortbread has been removed

13) Line a brownie tin (around 24x20cm) and pour the mixture in. Place in the oven for 25minutes. If after 25minutes the middle of the brownie still feels wobbly, pop it back in for 5 minutes

14) Remove from oven. Once it has cooled slightly, take a knife and mark out your brownies

15) Now this might be the hardest thing in the world, but you SHOULD allow the brownies to cool completely before turning them out. I'll leave that decision up to you

YOU'RE DONE! Eat, enjoy, freeze some (yer right), take them to a picnic and give some to friends (again, yer right)



Time Saver: I must confess that this is definitely a 'Sunday Treat' and isn't the quickest thing to make... BUT both the shortbread and brownies on their own are pretty quick and simple. PLUS you could double the brownie mixture, cook them all and then freeze the ones you don't want for another day - simple pop them in the oven for 10minutes to warm through. OR make double the shortbread mixture and freeze the other half - I recommend freezing the dough in the shapes you like (cut out biscuit fingers for example) rather than the cooked shortbread, as it turns out much better







TIP: If you want to use the shortbread recipe on it's own to make thicker shortbread fingers, leave in the oven for around an hour and sprinkle them with brown sugar once they've just come out of the oven. Mmmm tasty!

Have you combined two recipes to make one giant success? I'd love to know!

Pinny of the Month

You couldn't get much more elegant or stylish with this long-length pinny from Posh Paraphernalia

Posh Pinny

The 'Posh Pinny' is a timeless classic and will look great on anyone. They do several styles of print, but I think the plain blue stripe with just a hint of red looks beautifully sophisticated!

Posh Paraphernalia started as 'Posh Pinnies' but they soon realised they could make many things just as beautiful as pinnies; tea cosies, tea towels, oven gloves and more. The choice isn't huge but they've chosen a lovely collection of things. They also do half-pinnies which I think are really nice in the flower print :)

The idea behind Posh Paraphernalia is to make everyone feel glamorous, even when they're doing the washing up. Too right, who wouldn't want to feel glamourous when they're doing the washing-up!

So try adding some glamour to your day-to-day life :) I certainly will be. Oh, and don't forget to check out their blog.

Buttered Carrots

What do you think of when you think about adding veg to your meal? Boiled greens and carrots?...That would be most people's answer. No more!

I don't know about you, but personally I find boiled vegetables vastly over-rated; whilst perfectly acceptable, it often simply serves a '5-a-day' purpose. Because of this we don't always get our much needed vitamins because we find eating veg quite tasteless and boring. Boiling veg is also not a great way of getting our vitamins because most of the goodness ends up in the discarded water.

This is where the wonder of buttered carrots comes in - seriously, I could eat them all day and as a consequence, I eat much more veg that I would do otherwise.

Method
Now, I can hear you saying 'but butter is really bad for you'. In large quantities, yes, but all I use is teaspoon's worth per 2 carrots.

1) Chop your carrots into chunks - I like to julienne them
2) Place them in a small saucepan (which you have a tight fitting lid for)
3) Add a teaspoon of butter
4) Add a teaspoon of water
5) Place the lid onto the saucepan. Make sure to leave your leave your lid on; this stops the butter and water evaporating
6) Gently heat for 7-8minutes, shaking the pan occasionally
And you're done

Using this method you eat up all the vitamins that would have otherwise been discarded, and more importantly, you'll love every mouthful

Variations
Add a little honey to make them sweet
Add a tiny amount of Marmite - this doesn't actually make them taste Marmitey, just gives a bit of saltiness and coming from a marmite hater, tastes pretty good actually!
Add a little soy sauce if your having a chinese dish
Add a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar if you want a richer taste

You can cook most vegetables using this method and everyone will ask you how on earth you made them taste so nice! It makes even courgettes taste good ;)

Have you got any other ways of eating your 5-a-day?

Pinny of the Month

Here's March's Pinny of the Month....(it's SO cute)

Cute Kitsch Retro Apron - CreativeChics

I stumbled upon CreativeChics on Etsy a few weeks ago, and instantly I was hooked. It's full of handmade vintage inspired aprons (just up my street), and by full, I mean FULL. It was so difficult to choose just one - but here it is!

I think the gathered neckline is really unusual and pretty, plus the wide waist is flattering too! And everyone knows it's important to look and feel good when you're about to stuff your face full of homecooked treats! Plus the strawberries...who doesn't love strawberries!

I hope you enjoy browsing CreativeChics's Etsy page - I certainly have :)

Delightful Jam Doughnuts

Now, don't blame me if this recipe results in some serious weight gain... but, if you do have a special occasion coming up, these will be your shining moment of domesticity and your friends/family will be over every Saturday begging for more.

I'd always wondered how difficult doughnuts were to make, and assumed that all of that heavenly taste came from umpteen chemicals and preservatives. I was wrong, very very wrong.

Give this recipe a go, and you won't be sorry! I prefer the sugar coated ones, but if you prefer glazed I've added a suggestion for that too.

Ingredients
190g Strong White Flour
15g Caster Sugar
20g Unsalted Butter left at room temperature
1 Packet Fast Acting Dried Yeast (7g)
Pinch of Salt
65ml slightly warmed Milk, I use semi skimmed but whole milk would be richer if that's what you prefer
45ml Warm Water
1 Egg, free-range please :)
1 litre Oil to deep fry - vegetable oil or something similar
3 tbsp Jam

TIP: Why not try different fillings, apple sauce (heat up some apples and blend with some sugar and cinnamon), custard or even a toffee sauce.

Coating
15g Caster Sugar, or as much as you like for dusting
OR
20g Unsalted Butter
85g Icing Sugar
20ml Warm Water
1/2tsp Vanilla Paste

Serving: 6 large doughnuts or 8 guilt-free (almost) doughnuts

Method
1) Combine all of the dry ingredients in to a large bowl or bread maker
2) In a small bowl, pour the warmed milk and water over the butter. Stir until the butter melts
3) Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture along with the egg. Stir to combine. A dough should form; firm, but not stiff. If it's still a litte sticky add a bit more flour, or if it's too stiff add a little more milk
4) Now for the fun part.... kneading. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Or, if you're pressed for time, pop in the bread maker on the dough setting and let it do it's thing for 10-15 minutes whilst you get on with something else
5) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place, an airing cupboard is great for this, or on top of a boiler, for about an hour, until dough has doubled

Get on with some house chores and get excited for some evening indulgence

6) Divide dough in to 6 large or 8 smaller balls
7) Secret Tip: Take one side of a ball and pull the edge into the middle, do this all the way round the ball, so that it looks a bit like when you make a fist with your hand. Place the ball on a lightly floured tray smooth side up, making sure all the edges are tucked up underneath. Repeat with all the balls
8) Cover with a damp tea towel again and leave for another hourish (if you're desperate then you could just wait 40mins)

More chores... nearly ready! Here's a pic to keep you going...

9) Heat the oil in a high-sided saucepan. And, if you're like me, get out every fire blanket and extinguisher you have in the house
10) Wait until the oil is at 160degrees. If you don't have a thermometer, take a tiny piece of dough and drop it in the oil - it's the right temperature when the dough fizzes and floats straight back to the top
11) Carefully lower balls into the oil with a slotted spoon. It's best to only have 3 balls in the oil at one time. Leave for 2-3 minutes and then turn over. TIP: Use a chopstick to turn them over by pressing down firmly on one side of the ball
12) Whilst the doughnuts are cooking, get your coating ready:
           
12a) If you fancy plain sugar, just pop the 15g in a bowl
12b) If you're more of an american at heart and want to try the glazed option, melt the butter and mix with all of the other ingredients. Set aside to cool

13) Once your doughnuts are golden both sides, carefully remove them from the oil and place them straight into your coating of choice, turn over the doughnut until it's well covered and place on a cooling rack
14) Cook up the next batch of doughnuts, 3 at a time, until they're all done
15) Now for the filling... mmmmm YUM. Get a piping bag and place your jam inside TIP: Or, if you don't want to wash up, make a cone from some greaseproof paper and pop the jam in there, remembering to snip off the end of the cone
16) With a skewer, make a hole in one side of the doughnut and push through to the middle
17) Put your piping bag into the hole and squeeze a little jam inside

You're DONE!

They'll probably all be gone by the morning, but just to let you know, doughnuts don't keep amazingly well, so it's best to get some friends over to eat them all at once. Saying that, i've been known to have a cheeky one for breakfast.

Enjoy everyone, and let me know how you get on. Oh, and be safe with the oil guys!

xxxx

Pulled Chicken Enchiladas

This recipe has evolved over the umpteen number of times I've made it, and it always delivers. I think I've perfected it now, and this meal makes me want to open a mexican 'grab and go' restaurant every time I make it....oh the possibilities of streamlining this dish....anyway, back to the recipe.

Time Saver: This comfort dinner can be made in around 50 minutes, which includes 20 minutess in the oven. 30 minutes in the kitchen for a special dinner like this isn't too bad in my eyes. I hope you agree :)

These are the rough proportions I use, however play around with the ingredients to find your 'perfect enchilada'

Ingredients
400g Pulled Cooked Chicken (TIP: use left overs from a roast) or 2 large fresh chicken breasts chopped into strips
1 Red Pepper
1 Yellow Pepper
1 Large Onion
1/2tsp Chilli Powder
1/2tsp Paprika Powder
1/2tsp Cayenne Pepper
1tsp Cumin Powder
6 Flour Wraps
1/2tbsp Corn Flour (Optional)
Sour cream (I use around 2tbsp in total)
Cheese, grated (I use around 100g of mild cheddar)
Tomato Ketchup....the secret ingredient (about 1tbsp)

Salsa
1 Medium Onion, finely chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
2 Fresh Tomatoes, finely chopped
2 x 400g Tin Chopped Tomatoes
Fresh Basil
Fresh Thyme

Serving: Makes 6 enchilladas, which will serve around 4 people

Method
1) First start your salsa off, as this will need to reduce as you cook the other ingredients, heat a little olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add your chopped onion and stir occasionally until softened.
2) Add your garlic and stir for a couple of minutes. Add fresh tomatoes and stir for another few minutes.
3) Add the rest of the salsa ingredients (tinned tomatoes and herbs). Season it to taste.
4) Now leave the salsa to simmer, stirring occasionally whilst you make the rest of the meal. It should reduce so that most of the liquid disappears.

5) Chop your peppers and onion into long thin strips. The easiest way to do this with an onion is to cut the onion in half from top to bottom, peel, cut off the stem end (the longer one), and then slice all the way across until you get down to the bottom of the onion. Voila, long thin strips of onion!



6) Heat a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan. When hot, add the onions and peppers and conintue to stir over medium heat until they have softened and start to brown. They should turn glossy.




7) Whilst the peppers and onions are cooking, mix your spices into the chicken TIP: If you're using fresh chicken breasts, add a little corn flour as well, as this will help the spices stick to the chicken.

Don't forget to stir your salsa!!

8) Heat a little more oil in your frying pan and then add the chicken. If you're using raw chicken breasts you'll need to cook this for around 12 minutes, but if you're using cooked pulled chicken you'll just need to warm it through, around 4 minutes.
9) Add your peppers and onions back to the frying pan and mix them up with the chicken. Fry together for a few minutes.

Time to put everything together!

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees (180 degrees fan)
11) TIP: Sprinkle flour in the bottom of a large serving dish - it helps the wraps to come out easily as it absorbs some of the moisture.


12) Arrange your wraps in the serving dish next to each other.



13) Now divide your pepper/chicken mixture between the wraps, spreading it out along the length of the wrap.



14) Your salsa should now look something like this...




15) Add a small spoon full of salsa in to each wrap, spreading it out over the pepper/chicken mixture. You should use aboute a third of the salsa.

16) Dollop a couple of small teaspoons of sour cream into the wraps.



17) Fold the ends of your wraps over each other, locking the ingredients inside.


If the ends of the wraps end up falling over the top of the next wrap along, tuck it down into the gap - it'll make it easier to separate the wraps once their cooked.


18) Spread the remaining salsa over the top of the wraps, keeping the ends flat.

19) Secret ingredient time - Ketchup! Squeeze some over your salsa. It's SO good and adds a little sweetness to the meal. YUM!

20) Sprinkle over your cheese.


21) Place in the oven for 20 minutes, until cheese has browned slightly.





Serve and enjoy (the most difficult step is getting the first enchilada out...I'll leave that one to you - if you find any ingenius methods to do it, please do let us know, I'm still not sure haha).

Why not try making veggie enchiladas; swapping the chicken for refried beans. Or swap the chicken for beef? Anything goes. Share your favourites :)

Feature chimney breast

I admit, when I opened this from Josh on Christmas Day I wasn't exactly sure what it was...the only thing I knew was that he'd been hiding himself away in the loft making it for hours.

All became clear when I laid it out on the floor...

I'd wanted a big map to pin favourite holidays and plan adventures on, but I never imagined that he'd make me one from cork floor tiles!

The boards had a backing, which peeled off to reveal a sticky back, like double sided sticky tape

He pinned the boards to the wall and projected an image on to them so that it could be drawn straight on to the boards. Taking a stanley knife, the image was cut out carefully, and this was the result.

When I realised what it was I was so excited :) I couldn't wait to go home and put it up. The sticky backing made it really simple to put on the wall too.

Try it yourself, or maybe try something slightly different; how about a big map of the UK and plan  adventures closer to home? Oh, and don't forget to share your creations!

Calling all budding seamstresses... hiya

My discovery of the month has to be the StyleARC website. It's an Australian based company which sells unique, fashionable and easy to use sewing patterns. It ticks all the boxes.

The site is updated every month, and has some really lovely designs, one of which was mentioned in my wrap dress post - the Kate Dress, i.e. THE blue engagement Kate Middleton Dress. We all know that's a worthwhile purchase!

The patterns also come on paper (newspaperish thickness), not that annoyingly easy to tear tissue which you'll find in most pattern packets: Absolute bonus!

Some of my other favourites are:


     

                  Layla Dress                                                                                         Felicity Blouse                                                                                            Paris Dress

TIP: Make sure you check your measurements on the size chart because this isn't a British Website, and the sizes differ to a little to ours.

I really love this website; sewing our own clothes is a lovely way to get the most out of our figures and skin tone. You can choose the colours and styles that suit you and adapt where necessary - which isn't easy to do with things you find in the shops. Plus, when people ask you "where did you get that?" you'll feel an incredible amount of pride saying "I made it".






I urge you to give it a go, try something simple first (how about the Olivia Dress), and if you have any sewing questions please get in touch.

I can see myself draining my bank balace very quickly! We need some more businesses like this in the UK...any budding pattern designers up for the challenge?! Although, lucky for us StyleARC can post you your patterns all over the world, so we can have the pleasure of enjoying some Australian talent too!

Don't believe my overly excited post? Check it out for yourself :)

Sunday (sewing) Treats - Wrap Dress

I don't know about you guys, but today was the first time I didn't feel like my fingers and toes were going to fall off the moment I even thought about the outside. The sun was out - and I almost felt warm for a while.

This MUST mean SPRING IS HERE (I don't want to hear any 20th March rubbish). Prime time to whip out the wrap dress I made last year.

Wrap dresses are really quite simple to make once you know your way around a sewing machine. Once you've had a go at a couple of simple cotton dresses, give a wrap dress a try. Only a few different pattern pieces are used and you don't have to be too exact with your cutting and sewing; the nature of the dress and material is quite forgiving.

For someone who has a couple of sewing projects under their belt, I would say this type of dress would take you about 6 hours, so a perfect 'Sunday Treat' activity or 2 evening's work. Pretty efficient I'd say!

TIP: I have since made this dress for a friend as a birthday present - why don't you give it a go; a lovely handmade present :) I knew her rough dress size, but didn't worry too much about sizing, as you wouldn't notice if it was a slight bit too big or small. Perfect! Maybe she'll be willing to put a picture of her wearing it up here...hint hint ;)

I have recently been bought some lovely blue jersey fabric which i'm going to make another wrap dress out of. This time i'll make a short sleeve version, perhaps experimenting with lace trim. I'll post some pictures up here when I've finished. Wish me luck!

TIP: Try experimenting with lightweight and heavyweight jersey materials. This one is a very lightweight jersey, with only a little stretch in it. I recommend starting with a jersey with only a small amount of stretch if you're new to the sewing world.

Some good Wrap Dress patterns are listed below (I've listed their original source, but have a search on the internet for British suppliers of the patterns. There's plenty out there - just type in the pattern code into a your search bar):
- Vogue V8379
- McCall M5974
- Butterick B5206
- StyleARC - Kate Dress
- I can't recommend highly enough Lisa Comfort's 'Sew Over It' Ultimate Wrap Dress course. You'll come away with a wrap dress pattern, one completed wrap dress and a whole heap of new knowledge and skills. The teachers will help you at every stage, and are so welcoming - all you need to do is choose your fabric and book a place on the course. Plus you get cake and tea whilst you sew, what more could you ask for? I love it there!

Send me some pictures of your completed wrap dresses and feel free to ask any questions. Sunday Love x x x

Pinny of the Month

February's pinny of the month award goes to......

Gillian Kyle Ltd's Tunnocks Caramel Wafer Pinny!

http://www.gilliankyle.com/products/
tunnocks-caramel-wafer-wrapper-organic-apron

Gillian Kyle does some really lovely Scottish themed items including aprons (of course), tea towels, mugs and lots more :)

Plus, a real selling point for me is that they are made from Organic Cotton: Thanks Gillian! Find out why this is so important on her website.

Seriously, who could possibly turn down a Tunnock Caramel Wafer?? I am a huge fan of both the wafer's and this pinny; it's fun, it's bright, it's everything you want from a kitchen aid and snack. Who wants a boring pinny?!?

Oh, now i'm hungry for caramel wafers

Go and check out this and all her other pinny's here!! Enjoy.

Don't forget to let me know your favourite pinny's :)

Freddie and Delilah...all grown up

The time came a few weeks ago to let Freddie and Delilah have a proper 'big ducks' swim in a 'big ducks' pond. So, on a very cold Saturday morning, 7 layers of clothes went on, and we embarked on digging a 'big ducks' pond hole...

...2 hours, umpteen wheelbarrow loads of soil and several spirit-level assessments later we had a perfect hole (ish). Apparently making a hole level when the ground is on a slop already is pretty difficult, not to mention the fact that the two end of the ponds had different depths...

...they were a bit nervous to start with...

...needless to say, once they got in they loved it...












...but Freddie did get stuck upside down a few times...












...they even learnt how to fly out!








They proceeded to repeatedly miss bedtime for the next week, refusing to leave their new haven; which resulted in a few late night trips down the garden to encourage them in to bed with the chickens. Cheeky twosome. Love them!!! x x x x