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I have not been sewing so much lately, but I have been doing a lot of baking. After dozens and dozens of cookies I decided to bake something else instead. Wanting to avoid a trip to the grocery store, I decided I needed to have all the ingredients on hand. And now I give you….

Snickerdoodle cake. Amazing. So simple. Yet so ridiculously tasty.

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
butter

1) Okay. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan.
2) Sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, cream white sugar with butter until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well with each addition. Add half of flour mixture, then milk, then other half of flour mixture, mixing well after each addition. Mix in 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
3) In a small bowl, mix 6 tablespoons white sugar with 2 teaspoons cinnamon.
4) Pour half of batter into pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle half of cinnamon sugar mixture on top. Pour remaining batter into pan and spread evenly.
5) Mix remaining cinnamon sugar mixture with 1 tablespoon flour and 2 tablespoons brown sugar. Cut in room temperature butter until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle on top of batter.
6) Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until done.
7) Enjoy this deliciousness you have created.

I would take a picture of mine but we already ate it :/

The family I work for is Jewish and I’ve enjoyed the candle lighting, prayers and latkes that go along with Hannukah. There are still a couple of nights left so tomorrow I will give the kids their gifts. They have plenty of toys so instead I made them scarves and hats.

(I swear someday I will be motivated enough to take better pictures of my stuff. For now, I’m using the somewhat poor-quality laptop webcam.)

I made the hats and scarves out of fleece and cut shapes out of felt for the designs. I think they’re cute!

The blue is for two year old Max and the pink is for five year old Mallory.

I cut some fringe at the ends of the scarves.

The hats will keep them warm through the horribly cold Cleveland winters.

So, Happy Hannukah everyone! And next week, Merry Christmas!!

I work as a nanny and the little girl I take care of had her 5th birthday party yesterday. I’m a broke lady so I couldn’t afford to buy her anything. Instead, I made a rag doll of her favorite cartoon character, Dana from Wayside School. It ended up being her favorite gift by far :) She keeps telling me over and over that it’s the best gift! It makes me smile to know she loves it and appreciates it as much as I hoped she would. Here she is with the doll, and a still from the cartoon for comparison:

You can’t see the whole doll in the picture but it’s a little over a foot long and made with felt. It only took me about three hours of total work time to complete it. And now she wants dolls of the other characters!! It’s cute.

So I’ve been invited to a Christmas party. It’s a dressy occasion and I’m excited because I’ll be making my own dress. It’s the first time I’ve worked from a pattern but it shouldn’t be too bad. So far the only thing tripping me up is the cutting out of the pattern pieces—I despise have to sit around and measure and cut things. It takes up too much time. Grr.

Anyway, the dress I’m making is a simple black one so yesterday I made some accessories to go along with it. I used some scrap cotton, tulle and pearls to make these pins. They’ll go along with my dress beautifully :)

I’ll post pictures of the dress as it comes along…I’m excited to start sewing!

I buy fabrics on a whim most of the time. Sometimes I try to figure out what I might do with it, but most of the time if I think it’s awesome, it’s purchased. Today I decided to use two things I’ve had in my stash for a while: a half yard of muslin and a pillowcase I got from the thrift store for 25 cents. I sewed them together and got….

a skirt! (the big black fuzzy thing at the bottom left corner is a cat that wouldn’t move)

I sewed an elastic waistband and then sewed that to the pillowcase and muslin. It’s nice because the muslin isn’t heavy and it blends well with the pillowcase fabric, which would have been completely transparent otherwise.

A close up of the fabric:

And the waistband. I used a lighter thread and did some topstitching to give it a more interesting look.

What do you think? I like it! It’s very comfy and I love the fabric.

I have been sewing a lot, but all of the work is being done on the same piece. It’s a patchwork duvet for my bed and I’m almost done.

This post isn’t anything new—it’s mostly just for me. This is a roundup of some things I’ve made in the past and I wanted them up here with everything else!

The squid!! A gift for Brian, measuring 8 feet from tip to tail. I like it. Who knows where it is now??

Florence. I made her but then couldn’t bear to part with her. She lives in my living room.

Coffee cozy. I love how this turned out. Two vintage cotton/silk blend fabrics and a vintage button. I made it during the summer so I used it to keep my hand from freezing when I got milkshakes from the ice cream stand around the corner.

Shorts made from old man pants.

And lastly, Buck. He lives in Art’s apartment in New York City. A world traveler!

And that’s about it. I’ll post pictures of the duvet when I finally finish it…..

I haven’t updated here in a while. I have good excuses! (I think.)

*I have a new roommate. My last roommate moved pretty abruptly but I had suspected she would for a while so the same day the old one moved out, I called a friend of mine who was looking for a place and she moved in. It’s terrific! She’s also a crafty gal. We have sewing tables set up in one room and I like sharing my knitting projects with her.

*I’ve been knitting a lot! Many of the people on my holiday gift list are getting handmade items. I’ve been knitting pretty much nonstop. I recently started knitting a hat for myself. It’s a pretty ambitious project for someone of my experience level (lots of techniques I’ve never used before) but since it’s for me I won’t get super bummed if it turns out all wonky.

*I have been spending a lot of my time with a very nice boy who lives in my neighborhood, only a couple of blocks from my apartment. He also owns and uses a sewing machine which made me totally swoon when I found out. So—boy sews, lives close enough to walk to, tells me I’m pretty and is easy on the eyes. I win.

I stayed up very late a few nights ago to cut out pieces for a project. I’m getting more into making clothes from scratch instead of just refashioning old pieces. It’s challenging but really fun. Hopefully I’ll have something to post soon…but I’m not going to stress about not doing it. I’ve been pretty relaxed lately and I don’t want to ruin it by forcing myself to make something just to post on a blog. I’ll definitely post the hat when I finish it—if I manage to actually finish it correctly, I’m going to be super proud of it!

I’m going to try to get a lot of sewing done this weekend. Along with my commissioned project, I’ve got lots of other things I would like to get done (if only to get the stray pieces out of the way!). I’m also knitting a lot of things that will be Christmas gifts. AND I’m in the middle of moving all of my sewing stuff (desk and machine included) into another room. It’s going to be a hectic weekend!

I’m also thinking about doing a tutorial for the shirt I want to make this weekend. I’ve never done anything like this before, so it should be interesting. My sewing style is a little screwy because I usually avoid using a tape measure or patterns or anything that might actually prove to be useful. Most of the time I just dive in and start cutting things into pieces and sewing in random spots. I’m not sure how coherent I could be in a tutorial.

It’s going to be a chilly, dreary weekend so it’ll be the perfect weekend to stay inside, drink some tea and sew. I’m looking forward to it :)

yellow-orange fleece—1 yard
twill tape—1 yard
black doll eyes—2 pairs
poly-fil stuffing—a lot
brown felt—2 sheets
thread, brown and yellow—1 spool of each

guess what i’m making!

it’s just one of many things i have going on right now. i am really excellent at stretching myself too thin.

This morning I was asked by a friend to do a commissioned piece for her. I don’t want to give away what it actually is, but it should be really, really awesome :)

I’m also planning out some things for the new etsy store. Hopefully I’ll find some time to work on stuff this week so I can have something up by the weekend. I’ve been in a creative slump lately and I need to get up and actually start making something.